Using crime stats to build links and boost SEO
Locks Direct are a client that sell a range of high security and reliable locks. Stocking brands such as Abus and Squire, they specialise in weatherproof, outdoor solutions to business security. eComOne commenced work with the brand on SEO, Digital PR and Paid Ads.
The Challenge
Locks Direct, a family run business with an impressive clientele, operates in a competitive market, so increasing the company’s visibility in search is important. Could we, for example, get Locks Direct on page 1 or page 2 of Google for product search terms like ‘container padlocks’ and ‘combination padlocks’? Could we gain Featured Snippet space at the top of Google search engine results pages (SERPs)? The answer to those questions is “Yes!”
The Objectives
As well as the overall objective to attract more and more organic search traffic to the Locks Direct website and improve their Google search rankings, we are delivering a clear methodology to pull people into product categories on the Locks Direct website – such as the container padlocks category and its closely-related master key container padlocks category. Our SEO-Content Strategy (including Keyword Research, CATalyst Framework and Content Workbook for blogs) is the supercharged strategy we’ve deployed to achieve these goals. It’s a strategy that’s transformed multiple clients’ eCommerce growth.
The Strategy
We deeply optimised different product categories across the Locks Direct website, according to our high performance CATalyst Framework (VIP tier CATalyst) to strategically attract customers to these landing pages. This focused on existing category pages that get a good volume of search traffic but need a boost to convert, as well as growing new category pages. Bespoke content was written for the category pages (such as the combination padlocks page) and they were optimised for particular SEO keywords from our excellent Keyword Research.
The CATalyst content also included frequently asked questions (FAQs informed by the Keyword Research) and we internally linked the category pages with informative longform and standard-length blog insights and guides (also optimised according to the Keyword Research), written by eComOne and published to the Locks Direct blog.
For example, for the container padlocks category, we implemented VIP CATalyst content including six FAQs on the container padlocks landing page; wrote a container padlocks guide and a master keyed container padlocks guide – which are both internally linked with the category page. We also put in place a prominent image slider on the homepage to link through too.
As an example of how quality blog content can bring more people to a website, when we compare the period 17th March to 13th April 2024 to the previous 28 days, we can see that there was a 34% uplift in Blog landing page sessions, a 26% increase in Blog engaged sessions, and a 320% improvement in Blog landing page revenue.
Average position increased from 34.3 (18/6/23) to 16.8 (13/4/24)
Increase in clicks and impressions
Results
Here’s a snapshot of this organic traffic boost.
- Comparing total clicks on the website on 18th June 2023 to total clicks on 13th April 2024, there was an uplift of 582%. Looking at total impressions on these dates, there was a whopping 1,222% increase.
- In that time period (18th June 2023 to 13th April 2024), there were nearly a million impressions across the website. Locks Direct’s average Google ranking position also increased from 34.3 to 16.8.
- In a year-on-year comparison (comparing 17 March to 13 April 2023 to the same period in 2024), the business’ average position on Google leapt from 30.0 to 13.9, with a 31% increase on the average click-through-rate (CTR). Total clicks and total impressions also went up by more than 100% in this YoY comparison.
Not only has SEO had huge success, combining it with Digital PR has been transformational. We were able to land links on more than a dozen sites for a relatively short turnaround time for a Digital campaign, including national links on Yahoo News, LoveProperty, ThisIsMoney, London Daily News and more.
We also localised it specifically to the firm’s most successful local news site, breaking down Lincolnshire and then Lincoln’s rates too:
