Case study · Online retail
Fifty thousand products, and Google finds the right ones
An online retailer had fifty thousand products and several million URLs in Google's index, most of them filter pages with nothing to sell. This is how we cleared the index, rebuilt the category pages and measured the result in organic revenue.
Project overview
eCommerce SEO for a store with a real catalogue.
- Industry
- Online retail
- Client
- Confidential
- Solution
- eCommerce SEO
- Platform
- Magento
- Timeline
- 6–9 months
- Team
- 4 people
- Catalogue
- Tens of thousands of products
- Measurement
- Organic revenue by category
- Integration
- Product feed and search
Expected business outcomes
What the client set out to achieve
Every target was set in revenue, category by category.
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35–70%
More organic revenue
Category pages rank for the searches shoppers make before they know the product.
Target range over nine months; compared year on year to allow for season
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60–80%
Fewer low-value URLs in the index
Filter and duplicate pages removed, so crawling goes to pages that sell.
Measured in Search Console index coverage
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25–40%
More category pages on page one
For the category's main search terms.
Tracked weekly for an agreed list
Business challenges
Where the client started
The store was large, and search engines were lost in it.
Filters
Every combination of size, colour and price created an indexable URL.
Categories
Category pages had a product grid and no text or structure.
Duplicates
The same product appeared under several addresses.
Stock
Discontinued products returned errors and lost their links.
Reporting
SEO reports listed rankings, with no link to sales.
Proposed solution
What the eCommerce SEO work covered
Control the index, then build the category pages that earn the revenue.
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Faceted navigation rules
A chosen set of filter pages indexed, and the rest kept out.
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Category page templates
Headings, guidance text, subcategory links and questions shoppers ask.
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Duplicate control
One address per product, with canonical rules enforced in the platform.
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Discontinued products
Redirects to the replacement or the category, never an error.
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Product structured data
Price, availability and reviews marked up and validated.
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Revenue reporting
Organic revenue by category and by page type.
Project requirements
What the client asked us for
The request was growth in organic revenue, which had been flat while the catalogue doubled. The cause was not a lack of pages but far too many of them.
Decisions about which filter pages to keep were made with the merchandising team, because they know which combinations shoppers actually want.
What the project had to deliver
- 01Organic revenue growing with the catalogue
- 02An index without filter clutter
- 03Category pages that rank
- 04Reporting in revenue by category
Key challenges & considerations
What made it harder, and what we did
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Millions of filter URLs already indexed
What we did
Low-value filter URLs were removed from the index in stages, with revenue watched after each stage.
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A platform with many installed extensions
What we did
Rules were implemented in the platform's own code rather than through another extension.
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Seasonal ranges that come and go
What we did
Seasonal categories were kept live all year with their links intact, and refreshed each season.
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Peak trading periods with a release freeze
What we did
Releases were planned around the trading calendar, with nothing shipped during the freeze.
What we watched for
- Decide filter pages with merchandising
- Remove in stages and watch revenue
- Never return an error for a discontinued product
- Report by category, not by keyword
Development process
Clear the index, then build the categories
Changes were released outside peak trading and watched closely.
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Crawl and log analysis
Where search engines spent their time.
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Filter rules
Agreed with merchandising, then implemented in the platform.
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Index clean-up
Low-value URLs removed in controlled stages.
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Category templates
New templates rolled out to the highest-revenue categories first.
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Products and structured data
Duplicates, discontinued products and markup.
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Revenue review
Monthly review by category, with the next categories chosen by opportunity.
Technology stack
The platform, with rules it did not have
Most of the work was implemented in the store's own code.
Store
- Magento
- Layered navigation rules
- Canonical and redirect logic
Search
- Google Search Console
- Screaming Frog
- Server log analysis
Data
- Product feed
- Product structured data
- Ahrefs
Analytics
- Google Analytics 4
- Looker Studio
- Rank tracking
Quality assurance & deployment
Checked before it went live, measured after
Marketing work is only as good as its measurement. Tracking was verified before anything launched, technical changes were tested on staging, and every result was reconciled with the client's own sales or booking data.
- Conversion tracking tested end to end before launch
- Technical changes checked on staging with a full crawl
- Redirects, links and structured data validated
- Copy and claims reviewed by the client's experts
- Reported figures reconciled with the client's own system
Deployment
- 01Products and structured dataDuplicates, discontinued products and markup.
- 02Revenue reviewMonthly review by category, with the next categories chosen by opportunity.
- 03Staged releasesChanges went live in small batches, each one watched in the first days.
- 04Reporting and handoverA monthly review against the agreed targets, and documentation the client's team can work from.
Final deliverables
A store search engines can navigate
The index now holds the pages that sell: categories, useful filters and products, each with one address. Organic revenue is reported by category every month.
The client's team has written rules for new filters, new categories and discontinued products, so the catalogue can keep growing without the index filling up again.
- A clean, controlled index
- Category pages built to rank
- One address per product
- Organic revenue reported by category
Handed over to the client
- 01Audit and roadmapFindings ranked by their effect
- 02Implemented changesIn the client's own site, accounts and tools
- 03Tracking and dashboardResults in the client's own figures
- 04Content and campaign assetsTemplates, pages and creative
- 05Documentation and trainingSo the client's team can carry on
Success metrics
How success is measured
| Measure | Outcome | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| More organic revenue | 35–70% | Target range over nine months; compared year on year to allow for season |
| Fewer low-value URLs in the index | 60–80% | Measured in Search Console index coverage |
| More category pages on page one | 25–40% | Tracked weekly for an agreed list |
Verified reviews
What clients say about working with us
Verified reviews from our clients, published on Clutch.
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Web Development
Custom Web Development for a Software Solutions Company
We can rely on them to handle almost any task with confidence, as they consistently deliver good results.
Casper Hougaard Jensen
CEO & Co-Founder, Iterator IT Jul 2021 – Sep 2022
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Web Development
Web & Mobile App Development for a Software Development Company
They efficiently organized tasks and deliverables while promptly addressing questions.
Damien Retzinger
Founder, Graycore Jun 2021 – Feb 2023
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Web Development
Website Development for a Software Engineering Company
They have a broad understanding of different technologies.
Eugene Bosikov CEO, Ezibeline LLC Mar 2022 – Ongoing Verified review on Clutch (Eugene Bosikov, opens in a new tab)
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