Suppose you run an online business that sells gun parts or shooting accessories. Suppose you aren’t an FFL and don’t even sell guns. You still can’t advertise. So what do you do? Your only choices are organic, such as eCommerce SEO services.
This eCommerce case study will take a closer look at just how search engine optimization can help put that restriction to rest with authority.
The Issue
We have a client that fits the bill described above. They sell a wide range of gun parts compatible for very popular handgun, rifle and shotgun platforms.
This includes but is not limited to slide plates, bolt knobs, stocks, trigger guards, optics, holsters, and so much more. They also represent some of the best brands in the industry, such as WOOX and Arken.
There’s just one problem. Google (and other platforms) sees these parts and recognize that they are either mounted to or otherwise associated with guns. So Google paints with a big, broad red brush and says this client can’t advertise through PPC channels.
It doesn’t matter to Google or to social media platforms like Facebook that these are harmless parts and accessories. Because they’re gun-adjacent, this client can’t advertise in the way that so many other eCommerce entrepreneurs can.
The bad news is that only organic channels are viable for this client. The good news is that organic channels, specifically SEO, deliver the highest ROI of all marketing channels, with some estimates suggesting an ultimately end ROI of 15% or higher.
Therein lies the solution.
The Solution: eCommerce SEO Services
There are many organic marketing channels, but at here we specialize in eCommerce SEO, or search engine optimization.
It offers a very high return when implemented properly and when effective strategies are executed, and this makes it highly effective for merchants that sell guns, gun parts, knives, and other restricted goods.
There’s a lot that goes into it, though.
For this client, as for others, we had to:
Perform an industry deep dive to uncover opportunities.
Find keywords that were closely aligned with what they sell.
Ensure those keywords had the right search intent, either commercial or transactional.
And then determine the difficulty and attainability of those keywords.
After setting a strategy, we had to operationalize the campaign:
We checked the website for structural and technical errors and addressed them where necessary.
We started drafting copy to be used for link-building purposes that would improve domain authority and referral traffic.
We edited existing category and product page copy in accordance with SEO best practices and drafted new copy where necessary for key target URLs.
We began drafting blogs and other long-form copy to be published on the client’s domain that would improve impressions for target keywords, bringing in new organic traffic.
Simultaneously, we also:
Set up access to GSC and GA4 so that we could monitor performance to the client’s domain.
Set up tracking through our proprietary dashboard in which we could track the progress of the target keywords for the campaign.
Served as a strategic and consultative resource to the client so that we would be ready to make shifts to the campaign as necessary.
Cumulatively, these efforts resulted in sustained increases in organic traffic to the client’s website, which, since the traffic was highly qualified according to intent, resulted in higher organic revenue to the domain over time.
A Special Note on the Role of Content
While there are a lot of moving pieces in eCommerce SEO services, it is also the truth that the main driver of performance is content.
Not just content that appeals to search engines, but content that is drafted with an eye on experience and offering novel information that is actually digestible and useful to real human readers.
This is where the real value of a strategic search engine optimization partner comes into focus. One that can leverage experience through copy will produce evergreen material that will continue to perform long into the future, and which will not just draw attention from search engines, but from real online shoppers.
Furthermore, what we have noticed is that copy we produce for our clients’ SEO campaigns actually eventually starts to get citations in generative AI engines, because of its authoritativeness and credibility.
So ultimately an investment in SEO with a reputable partner can also be a hedge against the uncertainty of the future by bolstering your website with copy that will position it as authority long into the future.
The Results
After detailing the work we did for this client, all that’s left to do is to look into the results.
Let’s take a closer look at what GSC shows:
As you can see, comparing the last three months as a benchmark to the corresponding period from last year, all four relevant metrics have improved. Impressions and clicks are not only both up, but click-through rate is up and average position is down.
What’s noteworthy here is that it’s almost impossible to improve impressions and clicks in conjunction with CTR. Typically the former two grow and the latter falls off a little, but all three increased here.
But what’s really telling is that average position was down a lot, below 10, which means that for all keywords ranked, the pages for which they rank, on average was on page one. That is a very impressive metric.
And then a closer look at GA4:
For the same period, there were no crazy shifts, but you can see that organic traffic increased considerably; all traffic was up almost 20%, which is no small figure considering the fact that average position was down and both impressions and clicks were up.
Now here’s the critical piece of information: this client has been with us for 5 years or so, so to see increases like this so many years in, and so sustainably, is simply a testament not just to the long-term role that SEO plays, but also to the fact that we have not let results become stagnant, even after so many years on the job.
Sustained increases in organic impressions, clicks, and traffic while average position continues to fall; these are the sorts of things you can expect from a strategic partnership with an accomplished agency that specializes in eCommerce SEO services, especially for clients in PPC-restricted industries.
For More eCommerce Case Studies
This is just one of many success stories of eCommerce SEO for our clients in PPC-restricted industries. To learn about others, check out our full collection of case studies or get in touch with one of our SEO experts and we’ll shed some more light on how this marketing channel can benefit your business, whether you are experiencing restrictions or not.