The Challenge
Starting With Nothing but the Idea
Most SEO case studies are about improving what already exists. This one started with nothing at all: no existing domain authority, no backlink profile, no brand recognition, and no data to work from. The client had identified a genuine gap in the houseplant and horticulture market but needed a partner who could build the entire digital foundation — brand, store and search visibility — at the same time, and build it in a way that would still be standing a year later.
Houseplants and horticulture are also a deceptively complex category to sell online. Products vary by species, care requirements, light and water needs, pot size, and plant family, and customers search accordingly — by specific plant name, by care difficulty, by room type, by gifting occasion. A generic ecommerce build with flat product descriptions was never going to be enough to compete for that kind of long-tail, high-intent search demand.
Services Provided
Brand Design
A full brand identity built for a new-to-market plant and houseplant retailer, from naming direction through to visual identity and tone of voice.
Domain Consultancy & Acquisition
Research and advise around choosing an appropriate business domain to meet their company goals.
Shopify Build
Metafield Creation & Population
Structured product metafields covering care instructions, light and water needs, and plant family, populated across the full catalogue to enable rich filtering, comparison and search-friendly product data.
App Consultancy & Setup
Selection and configuration of the app stack needed to run the store efficiently from day one, from reviews and subscriptions to inventory management.
Ongoing SEO Strategy
Our Approach
Structure First, Then Scale
Because the store was starting from zero, we treated the product data itself as an SEO asset rather than an administrative task. The metafield structure we built wasn't just for the storefront's filtering options — it fed directly into how products could be described, grouped and surfaced in search, giving the business a foundation that could support hundreds of care-specific and room-specific landing pages without duplicating effort for every new plant added to the catalogue.
The SEO strategy itself had to account for the reality of a new domain: there was no existing authority to lean on, so early priority went to the terms with realistic ranking potential — specific plant varieties, care queries, and gifting occasions — while building the site architecture and content needed to compete for higher-volume category terms over time. Every piece of content and every category page was built with a clear job to do in the keyword map, rather than added opportunistically.
The app and platform choices were made with the same long-term view: tools that would support the brand as it scaled, rather than the fastest option to launch with.
SEO Services for e-commerce Businesses...
The Results: 12 Months In
Within 12 months of launch, the brand-new domain had achieved:
7,000 ranking keywords
3,000 organic visitors per month
Over 50 keywords ranking in the top 100
A further 500 keywords ranking in the top 10
For a domain with no prior history, no legacy backlinks and no existing brand recognition, this represents a search presence built entirely from the ground up in a single year — proof that a well-structured product catalogue and a deliberate SEO strategy can outperform domain age when the two are designed to work together from day one.
What OUr customers say
5 Stars
"Fantastic service! Our website updates were completed much faster than expected, with great attention to detail and excellent communication throughout. The whole process was smooth and professional, and we're extremely pleased with the results. Would highly recommend to anyone looking for website services."
What OUr customers say
5 Stars
"Nothing is to much trouble, and always available to help."
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The work behind the results
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Smiths Electrical: Bespoke Website Design & Development
