This is the continuation of the previous post Building Cornershop’s SEO Area – Part 1, I decided to separate it into 2 parts due to the length of the text.
Difficult Decisions
My decisions didn’t always align with those of the product team, as we approached the problem from different perspectives. My focus was on improving findability of everything related to us, rather than following a predefined philosophy about how things should be. For me, the essential thing was to base decisions on concrete metrics that indicated the real impact on the business, since experience is subjective if not backed by objective data.
Despite our differences, we always reached some kind of agreement to keep moving forward. The key was to continue implementing improvements for the common good. At a certain point, I decided not to consider the webapp due to its technical limitations for good SEO performance. An application with client-side rendering presented significant challenges for positioning, especially given its design (at the application level, not the visual). It lacked the necessary technical conditions to solve this problem, and the available resources were not sufficient to correct it. However, this decision did not hinder our continuous search for improvements, always oriented toward a higher objective.
Know Your Place
I concentrated on areas where I could implement changes with less resistance and improve significantly. My efforts initially focused on PDPs (Product Detail Pages). During the strategic planning phase, I conducted extensive Keyword Research and analyzed both direct and indirect competition. I understood what aspects were prioritized in this industry and what information was crucial to compete internationally. These detailed analyses led me to identify the cornerstone page that would serve as the starting point, concentrating all efforts on it.
One of the modifications I made was improving the information architecture and website performance. The general appearance of the page remained unchanged, but the way it was structured and the semantics of the information were completely improved.
Holistic Approach
Web applications are a set of interconnected pages. Thinking about certain parts to improve is not an ideal approach. The website architecture must be consistent with the business objective and strategy. My efforts focused on a part of the user journey in our product, mainly new users we had to capture, so I had to give certain signals and reduce friction in everything I did.
Information Architecture
The web is a set of interconnected pages. Information architecture is something I had to work on at Cornershop. The site had nodes that were not interconnected with each other, and part of the SEO strategy was to correct this, creating a structure that had information nodes relevant to our business and that made sense for both users and robots (hello Google Bot).
The Results
After a year, and after talking to many people and evangelizing about SEO, everyone knew what SEO was and why it was important. I was promoted to SEO Manager. I can’t give specific numbers, but organic traffic increased fivefold and surpassed paid traffic. In terms of costs, it became the most profitable channel that brought more users and conversions. Paid campaigns had a higher conversion percentage, but the cost of conversion was much higher than that of SEO traffic. Organic traffic brought many more users; although they were not of the same quality as those from paid traffic due to a broader reach, the final number surpassed paid campaigns.
Expanded Reach
We expanded our reach by implementing SEO campaigns due to the excellent results obtained. In collaboration with the marketing team, we planned country-specific content to increase traffic. We established an alliance with the content area to develop an SEO content strategy. In addition to attracting new customers, we expanded our team to provide support in capturing new shoppers, those responsible for delivering orders.
I conclude with the same phrase I shared with Daniel during the interview: in SEO, results are not fast, they derive from constant and dedicated work, there are no shortcuts. However, with a solid strategy and proper planning, everything is possible