Search engine optimization for a fragrance retail website

The fragrance niche is exceptionally competitive. Market leaders demonstrate strong website performance indicators, including long-established domains, high search engine trust, extensive content coverage, and consistently engaged audiences. Before our collaboration, the client’s website had not undergone any SEO optimization. As a result, we were launching the project at a stage where competitors already held a significant lead in key website performance metrics. 

This case illustrates how a targeted SEO strategy enables a young project not only to correct technical errors but also to achieve steady growth in rankings and increase organic traffic, even under conditions of high competition and strict limitations.

Its primary niche is the sale of fragrances and aromatic products, including:

• women’s and men’s perfumes;
• aroma diffusers;
• candles;
• travel-size perfumes;
• perfumed deodorants;
• solid perfumes, and more.

According to the company, the website already attracts more than one million users. The company aims to provide broad access to a diverse range of beauty products for everyone interested in the world of beauty.

Its core mission is to provide users with the opportunity to find everything they desire in the beauty space and even more. This positioning highlights the company’s commitment to fully meeting customer needs within the beauty industry.

ITForce offers comprehensive SEO services, including technical audits, semantic core development, content optimization, link-building, analytics, and reporting.

Niche

The client operates in the fragrance segment, focusing on selling perfumes with scent compositions similar to those of popular branded fragrances, but marketed under its own private label. This imposes specific limitations on the selection and use of semantic keywords: we avoid any key phrases that contain brand names. This approach is necessary to prevent copyright violations and issues related to intellectual property.

Key characteristics of the niche:

1. High competition - the market for alternative fragrances is highly saturated. In addition to direct competitors within this niche, there is also competition from stores selling original-branded perfumes and large drugstore chains, making it more difficult to stand out and secure top search results.
2. Frequent shifts in search trends - the fragrance industry is prone to rapid trend changes. Moreover, around 2,000 new scents are introduced to the market each year. The popularity of specific perfumes or types of compositions can shift quickly, requiring continuous monitoring and timely adjustments to the semantic core and content strategy.
3. The need to build a unique positioning: it is essential to develop a strong and distinctive brand among similar stores. This includes:
   • Emphasis on quality: highlighting the quality of ingredients and the longevity of the fragrances.
     Customer value: focusing on the accessibility of luxury-inspired scents and the opportunity to experiment with different fragrances without significant expense.
     Expertise: developing content that explains the nuances and characteristics of perfumery.
     Distinctive service: fast delivery, attractive packaging, and personalized consultations.
4. Communication challenge: conveying the essence of a scent’s similarity or interpretation without making direct comparisons to the original requires creativity and a nuanced approach in both text and metadata.

SEO promotion workflow

The client’s primary goal at the outset was to increase revenue from organic traffic. This required improving search engine visibility and converting visitors into customers.

Project background and the website’s condition before collaboration:

• Lack of prior SEO - before our collaboration began, the website had not undergone any targeted SEO efforts.
• Approximately five months before reaching out to us, the first version of the site was released. The resource faced several critical technical issues, resulting in negative outcomes - after a brief period of growth, traffic declined sharply.
• Later, the client, together with the developer, promptly corrected the identified errors and relaunched the website. It was this updated and corrected version of the web resource that the client brought to us for the implementation of a comprehensive and full-scale SEO strategy.

Website performance indicators before the start of our collaboration

Search traffic

The screenshot clearly illustrates a sharp spike in traffic in May 2024 (up to ~2,500 daily visitors) following the initial site release, followed by an equally sharp decline. Starting from October (the beginning of SEO promotion), we observe steady and consistent growth, rising from 223 daily visitors onward.

Keyword rankings

• 772 - total number of tracked keywords.
• 11 keywords in the Top 1 generate the majority of clicks.
• 16 keywords are ranked in the Top 10.
• 87 - the website’s average ranking position (equivalent to page 9 of Google).

An average position of 87 indicates that most tracked queries are still located on distant result pages, requiring substantial efforts to further improve visibility and drive organic traffic. At the same time, this represents strong growth potential.

Backlink profile

The screenshot indicates a complete absence of referring domains and any link-building strategy at the start of the SEO work. This means the website had no external links confirming its authority or relevance in the eyes of search engines. In other words, we built the link-building strategy entirely from scratch.

Competitive environment analysis

The project involves promoting two language versions: Ukrainian and Russian.

The primary geographic focus is Ukraine.

Key project objectives:

• the main goal is to increase the number of sales generated from organic traffic;
• an additional goal is to reach 5,000 organic monthly visits within six months.

Competitor benchmark analysis:

• Domain age ranges from 2 years 4 months to 9 years 9 months.
• Number of indexed pages: between 396 and 3,700.
• Monthly traffic: from 5,000 to 142,000 visits.
• Number of ranking keywords (Ukraine): from 1,800 to 23,000.
• CMS platforms among competitors include OkayCMS, Horoshop, and Bitrix.
• Social media presence: all competitors are actively represented across social platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok). One competitor operates two separate Instagram accounts.
• Blog: 2 out of 4 competitors have an active blog.

One competitor is the clear leader across most indicators (domain age, number of indexed pages, keyword volume, and traffic), which demonstrates its stability and the success of its long-term SEO and content marketing strategy.

Our client’s website is the youngest and shows the lowest initial metrics, which translates into the highest potential for growth. The large number of indexed pages and keywords among the top competitors indicates a wide product assortment and a substantial volume of informational content (including blogs). Active presence across multiple social platforms is essential for this niche. The fact that the market leader and one additional competitor maintain a blog highlights its importance for attracting organic traffic and reinforcing brand expertise. However, working with the blog was not a priority task for our team - we focused on other aspects of search engine optimization.

Niche analysis recommendations:

1. Keywords and visibility

The website has significant opportunities to expand the number of keywords it ranks for. Competitors hold higher positions for a broader range of queries, indicating the need to strengthen the website’s optimization:

• expand the keyword pool to cover a greater number of relevant queries and prioritize the implementation of the Russian-language version for all pages;
• identify opportunities to broaden the website’s structure;
• focus efforts on SEO optimization of core category pages and product pages based on the collected semantics, starting with priority segments: adjust metadata and create optimized SEO texts;
• improve internal linking to increase the visibility of key pages and enhance their rankings in Google.

2. External promotion (backlink profile)

Domain age and backlink profile play an important role in a website’s ranking. While domain age cannot be influenced, the strength of the backlink profile can be improved. Most competitors have well-developed backlink profiles with hundreds or even thousands of external links.

The client’s website has strong potential, but its current backlink profile is nonexistent, which may limit future traffic growth and search visibility. Therefore, it is essential to develop a link-building strategy and actively acquire links from websites with high domain ratings. This will help improve the website’s DR and increase its visibility in search results. The main focus will be on acquiring high-quality external links from relevant resources within the client’s niche.

3. Additional

Competitors are actively strengthening their brand presence, which is reflected in search queries. Therefore, we recommend focusing on increasing brand awareness through Google Ads campaigns, social media marketing, reviews on external platforms, and special promotions to enhance customer loyalty. A strong brand reputation and higher recognizability will also contribute to improved rankings and better positioning in organic search results.

Technical audit

Issues with robots.txt and sitemap.xml.

• robots.txt: the robots.txt file is not implemented in the website’s root directory. This is a critical error, as search engines are not receiving instructions on how to crawl the website.
• sitemap.xml:
  • Inconsistency with robots.txt: the sitemap.xml file contains URLs that are not blocked from crawling in robots.txt, leading to unwanted pages being crawled.
  • Presence of deleted pages: the sitemap includes URLs that have been removed from the site and currently redirect (301) to the homepage.
  • Presence of undesirable pages: the sitemap.xml file contains links to empty pages and service pages that should not appear in the index.
  • Lack of automatic updates: it is recommended to enable automatic sitemap updates to ensure the timely reflection of structural changes on the website.

Issues with duplicate content and mirror versions.

• Mirror version: the website was accessible both with and without the www prefix.
• A duplicate version of the homepage returning a 200 status code was detected.
• Non-unique metadata: a significant number of duplicated Title and Description tags were identified.
• Duplication of H1 and Title: for most product pages, the H1 heading is identical to the Title tag.

Issues with structure and internal linking.

• Broken links:
  • internal broken links were identified;
    links returning a 404 status code were detected.
• Pagination pages are either not being indexed or are being processed incorrectly.
• Some pages contain multiple H1 headings.
• Multiple Title tags are implemented on a single page.
• Improper subheading hierarchy was found (H2, H3, H4, etc.).

Issues with content and microdata

• Spelling errors were identified in the content of product pages and across the website.
• Missing microdata:
  • product page markup is not implemented;
  • the Organization markup requires adjustments.

Issues with page speed and regional targeting

• Page load speed issues were identified across the website.
• It is recommended to implement the hreflang tag with the x-default attribute on all website pages. This tag indicates that the default version of the website should be shown to users whose language is not explicitly covered by other hreflang annotations.

Usability audit

Key issues identified during the usability audit include:

• non-clickable banners on the homepage
• inconsistent content across language versions
• low-visibility scrolling buttons
• absence of clear target actions
• insufficient contact information in the header
• a non-sticky header menu
• a non-clickable email address in the footer
• empty tabs and irrelevant related products on product pages
• an empty “Promotions” page
• incorrect display of the “Similar Products” block
• missing email validation in forms
• difficulties with registration and login
• incomplete cart functionality
• no “back to top” button
• issues with displaying product volume and the “Add to cart” button in the mobile version

During the work process, the most critical issues affecting the website’s indexing and overall functionality were fixed. Based on the results of the technical audit and considering the identified page speed issues, the client and the developer decided to rebuild (rewrite) the website theme completely. As a result, all additional recommendations identified during the audit were postponed for implementation after the release of the new site theme.

In addition, while checking the operation of analytics services, we identified critical errors:

• Duplication of GTM - multiple GTM containers running simultaneously on the pages caused event duplication and slowed down the website.
• GA conflicts - in addition to GTM, the Google Analytics code was also embedded directly into the website, creating conflicts.
• GTM server container - duplicate events were recorded in DebugView, indicating incorrect implementation.
• Facebook Pixel - multiple scripts generated unnecessary load and negatively affected the website’s speed.

Measures taken:

• A full script audit was conducted, duplicates were removed, and a single functional GTM container was retained.
• GA4 events were tested, duplicate events were identified and eliminated.
• Recommendations were provided to simplify the tracking structure and transmit data via a single method (either via GTM or directly).

Result: the number of requests to external scripts was reduced, and the stability and accuracy of reporting data were improved.

To ensure effective tracking of user interactions on the website, we configured the following key goals in GTM:

• add_to_cart - adding a product to the cart
• add_to_wishlist - adding a product to the wishlist
• Click Callback button - clicking the callback button
• Click_Instagram - clicks on the Instagram icon
• Click_tel - clicks on phone numbers
• subscribe_to_newsletter - newsletter subscription registration

Previously created goals:

• Checkout - the primary conversion goal that records the successful completion of a purchase.
• Cart page visit - an intermediate goal that helps analyze the sales funnel and identify issues at the cart stage.

At the very beginning of our collaboration, we implemented minimal structural adjustments to improve visibility and enhance user experience. The website’s main sections and overall navigation logic remained largely unchanged. This approach preserved familiar user pathways and prevented any negative impact on the indexing of existing pages.

The creation of new optimized filter pages allowed us to expand the website’s semantic core and capture a wider range of targeted queries, providing users with more relevant content when searching for products.

The website design underwent only minor, targeted refinements. These adjustments focused exclusively on improving the resource’s usability, without a full redesign of the interface. This approach enhanced user interaction with the website while avoiding the risks associated with radical visual changes.

Semantic core

As mentioned earlier, the semantic core includes only queries that do not contain any fragrance brand names. This approach is necessary to avoid intellectual property violations. 

Key characteristics and priorities in the promotion process include:

1. Due to the mentioned limitations on using keywords that contain brand names, achieving high rankings for such queries on product pages is impossible. Therefore, the focus of promotion has shifted toward general, non-branded semantics for category pages and product descriptions.
2. Priority is given to low-frequency (LF) and mid-frequency (MF) queries, as they have lower competition, which significantly simplifies their promotion.
3. LF and MF queries drive more targeted traffic from users with purchase intent, which positively affects conversions.
4. High-frequency (HF) queries are addressed less actively because they are highly competitive and require substantial financial investment to maintain stable rankings. HF queries often exhibit volatile position fluctuations, leading to unpredictable spikes and drops in organic traffic.

Link-building

The main challenge in building the backlink profile is finding a sufficient number of high-quality donor domains.

Key requirements when selecting donor domains:

• High trust metrics - the donor website must demonstrate a strong level of trust from search engines.
• Real, relevant audience - the presence of an active, engaged, and targeted audience on the donor site indicates the value and natural quality of the backlink.
• Topical relevance - the most effective backlinks come from resources whose subject matter is closely aligned with, or adjacent to, the client’s niche.

At the same time, a significant portion of our efforts is dedicated to:

• Identifying potential donors - researching platforms that meet our requirements.
• Thorough verification - evaluating each potential donor for quality, absence of spam indicators, and possible risks.
• Avoiding filters - in-depth checks help minimize the risk of triggering search engine filters that may be applied for using low-quality, spammy, or unnatural links.

General list of completed work

Technical audit and usability

• Audit activities performed:
  • Usability audit.
  • Analytics of priority or landing pages.

Work with content and semantics

• Collection and expansion of the semantic core:
  • Collection of the semantic core (according to the agreed work scope/website structure expansion/for products/for blog articles).
• Metadata:
  • Creation of metadata based on the collected semantics
  • Verification of metadata and texts placed on the website
• Website content:
  • Preparation of briefs for the copywriter for writing texts for website pages and blog articles
  • Review of the copywriter’s texts to ensure compliance with the brief
• Content plan and blog recommendations:
  • Selection of blog topics and development of a content plan
  • Preparation of recommendations for the blog

External optimization (link-building)

• Preparation of technical specifications:
  • Preparation of technical specifications for writing texts for external resources
  • Preparation of technical specifications for submissions or crowd links for the link builder
• Link acquisition:
  • Work with the permanent link exchange (selection of high-quality donor sites and link procurement).
• Verification and reporting:
  • Verification of submissions or crowd links delivered by the link builder
    Preparation of a report on completed link-building activities

Monitoring and analytics

• Website indexation:
  • Work on website indexation (analysis of errors in Google Search Console / handling GSC error reports).
• Position analysis:
  • Analysis of the website’s ranking positions.
• General reporting:
  • Preparation of a report on completed work.

As part of the collaboration, we implement a comprehensive set of activities for full-scale SEO promotion without reducing or omitting any critical tasks.

Implementing SEO recommendations is not always immediate, as it often involves certain technical complexities and resource limitations. For example, some of the recommendations aimed at improving page load speed have not yet been completed, since a decision was made to rewrite the entire website theme for better performance instead of applying isolated fixes. In such cases, we coordinate task prioritization with the client and postpone implementation until major technical updates are finalized. As a result, the work progresses gradually, and issues are resolved step by step, depending on the technical capabilities of the resource.

SEO promotion results

In this section, we will review three key components of the search optimization process.

• 12 domain rating (DR)
• 12 URL rating (UR)
• 61 referring domains
• 274 backlinks
• from 2 to 12 mentions in AI-generated search results

The ChatGPT indicator reflects the number of times the website appeared in AI-generated search results (e.g., within Google AI Overview and similar systems). Up to 6 pages have been included in the AI-based search output.

The screenshot illustrates the successful implementation of a link-building strategy launched from scratch: we can see a steady increase in the number of referring domains starting from autumn 2024. There is consistent growth in both the total number of backlinks and unique referring domains. The current figure of 61 referring domains is a significant achievement, considering the starting point was zero. The increase in DR and UR indicates the gradual strengthening of the website’s authority, resulting from the acquisition of high-quality backlinks. This means the site now has a strong foundation for further organic traffic growth. The gradual — rather than abrupt — increase in referring domains shown on the graph confirms the natural and safe nature of the applied link-building strategy, which minimizes the risk of search engine penalties. This approach is entirely correct.

No natural (unpaid) external backlinks have been recorded.

Search traffic

Comparison of search traffic over the past three months with the same period last year (before the start of SEO promotion):

• 122 daily sessions on average
• 545.15% traffic growth
• 533.11% growth in engaged sessions
• 39.16% increase in events per visit
• 4,562.79% growth in key events

The +545.15% metric is the result of comprehensive work, from the technical audit to on-site optimization and a link-building strategy developed from scratch after correcting critical issues. The 533.11% increase in engaged sessions indicates that visitors are actively interacting with the website. The 4,562.79% growth in key events is the most significant indicator of success, demonstrating an increase in conversions (+143.02%) and overall website effectiveness. A slight decrease in average engagement time per session is a normal reaction when a large volume of new users begins interacting with the site. The +39.16% increase in events per visit shows that each visitor performs more actions on average. The fact that last year’s traffic was almost nonexistent emphasizes that the website essentially began building organic visibility from minimal baseline levels. The substantial growth in conversions confirms that the SEO strategy is not only generating traffic but attracting a targeted audience that actively converts.

Let’s take a look at how effectively the site attracts new users, specifically from search engines. To do this, we will analyze the New Users from organic search metrics for the last 28 days compared with the previous year:

• +595.81% in total users
• +936.11% in returning users
• +18.04% in engaged sessions per active user
• +547.91% in tracked events
• +4,510% in key events (that is, conversions)

The significant increase in returning users (+936.11%) indicates improved audience retention and enhanced user experience, as well as higher-quality content that motivates visitors to return. Events represent interaction metrics and potential conversion actions, further confirming the effectiveness of the website content. The growth of tracked events by +547.91% and key events (conversions) by +4,510% is the most meaningful indicator of success. This demonstrates that the SEO strategy not only increases traffic but also attracts a targeted audience that actively performs conversion actions (such as adding items to the cart, completing purchases, or subscribing to the newsletter). A slight decrease in average engagement time amid a substantial traffic increase is a normal pattern, as the website reaches a broader audience, some of whom may leave quickly.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the project's SEO promotion, we analyzed its revenue from February to July 2025 - the period during which e-commerce tracking was fully configured and data reporting was corrected:

• +92.36% in revenue from organic traffic.

This result confirms the commercial effectiveness of the SEO activities carried out. Such a significant increase demonstrates that website optimization, semantic expansion, and link-building efforts not only attract traffic but also convert it into real sales, which is the client’s primary business objective.

Keyword rankings

Ukrainian-language queries:

• 6.6% search visibility
• 61 - average ranking position
• 3 queries in the Top 1
• 21 queries in the Top 10

We observe a positive upward trend. The number of queries reaching the first page (Top 10) has increased significantly (+16 queries in positions 6–10), which is highly important for attracting traffic. The average ranking position of 61 for Ukrainian-language queries indicates strong growth potential.

• 19.4% search visibility;
• 49 - average ranking position;
• 15 queries in the Top 1;
• 24 queries in the Top 10.

The substantial number of queries in the Top 1 and Top 2-3 positions indicates successful promotion of highly competitive keywords and effective coverage of targeted niches.

Both language versions of the website demonstrate improved visibility and better rankings, confirming the effectiveness of the chosen SEO strategy. The Russian-language version shows stronger visibility metrics, a higher number of Top 10 queries, and a better average ranking position. The Ukrainian-language version still has significant room for growth.

Detailed dynamics of keyword position changes

A closer analysis of the queries shows that at the beginning of the period, most Ukrainian-language keywords were either not tracked or ranked very low. Some queries rose from positions 12 and 14 to position 1, representing significant progress. Almost all tracked queries that were previously outside the visibility range are now consistently ranking within the Top 10.

For the Russian-language version, only one query was in the Top 20 at the start of the work, while the rest were outside the visibility range. Currently, the majority of queries rank within the Top 5. Commercial queries have risen to position 2, which indicates successful engagement with the target audience.

The chosen strategy, focusing on mid- and low-frequency queries, is proving effective, enabling a substantial number of keywords to reach the Top 10 (i.e., the first page of search results). In less than eight months, the website has progressed from virtually no presence in search results to maintaining stable positions in the Top 1, Top 5, and Top 10 for a wide range of targeted keywords.

The improvement in ranking positions directly correlates with the increase in organic traffic (+595.81%). At the same time, the project’s revenue has also grown (+92.36%). This means the primary KPIs set by the client have been achieved.

Collaboration with the project is ongoing. We continue to work on further improving the metrics we have achieved to ensure sustained growth and strengthen the website’s position in search results.