SEO Case Study
Finance: Travel Insurance
Company Name: Withheld
Size: 23 Employees
Location: USA
About the Client
Our client has operated within travel insurance sector for well over 15 years and had established a good online presence. The website received 17,000 organic page view per month, up until October 2023 when they experienced a 60% decline in traffic.
Project Goal
To establish the root cause of the traffic decline. We knew Google had rolled out an algorithm update (Core Update) during October. Core Updates are complex, they’re a roll-up of all aspects of Google’s Core ranking criteria, so identifying an isolated root cause tends to be more difficult compared to Google updating specific systems, such as a Spam Brain, or Helpful Content.
The Results
Prior to the Google update the site had we started the site had circa 530 page view per day (15k per month), then traffic dropped to 200 page view per day (6k per month). From this low point we recovered the traffic over a 5 month period, and went on to increase it to a peak of just over 900 page views per day (27k per month). Representing a swing of 448%. On an annualised basis, the cost of this project offset against the profit gained from the traffic low point in October ’23, delivered an incredible 1837% ROI.
How We Did It
Traffic Channels: The first action was to check Google Analytics to make sure the drop is indeed organic, and not another source such as paid traffic or referrals. Confirmed.
Technical Audit: We audited the technical set-up, looking for crawlability or indexing issues causing the sharp dop in traffic. We also check for Manual Action (Penalties). No issues were found so we knew the problem was related to the algorithm update.
Traffic Analysis: Next, we audited the traffic at page level to searching for patterns showing notable declines across similar types of content. If we can find one or two groups of similar content effected, this often helps identify a common weakness that we can isolate and fix. Unfortunately, in this case the drop was site-wide, so we needed a full content audit.
Content Audit: Overall, the content was written to a fair standard, and was technically accurate. However, it was written with the customer’s requirement as the primary focus, and failed to demonstrate how the Insurance provider resolved them. This is a clear omission in demonstrating Expertise and Experience, two key factors of Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines. This also carried through to other areas of the site.
Accreditation: E-E-A-T stands for Experience-Expertise- Authoritativeness-Trust. Given our client was operating within the Insurance industry, there was a clear shortage of demonstrable E-E-A-T contained on-site. No accreditation, no awards, not enough material around their achievements, compliance, and practical competency as a company or as individuals. So, this needed to be addressed, as an obvious weakness.
Off-Site Reputation: Search Engines look across the web to build up an understanding of an entity’s (website) reputation. Business records, customer reviews, key employee mentions, backlinks and even company social profiles play an important part with online reputation.
We ‘Claimed’ the client’s Google Business Profile and optimised it. We reached out to industry publications to submit digital PR based around industry statistics and thought leadership content, resulting in 37 high-authority backlinks. We harmonized all company Name, Address and Phone contact details indexed across all major Industry directories. We contacted the customer database to ask them to leave a constructive Google Review.
Chief Marketing Officer’s Comments
“We went through a very challenge phase during Q4 2023 where we were preparing for serious financial complications following a large drop in our online business, that’s when we hired Switch Jam. It took a lot of work, trust, and time to recover…. Thankfully it’s work out great. We’re amazed to be where we are right now, avoiding a situation that could have been catastrophic to our business.”
Campaign Results
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