Website positioning of Publishing House

Positioning a website for a specific phrase based on technical SEO and content marketing. A theoretically easy phrase is not easy to knock into the top 10 due to the constant composition of the top 10 made up of old domains with very extensive content and a powerful backlink base.

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Website positioning — www.wydawnictwo.lesneoko.com

Goal 1: Positioning of the Forest Eye Publishing House website.

Website positioning of the publishing house: initial state

The described website was created as a simple business card available online. I had to work with such a site — a classic informational one-pager, not focused on receiving traffic coming from organic results, built according to accepted standards.

After analyzing the situation, I set out the actions to be taken to achieve the expected goals. As a digital marketing consultant, I start every project with this diagnostic phase.

Planned actions to support the positioned page

First of all, I created a menu structure, and decided to implement a large amount of properly optimized content. The construction of the menu was not a problem. However, I solved the issue of adding new texts by transferring the existing blog from another subdomain on which organic traffic was dropped. In this way, the positioned website became rich in high-quality content.

Website positioning: implementing changes

A simple menu in a standard form was not a problem. I implemented the introduction of content by moving the blog from another subdomain. More than a dozen blog posts appeared on the domain.

Verification of actions taken and implementation of further recommendations.

The described work brought the expected result — the positioned website began to appear in Google search. However, in the search results it was staying on rather more distant places. It was necessary to organize the content, its further development, as well as technical optimization of the site.

Further work was proceeding in parallel. Both the changes in terms of organizing the content (headings, choosing the right phrases and saturating the texts with them) and the mentioned technical optimization (e.g. removing errors in the site code, friendly URLs) in a relatively short time began to bring results. Professional texts, written by trusted copywriters, made their way to the homepage. The problem of duplicate content also disappeared — by adding redirects from "www" to "no www" address.

Google places a strong focus on the loading speed of the positioned page. With this in mind, I optimized the .htaccess file by configuring cache and gzip compression. The compression of images placed on the page was also crucial, thanks to which the site loaded much faster.

Domain visibility graph for queries according to Google Search Console.

Graph of domain traffic from organic results according to Google Search Console.

It's time to take care of the security of the positioned website

I always take care of the security of the sites I work on. When I changed the hosting of the described site, I implemented an SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt. Without a valid certificate, the process of positioning the site in Google search does not make any sense. This is the absolute basis that must be taken care of.

The homepage content was implemented in February 2018, which translated into an increase in visibility. March 2018 saw a change in hosting and the implementation of an SSL certificate and "www"/"no www" redirects. The effects appeared in April in the form of a steady increase in visits. In July, a reshuffling of results due to "mobile speed" occurred — at that time, the site was already running really smoothly and quickly.

Summary of the positioning process

Actions taken:

• implementation of SSL certificate
• introduction of redirects
• introduction of new content
• technical optimization (page code, image size, etc.)

Despite the limited economic and time possibilities, the work done brought the intended results. The positioned page began to receive traffic from both the regionally defined area — Poznan — and the whole of Poland.

Domain visibility graph according to Semstorm.

Domain visibility graph for the positioned phrase according to Google Search Console.

Graph of a domain's position in search results for a given phrase according to Google Search Console.

Goal 2: Increase conversions on the positioned website

Further development of the website was related to its revenue generation. Increasing conversions required not only redesigning the site, but also creating additional content.

Planned activities to increase conversions

Further redevelopment of the menu and placement of additional content on the site were the first of the actions taken. Wishing to encourage a potential user to buy the guide, I placed a video in the header of the page — playing it was the first goal, and filling out the guide order form was the next.

The completed work

• changing the menu subtitles to clickable icons
• replacing the static photo in the header with a video, which extended the user's stay on the site
• adding expert content — articles in the form of a guidebook on tourism in the Bieszczady Mountains

Number of clicks on the positioned phrase according to Google Search Console.

Number of conversions (goal 2: book order) on the website according to Google Analytics.

Bounce rate according to Google Analytics. Blue color: organic traffic, yellow color: organic traffic from queries +guide +book → 0%.

A gradual increase in the number of conversions

As a result of the measures taken, the number of page rejections dropped in favor of increased conversions. However, the increases were due more to regular growth than to planned treatments. The source of the problem turned out to be detected duplication of content — caused by internal linking and lack of redirects. After detecting the duplicate content phenomenon, I immediately removed it.

Another effort to improve conversions — SEO optimization

The removal of duplicate content resulted in a decrease in the number of indexed URLs and a renewed increase in search positions. Further optimization of the site's speed involved asynchronous loading of .js scripts. Images placed on the page load as scaled objects depending on the size of the browser window. After analysis, I decided to remove the video from the site's header, simplified the menu and increased the icons.

Verification of actions to improve the number of conversions

The conversion rate remained at a similar level. There was an increase in traffic related to guide requests. The steps taken translated into an increase in the number of book orders.

Goal #2 was achieved. The publication of guide content, together with internal linking, led to the site reaching the top 5 position on the original phrase.

Average position of the positioned phrase according to Google Search Console.

Goal 3: Further increase the visibility of the positioned website.

So far, the positioning of the website had been single-phrase oriented, and as a result, the number of visits had been relatively small and seasonal. An in-depth analysis covered the number and type (regionalization, long tail) of search phrases, based mainly on Ahrefs and Semrush tools.

Planned actions:

• expanding the phrases to include regionalizations — Poznań, in Poznań, poznańskie
• inclusion of additional key phrases
• creation of additional content saturated with the mentioned keywords

The chosen phrases, in addition to the book itself, were related to maps and attractions that can be found in the Bieszczady region. I developed a series of blog posts including extensive reviews of various maps and a list of attractions to visit. I published the blog posts regularly, a minimum of three times a month.

Increase in visibility in search results according to Google Search Console.

Increase in page visits (clicks) from organic search results according to Google Search Console.

Increase in website traffic resulting from visibility in TOP 50 and TOP 10 according to Semstorm.

Conclusions from the positioning process

Positioned is a subdomain, surrounded by competitive sites with a lot of seniority, filled with content and links. Given this, it was not easy to achieve the intentions. In addition, the industry is niche, making traffic highly seasonal. It's hard to define a single, always effective strategy, but it's worth noting that the SEO described is based solely on classic SEO treatments and strong content marketing, without linking.

Content Is The King

The positioned website is another example confirming this thesis. The site's position in Google's search results changed only after proper content was prepared. The first time, the added texts helped the site get indexed (top 100), and in the next case (expert/advice articles, topic authority building), they significantly increased the site's traffic.

Technical SEO is also important.

Technical SEO mainly makes sense in terms of key algorithms. Mobile Friendly, mobile speed, YMYL, Panda Algorithm are all pieces of Google's puzzle, the grasp of which was enough for success.

Further forecast for growth

The positioned site still technically has quite a few SEO shortcomings, but the actions taken clearly indicate that websites are worth running with the Reader in mind, and not solely to meet the expectations of Google bots. Therefore, further work will be based on content development and content marketing in the broadest sense. If you want to start a similar process for your website, book a consultation and we will map out the steps together.