Silver Messages
Case Study
SituationAs a well established business, Silver Messages offers over 9,000 sterling silver jewelry pieces to a world wide customer base. They have earned a loyal following based on product value and superior service.
Silver Messages website did not rank well for any key search terms on Yahoo!, nor did it rank above the fold for similar search terms on Google. The website was penalized for excessive keyword usage, redundant internal linking, and poor website navigation. It was also in need of an updated look and feel to improve user experience and conversion rates. This client had applied for the Yahoo! Search Submit Pro paid inclusion program and been denied for the above reasons.
Silver Messages wanted to gain higher visibility in natural search listings on Yahoo! and Google to gain valuable market share. This client also wanted to take sales to the next level by acquiring new customers online and then monetizing their lifetime value (LTV) by follow-on sales through their mail order catalog.
Silver Messages wanted to participate in the Yahoo! Search Submit Pro paid inclusion program so that they could be assured that specials, promotions and new inventory items would be reflected in the natural search results within a matter of hours instead of weeks or months. They wanted to make sure that the proper titles, keywords and descriptions were reflected for their 9,000 plus inventory items. They also wanted quick insight on how changes in content or website structure would impact search results without waiting weeks or months for the changes to prove themselves in terms of better or worse rankings.
ChallengesWhile the original Silver Messages website had a loyal following and a high customer LTV, it did not have a high initial visitor conversion rate. This resulted from a dated "look and feel," excessive internal linking, and poor website navigation.
Cascading menus on the left side of the page were visible to search engine spiders. These menus had highly repetitive use of the website's target keywords. Not only did this appear as keyword stuffing of the visible page data, the relevancy ranking of the website overall was low, since the first 1000 or so characters visible to search engine spiders was nearly the same on each page.
These website issues produced lower than expected natural search results. Lesser competitors ranked higher in search engine results. The website essentially did not rank on Yahoo!. Yahoo! had denied access to the Silver Messages website for their Yahoo! Search Submit Pro paid inclusion based on policy violations related to the challenges mentioned above.
Solution
BeyondROI performed a redesign of Silver Messages website, including upgrading the graphical "look and feel" of the entire website and optimizing the website navigation bars to be user friendly and compliant with search engine spiders. Search Engine Optimization recommendations were provided, approved by the client, and then implemented improving directory structure, page naming and copywriting.
Once the website redesign, restructuring and copywriting were complete, the website was resubmitted to the Yahoo! Search Submit Pro paid inclusion program and was approved since all policy violations had been corrected.
As this point, the major Search Engine Optimization shortcomings had been resolved.
Results
Silver Messages has received an ongoing stream of compliments from existing and new customers about the website redesign. The new visitor conversion rate has soared.
Here are samples of the natural search result rankings that the website has achieved on Yahoo! and Google:
This website previously did not rank well on these terms on either Yahoo! or Google, and these changes occurred within three months of the start of the project. The rankings are continuing to improve based on the redesign and restructuring, despite the difficulty of ranking in this crowded, highly competitive vertical market.
| Search Term: | Yahoo! Rank | Google Rank |
| Silver Jewelry | 1 | 1 |
| Sterling Silvery Jewelry | 2 | 1 |
| Silver Rings | 6 | 5 |
| Sterling Silver Charms | 1 | 2 |
| Sterling Silver Chains | 3 | 1 |
In summary, Silver Messages has met all of its original objectives for this project effort: The website ranks above the fold for a wide range of valuable key search terms. The website is no longer being penalized by major search engines, and search engine rankings are rising dramatically. The new visitor conversion rate is up dramatically based on the website redesign and restructuring. Silver Messages is now part of the Yahoo! Search Submit Pro paid inclusion program and is able to have specials, promotions and new inventory items appear in Yahoo! and its partner search engines within a matter of hours. Controlled and customized titles, keywords, Quick Links, descriptions and page data are reflected in search engine results. The effectiveness of new SEO changes is seen in a day or two instead of weeks or months later.