CASE Luggage, operating in a very competitive online market and against physical location stores, approached Convert Digital in the middle of the pandemic. They had been experiencing the same sales decline that was typical of businesses relying on the travel industry at the time; however, they also knew that the pandemic wouldn’t last forever and that they best be ready for when it recovers. While we wouldn’t say that there were any particularly glaring issues with their site, it had been a while since any major structural and technical work had been done, and Convert Digital quickly identified some of the bigger issues to be addressed that would increase their competitive advantage.

As with all our clients, the process started with a detailed and thorough examination of their entire website. We used the latest and most up-to-date specialist SEO tools to identify all areas for improvement, then graded all the onsite issues on a scale of 1 to 4 depending on their priority. While it’s simply not practical to discuss each and every single point in this document, some of our major findings and courses of action included:

1.   Migrating from Magento to Magento 2

Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform that provides online merchants with a flexible shopping cart system, as well as control over the look, content, and functionality of their online store. CASE Luggage’s site was originally built on this platform, but by 2022, version one of this platform had started to show its age. We recommended migrating to Magento 2 which offers some major advantages such as improved performance, better scalability and security, a streamlined checkout process, and a more user-friendly interface.

This is easier said than done, as migrating incorrectly can very quickly destroy page rankings carefully built up over years. We worked closely with their development team, offering support and advice on how to go about this correctly, and by early 2023, they had successfully migrated to Magento 2 without incurring any ranking penalties.

With this guidance from our side, they now operate on the same e-commerce platform as other giants such as Ford, HP, Procter & Gamble, and Jaguar, streamlining their own internal processes and making it easier for their customers to navigate their site.

2.   Toxic backlink and 404 error resolution

Strong backlinks, both internal and external, can massively contribute to good page rankings in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). Unfortunately, they can cause just as much harm if the backlinks come from bad or disreputable pages, or if they link to pages that no longer exist. The latter is actually quite common in e-commerce, as sellers are constantly changing their product lineups and not always ensuring that old links are removed.

Our SEO analysis revealed that in CASE Luggage’s case, there were a multitude of toxic and dead links affecting their page rankings. We quickly set about resolving this and reducing their drag effect with a backlink analysis and  disavow.

3.   Keyword cannibalisation and duplicate content

This term refers to multiple pages on the same domain competing for the exact same set of keywords. These competing pages ‘steal’ page rankings –and page views in the process– from each other and make it more difficult for potential customers to find exactly what they are looking for. By helping our client create a targeted keyword strategy, their individual product pages became more specific, easier to find, and stopped competing against each other for page views and rankings.

Another related problem we identified was duplicate content. It creates a similar set of problems as those identified above, and in some cases, can incur Google penalties as Google sees it as an illegitimate strategy to score cheap page rankings. By identifying duplicate content and working with our experienced partner writers, we were able to create unique and SEO-friendly content for each page on their site.

4.   Poor use of blogging opportunities

A well-curated business blog not only helps keep your customers up-to-date and informed about the latest developments and offers in your business, but also offers a great opportunity to increase your page rankings. Keyword-dense blog texts are SEO gold and can quickly pull you up in the rankings if Google sees you as active and knowledgeable in your field.

We helped CASE Luggage develop a blog strategy based on our detailed keyword research. This helped level the playing field with their competitors who had long been writing blogs to gain a competitive advantage. This will continue to mature and provide value to the client.