Overview
A seasoned promotional product distributor with over two decades in business knew it was time for change. Their paid advertising spend was high, their organic traffic was in decline, and their most competitive keywords had never broken onto the first page of Google. After years of frustration with underperforming SEO agencies, they turned to us with a simple goal: build a reliable organic search engine presence and gain a greater share of the market.
About the Client
With over 20 years in the promotional products industry, this distributor had built a reputable business but struggled to gain organic visibility. Despite hiring two separate SEO agencies over the years, the investment did not deliver sustained, meaningful growth. At best, they hovered on the second page of the search results for important industry keywords, which meant valuable, high-intent traffic was going to their competitors.
The Challenge
When we stepped in, the client was facing a steep decline in organic traffic despite ongoing agency support. Several red flags were immediately apparent:
- Outdated SEO practices were still prominent on the site.
- There was no clearly defined keyword strategy resulting in missed opportunities and keyword cannibalization.
- Current content and pages were overdue for optimization, and duplicate content needed to be addressed.
- Tracking and reporting were manual & minimal, making it difficult to see long-term performance and identify wins or areas of concern.
During this time, Google’s search landscape was rapidly evolving. The 2023 Helpful Content Update greatly affected this site and many others across the internet. In the first few months of working together, we also saw the introduction of AI Overviews, rich results, and above-the-fold shopping feeds. All of these additions have and are currently changing how users engage with search. Without a fresh strategy, the client risked falling even further behind.
The Strategy
Our approach began with a comprehensive technical and content audit to accurately assess the current state of the site. This gave us data and insights into what was working, where we could find quick wins, and which areas needed attention first. From there, we created a phased plan to correct issues, capitalize on opportunities, and lay the groundwork for long-term organic growth.
Key Actions:
- Technical Fixes: Identified and corrected site structure and crawl issues, updated schema markup, and improved internal linking.
- Content Consolidation: Merged redundant category pages to eliminate cannibalization and enhance relevance.
- Keyword Strategy: Conducted deep keyword research and rewrote content to target high-intent, category-specific queries.
- On-Page Optimization: Refined titles, headers, and content across existing pages to improve search performance.
- Blog Strategy: Focused new content on educational, SEO-optimized blog posts that positioned the brand as a thought leader and provided value to the reader.
- Process Documentation: Developed repeatable frameworks for keyword research, writing, and uploading to streamline future content efforts.
- Reporting & Monitoring: As part of our analytics efforts, we created data pipelines and warehousing to give more accurate and automated reporting, including customized dashboards and tracking worksheets connected to BigQuery.
Implementation
Execution was not without its hurdles. The client’s internal team was stretched thin, and we were asked to guide both in-house staff and external contractors. We adapted quickly, providing clear direction, templates, and process documentation to keep the momentum going.
Our content audit gave direction on which categories to expand, consolidate, or remove. We also began optimizing seasonality to capitalize on increased search volume. Our weekly reviews, monthly audits, and daily brand and trend monitoring helped address pain points, potential bad actors, and growth opportunities. Throughout, we maintained close alignment with the client’s evolving goals and capacity.
The Results
The impact of our partnership has had a profound effect:
- 52% Increase in Organic Clicks
One year after implementation, month-over-month organic clicks increased by 52%. Going into our second year, we are up 108.7% in organic pageviews year over year.
- First-Page Rankings for Primary Keywords
For the first time in their 20-year history, the client is ranking on page one of Google for key industry terms, on both mobile and desktop. In most cases, they are sitting between positions 1-5.
Homepage traffic for industry queries
“Promotional items”
“Promotional products”
- Stronger Seasonal Traffic
Strategic category creation and optimization of categories helped increase traffic during peak times and maintain more consistent traffic during off-peak months. - Increased Average Order Value
Categories in our first wave of optimizations saw a combined 26.4% average order increase year over year from organic session entries, with total revenue more than doubling.
- Featured in AI Overviews
Our blog content now appears as a trusted source for relevant topics in AI Overviews. - Improved Visibility and Share of Voice
Across key terms, the client’s average position improved, and their visibility in SERPs expanded significantly. They are now identified as a top competitor to the industry’s largest and publicly traded company.
Final Thoughts
By aligning SEO strategy with business goals, we helped this long-standing promotional products company achieve what others couldn’t: page-one SERP visibility, sustainable traffic growth, and a greater share of the industry voice on key topics and keywords. We continue to move forward and adapt to the ever-changing search landscape, now assisting the client with generative search optimization and prepping for the voice search and AI answers.
If your brand is ready to stay on top of search with the most up-to-date strategies and build lasting visibility, let’s talk.