In this article, we’re going to look at a case study of a comprehensive search engine optimization of the website of a DevOps services company called Shalb. The project is still in progress, so this case study will be updated periodically, serving as a kind of progress log.

Work plan

Before starting the promotion, we created a work plan. This is a simple but important thing that allows you to structure your promotion strategy for a certain time without the possibility of not fulfilling some points due to forgetting.

Comprehensive SEO for this project consists of the following points:

  • SEO audit;
  • competitor analysis;
  • collection and clustering of the semantic core;
  • expansion of the site structure;
  • technical optimization of the site based on an SEO audit (drawing up a technical task with recommendations for the developer and their implementation);
  • optimization of meta tags;
  • preparation of technical specifications for the texts of the site’s services sections;
  • drafting of the technical specifications for the texts of Blog articles;
  • link promotion of the site (drafting of the SoW for the texts and placement of texts on external platforms).

Major indicators (metrics) of the project to be promoted

Work on the project began in December 2022, and to see the positive dynamics, we will make a cut of some promotion indicators for November 2022: the number of impressions in the Google Search Console (GSC); the number of clicks in the GSC; the average position in the GSC; the number of users from organic traffic based on Google Analytics (GA) statistics.

The indicators are as follows:

  • number of impressions in GSC – 45.4 thousand;
  • number of clicks in GSC – 107;
  • average position in the GSC – 53.4;
  • number of users from organic traffic – 266.

At the end of the article, we will present the results of the promotion for 8 months of work (December 2022 – July 2023).

Now let’s take a closer look at each step of the promotion process.

SEO audit

It is one of the most unloved stages (along with link building) for most clients, but it reveals the main weaknesses of the site and possible ways to solve them. SEO audit is a kind of checklist (to which you can constantly return and track progress) of the SEO specialist’s work and the basis for the technical task for the developer.

 The following points were considered in the SEO audit for Shalb:

  • website indexing;
  • technical optimization;
  • website speed;
  • content;
  • link profile;
  • positions in the search results.

Based on the SEO audit, technical specifications were drawn up for the developer, and their recommendations were implemented in January-February 2023.

A number of serious errors were fixed, such as:

  • the presence of broken links (i.e. with a 404 server response code);
  • links to outdated URLs that were redirected using 301 redirects;
  • dofollow links leading to external resources;
  • the slow loading speed of website pages;
  • etc.

We also drew conclusions and outlined a strategy for the website content (optimization of page texts, Blog articles, meta tags) and the website link profile (i.e. the quality of existing links on external sites and a plan for working with new links).

Competitor analysis

The next important step in website promotion is competitor analysis. It helps to identify the strengths in competitors’ promotion strategies that can be used to promote your client’s website.

Competitors are analyzed by the following points:

  • website positions and visibility;
  • technical optimization;
  • PageSpeed optimization indicators;
  • availability of micro-markup;
  • multilingualism;
  • adaptability to mobile devices;
  • the state of the snippets;
  • availability of optimized content;
  • the use of link building;
  • working with users (additional functionality and benefits for the user, types of getting leads from the site).

Based on this analysis, conclusions were drawn and tasks were set (with subsequent implementation) to expand the site structure, optimize the site content, link promotion, and user interaction with the site.

Collecting and clustering the semantic core

The semantic core of a website is the framework on which all project promotion is built.

By collecting the necessary search queries for the project and clustering them, the site structure, site content (texts of pages and articles of the Blog), and content for posting on external platforms are created.

It is this stage that makes it possible to clearly say which key queries should be used to promote the site. For the Shalb project, we updated the old semantics and collected new ones for the newly created sections.

Expanding the structure of the site

The previous two points described allow us to draw correct conclusions about the project’s existing website structure and its expansion.

Based on the analysis of competitors and website semantics, an updated website structure is built.

The new structure can be drawn up either in Google Sheets (using the example of the Shalb project) or in the more visual tool Xmind.

After the stage of creating a new structure, technical specifications for writing texts for new service pages are continuously drawn up and implemented on the project website.

Meta tag optimization

Based on the collected semantic core, we optimized the meta tags of the site pages (title, description): we wrote the necessary key phrases; added special characters and emojis.

Meta tags for all Blog articles have also been optimized and meta tags for new pages are being compiled on an ongoing basis.

Meta tag optimization, as one of the factors of successful promotion, will allow the site to rank better in search results and receive more organic traffic due to the clickability of the search snippet.

Drafting of technical specifications for the texts of website service sections

Taking into account the collected semantic core of the site, we drafted technical specifications for optimizing the texts of existing and new sections of the site.

These specifications will allow website pages to be ranked for the necessary relevant keywords (thanks to semantic core phrases, LSI words, and FAQ phrases), receive organic traffic, and, accordingly, conversions.

Drawing up ToR for the texts of Blog articles

An important factor in website promotion is blogging – writing informational articles with the necessary keywords. To do this, a content plan is created with selected article topics for a certain period (month, 3 months, six months, year).

Depending on the available resources of the project, the content plan can be created both by the project team and by an agency or SEO specialist. In the case of Shalb, the content plan is created by the project team (copywriters, technical specialists, native speakers), and the task of the SEO specialist is to make recommendations (ToR) on the use of key phrases, LSI words, volume, and internal linking.

According to the analysis of competitors, in the DevOps services niche, Blog articles (informational articles, guides, etc.) play a major role in driving traffic and leads. Therefore, the project Blog publishes at least 4 author’s articles per month (but the number can be higher, depending on resources).

Website promotion with links

As mentioned at the beginning, link building, along with SEO audit, is one of the most disliked but important aspects of website promotion. In addition to referral traffic (i.e., clicking on links from these sites), backlinks to a project’s website from high-quality external sites also affect organic traffic due to the work of search engine algorithms.

To promote the project through links, we create texts of articles according to the terms of reference drawn up in advance. The ToR also specifies the necessary key phrases from the semantic core and selected links to the project website with specific anchors.

Project promotion consists of:

  • writing articles on previously unreported topics;
  • writing many articles on the same topic;
  • rewriting topics already covered in the Blog.

These are the simplest methods of creating content to get backlinks by buying an article on an external platform, as the budget and capabilities of the project are still limited.

Results

At the beginning of the article, we presented data for November 2022, i.e. before the project was launched. So, after 8 months of promotion, let’s compare the indicators of November 2022 with July 2023 (to the 30th day for a correct comparison):

IndicatorNovember 2022July 2023 Growth dynamics
Number of shows in GSC45,4 thou.68,3 thou.67%
Number of clicks in GSC10716167%
Average position in the GSC53,429,255%
Number of users from organic traffic266804302%

The comparative table shows that the growth dynamics is positive for all monitored indicators, especially the number of users from organic traffic. Let’s consider all the indicators in the dynamics. For clarity, let’s take the period from July 2022 to July 2023. The graphs look like this:

  • indicators from the GSC

The average position and impressions show a generally positive trend with a clear increase since the beginning of the project’s promotion.

Click-through rates show explosive growth in the first three months of project promotion, and in the following months, not so-intense growth in the number of clicks, which is associated with organizational issues between the project and the agency, but it is noticeable that with stable promotion work, the results are not long in coming;

  • indicators of the number of users from organic traffic

The graph shows a clear, almost constant increase in the number of users of the site from organic traffic.

Conclusions

After 8 months of project promotion, a steady increase in the monitored indicators is noticeable. In the case of the DevOps services niche, a quick result is noticeable, immediately during the first month, and this is most likely due to the peculiarities of the niche, and low competition among sites that provide purely DevOps services. But the most important thing in promoting any project is consistency.

Thanks to the implementation of a pre-prepared work plan without long delays and pauses, you can safely predict and achieve the growth of the required indicators, respond to the results promptly, and change the promotion tactics if necessary.