Since September 2023, the Digital People Group (DPL) team has been working on search engine optimization for the bedding brand Verin.Son from Vologda. Despite challenging starting conditions—such as a small product range, a narrow niche, and high competition—SEO specialist Kristina Ivanova discusses the results achieved in six months. She attributes success to strategic SEO techniques tailored to the brand's unique market situation.
The brand VERIN.SON sells exclusive handmade bedding and homewear. From the beginning, they focused on targeting high-quality product-related keywords, such as “premium bedding” and “elite,” recognizing that competing with large sellers and marketplaces was futile for a small business. Priority regions for promotion included Moscow and the Moscow region (49%), St. Petersburg (14%), and other areas (37%).
Technical audit
Technical audits are conducted in several stages. Initially, the most critical issues that can negatively impact the website’s performance and search engine optimization are identified. Next, remaining issues are addressed, and regular monitoring is done through Yandex Webmaster and Google Search Console to detect new errors. A file is prepared for the client, highlighting the most urgent fixes.
Key tasks included:
- Redirects were set up from technical duplicate pages to avoid content repetition.
- A full duplicate of the site on a test subdomain was found and excluded from indexing.
- Files such as robots.txt and sitemap.xml were improved.
- User-friendly URLs were configured for product pages.
- Canonical URLs were set for category and product pages.
- Profiles in Yandex Webmaster and Google Search Console were refined.
- Category pages were expanded with additional text content.
Collection of semantic core
When creating the semantic core, the focus was on niche queries related to “premium class,” “luxury,” and “elite,” as well as requests for custom-made bedding. The brand’s unique selling points were incorporated, such as emphasizing satin—popular in the premium segment—and the ability to create personalized sets through an online builder, offering a range of fabric and design options. This approach helped target more specific, high-quality searches to increase visibility.
Internal optimization
At this stage, internal optimization was carried out for category pages, product pages, and other utility pages. The optimization was done in phases, starting with the main pages and moving to the less significant ones. Recommendations for meta-tags (title and description) were created for each page, along with templates for automatically generating meta-tags for category and product pages, including unique parameters like product names and color codes.
Text content
At the end of November, when the priority tasks related to technical audit, semantics, and optimization were completed, we moved on to working with textual content.
What we did:
- We created a content plan for writing texts for category pages.
- We prepared technical assignments for text creation.
- We wrote texts using the ChatGPT AI.
- We selected topics for informational articles and created a content plan for blog development.
The last point, related to the development of the blog, was made with a focus on the future and required additional approvals from the client, while the first and second tasks were immediately worked on.
The texts for the categories were created with the help of artificial intelligence. We had a content plan with queries we wanted to promote on specific pages – we first analyzed competitors from the top search results, selected supplementary phrases, sometimes additionally studied the search results for similar keywords, and determined the recommended text volume.
From the several versions of the text that the AI suggested based on our technical task, we compiled one, refined it manually, and made the final version more “human-readable.” After that, we checked that the text’s uniqueness was 100%, as well as ensuring that other characteristics, such as “wateriness” and “readability,” met the requirements. In our case, given the narrow subject matter and no need for long texts, this approach to working on the text was optimal.
In the further work on the site, we encountered a problem – the initial descriptions of different product cards used identical texts, causing all the textual content on the pages to be almost identical and resulting in search engines considering them “low value,” thus excluding some pages from the search results.
We began solving this problem by replacing meta tags (including color and shade number as a variable feature in the template). This solution yielded some results, and more pages started to be indexed, but the global problem of non-unique content remained unsolved. Therefore, we took on the task of preparing new product descriptions.
Unique and well-thought-out texts will not only help the site rank higher in search engines but will also attract more attention from buyers compared to those that are copied. Since products of the same “type” only differ by fabric shade, it would be difficult to come up with dozens of texts for identical characteristics. Therefore, it was decided to use the color as the core idea and make it the “highlight” of the texts to increase their uniqueness. Moreover, describing the “properties” of the color fits well with the overall mood and message of the website, which is formulated by the brand: “The sleep you deserve.”
In general, if you are promoting products with similar characteristics, we recommend the following: try to create unique texts for each product whenever possible.
Usability and commercial factors audit
In November, we conducted an audit of the commercial factors of the website — an analysis of the elements and characteristics that influence users’ trust in the site, everything that helps or hinders conversion actions, such as making a purchase.
Based on the audit, recommendations were prepared for the client, including:
- Adding an interactive map and a contact form to the contact page.
- Adding information about warranty obligations and the return policy for defective products.
In parallel, we conducted a usability audit of the site — checking the website for user-friendliness. Based on this audit, recommendations were also prepared, such as:
- Improving the 404 error page to retain users on the site when they land on a non-existent page.
- Enhancing breadcrumbs on category pages and product cards to ease navigation and help search engines understand the site structure.
- Updating external links to open in a new window to minimize the risk of users leaving the site.
After fixing critical technical issues, replacing meta tags, and adding text descriptions to category pages, we saw a steady increase in rankings and search traffic.
Results
173% growth in visits
159% and 186% increase in users on Google and Yandex
In six months, we achieved significant traffic growth:
- 159% and 186% increase in users on Google and Yandex, respectively.
- 173% growth in visits.
Future plans include the development of the blog and attracting additional informational traffic, as well as increasing brand recognition and blog visibility. There is also a need to continue working on content uniqueness on product card pages. When adding new product categories, we will conduct additional work to expand the semantic structure.