SEO

Successful furniture stores – or how to position the furniture industry?

When characterizing the furniture industry on Google, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of a particular online store. We currently operate several projects involved in furniture distribution, while the characteristics of each business are radically different. I will try to include our experience in the following article, outlining the key elements that led to the achievement of our goals.

Date
August 2, 2023
Sector
Furniture stores
Type of project
SEO
Lead time
9-13 months

Effective SEO strategies for furniture stores.

Because of the large spectrum of projects we carry out, our experience allows us to prepare more and more effective strategies that can be divided depending on the business, each of the business models mentioned will need similar activities, but with a greater focus on differentiated elements.

The business models we support

  • retail,
  • wholesale,
  • dropshipping,
  • custom furniture sales.

The key to success is choosing the right phrases

Selecting the right key phrases determines us to be where our customers are looking. In addition, preparing the appropriate keyword research will allow you to respond to the needs of people searching for a specific product or an entire product category. When choosing words, we focused on analyzing three main parameters such as:

  • search volume on a monthly basis,
  • keyword difficulty,
  • intent of inquiry.

Using tools such as Ahrefs or Semrush

we can determine whether we are able to achieve our goals within the allotted time that was presented during our discussions with our customers.

In the first period of the project, we focus on phrases that have a lower KD (Keyword Difficulty) index, even at the expense of the popularity of the phrase. Such a direction is dictated by the desire to increase the profitability of the business as soon as possible, which allows you to persevere in peace until the next stage, that is, to focus on phrases that will generate significant traffic and sales to the site, but require more time to reach the minimum TOP5.

Below are examples of highly competitive key phrases. Driven by the parameter of difficulty, the chances of getting traffic from them is very low and, above all, time-consuming. In addition, it is worth tracking which online stores are on the first page of the search engine for one of the more competitive phrases, i.e. “furniture store.” These are organizations with huge resources devoted to marketing, so taking aim at competing with such e-commercials will be like a David vs. Goliath fight, but without a happy ending.

The key to success is choosing the right phrases

In short, what works for us is well-executed Keyword Research, which we don’t approach as a necessary evil, but as a way to find a niche in which the products in our clients’ portfolios will find success. It is worth noting that relying on a preconceived parameter of keyword difficulty is an effective strategy that works in most cases, as evidenced by the following projects with completely different business models, but with one common element; each of the domains was fresh and SEO efforts had never been conducted on them.

HoReCa furniture store (project lead time: 6 months)

A furniture store is a continuous construction site - or how the structure of the site affects visibility and sales potential

The potential of furniture stores can be multiplied indefinitely, as one product can answer several different queries. An example I like to use is a very high-margin product of one of our customers, namely a console. A quick analysis is able to show you how you can easily increase your store’s sales potential.

Under each of the analyzed phrases, we created product categories to implement additional descriptions and build a link profile. Currently, each word is targeted to the appropriate URL in such a way that traffic is redirected to the areas of the site we care most about. Thanks to such a move, we were able to expand the store with an additional 16 new categories, which is about 35% of the currently existing ones.

Example of store expansion with additional categories based on the keyword Console.

Does Google like this kind of change?

To answer the question very briefly: yet how!

Google loves such changes. The best documented example is one of our projects that has stagnated. We tried editing content, changed the linkbuilding strategy, while it was only with a massive expansion of the site that we achieved the desired effect, for which we did not have to wait too long. Activities in this direction began at the beginning of October and are currently as follows

Growth of key phrases

  • TOP100 from 703 to 1241 (+76%),
  • TOP10 from 29 to 45 (+55%),
  • TOP3 from 14 to 72 (414%).

Improving the structure of the website

In more detail, we can look directly at the given URL, which refers to the example of the phrase Commodes for the living room. The site was indexed after a few months, while the rate of growth of new keywords is very satisfactory and the upward trend is constantly continuing.

Keyword growth on a given URL

Traffic potential from a single URL

It is worth noting that the crawled phrases are very caloric in terms of searches and, above all, characterized by purchase intent. Blue on black shows how much we can gain. Expanding the structure of the site from a single URL, after adding up the traffic for the main phrases, the total volume is more than 24,000 users per month.

Content marketing for furniture stores, what to look out for and what to avoid?

E-E-A-T first and foremost, or content construction created on the basis of four key factors:

  • Expertise,
  • Experience – experience,
  • Authoritativeness,
  • Trust.

This article is aimed directly at entrepreneurs or those thinking about starting such activities, so, without being boring, you can read more about it here.

In general, with the topic of content marketing, the wheel has not been reinvented. Above all, we try to write for the user, while highlighting the advantages of the products.
We pay more attention to analytics when preparing a content plan.

The person in charge of the project prepares a plan for the coming months, referring primarily to the competition, where we check:

  • Amount of content in zzs,
  • number of headings,
  • Whether keywords appear in the headlines,
  • keyword density,
  • listing the keywords we care most about.

Such a package of information is forwarded to the copywriting department, which carries out the plan from month to month, preparing content.

Descriptions of final products - what to pay attention to necessarily!

This paragraph will mainly apply to dropshipping stores or those that use end product descriptions directly from the manufacturer. The rationale of the wholesaler is to create a network of distributors, the number of which is proportional to the processing power of the wholesaler.

Online store managers who post product descriptions without editing them first need to keep in mind that Google considers such pages less credible, which consequently lowers their value.
The best example is pasting one of the end product descriptions into a search engine. We can immediately notice that the descriptions are completely copied or mildly edited.

Impact of algorithms on duplicate content

The consequences of such an action could be seen during the March algorithm update, during which our client’s dropshipping site suddenly started losing traffic and keywords, and was directly affected: “Updates involve major changes to Google’s algorithm to improve results. They usually focus on E-E-A-T, or experience, competence, authority and credibility. These updates can cause significant ranking changes. This update was completed on March 28.”

A simple recipe - create original and friendly texts

In this case, there are no shortcuts, category or product descriptions must be unique and it is necessary to follow certain guidelines. A key element is the skillful use of keywords – they are irreplaceable, but it is important to remember that an excess of them can do more harm than good.

In addition, do not forget about the technical aspects of SEO. The right tags, such as H1, H2, H3, will help search engines understand the structure of your site. And don’t forget about alt attributes for images, which allow search engines to understand what is depicted in the images.

Finally, remember the user experience. Everything you do should be aimed at making it easier for customers to use your site and give them the best experience. Remember that a satisfied customer is a loyal customer, and this always translates into business success.

Success in SEO, or the sum of patience and time - earned results for furniture stores

Each of the projects below faced different problems, whether technical in nature on the site itself or from a misguided linkbuilding and content strategy. Some elements required more time to improve their performance, but in the end each project develops correctly and, above all, profitably. The 5-step strategy we use for each of our projects allows us to improve our skills every day, which translates into results for our clients.

I always approach the unitary results presented in the form of a case study with detachment. I believe that when running several hundred projects, there will always be one or two that are successful. To address this, and to punctuate the entire article, I would like to present several furniture store projects operating on completely different business models and having completely different buyer personae, but united by one common denominator, which is success. Positioning done according to the art is the sum of patience and time, resulting in growing business and satisfied customers.

Increase in visibility of industrial furniture store (9 months)

+754

Organic movement

+222

Keywords TOP100

+408

Keywords TOP10

+750

Keywords TOP3

Increase in visibility of office furniture store (12 months)

+714

Organic movement

+323

Keywords TOP100

+600

Keywords TOP10

+189

Keywords TOP3

Increase in visibility of industrial furniture store (9 months)

+754

Organic movement

+222

Keywords TOP100

+408

Keywords TOP10

+750

Keywords TOP3

Increase in visibility of custom furniture store (3 months)

+771

Organic movement

+23

Keywords TOP100

+9

Keywords TOP10

+178

Keywords TOP3

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