Building and Ranking a Storefront from Scratch

A large furniture retailer obtained a “category killing” domain name, PatioFurniture.com, for its outdoor furniture line.

The goal was to create a new website for the domain name that would act as an online storefront and exist independently of the main brand site. Our responsibility was to build the site and grow organic traffic for product keywords with minimal tech resources and oversight.

Due to tech constraints, the only tool at our disposal was WordPress.

The Solution

To display the brand’s products, a custom WordPress plugin shortcode was created that allowed us to query their product database.

• Modified a simple, minimalist WordPress theme to create a fast and easy to browse interface
• Studied the keyword universe for the products in question
• Guided by keyword research, mapped out the ideal information architecture with categories, subcategories, and product filters
• Built a WordPress import file that was used to create stub product listing pages (PLPs) based on the IA
• Developed a content strategy to amplify long-tail keyword positions for PLPs (adding supportive copy to category pages)
• Created a blog that targeted top-of-funnel searchers and published link-worthy content
• Oversaw a link-building strategy to acquire links (one of the biggest challenges in e-commerce campaigns)

The Results
After launching, our SEO strategy yielded 11 straight months of growth, peaking at 10K users per week. The resulting traffic generated product referrals for the main brand.