Case Study (Starpowa)
SEO Migration Case Study
Starpowa: SEO Migration
Discover how I significantly boosted Starpowa’s organic traffic and revenue by implementing a comprehensive SEO migration strategy that saw them rank above Tesco, Holland & Barrett, and Amazon, all with zero links.
The Story
Starpowa is the UK’s leading vegan vitamin gummy brand, offering a range of health and wellness products across the UK, US, Australia and Europe. Starpowa emphasises sustainability, with recyclable packaging and manufacturing powered by renewable energy. They also support charitable causes and all products are made in Great Britain under GMP & BRC approved conditions.
I’ve been working with Starpowa on and off for about a year, and one of the issues they had was their main products and general pages weren’t being indexed despite the main .com site being crawlable and accessible to Google.
The Problem
The majority of organic traffic was being split across each of their subdomains, which were being indexed by Google and sending the wrong signals. The client wanted each of their products/pages indexed through the .com as quickly as possible.
Another issue they had was that other brands selling their products were ranking 3-4 positions above them. This is common, especially if the bigger brands are more established with greater authority.
However, it’s not uncommon for Google to choose less authoritative brands that directly match user intent and allow customers to purchase directly through the brand itself.
To investigate further, I audited the site and began digging into the issues. While I identified many areas impacting their organic visibility, the primary objective was to get the .com site indexed and product pages ranking. During the audit, I discovered that Google was picking the .US subdomain as the main site over the .com.
To add to the frustration, products listed in the US are regulated, so not all products were ranking, causing them to lose revenue directly from organic searches.
The Solution
We tried a few strategies to see if we could signal to Google that the .com site should be indexed over the .us subdomain. Only the homepage and two product pages were index on the .com at the time. It was clear that Google preferred the .us subdomain over the .com.
While this caused conflicting signals and after discussions with the team, I recommended they switch from sub-domains to sub-folders and change how the configuration was setup.
I also recommended further changes to the product pages to boost CTR and accessibility. Some of these included:
- Including Star Ratings with supporting attributes
- Included reviews, FAQs and social proof to improve E-E-A-T
- Cleaned up dead content
- Optimised metadata and on-page
"Danny has been a dream to work with! He knows SEO back to front"
— Mark Alpen, Marketing Manager
The Results
Organic traffic increased by
+86%
Organic revenue increased by
+240%
Quick Tip
While Shopify is the go-to e-commerce platform, I’ve found that using subdomains to manage your international strategy isn’t the most reliable from an SEO perspective. For most sites, sticking with subfolders will make it easier to manage and save you technical headaches in the future.
Organic Clicks: Post migration
Organic clicks tripled for non-branded queries since the switch and shows the .com URLs generating more organic traffic and revenue.
All Keyword Traffic
Non-Branded Clicks: Post migration
Over 90% of products are now ranking #1, and clicks to non-branded queries have increased significantly post-migration.
Non-branded keyword traffic
Organic Revenue up +240%
Over the next few months, organic revenue increased by +240% and has continued to grow month on month and Year-on-Year.
Google Analytics Data
Purchases up +279%
This improvement has also been reflected in products sold via organic search, resulting in the highest month on record.
Google Analytics Data
All Pages Now Indexed
Originally, there were only 3 pages indexed on the .com site. After implementing the SEO migration plan, I managed to get every product and collection page indexed. There are still some crawling issues, but these will be addressed in due course.
Google Search Console Data
Product Reviews Increased
When products started ranking #1, there was an opportunity to add product star ratings, price, and stock availability to boost CTR.
Google Search Console Data
Top 3 Rankings Increased
From a ranking perspective, top 3 rankings increased dramatically, rising from 77 to 211 keywords in the following months.
Ahref Data
Products Now Ranking #1
This transactional keyword alone has an estimated 10k traffic value. They now rank #1, with no prior links or rankings, and rank above Tesco, Holland & Barrett, and Amazon.
Ahref Data
Traffic Share Up 38%
There's a lot more market share for the majority of products. The brands that were previously ranking #1 would have taken a hit in revenue because more of these products are now ranking #1. Google clearly recognizes that these products should be at the top, matching user intent.
Ahref Data
85% from Referrals
There’s a reason 85% of my work comes through referrals. One area I’m proud of is giving a damn about people’s businesses. I love learning from other people and getting to know what makes them tick. It’s this passion for learning (and just being a good person) that opened up doors for me.