Case Study:

The Value of Search Engine Optimization for a Specialty Steel Manufacturer

December 2015

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the corner stone of an effective website. We were able to help a specialty steel manufacturer gain new business through search optimizing their website. This case study involves the data from the first 4 months of our continued service to the client.

Why was the client seeking our services?

SEO is the actual lead generation aspect to gaining new business online.  In this case, the client had invested in a brand new website a couple years earlier with another contractor, but was not seeing new business coming from the website. Their nicely designed website was not generating any leads or quality traffic. 

The client wanted to enter the digital sphere and reach more potential customers, and a website was the logical first step for them. Your website is a first impression of what to expect from your company. If your website has nothing on its backend for search engines to crawl, then it is as good as invisible.

Steps to improve and optimize.

The client's website had information about their specialty steel manufacturing company such as current inventory, services, and contact information. The problem was not a lack of content, but a lack of SEO. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial element for any business website. Stumbling upon a company online is one of the major ways new business is gained in this digital age. Their website was not being used to the fullest and was not optimized for the search engines. The website had not been touched in over a year when we came to it.

Our first step to help search optimize their website was to first familiarize ourselves with the client’s business. During the first month, Stephanie and Geoffrey had gone to meet with the President of the Company and Vice President of Sales and Marketing to develop the strategy for the account. The client had given us information on their best selling products, services, and industry terms. The information they provided us was used to compile a list of keyphrases to then research and then deduce which keyphrases to optimize the website towards.

Competitive Analysis

A list of a few competitors in the specialty steel manufacturing industry was shared with us so as to conduct a competitive analysis for the client. They wanted to understand how their website measured up and quantify how far the website needs to improve from both a web design and search standpoint. 

After becoming familiar with the specialty steel manufacturer's business and its competitors, Geoffresh Inc. needed to clean up the website before any SEO could be implemented.

Optimizing the website for the search engines.

This particular manufacturer wanted to build upon its current website and slowly eliminate what was hurting the website. It was up to Geoffresh Inc. to clean up the website and make sure it met website standards and search standards. When we started the website had 1,355 tech errors, such as duplicate titles, empty meta descriptions, and canonical URL issues. 

SEO Technical Errors:

Date	Total Errors	Change
July 2015	1,335	-
August 2015	680	-49.06%
September 2015	167	-75.44%
October 2015	164	-1.80%
November 2015	133	-18.90%

Eliminating the errors put the website in better shape and helped identify other web issues that were obstructing the website's ability to rank well and convert users to customers. 

Search Engine Optimization results.

After implementing Geoffresh Inc.'s SEO recommendations the specialty steel manufacturer saw an increase in all search and web metrics. They went from having only 1 page ranked to 24 pages ranked on the major search engines within 4 months.

Date	Sessions Change	New Users	Sales from Organic Search Leads	Avg. Search Ranking	Change in Leads	Leads from Organic Search	Pages Indexed	Keyphrases Ranked For
7/2015	∞%	∞%	-	23.45	-	-	1	11
8/2015	5,176.92%	5,181.82%	∞%	16.17	∞%	-	8	22
9/2015	15.45%	12.91%	15.54%	16.5	300%	44.44%	11	37
10/2015	0.76%	-3.05%	-62.41%	12.8	3,100%	84%	24	45
11/2015	-11.53%	-8.17%	1,645.71%	22.0	-51.85%	81.25%	24	58