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CASE STUDY · ECOMMERCE SEO · UNITED KINGDOM
Ecommerce SEO case study: twelve months of organic growth for a UK outdoor brand
An outdoor apparel and gear retailer on PrestaShop, selling into the UK. A year of product-level SEO, technical fixes and a structured link-building programme — measured in Google Search Console, not in promises.
Ecommerce SEO
PrestaShop
United Kingdom
12 months+
Project facts
AT A GLANCE
12.2K
Total clicks
Search Console
2.1M
Total impressions
Search Console
0.6%
Average CTR
Search Console
2,717
Organic keywords
SEMrush
Every number on this page names the tool it came from.
The brief
Cimalp had a large catalogue and very little of it was being found. On an ecommerce site that usually means the same three things: the product pages are thin, the category pages are competing with each other, and nothing links to either.
The engagement ran for a year, which is what product-level SEO actually takes on a catalogue this size. Progress was reported in Excel every week and every month, from the account data.
Twelve months in Search Console
- Total clicks12.2K
- Total impressions2.1M
- Average CTR0.6%
- Average position53.7
[ Figure: cs2-cimalp-fig1-gsc-performance.png — Fig. 1 — Google Search Console performance, cimalp.co.uk ]
A single week from the same period, to show the shape of it:
- Clicks364
- Impressions62.9K
- CTR0.6%
- Average position47.7
[ Figure: cs2-cimalp-fig2-gsc-weekly-snapshot.png — Fig. 2 — Weekly Search Console snapshot ]
What I worked on
Product & keyword research
- Product research
- Product keyword research
- Low-competition, high-demand keyword selection
- Competitor analysis
- Competitor keyword spy
Content & on-page SEO
- Content analysis
- Product gap analysis
- SEO-friendly product content
- Product on-page SEO
- Product crawling and indexing
- Product category page SEO
- Product page SEO
Technical SEO
- Page speed optimisation
- Product schema markup
Link building
- Foundation backlinks
- Guest posts on niche-relevant sites
- Manual contextual backlinks
- Social sharing
- Social engagement
The keywords that moved
Top performers by clicks in Search Console.
- performance 3f jacket
- storm 2 pro h
- cosmiques jacket
- drop control
- paragliding goggles
All five are product-level, not category-level. On a catalogue site that is the signal you want — it means the individual product pages are being found on their own merit.
[ Figure: cs2-cimalp-fig6-ranked-keywords-1.png — Fig. 6 — Top ranked keywords, SEMrush ]
[ Figure: cs2-cimalp-fig7-ranked-keywords-2.png — Fig. 7 — Top ranked keywords, SEMrush ]
[ Figure: cs2-cimalp-fig8-ranked-keywords-3.png — Fig. 8 — Top ranked keywords, SEMrush ]
The pages that earned it
- cimalp.co.uk/en/
- /en/hiking-jackets/1537-hardshell-jacket.html
- /en/trail-shorts-and-trousers/1337-trail-running-shorts-2-in-1.html
- /en/trail-jackets/1875-ultrashell-trail-running-jacket.html
- /en/trail-running-shoes/1836-trail-running-shoes-864-drop-evolution.html
Who was actually finding it
Rank #1
United Kingdom
Rank #2
United States
Rank #3
Ireland
The UK was the target market and the UK came first. That is the check I run before anything else.
Independent validation
Pulled from SEMrush rather than my own reporting, because a client should be able to check the work somewhere I do not control.
- Authority Score41
- Organic search traffic663/month, up 44%
- Backlinks33.7K from 2.2K referring domains
- Organic keywords2,717
- Paid search trafficdown 78%
[ Figure: cs2-cimalp-fig3-semrush-domain-overview.png — Fig. 3 — Domain overview, SEMrush ]
[ Figure: cs2-cimalp-fig4-organic-traffic.png — Fig. 4 — Organic traffic performance, SEMrush ]
[ Figure: cs2-cimalp-fig5-organic-keywords.png — Fig. 5 — Organic keyword footprint, SEMrush ]
What I would tell a similar retailer
- Product pages rank on their own merit. Write them like they have to.
- A year is a realistic horizon for a catalogue this size. Anyone promising a quarter is guessing.
- Foundation links first, contextual links second. In that order.
- Weekly reporting is not admin. It is how you catch the thing that stopped working in week three.
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