Case Category: SEO

About Lyphe

Lyphe is the largest clinic offering medical cannabis treatment in the UK. The company provides an online service where patients can receive their medical cannabis prescriptions from the comfort of their own homes. The process works as follows:

1. Customers fill out an online eligibility form to check if medical cannabis is the right treatment for their condition.

2. If the patient is eligible, they book a video consultation with a specialist doctor who will assess the patient and prescribe a suitable treatment plan.

3. Once the prescription is written and approved, patients choose a nearby pharmacy to send the medical cannabis to.

4. Patients who are close to finishing their first treatment can then book a follow-up appointment with their specialist doctor, who will review their progress, check if the prescription is working, and adjust the dosage if necessary.

Although more scientific studies are needed to prove medical cannabis is an effective and safe treatment, most medical professionals are starting to accept that cannabis may offer a variety of therapeutic effects. From reducing inflammation and pain to preventing muscle spasms and seizures, many patients have reported a drastic quality of life improvement.

As the clinic is fulfilled online, Lyphe wanted to increase brand awareness, grow organic traffic and gain new patients. The team reached out to NUOPTIMA to help them achieve this due to our extensive experience working in regulated and cannabinoid industries.

Lyphe decided to go with our basic SEO package, which includes 16,000 words of content, three highly authoritative backlinks, and technical SEO support.

Team

Lyphes Team

The Results

Since Lyphe’s new website went live in November 2022, we have yielded some impressive results, significantly enhancing its online presence and visibility. Our SEO campaign has generated a remarkable 1.375 million impressions so far, indicating a substantial reach and exposure in the digital space. Furthermore, Lyphe achieved a notable milestone by ranking for 3,260 keywords on the first page of search engine results, a clear indicator of the effectiveness of the strategies we employed. Additionally, the acquisition of 439 high-quality backlinks from reputable sources not only bolstered Lyphe’s search engine rankings but also established itself as a reliable medical cannabis dispensary. Below, we go into more detail about the results in our key SEO areas.

Organic Traffic

• It took us only 12 months from the launch of the new site to achieve a monthly traffic average of 49,812.

Organic Keywords

• Keywords ranking in positions 1-3 on Google search results shot up to over 1k between August and November 2023 and continue to rise.

• As of November 2023, there were 2,248 unique organic keywords ranking 4-10 on the SERP results. This took the total keywords on the first page to an impressive 3,338.

• Not far behind the 1st page, Lyphe has a decent 2,780 keywords on the 2nd page of Google. The total number of keywords ranking on the result pages stands at 21,804 in just 12 months of the new site launch.

Medical Cannabis Backlink Results

• They now have a total of 1.8k links from other websites pointing to targeted URLs.

How We Achieved These Results

Our cannabis SEO action plan for Lyphe focused on establishing the brand as a top medical cannabis authority, focusing on high-impact keywords for patient decision-making. We enhanced Lyphe’s online presence with terms like ‘medical cannabis clinic’ and ‘cancard UK application,’ aiming to boost revenue by positioning it as a market leader.

Our approach included developing compliant, authoritative content aligned with Food Standards Authority and Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency guidelines, crucial for maintaining regulatory adherence. We rigorously vetted content for compliance to avoid penalties and content removal.

We also optimized Lyphe’s website for better user experience and Google rankings, improving navigation, speed, and mobile responsiveness. Additionally, our targeted backlinking strategy from reputable medical and cannabis sources aimed to increase Lyphe’s domain authority and search engine visibility.

Keyword Research

Our keyword research strategy was a critical component of the SEO action plan for Lyphe, focusing on maximizing visibility in the medical cannabis domain. We aimed to comprehensively cover a range of keyword categories relevant to Lyphe’s services and target audience. Here’s how we approached each type:

Keyword Category	Objective	Approach
Medical Cannabis Keywords	Rank high for all related keywords.	Research and identify a wide range of keywords, from general to specific, including long-tail keywords.
Medical Cannabis for Specific Conditions	Cover all ‘medical cannabis for [condition]’ keywords.	Identify conditions treatable by medical cannabis and pair them with ‘medical cannabis’ in keywords.
Medical Cannabis + Location Keywords	Cover all ‘medical cannabis + location’ keywords.	Target local search by combining ‘medical cannabis’ with specific geographic locations.
Natural Remedies for Specific Conditions	Cover all ‘natural remedies for [condition]’ keywords.	Include keywords for natural or alternative treatments for various conditions, aligning with medical cannabis interest.

In implementing this keyword research strategy, we ensured that the content created was not only optimized for these keywords but also provided genuine value and information to the users. This approach was designed to establish Lyphe as a knowledgeable and trustworthy source in the medical cannabis field, thereby attracting and retaining a relevant audience.

Writing Compliant Content

In our efforts to create content for Lyphe, we faced a significant challenge – wanting to celebrate cannabis as a potential alternative medicine but not being allowed to make claims about its therapeutic effects against certain medical conditions. To address this, we developed a set of client-specific guidelines focused on writing, editing, and referencing, ensuring compliance with FSA and MHRA regulations.

Referencing

Our strategy involved citing empirical evidence from reputable scientific journals. While direct medical claims were off-limits, showcasing studies and research findings was permissible. We carefully presented this evidence without drawing definitive conclusions, maintaining a balanced perspective. This approach was in line with regulatory standards, as it neither misrepresented the evidence nor made unsubstantiated claims about cannabis’s efficacy.

To avoid misinterpretation by regulatory bodies, we used caution in our language and included disclaimers. These disclaimers emphasized the need for more peer-reviewed research before drawing conclusions about the safety and effectiveness of medical cannabis for specific conditions or therapeutic benefits. For instance, in our article on Fibromyalgia, we meticulously referenced scientific literature, providing hyperlinks in a bibliography section at the end. This not only validated our content’s accuracy but also allowed readers to access the studies directly.

Here is a screenshot of how we approached referencing for the Fibromyalgia article: 

The scientific literature we referenced was listed at the end of the articles in a bibliography section. This validated the accuracy of our content and gave readers the opportunity to examine the evidence directly from the source. Below is an example from our article on Fibromyalgia:

Writing Process

Our method involved detailed briefings for our writers on handling medical cannabis content. The lead editor provided comprehensive guidelines and examples of compliant content. These steps aimed to minimize errors, thereby reducing the editing workload.

Editing

Despite preventive measures, perfection in initial drafts is unrealistic. Therefore, we implemented a rigorous editing process:

1. Initial Review: Writers submitted their content to editors for the first round of editing, focusing on grammar and compliance.

2. Revisions: Editors returned the content with comments, and writers made necessary amendments.

3. Final Review: After amendments, the content underwent a last review. If further adjustments were needed, it was sent back to the writers.

4. Expert Check: Lyphe’s experts conducted a final check. Any flagged issues resulted in further edits.

5. Publication: Once fully compliant and approved, the content was published on Lyphe’s website.

Backlinks

There was a significant focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites in the healthcare and cannabis sectors. This involved creating and sharing informative, relevant content that these sites would find valuable, thereby securing backlinks. Our approach was to target a diverse range of platforms, from industry blogs to healthcare news sites, ensuring a robust and varied link profile. This strategy was not only about gaining links but also about positioning Lyphe as a credible and authoritative voice in the medical cannabis field.

The impact of this backlink strategy was substantial. It led to improved search engine rankings for Lyphe, particularly for targeted keywords, by leveraging the authority of these external sites. Additionally, the articles containing these backlinks themselves ranked for relevant keywords, further increasing Lyphe’s online visibility.

Paid Ad Funnels vs SEO Funnel

The debate for many businesses is what growth channel they should prioritize: paid ads or SEO. But in regulated industries,  choosing SEO is a no-brainer for a few reasons:

• Unlike paid ads, where you can be banned in an instant, you have security in knowing your investment into SEO will stand the test of time.

• SEO is much simpler to implement than attempting to bypass ad restrictions from huge conglomerates like Meta and Google.

• The return on investment (ROI) will always be better in the long term, as it’s extremely difficult to run paid ads profitably in regulated industries.

If Lyphe Were To Run Paid Ads…

If Lyphe were to run paid ads in the medical cannabis niche, they would need to create cloaking landing pages. This is an intermediary page that is clean of any mentions of cannabis or health claims with the intention of circumventing the restrictions platforms like Meta and Google enforce on regulated industries. The customer would click on the clean ad, which then leads to the clean cloaking landing page. After that, the customer has to click on another link that redirects them to the real landing page where they can purchase the product/service.

The problem with this method is that ads are usually expensive, as it’s difficult to communicate the benefits of the product/service you are selling within the initial ad. Once they do proceed through the funnel, the potential customer is required to click multiple times to reach the end destination. In reality, most people will either ignore the ad, won’t have the patience for the journey, or will simply get confused about the offering once they reach the cloaking landing page. The end result is sky-high cost-per-click (CPC), low conversion rates (CVR) and poor return on ad spend (ROAS).

The other issue is an ethical one. Some consider cloaking landing pages to be a black hat tactic, as you are circumventing the algorithm to advertise a product that is clearly prohibited in the platforms’ terms of service (TOS). And besides the point – even if you were to do ads successfully, it is highly likely that, eventually, the platform will catch you and ban your account.

The conclusion here is to stick with SEO for the long run – it’s easier to implement, the outcomes will always be better, and you won’t have sleepless nights worrying if your ad account will be banned in the morning!

Conclusion

Our collaboration with Lyphe in the medical cannabis industry has been a resounding success, demonstrating the power of a well-executed SEO strategy in a regulated field. By carefully balancing compliance with engaging content, we’ve not only adhered to regulations but also sparked optimism among patients seeking alternative treatments. This approach, coupled with leveraging scientific research and clear disclaimers, has allowed us to safely explore the potential of medical cannabis without overstepping legal boundaries.

The results speak for themselves: since November 2022, Lyphe has seen a significant increase in organic traffic, with an average of 49,812 monthly visits. Our comprehensive SEO tactics have led to over 3,260 first-page keyword rankings, with more than 1,000 in the top three positions. The success extends to our backlink strategy, securing 439 high-quality links and enhancing Lyphe’s credibility and search engine rankings. This growth is a testament to our ability to navigate the complexities of SEO in a regulated industry.
For businesses seeking similar success, NUOPTIMA offers tailored SEO solutions to meet diverse needs. Book a call chat about how we can elevate your digital strategy and achieve remarkable results in your industry.

About Cannadips

Cannadips is a CBD brand that has been in the EU market since 2016. The brand uses a unique pouch delivery method and tobacco and hemp product formulation that is free from nicotine and THC. The Cannadips team reached out to NUOPTIMA for expert SEO services after losing the majority of their traffic from transitioning to a new domain and website. Their goal was to recover the traffic from the old website/domain while simultaneously growing organic traffic metrics to generate new customers.

After discussions with the team, Cannadips opted for our Growth package, which includes, 25,000 words, 6 high-authoritative backlinks and technical support for merging the domain.

Team

Cannadips Team

Action Plan

We formulated a three-pronged strategy to simultaneously recover and grow Cannadips’s audience within its target market.

1. Republish high-ranking content from the old website
   
   Cannadips created a new website for the cannadips.com domain. During this process, all ranking pages from the old website were lost. We aimed to republish high-ranking content from the old website on their new website to recover lost traffic.

2. Move ranking content from the second domain
   
   Cannadips also had a second domain, cannadipscbd.com, which had numerous ranking pages. We aimed to consolidate this content on the new website to maximise results.

3. Generate new traffic 
   
   To grow Cannadips’s audience, we aimed to generate new traffic by targeting high-yielding keywords where Cannadips had no prior history of SERP ranking.

Technical SEO: Merging Domains

Preparing For Content Migration 

We used Semrush to analyse the historical data associated with the old website and compiled a list of all the landing pages with a ranking history. As part of our SEO migration strategy, we repeated this process for cannadipscbd.com, adding all landing pages to the list that were ranking presently. Using this list, we went through Cannadips’s content archive and found the content associated with each landing page ready for republishing on the new website. 

Republishing 

In accordance with the list of landing pages, we asked Cannadips to create new web pages on the new website that conform with the new content structure. If the new URL was different on the new website, we instructed the developer to create 301 redirects from the old page to the new page. Once the pages were created and we audited the developer’s work, our team republished content from both the old website and cannadipscbd.com domain. 

Other Technical Work 

We gave several recommendations for technical improvements to improve website speed and help engine spiders crawl and index Cannadip’s site more effectively.

Content Management System (CMS)

We asked Cannadips to connect with Shopify CMS and create custom code to improve loading times. 

Meta tags

We advised producing meta tags for every important page so Google could understand want Cannadips’s content is about and show web pages in the appropriate search results.

Content delivery network (CDN)

We advised Cannadips to use CDN. Using a geographically distributed group of servers is an effective way of improving website speed.

Images formats

We instructed Cannadips on the optimal image types for different browsers to ensure the fast loading of photos and infographics.

Keyword Research 

We used two procedures to finalise new keywords for Cannadips to target:

• We analysed our competitors using Ahrefs and compiled a list of keywords they rank for
• We interviewed Cannadip’s team to gain an understanding of the keywords their Ideal Customer Persona uses (ICP)

After we compiled an extensive list, we meticulously analysed the keywords to uncover the low-hanging fruit. We were specifically looking for keywords that had moderate to high search volume, matched the keywords Cannadips’s ICP uses and had a low to moderate keyword difficulty. 

Once we had whittled down the list, we prioritised bottom-funnel keywords (BOFU keywords). These are keywords that have a strong buying intent – we knew that if we could rank for these keywords quickly, Cannadips could generate new customers quickly.

Keyword Clustering

By employing a clustering methodology, we grouped a range of subtopics and produced blog posts that were designed to answer specific search queries associated with a target keyword. We ordered each cluster by priority, making sure we executed first on content pieces that would garner the best results. 

Results 

If you have a basic understanding of SEO, you will know it is a long-term growth channel. In most cases, it will take up to 6-months to see significant results, but only if you have been investing and producing content consistently.

With Cannadips, we tore up this script. In only 1 month of work, we were able to achieve some truly astonishing results. Below is a summary of the key milestones:

• Recover organic keyword ranking from 100 to 2,700

• Recover monthly traffic from 2,000 back to 26,000

• Over 150 first page search results

Ranking Bottom Funnel Keywords

Below are the current organic positions on Google for various bottom-funnel keywords.

Keywords examples	Position in Google USA	Search Volume
Cbd pouches	1	2.2k
Cbd dips	1	1.4k
Cbd chew	1	450
Cbd snuf	1	200
Cbd chewing dip	3	150
Cbd chewing tobacco	1	70
Cbd dip	2	1.2k
Hemp pouch	1	100
Cbd pouch	1	150
Tobacco dip	1	4.3k

Conclusion 

Cannadips’s SEO campaign is an exemplary demonstration of using technical SEO to merge domains and recover traffic from an old website. By being meticulous and systematic with our approach, we were able to reinstate their position within the CBD niche in just a few weeks. But Cannadips didn’t want to remain stagnant in their old positions – they wanted to grow, too. 

By conducting in-depth keyword research and isolating bottom-funnel keywords with low keyword difficulty and good search volume, we were able to rank on Google for new positions quickly. And as a result, Cannadips were able to significantly improve all SEO metrics at their peak from the old domain in just one month.

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Want free organic traffic to your website but don’t know where to start and how to get real results?

In this article, we will showcase a stellar SEO case study from NUOPTIMA – FUL and tell you exactly how we were able to get their brand-new website from 0 to 40k in traffic in less than 7 months. 

This won’t be just another case study that shows you the results and doesn’t tell you how to get there – we will tell you exactly what we did, how we selected topics for blog posts and structured the articles, and even how many words we wrote to get the best possible Google rankings. 

This guide will tell you all you need to know to replicate the same results for your brand. So keep reading to learn how to do content marketing and SEO the correct way.

About the Client

FUL is a new spirulina sparkling beverage that has been on the market since 2021. The brand creates healthy flavoured fizzy beverages enriched with spirulina extract. FUL founders Sara, Christina and Julia, reached out to NUOPTIMA in their search for high-quality content marketing and SEO services. Their aims were to use SEO to drive more traffic to their website, spread brand awareness and generate new sales.

Thus, FUL decided to go with NUOPTIMA’s Basic SEO package, which includes 3 monthly backlinks and 16,000 monthly words of content, and our team started working on the FUL website in January 2022.

Our Results

Our team started working on the FUL website in January 2022, and we were able to take their site from 0 organic traffic to nearly 44,000 average monthly visitors in just a few months. Keep in mind that this is completely FREE traffic!

If FUL were to purchase the same amount of traffic they get for free as a result of SEO through PPC ads, they would have to spend over $20,000 EVERY SINGLE MONTH. That’s a 5x ROI on their monthly SEO budget! And if they choose to stop paying for SEO services, they will still keep all of that traffic (unlike PPC ads which only bring visitors as long as you keep paying for them).

FUL also shows up in search results for nearly 18,000 keywords, and roughly 2,000 of those results are on the first page of Google. These are amazing results that are practically unheard of in SEO.

Potential Issues

So, you’re probably wondering how we were able to achieve such terrific results.

Right from the start, NUOPTIMA’s team identified several problems that we needed to take into account when putting together content and SEO strategies for FUL. 

New website

When we began working on the FUL, their website had only existed for 8 months. By SEO metrics, the website was quite young, which means it would require a lot more effort and time to start gaining keywords and improving positions on Google. This also meant that its domain authority was quite low, and this needed to be taken into account by our SEO team.

Domain change

When we began working with FUL, they told us about their plans to change the domain name of their website from https://fulsuperfood.com to https://fulcompany.com . Usually, a domain name change erases at least 3 months’ worth of SEO progress. But we were able to minimise the impact of the domain change. We explain what we did to help FUL get back to its original traffic volume and keyword numbers in just 2 weeks in the Technical SEO section of this guide.

Design update

The FUL team was planning to update the design of their website soon after starting working with us. We took this into account when formulating our SEO strategy, as significant website design changes can often have a negative effect on the website’s rankings. 

Technical issues

We’ve noticed numerous technical issues on the FUL website after an initial technical audit, so we knew they would need to be addressed as soon as possible.

SEO Content Strategy for FUL

Even though content creation is not the only aspect of SEO work, it has a very significant impact on the traffic volume and Google rankings of any website.

In fact, we have seen that content is the #1 lever you can pull to improve SEO results (provided you have a basic technical SEO setup). 

The more content you write, the more keywords that get indexed, the more traffic you receive.

And while NUOPTIMA’s SEO strategies cover all parts of SEO, content creation is one of the key tools we use to promote websites. 

But we don’t just come up with topics off the top of our heads – we take a data-driven approach to content marketing. Here’s how we created content for FUL step by step:

Put together a pool of potential topics

We began by compiling a large list of topics we could potentially cover in blog posts for FUL. Here are some of the sources we used:

• Client interview. We interviewed FUL founders to get a clear understanding of their ideal customer persona (ICP) and then put together a list of queries these people may search for on Google.
• Competitor research. Our team created a list of websites that sell products similar to FUL spirulina beverages and then used Ahrefs to see what keywords these websites rank for, what content they have on their website and how well that content performs. 

Brainstorming. We extensively brainstormed topics that FUL’s ICP may be interested in, as well as similar topics with low-difficulty keywords.

As a result, we were left with a long list of hundreds or even thousands of keywords that FUL’s ICP may be interested in. Here’s a screenshot that shows just a small fraction of all the keywords we’ve collected during the initial stage of keyword research:

Create keyword clusters and assign them to topics

Once we had all the keywords, the next step was to group them by topic. As you can see from the screenshot above, some keywords on the list give good ideas for article topics. So the next step was to pick out keywords that relate to different topics and put them into groups. 

For example, looking at the screenshot above, you could search your list of keywords for ‘eat’, ‘drink’, ‘dose’, ‘cook’, and ‘thyroid’ and create smaller groups of keywords that contain those words. 

Here are some examples of keyword groups we’ve put together for FUL:

And here are the articles our team created based on the keyword groups in the screenshot above:

And here are the results these articles are showing now in terms of organic monthly traffic, traffic value, and keywords.

How to select keyword clusters? 

Since FUL’s website was relatively new when we started working on it, it didn’t have a lot of topical authority as far as Google and other search engines are concerned. Topical authority is one of the most important ranking factors Google uses to determine website rankings, especially in the health and wellness fields. It’s essentially a measure of authority, expertise, and trust a website has in its respective niche.

Please note that topical authority is different from the domain rating, which is a metric you can see on Ahrefs. Doman rating is a measure of the quality and quantity of backlinks a website has.

Topical authority is also exactly what can help your website rank above other highly reputable websites with huge DRs. For example, our article about chlorophyll water on FUL now outranks Healthline, Forbes, Cleveland Clinic, NBC News, and WebMD, which is an INCREDIBLE result for a website that was created just a few months ago.

We knew that if we tried going for highly popular (and thus incredibly competitive) keywords in our content, it wouldn’t rank well even if we created stellar articles that were much better than the pages that currently rank on the first page of Google for the same search queries. Thus, we decided to use the clustering technique and start off by targeting low-difficulty keywords to build up topical authority over time and get Google to trust the FUL website on health and wellness-related topics.

Of course, one downside of this method is that most low-difficulty keywords have relatively low search volumes, meaning that there aren’t a ton of people looking for those keywords on Google. But this is a trade-off you have to be willing to accept when promoting a new website. The key is to trust the process and remember that all this work will pay off in due time.

FUL naturally wanted to rank for highly relevant keywords such as ‘spirulina drink’. So to increase the chances of their site getting on the first page of Google for this keyword, we created articles that targeted clusters of closely related keywords such as ‘antioxidant drinks’, ‘healthy soft drinks’, etc.

For example, here is a list of the topics we covered in blog articles in the first month of working with FUL:

• How To Drink Spirulina?
• How To Take Spirulina For Weight Loss?
• Top Sustainable Protein Sources
• Where To Find Spirulina In A Grocery Store?
• Best Antioxidant Drinks
• Top Healthy Soft Drinks
• Spirulina Uses And Benefits
• Best Drinks For a Hangover

Today, the article about hangover beverages is the most visited page on FUL, which brings in over 16% of the total website traffic, with just over $4,000 in traffic value. This article ranks first on Google for the keyword ‘hangover drinks’ and has over 600 other organic keywords on Google. Other pages are showing similar results.

This example is a great illustration of why SEO is such a good investment for a business. According to Ahrefs, DrinkDefense pays $0.90 per click when they run ads for the ‘hangover drink’ keyword. This keyword has a 3.1k average monthly search volume. It’s reasonable to assume that as the #1 result, FUL gets 40% of all clicks. This means that they win 1,240 clicks per month, essentially free of charge (except for the cost of the article). But if DrinkDefense is bidding on this keyword all the time and getting 40% of the search volume, they are paying $1,116 every single month just for this keyword! In the meantime, FUL’s article ranks for over 600 other keywords. That’s insane!

A note on using Ahrefs

We find that it’s most convenient to use Ahrefs to carry out keyword research, track your website’s SEO progress, find competitors, conduct website audits, and much more. For example, to find out the keyword difficulty, volume, and traffic potential of a keyword, you need to open Ahrefs, go to the Keyword Explorer tab, and enter your keyword. 

You can see from the screenshot that the keyword ‘spirulina’ is considered to be ‘super hard’ by Ahrefs, and a website would need to have over 270 backlinks to rank in the top 10 for this keyword. This is an impossible number for a new website like FUL, which is why we opted for much easier keywords in the beginning.

You can also scroll down the page to see keyword suggestions along with their respective search volumes. These can be very effective for thorough keyword research.

The secret to writing content that will rank on the first page of Google

In-depth research 

Once we’ve put together a list of topics we wanted to cover in the first few months of working with FUL and selected at least 20 relevant keywords that needed to be targeted in each article, our copywriting team got to work on creating blog content.

The key to creating content that will rank on the first page of Google is to write articles that are simply BETTER than all others in the top 10 Google results. 

And ‘better’ means providing more value to the reader.

Each piece of content you write for your website should give more relevant information than the posts that already reside on the first page of Google and answer the user’s query in a more complete way. Remember, Google’s algorithms can tell if readers are happy with the content on a page and promote that page above others.

Before writing a piece of blog content, our copywriters analyse the top 10+ results for the target keyword on Google and determine what aspects of the topic are covered in each of those sources. They also cross-check these subtopics with the list of target keywords. 

Oftentimes, the keywords tell you what information needs to be included in the article, even if this information is not present in any of the top 10 results on Google. If users are searching for it, it needs to be included. 

Bottom line: Don’t believe people who say that they’ve found a way to cheat the system by including a certain amount of keywords or using other tricks to make otherwise mediocre text rank on the first page. 

Sure, some of these tricks may have worked in the past, but Google is constantly updating and improving its algorithms to account for loopholes. Thus, the only correct way to do SEO is to improve the quality of your website for users, and this includes writing stellar content. 

The perfect article length for SEO

There’s no set length requirement for SEO articles. The best way to determine the perfect length for a blog post is to analyse competing articles and ensure that your post is not shorter. Ideally, it should even be a little longer than the average post on the same topic. 

For FUL, we’ve ended up creating articles that were 1,500-1,700 words on average. This meant that under the Basic SEO package, which includes 16,000 words of content, we were able to provide FUL with 8 high-quality articles per month. Blog content added up to 18,000 words, and the remaining 3,000 words were used to create 3 backlink articles every month. Curious to know why we spend 3,000 words on backlinks? Keep reading, we’ll let you into the strategy. 

Optimal blog post structure

Once research for the article is complete, and the copywriter has all the information they need to create their post, they begin writing. All articles written by NUOPTIMA’s writers adhere to a set structure. We’ve found that this structure helps blog posts get much more organic traffic. 

H1

We always write the title of the article around a long-tail keyword to help Google understand what search intent this article could satisfy. The H1 should be different from the meta title.

Key points

This is a short section with 3 to 5 bullet points conveying the main ideas of the article. This section helps the reader see if our article will answer their question, and it gets us bonus points with Google’s algorithm by increasing the chances of the article getting onto Google’s Featured Results.

Right now, FUL has Featured Snippets, Sitelinks, and other Google Features on over 500 keywords in the United States alone. This gives FUL more Google real estate and improves click-through rates, which further pushes up the website’s rankings.

Body of the article with H2s, H3s, H4s, etc. 

Each subheading should contain highly relevant keywords.

Short conclusion

Sometimes, our writers will include a short conclusion at the end of the article. But this is not always necessary as the Key Points section already serves as a summary of the article.

FAQs

This section provides an excellent opportunity for the article to be featured in ‘Featured snippets’ or ‘People also ask’ sections on the first page of Google.

The key is to browse questions related to your keyword that appear in this section, select the ones that don’t have very good answers, and answer them in the FAQ section.

For example, to find questions about ‘vegan drinks’, we entered that keyword on Google, found the People Also Ask section, opened and closed the questions that appeared there a few times (this will give you more options to choose from) and selected questions that were relevant to our article or didn’t have good answers.

You can also utilise this service https://tools.alekseo.com/askey.html to find questions, making sure to select People Also Ask, English language, depth 2, and your target country in the settings.

This is what the FAQ section will look like on your website.

References

We’ve found that it’s much more effective to include text references to sources throughout the article and only list links at the end of the article in the References section.

Images and videos

Each article you post should be illustrated with images and/or videos. You can use your own images or buy them from a photo stock website. However, keep in mind that images that add value to the article work much better than generic pictures. 

Meta title and meta description

Each article should include a meta title which will appear only on Google. The title MUST be written around a long-tail keyword and be around 50 to 55 characters long. 

The meta description is another piece of data that will appear only on Google. It should include at least 2 keywords and take up around 150-160 characters.

Examples of Content We’ve Created for FUL

You’ve already seen what topics we’ve covered in the first month of working with FUL. But what about later months? You can check out all blog posts NUOPTIMA’s copywriting team has written for their website in the FUL blog. But here’s a short overview of the types of topics we’ve covered in their blog in the last 7 months:

• All about spirulina (how to make spirulina taste good, where is spirulina grown, what is the best spirulina brand).

• Alternatives to different types of unhealthy beverages (healthy soft drinks, healthy alternatives to diet soda, coffee alternatives for energy).

https://fulcompany.com/blogs/the-ful-scoop/top-14-healthy-alternatives-to-soft-drinks

https://fulcompany.com/blogs/the-ful-scoop/12-healthy-alternatives-to-diet-soda-drinks

https://fulcompany.com/blogs/the-ful-scoop/20-best-natural-alternatives-to-coffee-for-energy

• Answers to general questions about soft drinks (is diet soda healthy, best drinks for hydration, is soda bad for you).

https://fulcompany.com/blogs/the-ful-scoop/diet-soda-is-it-really-better

https://fulcompany.com/blogs/the-ful-scoop/the-best-drinks-for-hydration-ultimate-guide

https://fulcompany.com/blogs/the-ful-scoop/11-reasons-why-you-should-kick-your-soda-habit

• Spirulina for various health conditions and diets (drinks for intermittent fasting, soft drinks for vegans, soft drinks for high blood pressure).

https://fulcompany.com/blogs/the-ful-scoop/drinks-for-intermittent-fasting

https://fulcompany.com/blogs/the-ful-scoop/beverages-lower-blood-pressure

https://fulcompany.com/blogs/the-ful-scoop/best-vegan-drinks

• Topics related to chlorophyll and chlorella (where to buy chlorophyll water, how much chlorophyll water to drink per day, chlorella vs spirulina).

https://fulcompany.com/blogs/the-ful-scoop/where-to-buy-chlorophyll-water-drops

https://fulcompany.com/blogs/the-ful-scoop/how-often-should-i-drink-chlorophyll-water

https://fulcompany.com/blogs/the-ful-scoop/spirulina-vs-chlorella-what-is-the-difference

As of July, we have created 45 blog posts for FUL. Together, all pages in the blog bring in nearly 25,000 ORGANIC visitors every month, generating over $20,000 in free traffic! The pages also rank for over 12,000 keywords.

And these numbers increase every single day.

Of course, content is not the only part of SEO, so below, we’ll briefly explain two other aspects of SEO that we handle for our clients – technical SEO and link building.

Backlinks

A common (but outdated and often ineffective) SEO technique is to flood the website with hundreds or even thousands of low-quality backlinks. But you should never do this! Google can easily figure out that you’re using this trick and punish your website for it. In fact, some black-hat SEO agencies even use low-quality backlinks to diminish the Google rankings of their competitors’ websites. 

The task of creating quality backlinks for FUL was made easier for our team by the fact that we have relationships with over 1,500 domains in various niches, including health and wellness. We’ve tested hundreds of websites and know how well backlinks from all of them perform.

However, we still use standard metrics to pick the best backlinks for our clients. Ideally, you want to find sites that have a high DR (domain rating) and a lot of traffic. The domain rating reflects the quality of the backlink profile of the website in question. At the same time, a high traffic volume doesn’t just mean that the website’s owner put a lot of effort into SEO. It means that Google believes that this site is useful, which is why it gives it higher rankings, therefore sending more people to visit it. 

There are also other factors to consider if you’re looking to purchase backlinks. For example, you should check how many inbound and outbound links a website has. If this ratio is too skewed and the site has many more outbound links (which shows Google that the site was created to sell backlinks and not bring value to users), you should not purchase backlinks from it because they won’t do your site any good.

 Here are 3 examples of links we’ve bought for FUL.

• https://ventsmagazine.com/2022/02/11/supercharge-your-mind-and-body-with-spirulinas-potential-health-benefits/

This domain has a domain rating of 76, which is very high, and over 43k monthly organic traffic.

• https://trans4mind.com/counterpoint/index-health-fitness/up-nutrient-levels-with-spirulina.html

This website has a domain rating of 70 and almost 20k monthly organic traffic, which is significant.

• https://mentalitch.com/spirulina-superfood-for-your-skin/ 

This site also has a very high DR of 64 and over 40k monthly organic website visitors.

How FUL’s Content Wins Free Backlinks

If you paid attention to all the screenshots in this guide, you might be slightly confused at this point. After all, we told you that we’re only buying 3 backlinks per month for FUL, and yet this screenshot we gave you at the beginning of the article shows that FUL has nearly 800 backlinks. So, where did they come from?

These backlinks came from two sources:

• FUL’s PR efforts
• Free backlinks as a result of quality content

Since the content we’ve created for FUL’s blog has excellent positions on Google, lots of traffic, and great quality, they are now able to get lots of backlinks from a variety of websites free of charge. To date, FUL has received over 80 free backlinks.

This further shows Google, other website owners, and users that FUL is the authority when it comes to healthy beverages and spirulina.

Technical SEO 

NUOPTIMA’s SEO team has strong technical expertise that helps not only to identify all issues with our client’s websites but also prioritise the few issues that will bring 80% of the result. Thus, we carry out comprehensive technical audits of every client website each week and determine which problems need to be addressed urgently. Here is an example of a typical audit.

Then we put together a detailed brief for the customer’s development team to ensure proper implementation. 

Here’s an example of technical changes we’ve requested FUL’s development team to make in our second month of working with this client.

Here are a few examples of the specific instructions we provide to the client’s development team on each issue:

Once everything is fixed on the client’s side, we conduct a repeat analysis of the website to check the results and update, creating a constant feedback loop.

Moving to a new domain

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, FUL expressed their desire to move their website to a new domain a few months after we started working on their project. Normally, this move is very dangerous. A website can lose all of its traffic and positions if proper techniques aren’t used during the move. But even when everything is done correctly, a domain move usually results in a loss of 3 months worth of growth. 

But we were able to do something that’s almost impossible.

By using 3 techniques, we were able to minimise the negative effect of the domain move. Here is what we did:

• Create 301 redirects for every single page

A 301 redirect is a server response code that tells search engines that the page has moved to a new address. If you simply move a website to a new domain without creating these redirects, it will lose all of its rankings because Google will treat it as a completely new site which is a repeat of the old site. This means it will grow even slower than a brand-new site.

There are several ways to create these redirects. You can set them up at the domain registrar’s or CDN Cloudflare levels, or create them on the server of the old website using the .htaccess file.

• Add the new domain to Google Search Console

The next step was to add the new domain to the same Google Search Console (GSC) account as the old one. 

• Re-configure Google Search Console

Once both domains were added to the same account, we notified Google that the old domain is moving in the Settings.

We also added a sitemap to the new website. 

As a result, FUL was back to its original website traffic just 2 weeks after the domain change. You can see it for yourself below!

How To Get Sales from SEO 

As great and effective as SEO is, there’s a significant chance that SEO techniques alone won’t significantly boost your conversion rates. This is because most people who find your website through search results are only at the top of the sales funnel, so you need to take steps and use different techniques to guide them down the funnel and convince them to purchase your product.  

This is why we put together a list of features FUL needed to implement on their website to improve conversion rates. This list included:

• Conversion blocks throughout the articles

• Internal backlinking

• Contextual pop-ups that offer a 15% discount in exchange for the user’s email or simply have a button leading the user to the product page

This allowed us to significantly increase the number of people who visit product pages after reading posts in the blog and boost conversion rates.

Future Strategies 

Since FUL has achieved excellent results with SEO, they are currently taking the next step in their marketing plan and setting up retargeting campaigns on Facebook. Their goal is to retarget people who have previously visited their blog or product pages, entice them back to the website with offers, and convert these visitors into customers. 

If you’re struggling with targeting the right audience with your Facebook ads, SEO is a perfect solution that will allow you to get pre-qualified traffic for free and prevent you from wasting money on showing ads to people who are not interested in your product. By using this two-stage method, you will be able to find an audience that has already searched keywords your website ranks for and thus is interested in buying your product.

Conclusions

FUL is one of the most impressive SEO case studies NUOPTIMA has ever had. And it’s not just us! A website that went from zero to 40k in organic traffic in only 7 months would be the crown jewel of any SEO agency.

And the best part is that we didn’t use any tricks or loopholes to get here, which means that these results won’t disappear overnight when Google decides to change its algorithm and close yet another loophole.

It also means that you can use our process to get amazing results for your website too. So what are you waiting for? Start putting together a content strategy right now!

Team

FUL Team

About Pzizz

Pzizz is a company that offers a unique solution to help people improve their sleep and relaxation. Their flagship product is a mobile app that uses a combination of soundscapes, music, and voiceover to create a personalised sleep and relaxation experience.

Pzizz’s app has been designed to address the growing need for better sleep and relaxation in today’s fast-paced world. By combining clinically-proven techniques with state-of-the-art technology, Pzizz provides an effective solution to help people fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up feeling refreshed and energised.

Their app is highly customisable, allowing users to personalise their sleep and relaxation experience to their unique preferences. Users can choose from a variety of soundscapes, music, and voiceover options, as well as adjust the volume, duration, and intensity of each element. The app also includes features such as a sleep tracker and a power nap mode to help users optimise their sleep and relaxation.

Their app has already helped millions of people around the world improve their sleep, and the company continues to innovate and improve their offerings to help even more people in the future.

Team

Pzizz Team

Action Plan

When we first started working with Pzizz, there were concerns about irrelevant traffic to their website. Pzizz had noticed that despite high website traffic, their conversion rate was not increasing, indicating that the visitors to their website were not their target audience.

We began our analysis by conducting an in-depth SEO audit of Pzizz’s website, revealing that their website received significant traffic from irrelevant keywords. Their original content contained a lot of information on generic sleep topics, such as ‘fabrics for bedding,’ ‘most comfortable mattresses,’ and ‘sleeping pills.’ This meant the visitors were not actually interested in downloading the sleep app, leading to a lack of conversions.

To address this issue, we devised a comprehensive SEO strategy that involved optimising Pzizz’s website for relevant keywords, creating high-quality content to engage with the target audience, and implementing technical SEO improvements to enhance the website’s user experience.

As a result of the SEO strategy, Pzizz experienced a significant increase in organic traffic from their target audience, leading to a surge in app downloads and an improvement in their ROI. Pzizz was now in a position to find people with sleep problems and position their sleep app as the solution.

Keyword Research

Our Head of SEO conducted a thorough analysis of Pzizz’s website using Ahrefs (an SEO tool) to identify relevant keywords that could drive bottom-funnel traffic to their website. During the analysis, we discovered that keywords related to iPhone apps had high intent and search volume and were relatively easy to rank for.

Keyword	Current position	Volume
free sleep apps for iphone	1	600
best free sleep apps for iphone	1	100
sleep apps for iphone	1	70
best sleep apps for iphone	1	60
relaxing sounds to fall asleep to	1	60
sounds for concentration	3	150
noises to help you sleep	4	250
sounds to help you sleep	5	3900
productivity apps iphone	5	600
bedtime app iphone	5	350
best iphone apps for productivity	5	350
best iphone sleep tracker	5	150
best iphone apps productivity	5	150
sleep tracker app iphone	6	100
best ios sleep tracker	6	100

Bottom-Funnel Content

Bottom-funnel content for Pzizz is highly effective in driving conversions and increasing app downloads. One strategy we adopted was to create listicles that compare different types of apps available on the market. These listicles were optimised for relevant keywords such as “best sleep apps”, “top meditation apps”, and “compare sleep apps” to attract users who are actively searching for these types of apps.

By providing informative and comparative content, we have established the Pzizz brand as a reliable source of information for potential users. This has helped to highlight Pzizz’s unique features and benefits, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates and more installs. With the right bottom-funnel content strategy, Pzizz effectively engages with potential app users and positions itself as a leader in the sleeping aid industry.

Sticky Banner

We implemented a sticky banner which proved to be an essential tool for promoting Pzizz’s website and app downloads. This banner stays fixed on the home page, ensuring maximum visibility and exposure. By using sticky banners, Pzizz can prominently display its call-to-action, encouraging visitors to download the sleep app.

Sticky banners are particularly useful for mobile users (Pzizz’s target audience) as it ensures the app download button is always within reach and doesn’t get lost in the content. This makes it easier for users to engage with Pzizz’s app and ultimately increases app installs.

Results

The results of our SEO efforts for Pzizz have been impressive. With carefully calculated ROI from SEO, we can confidently estimate that the more content and pages we have on the website, the faster Pzizz grows. Based on current growth rates, we expect to have a 10x increase in traffic and installs in the next 5-9 months.

App installs

• By tracking data from one sticky banner alone, we found that it drove around 150-200 installs per month. This number is likely an underestimate since some people may not click on the exact links.
• We estimate that around 450 people landed on the blog, clicked on the Pzizz homepage, and then installed the app, resulting in another 150 installs. In total, we estimate that the SEO efforts have driven a minimum of 150 installs, with a potential 30% conversion rate.
• To make SEO a profitable channel, we need to increase the number of installs by 10x, which is achievable since we were able to increase the number of installs from blog SEO traffic by roughly 30x in less than four months from the start of the project.

Organic Traffic

• Organic traffic increased by 227% from 5,653 to 18,523
  
  

  

Organic Keywords

• Organic keyword rankings in positions 1-3 have increased from 76 to 120
  
  

  

• Organic keyword rankings on the first page have shot up from 343 to 980
  
  

  

• Organic keyword rankings between 11-20 have gone from 488 to 1,697
  
  

  

Conclusions

Pzizz had been struggling to attract relevant traffic to its website and convert those visitors into app installs. We provided a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, including keyword tactics, carefully structured long-form content, banners, and strategic tracking to address this issue.

Thanks to our expertise, Pzizz was able to increase its website traffic by 160% and improve its conversion rates significantly. This helped the app to reach a wider audience and position itself as the go-to sleep app. 

The six-month project proved to be successful, with some remarkable results to show. However, there is still much more that can be done to improve their ROI from SEO efforts. One main area is implementing improved CRO techniques to encourage visitors to take action and convert them into app installs. By implementing our recommendations, we would predict a further 20% increase in app installs.

About Bonnet

Bonnet is a mobile app that solves the issue of locating and using charging points for electric cars across the UK and Europe. Traditionally, electric car owners must download multiple charging network apps – each with unique EV charging location maps and individual e-wallets for payment.

This process can be inconvenient and annoying for EV owners, as they need to switch between apps to locate the nearest charging station and then pay using the app of the relevant charging network. If it’s a new charging network that the customer hasn’t used before, they would have to download the app of the charging network, sign up and add a payment method.

Bonnet recognised this issue and designed an all-in-one solution. Their app conveniently allows you to locate thousands of charging stations across the UK and Europe from a range of charging networks and pay from one e-wallet.

Bonnet came to NUOPTIMA wanting to organically grow brand awareness and increase app installs and subscriptions amongst electric car owners. They needed help fulfilling a large-scale SEO strategy that covered both onsite, offsite and technical SEO.

The team decided to go with the growth package, which includes 25,000 words of content,  6 40+ DR backlinks and full technical support.

Team

JoinBonnet Team

Action Plan

Bonnet wanted to increase organic exposure, but they also needed to convert visitors into installs and subscriptions. To fulfil these goals, we needed to prioritise bottom-funnel keyword structures and create content that would keep visitors engaged and convert them into new customers. This work would also require Bonnet to restructure parts of their website and create a range of new pages. Thus, we also needed to provide detailed instructions for Bonnet’s development team to ensure technical work was executed correctly.

Once bottom-funnel search intent had been fulfilled, we needed to create informational blog content to build topical authority, gain brand awareness and increase organic traffic. Blog content topics would be prioritised by conversion rates estimations – content with a higher chance of converting new customers would be written and published first. Additionally, Bonnet hadn’t yet created a blog section on their website, so we needed to provide Bonnet’s development team with the best practices for technical implementation.

Finally, we would optimise off-page SEO. We would publish content on a range of websites with high domain authority and relevance to the EV niche to improve Bonnet’s domain rating. This would help our content pieces rank higher and quicker for target organic keywords. 

Keyword Research 

Our Head of SEO did a deep dive on Ahrefs (SEO tool) to find what bottom-funnel keywords could be targeted. We were soon to notice the bottom funnel keyword structure ‘electric car charging + location’. These keywords (see image below) had great intent, were high in keyword and search volume and were relatively low in ranking difficulty. These attributes fitted our action plan strategy perfectly and gave us the best chance of generating new installs in subscriptions quickly.

For blog content, we found a range of interesting middle-funnel topics and marked them as second in priority. Content for these pages would be started straight after we fulfilled the content for the topics above. Topics such as ‘London hotels with electric car charging’ and ‘London malls with electric car charging’ were tailor-made for listicle-type articles such as ‘Top Ten Hotels With Electric Car Charging’.

We also found some interesting search intent around free electric car charging. While less of a priority due to lower buying intent, we knew we could rank highly for keywords around this topic if we created a UK map with free charging points. And although it was unlikely this would generate new installs and subscriptions, it would generate brand awareness and topical authority due to the high search volumes around this topic.

Technical Work

Before we started writing content, fixing any technical issues that could negatively impact ranking was crucial. To avoid overwhelming Bonnet’s developers, we drip-fed the team technical tasks – starting from the highest priority. So the first document we provided was the must-fixes before we engaged in any SEO work. Below is a summary of the tasks we provided:

• Add meta titles and descriptions to existing content

We noticed Bonnet hadn’t added meta titles and descriptions to their range of existing content pieces on their website. These are crucial for getting pages indexed and ranked on Google. We listed all the URLs where we noticed this issue and asked Bonnet to create meta titles and descriptions for each.

We also provided guidance on what makes a good meta-description by comparing bad and good examples with explanations. Common mistakes include not adding a call to action (CTA), no emotional pull, and stuffing with long-tail keywords.

• Fix 404 links and delete pages that are no longer needed

A couple of Bonnet’s pages had 404 errors, which meant they could not generate organic traffic for this content. We listed the URLs and asked Bonnet’s development team to fix the technical implementation so Google could index these pages.

Bottom-funnel Content

We added a map with all charging station locations at the top of the page for all the bottom-funnel pages that followed an ‘EV charging station + location’ keyword structure. This was the ideal method for fulfilling search intent – Google would see customers engaging and spending time on pages and reward us with a higher ranking.

Below the map, we included a section promoting Bonnet’s app. This was designed to convert visitors into installs and subscriptions. Including this section at the top provided a higher chance that the visitor would read this section and find out more about Bonnet’s product offering. We can say with high certainty that most visitors would be qualified (own an electric vehicle) due to the intent of the search term and weren’t aware there was an available solution for charging and payment through one app.

The rest of the page’s content was focused on owning and charging a vehicle in the relevant location. This provided more colour on the history of EVs in that location, information on new charging stations being installed, upcoming legislation and regulation of emissions and any other pertinent information. Providing visitors with a detailed overview of the plans for EV in a specific location helped us fulfil search intent and rank for the target and associated keywords.

All pages also included a conversion block for downloading the app.

Backlinks

Offsite SEO is crucial for improving your website’s trustworthiness with Google. The more third-party websites in your niche that refer to you, the higher the chance Google will rank your content for target keywords.

For Bonnet, we needed to attain new backlinks from publishers with high domain authority in the Car, EV and technology niches. To achieve this, we contacted a range of relevant publishers and asked if we could write an article for their website with a link insertion back to Bonnet’s website. As we have built relationships with thousands of publishers across many industries, we could gain high authority and niche-specific backlinks quickly. 

In ten months of working with Bonnet, we have attained 60 new backlinks from this work (not including organic backlinks). And as a result, Bonnet’s domain rating has increased from 38 to 44 – an indication that this work has had a significant, positive impact on Bonnet’s website’s trustworthiness.

Results

After ten months of working with Bonnet, we have achieved some amazing results. All SEO metrics have taken a significant upward trajectory and are on course to cement Bonnet as one of the leading, most well-known EV apps on the market. Below is a summary of some of the key results:

Organic Traffic

• Organic traffic has increased from 1,193 to 16,398

Organic Keywords

• Organic keyword rankings in positions 1-3 have increased from 7 to 187

• Organic keyword rankings in positions 4-10 have increased from 11 to 919

Organic Traffic Value

• Organic traffic value has increased from $272 to $10,411

Referring Domains

• Referring domains have increased from 332 to 498
• Domain rating increased from 38 to 44

New Positions For Bottom-Funnel Keywords

• We started ranking for a variety of bottom-funnel keywords relevant to charging apps, charging networks and charging point locations.

Keyword	New Position	Traffic
ev charging app uk	1	100
best ev charging app	1	200
electric car charging apps	1	80
best app for electric car charging uk	1	50
ev charging apps uk	1	150
best ev charger app	1	80
ubitricity charging station	3	13,000
ev charging app	3	100
source london charging	5	700
source charging points	6	100
ionity charger map	7	50
how do you pay for electric car charging	8	200
electric car charging points brighton	8	60
ionity chargers uk map	8	90

Conclusion

This client has supercharged their organic performance in just ten months by blending and executing offsite, onsite and technical SEO. They achieved this through consistent content publishing, regular technical audits and high-domain backlink production.

We first focused on creating content on bottom-funnel topics, achieving first-page ranking for several high-buying intent keywords. We simultaneously wrote content on high-volume topics with less buying intent to create brand awareness and improve topical authority. Additionally, we increased Bonnet’s domain authority by sourcing credible backlinks from publishers with high-domain ratings. As a result, Google is now categorising Bonnet as a trustworthy source of information in the EV niche – proliferating traffic across most pages. 

Bonnet is on course to position itself as the top EV charging app on the market. But there is still hard work to be done – we will continue to strategise, create great content, rank for new keywords and ensure Bonnet achieves its north star goal of becoming industry standard.