This is my day job's website.
For quick context:
- I started late in 2018 right before the holidays.
- An existing ecommerce site built on the Big Commerce platform, but vital business functions could not be setup.
- The decision was made to scrap it and start over on WooCommerce, where I could build it the right way from the ground up.
- The new site went live mid-June 2019.
Screenshots were taken May 2022 and reflect a point-in-time snapshot of SEO performance.
The next screenshot is a view of 5 years.
The small charts across the top are month comparing the previous month.
This is screenshot of the current SEO competition landscape as of May 2022.
Interpretation
The supplier's website consistently ranks higher than everyone else in the landscape, and that's expected. Distributors go through a selection process and are referred back to the supplier's site, so the domain authority and traffic signals are working in their favor by design.
SEO Strategy
I built this out in layers. On-page first, then product visibility, then local.
I’ve written more broadly about why SEO matters for eCommerce businesses if you want the context behind the tactics shown here.
This is one of several projects in my portfolio, spanning eCommerce, marketing operations, and brand work.
On-page I started with the foundation: image tags, page text, headers, site structure, and the metadata that visitors never see but search engines read closely. From there I audited our product descriptions against the competition and established a consistent standard across the catalog. I also added resources directly to the site: sales sheets and manufacturer catalogs, giving customers and search engines more to work with.
Off-page Off-page SEO is harder to control, and for our industry, tactics like PR and link outreach weren't worth the time or the spend. I focused on what I could actually influence. Google Merchant Center gets lumped into "product feeds" but I look at it differently: if someone searches for one of our products and it shows up in Shopping results and organic rankings, that's SEO working. The feed is just the mechanism.
Local After a competitive analysis of the surrounding areas, I updated all three Google Business Profiles: adding product categories with direct links back to the site. I tightened up the three location pages on the website and updated the social media profiles for each location.
These screenshots are a snapshot from May 2022, not the finish line. The work was ongoing, and the rankings reflect a strategy that was still building. This was also during the COVID era: companies in our space either adapted their digital presence or lost ground. One data point worth noting: around this time, one of the competitors in that landscape was actively hiring for marketing positions.