Ecommerce SEO(Rugs)
E-commerce SEO Case Study: 2500% Increase in Keyword Rankings in 9 Months
When we started, an experienced SEO consultant, first started working with an e-commerce client in September 2024, they were in desperate need of a structured SEO strategy.
Their website ranked for only 2 keywords, had no blog content, and virtually no organic traffic.
Fast forward nine months:
- Keyword rankings skyrocketed to nearly 5,500—a 2500% increase.
- Organic traffic surged from 2 to over 150 clicks per day.
- They celebrated their best sales year ever.
The Challenge: No Content, No Rankings, No SEO Strategy
We have been a Surfer user since 2019, using the tool across various verticals, from e-commerce to local SEO and even affiliate projects.
When he took on this e-commerce client, he immediately saw a massive opportunity to build their SEO from the ground up.
The company needed a strategy to increase visibility, drive traffic, and boost sales.
The Strategy: A Content-Driven SEO Makeover
We implemented a structured SEO approach using Surfer. Let’s break it down.
1. Start With an SEO Content Audit
First, we conducted a comprehensive SEO audit to identify existing gaps and opportunities in his client’s e-commerce site.
Surfer’s Content Audit makes it easy to spot such opportunities.
By connecting your Google Search Console account you can see at a glance how your pages are performing, and which would benefit from a boost.
Look for pages with declining metrics. If their content score is also low, then there is room for improvement. These are the pages that can benefit the most from a content refresh.
You can easily spot these pages inside Surfer by that fiery sign.
For instance, “jute rugs” is already ranking in position 2, getting decent impressions and traffic – albeit declining. It also has a content score of only 24, which means there is room for improvement.
In the 🔥Recommendations tab you can find a list of these high potential keywords.
The next step is to optimize these pages.
2. Optimize Existing Content
Your existing content has already been out there for a while, gathering views and clicks and hopefully a few backlinks. A little boost can go a long way. You’re not starting from scratch.
These are three key on-page SEO elements to focus on when optimizing your content and establish a strong on-page foundation.
Surfer’s Content Editor guidelines make it easy to optimize product pages.
Look at this category page on “jute placemats” with a content score of 39. It lacks important terms like “door jute rug” and doesn’t touch upon topics like “table runner”.
Here’s what to do:
- Include your main keyword in the H1 and title tag.
- Include the main keyword and its variations in H2, H3, and H4s.
- Include relevant keywords throughout your content.
You can incorporate these keywords manually or use the Auto-optimize feature. Auto-optimize will scan your content and add these terms where it makes sense.
In this case, Auto-optimize boosted the content score from 39 to 65 by optimizing seven sections and adding 76 entities.
You can compare the before and after versions and make any necessary edits.
Additionally, we worked on improving internal linking, ensuring that pages connected logically and search engines could easily index important content.
As your e-commerce site grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep up with which pages to link to. That’s why internal linking is often overlooked, which is a big mistake as it’s one of the best ways to see quick SEO gains.
With Surfer you don’t have to worry about that, no matter how big your site gets.
The Insert internal links feature scans your site and adds relevant links to your content, using properly-optimized anchor text.
Simple as that. Now you never have to skip internal linking.
3. Build a Content Strategy
With initial optimizations complete, we focused on building a structured, content-driven SEO strategy tailored to his e-commerce client’s audience.
We created and published 5-6 blog posts monthly, targeting informational and product-related queries.
His approach emphasized answering questions and providing value to readers, aligning closely with customer intent.
To find relevant topics, use Surfer’s Topical Map.
For instance, Topical Map has identified 81 topics related to “rugs”. Highlighted, you can see lucrative keywords like “placemats”.
These keywords in red have low keyword difficulty and decent search volume. This way you can build a winning content plan.
4. Create Top-performing Content
We uses Surfer’s Content Editor to optimize content for keyword and entity relevance.
And that’s a point we stress over and over.
Let’s say you’re writing about “B3 supplements”. These are recommended keywords to include in your content because they touch upon the most important aspects of the topic.
You can also head to the Topics tab inside the Content Editor to see these keywords in the form of facts to include.
We analyzed our own blog and found that articles which cover more facts rank for more keywords.
That’s because comprehensive content ranks better.
We also ensures each post includes 4-5 internal links to enhance topic authority. For that you can rely on Insert internal links.
Top-performing content is not only meant to attract traffic. It’s intended to convert.
One technique he uses to drive content conversions is integrating CTAs and banners that move readers toward relevant product categories.
The Results: 2500% Increase in Rankings & Best Sales Year Ever
With a structured SEO strategy in place and consistent publishing, the e-commerce site saw massive growth in keyword rankings and organic traffic.
✅ Keyword rankings grew from 2 to nearly 6000
✅ Organic traffic grew from around 5 to over 150 clicks per day
This growth translated to tangible business results.
They experienced the best sales year ever.
Final Thoughts
Peter’s experience shows that the right tools and a solid content strategy can transform a struggling website into a high-ranking, revenue-generating machine—even in competitive e-commerce verticals.
