SEO for a trucking company in Israel

The best solution for a website is to optimize it for the requirements of search engines at the development stage. Then, after the release, the created website immediately begins to bring visitors and customers.

Our Client, a cargo transportation company in Israel, applied to ITForce in November 2021.

The initial task is to promote the website on Google on the subject of cargo transportation according to queries in Russian. And further after receiving the first results - promotion of the 

Hebrew version of the website.

The goal is to be at the TOP of search results for targeted queries, thereby moving away from advertising funding over time and maintaining only SEO search results.

About the Client

The Client is a freight and residential transportation company in Israel.

Company advantages:

• 4 offices in Israel;
• 11 years of experience in transportation;
• 363 working days per year;
• fast and reliable delivery of goods;
• transportation of an apartment, office, etc.;
• assistance in settling after the move;
• provides storage space for things and furniture.

The Сlient provides transportation services throughout Israel.

Progress of optimization work for the trucking website

Usually, preparatory work before website promotion consists of several stages. Let's look at each one.

Website technical audit

We started working with the website on a technical audit. It turned out that the Client's website was made in HTML, that is, self-written. It was difficult to correct the detected errors and shortcomings because we did not have the opportunity to make all the changes ourselves. This is a significant obstacle to optimization.

Website indicators at the beginning of work:

Visibility and position of the website at the beginning of work (December 2021)

• 9.2% visibility of the website in the search (i.e. for individual queries, the website is shown 9 times out of 100);
• 75 - the average position of the website in the search results (and this is the 7th page of Google);
• 12 keys in the Top 1-10 (i.e. the Client's website is ranked by 12 queries included in the TOP-10).

Data on organic traffic at the beginning of work:

Fig. 2 - Traffic from Google before the start of work

At the beginning of our cooperation with Google, organic traffic from the moment the website was opened for indexing was about 3%, and one of our tasks was to increase the share of organic content on the website.

Analysis of the competitors of a trucking company in Israel

After analyzing the client's competitors, we realized that we needed to develop a new website, because. errors in the technical part were difficult to fix due to the fact that the site was written in HTML, and the design of the current resource was outdated. Developing a WordPress site would solve these problems.

The SEO specialist collected all possible semantics, but due to the specifics of the Client’s work, it turned out to be not too much. In Israel, there is little demand for the service of cargo transportation in the Russian language.

Since the Client's website has two language versions, the Client helped us to collect Hebrew semantics. How it happened:

• queries in Russian we translated into Hebrew;
• collected the frequency of translated queries;
• compared our queries with the semantics of competitors;
• we gave the collected queries for reading and approval to the Client.

Thus, we managed to identify the services that are most in demand among transportation customers and which our Client provides. On this basis, we adjusted the structure of the future site and issued software to a programmer to develop a new website on the WordPress platform.

Fig. 3 - The structure of the new website according to the collected semantics

We have identified service categories and expanded the list of services provided by the client, as well as added Israeli service areas.

At the same time, the SEO specialist prepared the ToR for writing content for new pages of the site, taking into account the new semantics of the resource. We opened the website for indexing when all the work was done and agreed upon.

How the appearance of the Client's website has changed:

Рис. 4 - Trucking website before and after structure and design redesign

We see that the benefits of the client have become clearer and all the information the consumer needs about cargo transportation is now highlighted and in plain sight. We also made a clear footer with contact information and added a list of social networks where the customer is present.

From the website header, the user immediately sees:

• in which cities in Israel do transportation services operate;
• what transportation services the client provides;
• service prices.

Since the project, first of all, went to the contextual advertising setting service, our specialists independently installed Google Analytics on the new website and set up tracking goals. So the SEO department didn't have to go through those steps.

Customized goals in Universal Analytics:

• click on the phone
• sending an application;
• click on mail
• click whatsup.

Further after the opening of the site, we used On-Page optimization for priority pages of cargo transportation services. So we were able to quickly improve the quality and position of some client pages for selected queries in the search.

In the future, we plan to switch to Google Analytics 4 and set goals.

Blog on the Trucking Website in Israel

The website should have visitors and show the Client's expertise in transportation. We decided to add a blog to get more traffic to the website. A blog would solve both problems: visitors would come to expert informational articles.

Based on the collected semantics, the SEO specialist prepared:

• ToR of copywriter for articles for outdoor websites;
• ToR on internal materials.

Now, most of the visits are brought to us by service pages and blog articles.

Services we use during our work:

• Google Analytics - we use to track the achievement of goals and traffic;
• Ahrefs and Serpstat help to assess the overall level of competition in a niche, select queries for promotion, draw up an external promotion strategy;
• Seranking - used to control changes in the positions of search queries.

Building a link strategy for a website

In building links to the Сlient's website, the only problem was getting links for the Hebrew version.

How we worked with the link strategy:

• analyzed competitors and compiled a list of sites for placement;
• found a list of resources in Hebrew where you can stay;
• checked the sites for the parameters that we need to place an external link;
• provided content for translation into Hebrew;
• a specialist on the client side negotiated the placement.

Thus, we managed to build a specific link-building strategy, which we still adhere to today. It should be noted that the customer listens and implements all the recommendations, and allocates a sufficient budget for the monthly purchase of links. There is no interference from the Client's side.

Optimization today. Technical audit

In order for the website to work properly, that is, to bring traffic and conversions, it needs to be regularly optimized - monitor the platform for errors. Therefore, after a certain period of work, we conducted a second technical audit, which revealed:

• errors in the site map with links with the HTTPS protocol;
• incorrectly specified canonical tags;
• errors with configured 301 redirects;
• duplicates in Title, Description, H1 meta tags;
• errors with the output of texts on the site;
• cyclic references in the form of labels;
• X-Robots Tag.

Experts have corrected these errors. Let's look at the deliverables that we managed to achieve during the year of work on the project.

SEO-promotion deliverables for a trucking website

In December 2022, we continue to focus on optimizing the website in Hebrew, this is our first priority.

Let's take a look at the results of the constructed link strategy. The number of domains referring to the Client's website increased to 123 out of 2 at the beginning of our work. Pages - up to 324 of 2:

Fig. 5 - The number of domains and referring pages to the Client's resource

The more domains and pages that link to the Client's website, the higher the credibility and trust of the website in the search. That is, the site has a high chance of getting into the search results for certain queries, which is what we are seeing.

Positions and visibility of the trucking website in November 2022

How the visibility of the ru-version of the website in the search has grown:

Fig. 6 - Visibility and average site position after SEO work in November 2022

• 79.7% visibility;
• 18 - the average position of the site in the issue;
• 70 keys in Top 1-10.

Visibility is the number of impressions for the selected keywords, based on the position of the website in the search results. The more visibility it has, the more impressions it gets from search. That is, in December 2022, our Client's website is shown in 79.7% of the search results out of 100% possible. Recall that at the beginning of the work, the Client had a resource visibility indicator of 9.2%.

And the distribution of queries at the Top:

Fig. 7 - Distribution of requests at the Top 1-100 after SEO work in November 2022

The Client's website was at the Top 1 for 23 queries, which means that for certain queries, the client's resource is displayed first on the first page of the search.

The growth of key positions in the search (Hebrew and ru versions):

Fig. 8 - The number of ranked keys in the search

The keywords collected and used on the site have a medium and a low frequency. Now the Client's website is displayed and covers a larger number of consumers interested in buying customer services.

Organic traffic changes and goals achieved

Fig. 9 - Traffic from organic to the Client's website

In February, traffic to the website dropped sharply and it took us 4 months to reach the previous number of visitors to the resource. And this is understandable because this often happens after the rollout of the website, that is after the release has taken place, the indicators grow, and then there is a decline and stabilization occurs.

As of December 2022, visitors from Google made 214 conversions for the set goals.

Work plan for the next period:

• placement of crowd and eternal links;
• outreach work (Israeli sites);
• work with texts for outdoor venues;
• work with the exchange (selection of sites)
• working with indexing in Google Search Console.

In November 2021, the website ranked at the TOP-100 with 32 keywords. In November 2022, the website is ranked with 115 keywords and on at the TOP-1 with 23 keywords, and in the TOP 2-3 for 30 targeted queries. The visibility of the website in the search has improved by 8.7 times, and now more organic visitors come to the resource.

Today we have directed the efforts of the team to increase the link mass of the website and the position of the Hebrew version in organic search results.