Full-cycle SEO case studies provided by Natural Links for the Trading industry.
Niche: | Trading |
Geo: | Sweden |
Target Language: | ENG |
Domain Age: | 5 years |
Project Start: | August 2023 |
Client’s Goals
- Increase Organic Traffic: Grow the number of warm target visitors landing on the site from search engines.
- Support Website Rankings: Maintain and strengthen the website’s ranking positions.
- Establish a Healthy Link Profile: Focus on creating a balanced and healthy backlink profile that aligns with the client’s long-term objectives.
Start point
Project Advantages
- A domain with a trust level and a 5-year age.
- A good number of 220 acquired backlinks.
- Several blog articles and descriptive content already present on the website.
- Experienced content writers on the client’s side, ready to create optimized material.
Main Issues
- Highly competitive market with established and known platforms in the trading niche.
- Search engine spots are already dominated by top trading platforms.
- The site suffered from inadequate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and poor internal relinking.
- There were a significant number of 404 errors, duplicate content, and unindexed pages.
- Content was not optimized for SEO, with low attention to middle and low-frequency keyword queries.
- Several technical SEO issues were negatively affecting indexation and visibility.
- Weak backlink profile, needing targeted efforts to improve authority.
- UI/UX improvements were required to enhance user engagement and satisfaction.
Project Team
- SEO Specialist
- Content Strategist
- Link-Building Specialist
- Analytics Specialist
- Graphic Designer
Project’s Strategy Development
A detailed, methodical approach was required to solve the client’s SEO problems and meet their goals. Key elements of the strategy included:
Technical Website Audit
We conducted an in-depth technical audit to identify and fix core issues that impacted the website’s visibility and functionality. The audit revealed numerous problems that were addressed:
- Elimination of 404 errors and the setup of proper redirects for improved user experience and SEO.
- Cleaning up “junk” pages and outdated content, either removing them from the site or de-indexing irrelevant pages.
- Resolving duplicate content issues through canonical tags and restructuring the site hierarchy.
- Mobile and desktop page speed optimizations were prioritized to ensure a seamless experience for users.
- Addressing other technical issues.
Competitor and Market Analysis
We performed an extensive analysis of the trading niche in Sweden, benchmarking the client’s site against top competitors. The analysis provided insights into:
- Ranking strategies of leading trading platforms.
- Identification of fast-growing, young platforms and their growth tactics.
- Best practices in content structure and link-building strategies from successful competitors.
Keyword Research and Clustering
We revised the semantic core of the website to focus on medium and low-frequency keywords, which provided more accessible opportunities for growth. This included:
- Keyword clustering for each website section, optimizing existing pages and blog posts.
- Developing a unified page structure that allows proper keyword integration across the site.
- Detailed content plans and technical guidelines (TOR) were prepared for the client’s content team to ensure that future content adhered to SEO best practices.
Link Building Strategy
A one-year link-building plan was devised to enhance the site’s domain authority. The plan included:
- Outreach to niche trading websites for high-quality backlinks.
- Securing backlinks from regional Swedish sites to improve local relevance.
- Acquisition of crowd links from forums and social platforms to create diverse backlink sources.
- Brand protection strategies to ensure the client’s trading platform maintained a strong online reputation.
Natural Links Services:
SEO Audit On-Page SEO Services Link Building Services Content Requirements
Execution and Key Activities
With the strategy in place, we executed several key tasks to improve the client’s SEO performance:
Technical SEO Fixes:
- Fixing indexing errors and ensuring that the website was fully accessible to search engines.
- Addressing broken links and 4xx/3xx status code pages, replacing or repairing them.
- Implementing GA, Tag Manager, and Search Console to enable tracking and reporting for data-driven decision-making.
Page Speed and UI/UX Optimizations
- Conducted multiple iterations of page speed optimizations for both desktop and mobile, improving load times across the site.
- Restructured the website’s layout to improve navigation, enhancing user interaction with menus, headers, and footers.
Structural & Content Improvements
- Overhauled the blog content by revising and optimizing existing articles, focusing on improving keyword targeting and adding new, authoritative content.
- Implemented tagging and categorization systems for blog articles to boost content discoverability.
- Introduced author profiles to build content credibility and trust.
- Created filtering options for trading-related pages and added sections like “Trending” or “Popular” to engage visitors with fresh content.
Link Building
- Executed the first phase of the link-building strategy, targeting specific keywords with outreach and crowdfunding efforts.
- Secured backlinks from trading review portals, high DA & DR sites, and niche trading forums.
Results
The strategy yielded significant improvements across the board, providing measurable SEO success:
Organic Traffic Growth
Organic traffic grew dramatically within 12 months, with warm target visitors increasing from 2,500 to over 9,000. This surge reflected improved visibility and successful ranking for targeted keywords. As a result, conversion rates also increased by 25%, demonstrating the effectiveness of attracting a more engaged audience.
Improved Search Rankings
- Keyword positions improved significantly, with many medium and low-frequency keywords moving from page 3-4 to top 5 positions in search engine results.
- Brand-related queries stabilized, ensuring better brand protection in search results.
Enhanced Link Profile
The website’s Domain Rating (DR) improved by several points, owing to the new mix of backlinks from niche trading websites, regional sources, and social platforms.
UI/UX Enhancements and Better User Engagement
Improved user experience, as evidenced by a reduction in bounce rate and increased session duration on optimized pages.