An SEO Case Study: We grew web traffic by 461% in 6 months

It's been 6 months since our last update on our internal project, mmmboards.com. As a reminder, 15 months ago, we built a Webflow website leveraging the platform's powerful CMS capabilities to launch a blog site. We chose a topic we all enjoyed - charcuterie - and set out to 1) test Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies and 2) prove the power of SEO in driving relevant traffic to a website.

We shared the first 9 months of our progress here.

In the last 6 months, we embarked on an SEO case study by creating 7 pieces of content (all blogs), and launched a new section of the site to feature shops, caterers & restaurants who serve and carry charcuterie & related products. It has resulted in a 461% increase In traffic in that 6 month period.

Why did we implement the SEO strategies we did to get this result? Simple. The data told us to.

Of the 7 blogs, the content of 2 were driven by the fact that one of us documented charcuterie boards we built for a personal event. The others were conceptualized based on trending topics and/or a desire to compete on a high search volume keyword. The following are a few examples.

Content Type 1: Blogs

Reason for our keyword choice: High search volume | Keyword: Cheddar Cheese

We wanted to start to create some content for search terms that have very high monthly search volume. These tend to be much more challenging to successfully move to the first page of Google, but with a year of content under our belts, we felt it was the right time to start to try. We selected "cheddar cheese" as our focus, given its monthly search volume of 33,100 and, of course, it is relevant to the topic of our site. Additionally, we identified high volume long tail keywords to possibly rank for secondary terms, shaping our SEO case study.

As you can see below, we are not yet ranking on 'cheddar cheese', but are making some gains with related long tail keywords.

Reason for our keyword choice: Trending topic | Keyword: Chewcuterie

We had noticed this topic popping up on Instagram & Pinterest, so we thought it would see an upward trend in web searches going forward. In looking at the data, we noted that "chewcuterie," the term trending on social media, had a non-existent search volume. We still wanted to create content on this topic, though, because we also run experiments on social media for this internal project. We looked for more options and identified "charcuterie for dogs" as our focus key phrase.

While the volume is not terribly high, it has a low keyword difficulty that made us confident in the likelihood it could capture a top spot on search engines for this phrase. We were right- today it holds the number 8 position on Google, as seen here:

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Reason for our keyword choice: We had the content | Keyword: Picnic Charcuterie Board  

Since one of us was already preparing a Charcuterie board for an event, it was just natural to create content with our photos. When looking at the search data for keywords that would be appropriate, we identified "picnic charcuterie board" for its medium search volume & low competition level.

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We successfully got our blog to move to the 14th spot on Google for our focus keyword and to rank on other related keywords.

There are a few takeaways here from our blogging efforts:

1) Content can come from different sources. If your business has a new technology announcement, an event coming up, or a new product, you're going to be creating content and materials for it anyway. When optimizing for SEO, it's essential to identify a keyword that resonates, whether it's for an SEO case study or other content purposes.

2) If you want to be found when a certain keyword is searched, look at the data. Does it have good search volume? Is there a better, related keyword that has lower competition and/or higher search volume? Are there related keywords you can integrate as secondary keywords?

3) Keep your eyes peeled for trends. Google has a helpful and free tool you can use to see what people are searching for now and what is gaining momentum: Give it a try by clicking here.

Content Type 2: Searchable "Near Me" Listing

As we looked for new opportunities to build content for topics with healthy search volumes, we noticed the "charcuterie near me" phrase garnered thousands of searches every month and had a low keyword difficulty, making it likely we could optimize to reach the first page of search results. This topic didn't make sense to address with a blog, though. We decided to build a multi-select search page where visitors looking for Charcuterie near them could search for different types of establishments in big cities in the U.S. Check it out here. (We have plans to expand this.)

Side note- Notice how this complex multi-filtered search functionality works beautifully on this Webflow website. If you've been looking at Webflow for your web platform, ask us about it and we'd be happy to advise if your web build would be a fit for Webflow.

Our "near me" page strategy paid off. Our site has earned the number 3 spot on Google Search for charcuterie near me, which gets 5400 searches per month.

Final Comments

When approaching SEO, invest in a strategy that's designed for success. Also go into it knowing it's essential to approach content creation as an ongoing effort. A larger collection of good quality, SEO optimized content will gain more favor with search engines over time. This SEO case study shows that 15 months ago, our 10 page site launched with a search volume of zero. We've grown traffic by 43,900%. When done right, SEO works.

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