A recent project we worked on is eSimfy.com: an eSIM price comparison tool that generates revenue through affiliate links. Here at Invalley, we love traveling, so many of our team members were excited to help eSimfy gain more visitors and sell more data plans.
Today, I want to walk you through how we optimized eSimfy and went from 0 to 100+ affiliate sales in 4 months by following the six steps of our Fully Managed SEO service.
Step #1 - Consultation
A consultation is the starting point of our conversation. It's where we arrange a call with you and delve into the challenges you aim to address. We'll discuss your ideal customers and previous SEO efforts and explore the competition you aim to outperform.
Once we're on the same page regarding your goals and priorities, we'll pinpoint all the areas where we can enhance your SEO. After that, we'll outline the precise strategy to achieve these improvements, complete with the corresponding timelines.
While working on eSimfy, our initial step was to define the primary goal of the project: generating organic traffic to boost affiliate sales.
The results after 4 months speak for themselves, as demonstrated by this screenshot from one of our affiliate accounts:
Step #2 - Technical & Onpage Audits
Our team got to work and looked at more than 250 optimization elements on the eSimfy pages to see what could be improved. Auditing and implementing fixes is important because it sets the stage for the rest of our optimization work.
We first noticed that many people visit the site using their phones. These are usually travelers who want to find eSims while they're on the move. So, we focused on making the website a lot easier to use on phones, tablets, and small laptops.
Before we start a campaign, we connect your site to tools like Google Search Console, Semrush, and Analytics, if you want. This helps us see if our changes are working. After we fixed issues to make the site work better on phones, the number of pages that performed well on mobile devices went from 33% to 100%. You can see how it changed in the picture below:
Given that eSimfy had almost no traffic, we figured a blog would be a good addition. It helps establish expertise related to eSim-related keywords and tells Google what your site is about.
We also made important technical SEO changes, like making pages load faster, using structured data markup, moving to HTTPS, finding and correcting crawl errors, and creating a straightforward and organized URL structure.
Applying these improvements and conducting regular technical audits are all part of our ongoing monthly efforts.
Step #3 - Keyword Research
To attract people who are likely to purchase eSIM plans, we focused on the right keywords with commercial intent and a high cost-per-click (CPC). A high CPC indicates that advertisers see the keyword's value. So, if we manage to rank well for those terms, it should yield a positive return on investment.
We compared ranking difficulty and scoped out the competition for each potential keyword. This involved checking out which eSim comparison websites are performing strongly in rankings, the type of content they're using, and their word count.
Next, we closely examined all keywords that were already performing well for eSimfy. The advantage of these well-performing keywords is that you don't need to go to extreme lengths to see improvements. Since they're already positioned decently, a few strategic techniques can give them a boost. We're talking about enhancing content on those pages, refining keyword usage, and adding internal links. This is exactly what we did for keywords that were hovering around page 2. It turns out this approach was a total winner, with dozens of keywords moving to the first page in the first months.
From the time we kicked off our Fully Managed SEO service for eSimfy in April 2023, we managed to double the count of organic keywords that the site now ranks for.
All of this is compiled into a comprehensive report that encompasses all the essential data and is updated monthly. When we identify new keyword opportunities for eSimfy, we'll simply add those to the report and begin optimizing them.
Step #4 - Content Creation & Optimization
Once we kicked off the blog and sorted out our target keywords, it was time to get down to creating content that matched those keywords.
This part of the process can vary quite a bit depending on what the client needs and how developed their website already is. If a page is already packed with great content, we might focus on fine-tuning and expanding those articles to really boost their ranking potential.
Now, when it comes to eSimfy, their website was pretty minimal when we started in Month 1. So, we decided to focus on crafting entirely new content. That involved really understanding what the audience was after and capturing the website's tone. The ultimate goal was to genuinely assist users in finding the information they were seeking. After all, content should always bring real value. Trying to do SEO without top-notch content is like building on quicksand.
You can actually see the results of all that work on the eSimfy blog and all across the website, particularly on pages like the dedicated country sections.
Months 1 and 2 were dedicated to publishing blog posts, crafting additional pages for key countries, and incorporating FAQs. In Months 3 and 4, we struck a balance between generating more content and enhancing articles for certain countries and eSim providers that were already performing strongly in rankings.
Take a look at some of the keywords we aimed for, listed below. People often search using phrases like "eSIM + country name," so we made sure our website had separate pages for each important country.
Step #5 - Link Acquisition
Of course, a fully-managed SEO solution wouldn't be complete without a solid linkbuilding strategy. Linkbuilding is our expertise here at Invalley, so gathering relevant and authoritative backlinks for eSimfy.com was a breeze.
Over the span of four months, we secured links from discussions about eSIMs on forums, posts on Reddit, guest articles in niches that fit, as shown here.
We also analyzed where main competitors were getting their backlinks from. This way, we could also connect with those same websites and publications. This kind of link building based on what competitors are doing is a powerful method to narrow the gap between you and the competition, particularly for newly-launched websites.
The fact that eSimfy.com is a useful tool providing real value also contributed to its growth. That's how we managed to acquire 100% organic links without any effort on our part, like this wiki link:
Step #6 - Reporting and Analysis
This step is all about showcasing the work we've done, analyzing results, and considering the road ahead. We take the time to compile comprehensive reports to communicate what has been accomplished effectively.
As of the time of writing, we are currently in the 5th month of eSimfy’s managed SEO campaign. Having doubled the organic traffic and attained 100+ affiliate sales in 4 months, our next goal is to scale it up to 500 sales per month.
Here are the steps we have planned to accelerate the website's growth moving forward:
- Monthly audits and implementation of technical and on-page improvements
- Researching more keywords and adding them to our keyword map
- Optimizing and expanding existing blog pages and individual country pages
- Publishing more high-quality blog posts
- Building more high-quality backlinks, with a focus on DR50+, PR, and competitor links
We plan monthly calls to discuss progress, how we plan to optimize your site further, and where you can find your brand-new backlinks.
I hope you enjoyed this in-depth look at how we managed SEO for a brand-new website!
There are quick and hasty ways to get traffic faster. However, those shortcuts often lead to low conversion rates, diminishing results, and — in the worst-case scenario — Google penalties. That's why a solid plan and some patience are crucial when optimizing a new website.
You can expect an update to this case study in the future as eSimfy continues to grow. In the meantime, if you'd like to see us put our SEO skills to work for your website's growth, click here to check out our Fully Managed SEO service page.
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