Fitness eCommerce SEO Case Study

Link building and content optimisation for a new eCommerce site

In October of 2020, I started working with Exile Gear on a small but focused project. It was a simple brief, create highly optimised content for their main product page and build high-quality links for their new site.

What was done

I started working on the site in November 2020, and as it's built with Shopify (a sensible choice in my opinion), there weren't many technical issues that needed to be addressed, so the first thing we did was to create a content plan for the product and support pages that were all optimised towards the target search terms and the intent of each page. All of which were centered around the CrossFit market.

This meant studying the target market, looking at the search terms they use to find the products, and basing the content around those search terms.

Next, I studied the competition's backlink profile to figure out a) what we're up against in terms of authority and b) to gauge roughly how many links will be required to compete.

Below is a screenshot of the number of links build to the main product page.

As you can see there were 20 links built to the page which were a mixture of guest posts and niche edits.

I also carried out a tiered link-building campaign, which meant that I built links to the guest posts that pointed to Exile Gear. This is a very good thing to do for 2 reasons:

1. It makes the guest post links much more powerful
2. It helps build topical authority because each page a link is built from was about CrossFit or fitness, which filters through the site you're trying to rank

At all times we use the latest software to discover opportunities and analyse data, and link building is no different. Our software allows us to find relevant Website's and blogs/articles, including the site owner, which in turn allows us to discuss link placements.

The results

Although at the time of writing (April 2021) it's still very early days for this site, it's now ranking at and around the top spots for a number of it's target search terms, and some of these search terms are highly competitive and dominated by big brands due to the high commercial intent.

And a good indicator of how Google views any given page is by looking at the number of search terms the page is appearing for when searching for a keyword or phrase, and below is a screenshot from Exile Gear's main product page within GSC of the number of search terms the product is appearing for within Google.

This is a direct result of doing the keyword research and on-page content correctly.

Page 1 rankings that target the product's audience

Here are just some of the search terms that Exile Gear's main product can be found for on page 1:

1. CrossFit weight vest
2. CrossFit weighted vest
3. CrossFit vest
4. Tactical weighted vest
5. Tactical weight vest
6. CrossFit plate carrier
7. Weighted vest CrossFit
8. CrossFit weight vest 7kg
9. CrossFit weight vest 10kg
10. CrossFit weighted vest 7kg
11. CrossFit weighted vest 10kg

However, these things mean nothing without sales, and below is a snapshot of the sales within a four-month period for the main product.

Note on the conversion rate: The true conversion rate is closer to 3% because many customers used PayPal or Klarna to pay for orders, and Shopify doesn't count those orders within it's system because they're not processed by them.

What's next?

This is an ongoing project within a highly competitive verticle that's got all of the big online sellers in, and we have been tasked with continued content creation through informational content via the blog and link building.