This Works SEO Project Case Study

About This Works

This Works is an award-winning aromatherapy bath, body and skincare line based in London, UK.

Executive Summary

Throughout 2016 and 2017, we have worked with This Works on several SEO projects to improve their organic search performance and understanding.

These projects include:

A keyword research, mapping and SEO gap analysis project
A copywriting for SEO training workshop
Website migration testing and consultancy
A post-migration SEO audit

As a result of this increased focus on organic search, This Works saw significant organic traffic improvements in 2016 vs 2015 and are on track to achieve a +30.00% organic YoY increase for 2017 vs 2016.

If you’d like to find out how we can help you with your SEO or Digital Marketing challenges, contact us here. We’d love to help!

The Challenge

This Works decided to work with us because of our experience in the skincare industry, notably with Nivea. Though This Works understood the importance of SEO to their business, their marketing team were mostly skilled in other marketing disciplines. In addition to this, the business was rebranding, about to go through a website migration and could not factor in the budget for an ongoing SEO agency retainer during the middle of a financial year.

We had to find a way to quickly upskill the This Works team so that they could approach their rebranding and migration with SEO in mind while being flexible enough to break down these challenges into projects that could get commercial sign off.

How We Helped

Keyword Research, Gap Analysis and Copywriting Workshop

Across July and August 2016, we first sought to address the issue of improving This Works’ SEO knowledge, specifically when it came to on-page optimisation and copywriting. This was a high priority for their team as the looming rebrand and migration meant that there was lots of new content to be written!

In preparation for an SEO copywriting workshop, we had already been through the process of creating a Keyword Opportunity Finder (our proprietary keyword research product) and in conjunction with this, undertaken a keyword research, mapping and gap analysis project.

Working through these projects allowed us to create a workshop that was highly specific to This Works’ situation and helped guide a new on-page SEO strategy to coincide with the launch of their new site.

“SiteVisibility’s SEO copywriting training was jargon-free and allowed different members of our team quickly identify ways they could apply SEO best practices to their roles. The training was highly-tailored, well-paced and they broke down complex topics down in a way we could all understand. Combining this with their keyword research and gap analysis project we had the foundation for a robust SEO strategy leading into 2017”.Joe Fletcher, eCommerce Director, This Works

Google Analytics Audit and Implementation Plan

In preparation for the website migration in September 2016, it was imperative that This Works’ were collecting accurate data and tracking all the micro and macro conversion points on their new website. This is where our Analytics Services came in. Data accuracy was of increased importance to This Works not only because of the migration but because they were heading into a peak sales period.

In auditing This Works’ Google Analytics account, we were able to:

Remove spam traffic sources
Highlight issues with existing Goal and Event tracking
Plan for improved Goal and Event tracking on the new website
Safeguard the account via improved View structure and avoiding the collection of PII (personally identifiable information)
Highlight several configuration changes and enhancements to enable This Works’ to customise their Google Analytics account to fit their business requirements

“Google Analytics is the primary tool used for business intelligence at This Works.

SiteVisibility’s Google Analytics audit identified many ways in which we could improve the accuracy of the data we were collecting, as well as ensuring we were tracking important customer conversion points on our new site.

The result is that we have improved faith in the data we’re analysing to make marketing decisions”.
Joe Fletcher, eCommerce Director, This Works

Migration Testing and Consultancy

This Works launched their new website on September 13^th, 2016. Before the new website launch, we helped them with the mapping of over 10,000 old URLs to new website URLs. When the new website launched, we undertook post-migration checks to ensure that redirects were correctly configured.

Our post-migration testing revealed incorrectly configured redirects. We worked with This Works and their development agency to resolve issues with:

Pages returning 404 status codes
Pages using temporary 302 redirects
Canonical tag strategy on the new site

After quickly addressing some of the identified issues, This Works’ enjoyed a successful migration during a critical time, with post-migration traffic increasing and this momentum continuing into 2017.

SEO Audit

In July 2017, we supported This Works with a Technical SEO Audit. Following the rebrand and migration in the previous year, they had made some development changes to their website and wanted to check the status of these changes and ensure they could continue to capitalise on their great organic search performance.

Our Technical SEO Audit revealed critically important issues and opportunities, such as:

Misconfigured HTTPS pages
Lack of hreflang implementation for internationalisation
Broken and misconfigured internal links
URL case sensitivity and trailing slash redirect issues
Low-quality sitemap file including redirected pages and 404 pages

We were once again able to work with This Works and their development team to prioritise the most important issues. Since the audit, they have made improvements to hreflang implementation, sitemaps and internal linking.

They have also been able to plan for a full HTTPS migration planned in Autumn 2017.

The Results

This Works has seen YoY organic traffic and revenue improvements in 2016 and 2017.

In 2016 vs 2015 they saw increased in both organic traffic and revenue and this momentum continues into 2017 where they are currently on track for a +30.00% YoY increase in organic traffic and a +50.00% increase in organic revenue.

Below is an estimated organic traffic report from SEMRush showing their significant progress over the last two years.

If you’d like to find out how we could help you with any SEO projects, give us a call or contact us using the form below:

Contact Us

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YMCA DLG

July 14, 2023.

Jason of Site visibility has been really supportive of us at @YMCA Downslink, connecting us to people in his network that can help us with specialist information and training, otherwise often less affordable for us in the 3rd sector. Thanks Jason, your team and network.

James Ewens

June 20, 2023.

Jason and the team at SiteVisibility are an absolute pleasure to work with and I cannot recommend them enough. Jason listens to the brand and always provides solutions that match the business goals, unlike some agencies that believe they know more!

Robyn Bignall-Donnelly

June 15, 2023.

Appreciated how helpful Jason was in our consultation chat, being responsive and flexible in trying to work out ways to help despite the constraints of our very limited budget.

Matt Jones

June 6, 2023.

I was really impressed with Jason and the team at SiteVisibility. Although it wasn't a good fit for the smaller budget that I had, Jason still spent a good deal of time giving me his marketing and SEO advice based on my goals and budget outline, which was really kind of him and greatly appreciated.

Rosie Ashman

June 5, 2023.

I've been working with SiteVisbility for a GA and GTM implementation project. The team (Nay, Aaron, Ana) have been incredibly helpful, giving so much of their time to support the project on calls, offering invaluable advice and really making the effort to work with our specific business needs. A super friendly group of people that I would 100% recommend anyone work with.

Vicky King

May 23, 2023.

Jason and the team at SiteVisibility are extremely knowledge and provide expert advice on all things SEO and digital marketing - they regularly share their skills in podcasts, workshops, online articles.

Jamie Forshaw

April 28, 2023.

I contacted SiteVisibilty and ended up speaking with Jason. After a brief discussion he was very open and honest that we weren't quite the right fit (given the stage of my new business), and rather than just leaving it there, Jason has gone over and above to help me, including introducing me to a number of his contacts and some thoughts on the direction we could go strategically. After only spending a short amount of time with Jason I could tell straight away he has an amazing passion for digital and oozes integrity and vast knowledge I will definitely keep Jason and SiteVisibilty in mind for the future, I'd love to scale in the future to work with these guys.

Charlie Coburn

April 26, 2023.

Site Visibility are an agency bursting with talent and innovation. They are at the forefront of the industry; credited with being able combine industry expertise in house and also bring together the global SEO community to catalyse collaboration and drive progression.

Lucy Ross

April 25, 2023.

Excellent service and kind people!