The client is focused on increasing organic traffic to their website by improving search engine rankings. They are concerned about stagnation in rankings for critical keywords that directly impact their business.
The goal of our collaboration is to boost the site's visibility in the TOP 10 search results for selected keywords in order to attract a larger number of targeted visitors.
About the Client
Company skvagina.com.ua offers a full range of equipment for well drilling and setup, as well as water supply and irrigation systems.
The company provides a wide selection of high-quality equipment at affordable prices, guarantees fast delivery across Ukraine (excluding occupied territories), and offers professional consultations. Customers receive comprehensive solutions tailored to any task.
Niche and competitor analysis for skvagina.com.ua
The water supply niche is highly competitive, with well-known websites operating in the market backed by substantial promotion budgets. To conduct a thorough analysis of the niche and competitive landscape, the owner of skvagina.com.ua provided us with a list of the business’s main competitors. In addition, we analyzed the top results in Google search for high-priority keywords and tracked competitor activity over the past year, including site age, number of indexed pages, average traffic volume, page UR rating, and other key metrics.
The comparative competitor analysis revealed the following insights:
- Competitor domain ages range from 7 to 11 years
- Competitor websites have between 3,700 and 696,000 indexed pages
- Organic traffic ranges from 6,000 to 235,000 users per month
- Sites rank for 6,400 to 347,000 keywords
- The primary social media platforms used by competitors are Facebook and YouTube
- 80% of competitors maintain an on-site blog, and 60% have a dedicated News section
A brand’s presence and activity on social media and its blog can have a positive impact on SEO. However, when promoting informational queries through a blog, it’s important to approach this carefully to avoid internal competition in search results between blog pages and other key pages on the website.
Niche analysis revealed:
- Query cannibalization between Russian and Ukrainian pages - content, text, and meta tags need to be optimized to resolve this issue
- Irrelevant page rankings - some web pages were not matching user intent based on search queries
- The semantic core requires refinement to include additional relevant keywords that were previously overlooked
- Issues with incorrect optimization on certain pages and challenges in implementing location-based promotion strategies due to previous specialists' actions
When analyzing competitors, we found that for some key queries, the client's website had not been optimized by other specialists, and the positions for the identified queries were not tracked. So after analyzing the niche and competitors, we decided that we would analyze the previous SEO and improve it, because for almost all pages, the SEO was not complete and not optimized for all relevant page queries. There is also an urgent need to optimize the content of pages with cannibalization queries and spelling mistakes to avoid conflicts between pages and improve their performance in search engines. One of the main challenges in promoting the project is the limited number of high-quality thematic donor sites.
Technical Audit
A technical audit is a comprehensive review of a website’s technical characteristics aimed at optimizing it for search engines.
Through in-depth analysis of the site’s technical elements, we can identify and eliminate bottlenecks that prevent the project from attracting organic traffic and converting visitors into customers. The goal of the technical audit is to improve the website’s visibility online and drive more traffic.
Issues identified during the technical audit:
- Missing hreflang="x-default" tag
- Missing meta descriptions and duplicate Title and Description tags across various pages
- Lack of content translation on certain pages
- Missing “ALT” tags for images on the site
- Errors in structured data markup
- Issues reported in Google Search Console
- Errors in the sitemap.xml file
- Image sizes exceeding 100 KB slow down page load times
- Incorrectly configured links to messaging platforms
- Pagination errors in the manufacturer category pages
- If-Modified-Since headers not configured
- Missing products in the main category
- Syntax errors in structured data
We documented each issue in detail, defined the order of tasks, prepared implementation recommendations, and passed the assignments on to the developer.
Initially, we focused on general search queries across Ukraine and on restoring the rankings of keywords that had lost relevance. After that, we planned to scale the promotion campaign to target major cities.
Semantic Core
At the initial stage:
- We conducted a detailed analysis of the current semantic core.
- We expanded it by adding new keywords, focusing on high-priority areas and queries that had not been previously tracked.
In doing so, we enhanced the site's semantic coverage in line with the client’s current goals.
After gathering the semantic core:
- We analyzed each site category and its content (texts, meta tags, etc.).
- We identified the necessary improvements to increase the relevance of queries and boost their rankings for specific pages.
Based on the updated semantic core, we prepared a content brief for the copywriter to create articles for external platforms. The completed materials were reviewed and refined by both the specialist and the client.
Overall, the first month of collaboration included the following tasks:
- Competitor and niche analysis
- Technical audit and recommendations for error correction
- Review and validation of analytics tool configuration
- Optimization of priority product categories based on target keywords
- Competitor backlink analysis and development of a link-building strategy
- Review and refinement of the existing semantic core
- Preparing content briefs for external promotion
- Drafting briefs for category page content based on keyword analysis
- Writing and updating meta tags using the collected semantic data and verifying implementation
- Working with a permanent link exchange platform (selecting quality donor sites and purchasing backlinks)
- Verifying implementation of technical recommendations
- Reviewing copywriter content for compliance with briefs
- Monitoring website rankings
- Drafting and updating meta tags based on the refined semantic core
- Testing the implementation of recommendations on the staging version of the website
- Verifying that updates were correctly migrated to the live site
During the course of our work, we analyzed and optimized content for 4 out of 5 main website categories based on the semantic core. Starting from the second month, our focus shifted to refining pages in line with the expanded semantic core.
Promotion Results
Search engine optimization is an ongoing process, and we continuously work on improving the site's semantic structure and optimizing its content. Our goal is to strengthen the website’s rankings in search engine results.
Link-Building Strategy
The quantity and quality of backlinks are among the key factors influencing how websites rank in search engines. The more diverse and high-quality the backlink profile, the higher the site’s authority.
Currently, the client’s backlink portfolio includes 465 referring domains.
Fig. 1 - Backlink growth dynamics
As of August 2024, we’ve achieved the following results:
- 465 referring domains pointing to the client’s website
- 1,000 total backlinks acquired
- Domain Rating (DR): 28
- Homepage URL Rating (UR): 16
Our external link-building strategy evolves alongside the website’s growth: we are currently focusing on acquiring links from more authoritative platforms with higher traffic and stronger domain ratings. We are gradually increasing the number of backlinks following a 20/80 ratio of anchor to non-anchor links.
The number of domains and pages linking to the site plays a key role in SEO, as search engines interpret this as a sign of authority in the water supply product niche. The more high-authority and trustworthy sources a site has in its backlink profile, the better it will rank for relevant groups of search queries.
Keyword rankings and visibility
Website visibility is an indicator of how prominent your site is on the internet. It reflects the percentage of users who see links to your site when searching for specific keywords or phrases. The higher this percentage, the better your site ranks in search engine results—and the more visitors it receives.
Fig. 2 - Number of keywords the client’s website ranks for (all language versions)
This is the result of backlink growth over 8 months of collaboration (across all language versions of the site):
- 1,730 keywords or 38% - number of queries for which the website ranks in the TOP 10 (i.e., appears on the first page of search results)
- 14 - the site’s average position in search results across all tracked queries in both language versions (typically appearing on the second page)
- 12,206 - projected increase in website traffic according to forecasting tools
- 66.1 - search visibility score, meaning the site appears in 66.1% of search results, or roughly two-thirds of all impressions
- 6 - number of search features (special SERP elements in Google) triggered by the tracked keywords
Thanks to the comprehensive SEO efforts implemented, we successfully improved the rankings of these pages in search results for specific keywords.
Fig. 3 – Keyword data for the Sverdlovyna company
Data on keyword rankings (across all language versions of the site):
- 584 keywords rank in 1st position in search results (the site appears first on the first page for these queries)
- 949 keywords rank in 2nd–3rd positions on Google’s first page
- 1,730 keywords are within TOP 4–10, also on the first page of Google
Fig. 4 – Ranking growth for a priority keyword group
For example, one of the priority keyword groups showed a position increase from 25th to 2nd place over the course of 8 months.
Fig. 5 – Ranking growth dynamics across all priority keyword groups
Overall, we observed steady ranking improvements across all priority keyword groups. It's also important to note that queries in different language versions have varying levels of competition.
Search Traffic
Our SEO efforts were focused on improving priority pages of the website where ranking drops had been observed, particularly those critical to the client.
We began working with skvagina.com.ua in January 2024, so let’s take a look at the volume of traffic acquired through search since then.
Fig. 6 – Search traffic acquisition since January 2024
The fluctuations shown in the screenshot are linked to typical seasonal shifts in demand for certain product categories: interest increases with the arrival of spring, peaks in July, and then gradually declines.
To achieve maximum efficiency, ITForce applies an integrated approach—working with both paid advertising (Cross-Network, Paid Search, and Paid Shopping) and organic promotion (Organic Search). However, it’s SEO that delivers the most stable and long-term results—organic search drives the majority of traffic to the client’s site.
Over 8 months of collaboration, SEO efforts brought in 248,970 users from three organic sources: search, social media, and video platforms.
Fig. 7 – User acquisition over 8 months of collaboration
Next, we’ll focus specifically on search traffic, which was the primary area of improvement in this case study. We’ll compare the period before working with ITForce (August 2023) to the current results (August 2024).
Fig. 8 – Comparison of Search Traffic (August 2023 vs. August 2024)
- In August 2023, the client’s website had 24,476 users per month, while in August 2024, it reached 33,671 users
- This reflects a +37.57% increase in users
- The number of returning users grew by 35.52%
- Total events increased by 29.36%
- The number of key events (conversions) rose by 17.32%
Overall, traffic increased by 37.57%. The growth in conversions (key events) and the rise in the number of returning users indicate the website’s improved ability to meet user intent. In other words, the content optimization and page refinement performed by our team enhanced the site’s capacity to satisfy audience needs. As a result of the approved search promotion strategy, the website’s behavioral metrics improved, positively impacting both search rankings and overall traffic.
We continuously audit SEO factors and analyze the competitive landscape to maintain skvagina.com.ua’s leading position in organic search. The agreed-upon strategy takes into account seasonal demand fluctuations, changes in user behavior, and search engine algorithm updates. At the same time, we’re expanding the semantic core and improving local SEO to strengthen the site’s presence in regional searches. All improvements are tested on a staging domain to ensure maximum effectiveness.
