I am going to show you how we increased our client’s organic search traffic by 1,367%.
In real numbers that means we went from 920 to 13,503 visitors per month-
Not bad for a young affiliate site!
Which has shown consistent growth across the board this year-
I am going to break down the full strategy for you below…
…but first, let’s take a closer look at the case study site.
What Will I Learn?
A Closer Look At The Case Study
The site is in a very competitive affiliate category targeting terms with high commerical intent.
They post a mix of content including product roundups and product comparisons – it is a truly hardcore affiliate site through and through.
Our main goal was to increase organic search traffic by:
- Fortifying the clients most important pages
- Building a healthy backlink profile (download the checklist)
- Fixing content issues
- Building trust and authority with Google
All of which was much easier said than done because of the many challenges we faced…
The Biggest Challenges We Had to Overcome
Every SEO strategy that we build has to overcome a different set of core challenges.
When we 14x search traffic in the health niche, we had to overcome big brands with big budgets. When we tripled ecommerce revenue, we had to navigate through a range of technical problems.
And despite our case study site being relatively young – we had to overcome both technical problems AND big brands with big budgets this time around.
After analysing the site we realised that-
- There was tons of outdated content even though the site was only a couple of years old and we all know how much Google loves “fresh content”.
- We also found the client had built an super spammy unnatural link profile with keyword-heavy anchors to affiliate pages.
- And if that wasn’t enough the site was also missing key trust signals throughout so it looked like a spammy anonymous affiliate site, because it was.
Create A Plan Of Attack
It’s fair to say we had quite the battle ahead of us.
So we broke down our plan of attack into 6 key parts that would allow us to win the war-
Step #1 – Boosting Key Pages
To help bolster the key affiliates pages, we built a new website silo dedicated to individually reviewing all products listed in the key roundup pages.
The purpose of this was to build satellite product review articles that we could use to internal link to the key product roundup pages with exact match anchor text.
This video explains why internal linking is important-
I assure you that internal link building is the most powerful tactic you’re not taking full advantage of and if you only take one thing from this case study, let it be that.
Step #2 – Updating Old Content
Even though the site was relatively young, there was a ton of outdated content.
This can often be an expensive and lengthy process but in this case, we deployed a quick win solution
All we did was use the “site:” command in Google and quoted 2018 and 2019.
Then we just went through each result from the SERPs and did some brief updates like updating dates along with fixing broken images, links or product recommendations.
Simple!
Step #3 – Backlinks Analysis
In our inital assessment of the site we knew that the existing backlink profile was a problem because-
- The relevance of the pages linking to our client was poor
- The quality of the linking sites was poor
- They used exact match anchors aggressively
So first we disavowed all links that were-
- Coming from irrelevant content
- Sites that we deemed as spammy
- Sites that Google had deindexed
Then we deployed a specific link building strategy to create new links which I will talk you through in a moment.
Step #4 – Building Authority & Trust
One of the first things we do with client sites is to see if they have built authority and trust with Google.
Quite often we find affiliate sites that are struggling to rank but also don’t publish-
- Company information
- An address
- A phone number
So for this client, we took care of all of that by-
- Creating an about page
- Creating 2 topically relevant author profiles
- Adding article and organization structured data with Rankmath
We also noted that the site lacked any social presence which is a problem long term as Google is tending to rank more “brands” and less affiliate sites in the SERPs.
So we built out high-quality social profiles which we then incorporated into the site’s structured data.
Step #5 – Shifting Focus
The first few months of the campaign were purely focused on “increasing Google compatibility” through site structure, technical SEO, content and backlinks.
Now that the site had a solid foundation to build on, we decided to shift our focus.
So in month 5, we focused all resources on building as many high-quality links as possible to provide the best ROI moving forward.
That means we spent next to no time worrying about on-page SEO or content and put 100% of the budget into building high-quality links every single month.
Step #6 – Link Building
Earlier in the campaign we took care of the bad links through disavow.
Now we shifted focus to link building, we started to build high quality branded links to the homepage.
We did this until there was 50/50 parity between the number of homepage links and links to the remainder of the site.
From there, we began building links to the core affiliate pages, however with a careful selection of branded anchors and mixed target anchors.
We made sure that we only built links from-
- Relevant sites
- With current search traffic
- And high quality content
The anchor text strategy leaned conservatively towards branded links, with a few mixed anchors and a few keyword anchors.
This was both to:
- Establish authority
- Offset potential risk in a rapid link building strategy
We also made sure we were building links to each of the “review” satellite pages along with the key pages themselves.
We sustained that balance throughout the campaign and continue to build links in line with the strategy above.
The Results Are In
Our client’s organic search traffic grew by 1,367%–
That means we took them from 920 visitors per month to 13,503.
And that’s if you ignore the fact that search traffic continues to grow-
Not bad for a young affiliate site in a highly competitive niche.
If you want help increasing your organic search traffic… click here or check out my list of the best ecommerce SEO services.
Wrapping It Up
So there you have it…
…the challenges we faced, the strategy we built and the results we delivered.
It wasn’t that easy given that the website was young and the competition was strong but it’s not the first time we faced this problems nor will it be the last time.
To recap, in this case study we focused on-
- Giving Google what it wants
- Establishing a solid SEO foundation
- Building trust and authority
- In combination with high quality relevant links (download the checklist)
If you need help with your site, feel free to check out these SEO packages or, please, contact my team and submit an enquiry now.
Otherwise please feel free to check out some of our other SEO case studies-
131 Responses
As an SEO expert, you should follow these studies. Thanks.
Thanks for recommending my case studies, Saleh! Cheers :)
Very detailed article thank you for it.
No problem!
I was wondering before why there is fluctuation in my ranking, upon stumbling on your blog, I realize that ranking well for a low volume keyword is sometimes easier than ranking well on a high volume one. The case study that you have presented really clarify the process on how to grow one’s traffic to which, I am very much excited to implement.
Glad it was helpful!
Amazing blog! I really like the way you explained such information. And blog is really helpful for us.
Glad to hear that! Thank you.
This blog is informative and effective because it helps you to increase your search traffic. Overall motivative and informative blog.
Thank you- Cheers!
Hi there.
It’s a very helpful and informative blog. Thanks for sharing this information. I would like to know more and more from you. Good luck dear.
Thanks! More posts like this are coming!
Thanks for sharing
No problem!
Wow, another awesome blog. Your all blogs are really informative and it’s really helpful for me & new beginners, thanks.
No worries! Always happy to help!
Thanks a lot for these
No problem!
Hey Matthew,
Thanks for publishing this awesome case study. I’ll implement these tips and strategies.
P.S. – I am going to share this post.
Thanks
Ayush Mishra
Glad to hear that- Thanks again for sharing! ;)
Thanks for sharing this case study. What I found most motivating about it was that you showed the process of growing traffic and it doesn’t happen right away. In other words I am putting all this work into improving my site and seeing not much in the way of results so it helps to be assured that if I keep improving the results are a bit delayed but coming!
Yes! Getting results takes time so, be patient, and you’ll see that your efforts will pay off :)
Amazed with the quality of the content.
Thank you, Sheharyar- I really appreciate it!
Thank you for the reading. I found this post searching for the best affiliate marketing blogs and this on was listed as one of the best.
And they were right.!!
i remember when i started my blog that i would look at my search console date and thought that something had to be wrong, google wasn’t ranking my blog.. little did I know that it takes time for your SEO efforts to see results.
If I had.found this before I would have known.
Cheers
Glad you enjoyed my blog, Dalia!
The important factor that brings me on your blogs is all stuff is updated! Thanks a lot guide.
No problem!
Very well detailed and instructive!
So interesting to know that it took you some months to achieve this result, with a well strategic plan. Indeed SEO is a long term process and i feel people should begin to look at it this way.
Yes, I’m really impressed at the results you achieved and having to put this together too. Although i hope in future posts, you’ll spend some more time on the anchor text etc…
Of course this is one of my best read SEO posts recently and I’m definitely bookmarking it.
Thanks man!
Thanks, Victor!
I couldn’t agree more. SEO is a long-term process that requires time, patience and consistency.
I will try to develop more the anchor text part next time since I get asked a lot about it.
Cheers :)
This is interesting. I guess there is still a way to increase traffic by making up for what you did wrong. It is all about a proper website audit.
Exactly- You can please Google by simply identifying and fixing your SEO issues.
Thank You So Much Nice Post
No problem!
I appreciate for kind of this information this is very helpful for my future career, I am a beginner but when i read this article i feel professional.
Thanks Alot
No worries! Thanks for reading!
Your information is really helpful. SEO Case Study: Many thanks to 920 to 13,503 visitors per month for sharing with us great things.
Thank you, cheers!
You have provided a very unique information of SEO Case Study. Thankyou for the unique information.
No problem!
Thank you for reading :)
Hey Matthew Woodward,
Nice article! Don’t get bored during reading your blog.You have explain all steps in very easy way which is very easy to understand like you have suggested that boosting key pages to build satelite product review articles.
You have also suggested to updating old content, backlinks analysis, and important thing is that we have built authority and trust with google.
It is right to first few month we have purley focused on increasing google compatibility and after 5 month we focused all resources on building as many high quality linkn as possible to provide the best ROI moving forward. Thank you for sharing these important tips about SEO.
thank you,
-sweety
Way to go, Sweety! Keep up the hard work.
It s really helpful Really useful to know about all these Blog commenting sites lists, tips in a single place.
Thanks, Steve! Cheers!
thank you so much for sharing such an impressive article on SEO case studies.
Thanks! Cheers :)
Hello Matthew,
Great article! Really enjoyed reading your blog. It was really helpful for me as I was having a difficult time to promote and increase the visitors on Website. But with the help of your article, I think I can make it happen to grow the website.
Thank you
No problem, Priyanka! Always happy to help!
We are regularly read your blog post and learned many SEO tips and tricks and we are trying to implement it through our websites. Thanks to you my friend for your wonderful post.
Thank you for reading my posts. Glad you find my blog helpful. Cheers :)
thanks for shareing this tips with us .
No problem!
Nice info blog
Thanks, Prerit :)
Thanks For The Newsletter And Awesome Informative Post. I also want to grow my website , Your post Motivate me a lot.
Glad to hear that- Keep it up!
Thanks for sharing this wonderful article. It’s really helpful and valuable tips.It’s really good and thanks for sharing this good article.
Thanks! Cheers!
thank you so much for sharing such a lovely article.. it helps me a lot.. keep sharing such type of articles..visit my website..
Thanks. Hope you’ll apply what you learned!
amazing case study.. The way visitors has increased is very unique.. I will definitely try this concept in my blog.. I am a beginner blogger..
Thank you! Appy all the tips you learned and you should see positive changes :)
I just love reading your articles and I want you to please keep making these amazing articles that are just straight to the point. I really appreciate the effort you put into each and every post. Regards
Thanks Peter! Don’t worry more articles are coming!
This is so helpful information. I will surely apply this to my business to get a good number of organic traffic…thank you so much for this kind of post…keep posting information like this
Way to go Lisbeth! Cheers!
Hi Mathew,
That was amazing, I knew seo was important, but I did not know you could attain a boost like that, that quickly.
Thanks for the info
Hey Chris! It’s hard work but it’s possible ;)
Thanks, Matthew. It’s a very informative post and I learned a lot from it. Will definitely use the tips for my website.
Cheers Rafsan!
Wow!!! It was a great blog with so much information
Thank you, glad you enjoy my blog!
thanks for sharing this amazing content. I want to generate more traffic on my website and this content will be very informative for me
Glad it helped!
Thank you so much for writing such a wonderful article. I admire your creativity and knowledge. this is the best website I have ever found on the internet. I am so grateful to you for providing an informative article. You are truly my inspiration.
Thank you for these kind words!
nice post
I will share this post with my friends
thanks
I hope it would help your friends as much as it helped you!
Indeed it is the best post i have ever come across to increase the traffic on the website or blog , definitely helpful and worth sharing.
Thank you
thanks for all the free content you put for us
You’re welcome! Always happy to share some tips with my readers!
In step #2 image, is that the domain of your client?
Nop, it’s just an example ;)
Very informative buddy. Got to learn a lot from this single blog.
Thanks! Glad you learned something here!
Great info! Near the end of your post you mentioned something of vital importance…
Giving Google what they want.
It never ceases to amaze me that Google offers advice on what they are looking for – what they expect- and yet many people refuse to listen. Then they fail and cant figure out why.
Google is very explicit and it’s in our best interests to not only listen to their advice but to follow it as well.
At the end of the day what we do is really nothing more than a numbers game, and those who play the game well will always win in the end.
Thanks for all you do Matthew and know that you are appreciated.
I couldn’t agree more!
SEO is about feeding Google with the metrics it wants. It’s as “simple” as that.
Sure, listening is not enough – Taking action is the only way to see great results!
Great job you have done …
Thank you Kibria!
This is the really very helpful content for all visitor because its your unique struggle and each every content line is very helpful for us thanks for sharing with this hard struggle and keep writing more because i read complete.
Thanks! Don’t worry, more case studies are coming ;)
Thanks Mathew
I read this article few months back and implemented the exact same strategy on my affiliate site which is also in super competitive niche.
And to be honest my website is receiving a good amount of organic traffic from Google alone.
Thanks for providing such useful information.
You’re my favorite type of reader: the one who applies what he learned.
Well done and keep the good work up!
Nice information you provided it is much to learn any newbie in digital marketing but it is very informative for those who have already faced some problem on how do grow traffic, reach as well as awareness it’s something just extracurricular activity for any who pursue digital marketing and gaining some expertise on it.
Thanks. Glad you found it helpful :)
Excellent article on this SEO and organic traffic case study.
Thank you very much and greetings from Uruguay.
Thanks, Jorge!
Saludos desde Costa Rica :)
Hi Matthew , could you share the key points to build out high-quality social profiles ?
Thanks.
Hey Robert!
Social Media is not my “specialty,” but here are the advice I can give you:
– Respect your brand identity (color, name, etc.)
– Pay attention to your user name -> it can’t be changed and is usually included in your URL
– Pay attention to your profile picture -> Must represent your brand
– Pay attention to your background or cover –> Use custom backgrounds
– Include links to your website and other social media profiles
– Write a good bio -> It’s a good place to “sell yourself” and include keywords
– Pay attention to your privacy settings
Really impressive article on SEO case studies. Thanks for sharing
Glad you found it useful!
I appreciate for kind of this information this is very helpful for my future career, I am a beginner but when i read this article i feel professional.
Thanks Alot
Thanks, Majid! Keep it up!
Great matter loved it!
Thanks!
Very nice article! I totally agree about the huge potential of internal linking (which I’m improving a lot the last year). I’m just missing some information that would be helpful to understand better the results.
How much was the LB budget monthly?
Regarding building trust for Google. I really like the strategies you mentioned in the case study. I also like to create other pages like Customer Reviews, Feedback, even a Co-vid measures page beside obviously the legal pages as privacy policy,etc..
Cheers!
Hey Jordi! Sorry, I can’t give you this information.
However, I wanted to remind you that no matter what your budget is, you can still get backlinks.
Link building doesn’t have to be expensive to be efficient!
Have a look at this https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/seo/link-building/strategies/
Most of these strategies are free to implement!
Cheers!
It was a helpful case study.
Thanks, Mir!
Hey Matthew,
How do you deal with
– An address
– A phone number
for an affiliate website where there is no legit physical address for GMB as you may be running an affiliate site for US folks but you are sitting in Thailand!
Hey Gary! No matters what, you need an address and a phone number on your website.
If you look at my contact page you can see a physical address (UK-based company) and my (work) phone number.
It is very important because it tells Google that you’re a real person.
PS: I’m in Costa Rica, not in Thailand ;)
I just arrived at this article through Google Search. This is one of the best articles on blog traffic. I enjoyed it a lot. Carry on writing such useful stuff.
Again, thanks for sharing this article
No problem! Thanks for reading my blog, Manoj!
OMG love this Matthew,
Especially the internal link building and renewing old content. I’ve been trying to revive my old website which I had left untouched for over a year and your tips help and yup, renewing those old contents are very tedious and time-consuming especially when I noticed that there are broken links everywhere.
Out of curiosity, how often should we renew old pages?
Well, it depends on what your content is about, but I would say that you should update your content at least once a year.
Good to see you here too Riaz!
Great tips for sure as always Matthew. Quick question… is it worth getting some links to a brand new site from contacts you already have through guest posts? I’m thinking of finding a way to make a connection even if the niche is not the same or totally relevant?
Hey Mike! Well, it’s hard for me to tell without knowing the niches you’re talking about…
However, I would not recommend you to link your site with sites that are not relevant to your niche.
Wow another amazing case study! You make it sound so easy!
Haha thanks Reece!
Great work and excellent results
Thanks, Paul!
how much $$?
How much for?
Great write up! With regards to keywords for an affiliate site product/review pages, what type of keywords would be best to use?
Like you mentioned, spamming your anchors with exact match keywords is a bad idea.
Would partial or variations of the main keyword work better?
Hey Jon!
To help you find the best keywords, I suggest you read this https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/seo/keywords/types/
About the anchor text, you probably want a good mix of branded and targeted anchor texts to ensure you have a rich profile.
Here is what you can use-
Exact match: the specific target keyword
Phrase match: expanded variations of the target keyword
Brand name: that exactly match our client’s brand name
Branded: variations of brand keywords
Keyword branded: a mix of our target keyword with our brand
Let me know if it helps!
Good one, working on a affiliate site as of now, and this one really helpful.
Especially about the adding address and contact infos.
Glad to hear that! Keep the good work up, Emma!
How much you charge for these types of cases?
Hey, you can contact my team if you want a quote- https://www.searchlogistics.com/
Thanks For The Newsletter And Awesome Informative Post. I also want to grow my website , Your post Motivate me a lot.
Glad to hear that! Good luck!
And remember, hard work always pays off!