How the SEO Program Works

  • Custom strategy

    We develop a custom, holistic strategy aligned with your goals, ensuring the best possible performance for your site.

  • Focused on impact

    By focusing on the highest impact areas of your site, we leverage smart technologies to maximize your ROI.

  • Implementation included

    For added flexibility, we can directly implement our recommendations or work with your development team.

SEO Engagement Features

EXCLUSIVE has organic search experience with all popular eCommerce platforms. We specialize in search engine optimization (SEO) for Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, Yahoo! Stores, and many others, including custom builds.

On-site

Improve the elements of your site that help search engines crawl and qualitatively assess your site, thereby boosting search visibility.

Off-site

Provide a boost off-site with content marketing and white hat linking opportunities to help establish your site as an authority.

Algorithm patching

We can detect and help resolve potential search ranking penalties that have been applied to your site.

SEO tools

We leverage more than a dozen SEO tools including BrightEdge, a leading SEO platform, to get accurate data and to uncover insights that lead to actionable recommendations.

Content

Using our elite team of U.S.-based writers and editors, we deliver the highest quality content that informs and inspires customers, helping conversion rates.

White-glove

Work with a dedicated team that has your long-term goals in mind and cares about the success of your business.

“We got hit hard by Panda — 30% of our traffic just gone, and a manual penalty. EXCLUSIVE saved us.”

Courtney Lear WallaceDirector of Digital Marketing/Ecommerce at Unique Vintage

SEO FAQs

On-page optimizations are a key component of modern SEO. Our team uses a variety of leading-edge tools to analyze the semantic structure of your content and optimize your website holistically to ensure that your website can thrive in the audience domain of your business segment.

The optimization process includes:

  • Keyword research
  • Ensuring that webpages use the proper HTML tags and hierarchy
  • Making sure your content structure is optimized
  • The implementation of metadata that properly aligns with the targeted keywords on the page (i.e., title tags, meta descriptions, structured data implementations)
We regularly work with companies who have their own in-house writers. We can still provide the keyword research, optimize your metadata and edit and optimize your team’s work from an SEO perspective.

Members of our SEO team are experts at properly structuring and optimizing this on-page content to create on-brand copy that connects with your audience while performing well on search engines.
Yes, we are experts in writing content for e-commerce websites and have experience in category, product and blog page copy. We also optimize Google My Business descriptions, YouTube descriptions, FAQ pages for websites and more.

In order to create the best possible content, we strictly work with the best writers within their respective domain. Every member of our writing team comes from a rich professional writing background and has a published portfolio that speaks to that. Specific details about the writer can be provided upon request.
A blog allows you to demonstrate expertise within relevant topics, showcase valuable products, reach your audience in a more authentic way and hone your brand’s image.

In terms of SEO, a properly integrated and well-managed blog can have a positive impact on overall website performance, bringing in shoppers at different stages of the purchase funnel that may otherwise be harder to attract. Additionally, establishing authority on a given topic can improve the performance of a domain by increasing the amount of relevant and potentially high authority backlinks to the domain.
Visually, you have a few placement options for content based on your preferences. To limit the amount of content that’s visible once the webpage loads, you can add a feature that requires a click to expand an excerpt of visible content so it will be displayed in its entirety (with no SEO drawback, according to Google).

If you prefer your content visible to the visitor in its entirety as soon as they land, then you skip this step. Other placement options including splitting the content so a portion is placed above the products and the remainder is placed below. Content can also be placed at the bottom of a webpage, so long as it doesn’t become buried within the actual code on the page, which can cause issues with search crawlers. Lastly, there is some evidence that placement of content at the top a webpage, or usage of what is termed an “inverted pyramid” content structure, can have a positive impact on organic performance. But this must be weighed in context with user experience (UX) and conversion. Consider A/B split testing your content location to understand conversion implications.
Category page content that is 300 to 400 words in length gives you room to extend and discuss all the products in a category (whereas you might not need as much length on a product page). That word count range allows you to cover all the target terms without stuffing them into a short space.

Product page content length will depend on the type of product you’re selling. A pair of socks may require only 50 to 80 words to describe it and make the description unique, but a garage door opener with several parts will require much longer copy.

Product and category content is also a place where you can use variations of keywords that are related to the main topic of a webpage. Because users often search differently with the same intent, there are usually multiple keywords with a significant level of traffic that mean the same thing. This space is a great piece of real estate on your website to use these keyword variations to further boost the relevancy of the webpage.
  • Duplicate content is when similar content is appearing for multiple websites (external) or on one domain (internal).
  • It’s bad because Google penalizes it for not being unique. Why should they rank your webpage over other websites that have the same content?
  • When content is unique, it’s easy to assign ownership to it: website X will get the benefit of the optimized content.
  • Content that is too similar on your own website is also a form of duplication. This can negatively affect your website’s traffic through what we call “keyword cannibalization,” which is when similar or near-duplicate content on one or more of your webpages leads to those pages competing for rank on the same keyword.
  • It gives crawlers more context for what the webpage is about and provides strategic keyword-optimization opportunities.
  • It influences domain authority because ranking well for multiple topics related to your core product or service leads to search engines associating your domain (and product/service webpages) with those topics.
  • If properly executed, it can help conversion rates. Content informs people about what they’re buying.
  • Having content differentiates your website from others (to users and crawlers), which establishes a brand and company voice.
  • It’s a ranking factor that you can have full control over.
  • Updating the content updates the webpage, a good tool for crawlers to see that a website is fresh.
  • Content helps with paid campaigns (specifically Dynamic Search Ads).
  • It also helps with social media by creating sharable content to be put on social platforms.
  • Strong content also promotes backlinking, which indicates the usefulness of your website.
We send monthly reports based on your most important KPIs, providing insight into our program’s success.
We use proven methods to attract links, but do not advocate strategies such as mass link building or other black hat methods to artificially augment search visibility.
EXCLUSIVE provides everything you need to get a winning edge. We can be as hands-on as needed, or as hands-off, if you prefer we stay out of the kitchen.
As a company, EXCLUSIVE helps you optimize the entire ecommerce funnel, meaning the ROI from your SEO efforts will be much higher. Our SEO practice in particular dates back to 1997, one year before Google was incorporated. We have consistently achieved great results for clients of all sizes by proactively leveraging our technologies, resources, and unique approach in order to create a mutually beneficial relationship with your brand.
SEO is a marathon, not a sprint, and the time to see results depends on your specific situation. We have clients who see results after 3 months and others who see results after 6–12 months.
We are partnered with BrightEdge, the leading SEO Platform for keyword-tracking and competitive insights. We also leverage more than a dozen proprietary and industry-leading tools.

Local SEO

Yes. There are various methods to improve your website’s performance for particular locations:

  • Google My Business optimizations can help generate rich results or local pack optimizations that can help your location gain visibility in a particular region. Also, Google My Business search results often show up above regular search results for local queries.
  • The use of geotagging and local business, product and service-related structured data for webpages featuring your brick-and-mortar store can help search engines connect your business and its core offerings to a physical location, which can boost visibility in local searches.
  • Hyperlocal keyword targeting, or the use of locally oriented words such as neighborhoods, colloquialisms and well-known nearby landmarks can help search engines associate your business or brick and mortar location with local search terms and other websites related to your area.

Backlinks and SEO

  • There are better and more effective ways to improve performance than backlinks. We want to make sure that the website is technically sound (so Google can crawl it) and that content is well-optimized, providing a good user experience. Without these aspects in good health, backlinks will not help your performance.
  • Content and technical work is more measurable in terms of impact on the website.
  • Once the website is in good health, we can deploy a more targeted strategy. Plus, everything you’re implementing is going to put your website in a good position to gain links naturally.
  • Even if outreach and direct backlink targeting isn’t a primary component of your strategy, improving the content, user experience and relevancy of your website to match search intent can earn backlinks as a secondary result of those efforts.
  • Less so, and we don’t recommend specifically targeting keywords that you want to rank for.
  • This article could give you some context. Specifically, if you look at a website that you don’t believe needs to purchase links (such as a soccer team) and you look at their “natural” backlink profile, you’ll see a lot of it is branded, with some non-specific terms mixed in (like “here” or “official website”). In today’s SEO climate, anchor text needs to be more detailed than generic. The anchor text that’s pointing to your website should just make it clear to users what they’ll see on the webpage (or at least have context surrounding the anchor text).
  • That link is still driving awareness and potentially traffic to your website.
  • We want to make sure the website has a diverse backlink portfolio — and that includes dofollow and nofollow links.
  • We know brand authority is a ranking signal. A nofollow indicates to Google that you are advertising — that you are a brand. It may hold value there. In addition, there are other link attributes you can use to indicate different intentions behind advertising links:
    • rel="sponsored" – This attribute shows Google that any links with it are for sponsorships, advertisements or other forms of compensation.
    • rel="ugc" – Designed for links found within User Generated Content (UGC), this link attribute would be used in page sections like forum posts and blog comments.
  • We also know that in 2012, Google filed a patent that essentially states that they use links and unlinked brand mentions as a ranking signal. As of 2019, Google explained that all three types of link attributes are “treated as hints” for the links that should be left out of searches. That means a nofollow could absolutely be counted as a link, and if not, it’s at least counting as a brand mention.
  • Having great content on your website is the best way to increase backlinks.
  • If you are a reseller, look at all the websites of the brands that you sell and see if they link out to other resellers. If so, check if your name is on that list.
  • Have regular and frequent social posts and promote engagement.
  • Host giveaways or drawings.
  • Sponsor an event in your community.
  • Post helpful comments on industry blogs.
The best strategy to gain backlinks is to create high-quality content and share that over different channels. We can also use that content for outreach to publications for relevant postings. We don’t want low-quality links or spam, only something highly relevant.
Yes. It’s still one of the ways that Google measures the popularity of a website. The biggest change we’ve seen since 2012 is that it’s now quality (not quantity) that matters, although the seemingly continuous expansion of social media platforms has changed the terrain of backlinking as well.

Development Work

In the traditional sense, no, but we can support most clients through implementation of our SEO recommendations. Our team has development-level expertise in Yahoo and WordPress and can implement most recommendations made by the SEO team for BigCommerce and Shopify.

Developer time is an expensive resource in any organization. Our expertise in managing multi-channel campaigns and technical implementations on your website can help ensure that you are getting the most value from your investment in development resources.

Results

  • In general, there is no guaranteed timeframe for search engine optimization. It depends on several things, including:
    • Implementation of our recommendations
    • Having fresh content (freshness algorithm)
    • A technically sound website to help with crawling and indexing
    • How often Google checks and updates certain features (i.e., structured data)
  • As an approximate timeframe, we can usually see a trend of performance within three to six months. Specifics can vary based on what you’re trying to optimize for and how quickly items are implemented on the website.
  • For a brand-new website, giving its lack of domain authority and other factors, you can expect to begin seeing results in 12 to 18 months. Google processes new websites for up to a year to evaluate their trustworthiness, and fluctuations in ranking are normal during that time.
  • The initial part of SEO planning with us is going to be analysis-heavy. It involves diagnosing what issues exist on the website, so we can determine a suitable approach. We want to look under the hood, so to speak, before we start making fixes.
    • Successful SEO campaigns result from a sustained effort, where the results and return on investment (ROI) often compound over time. Think about it like this: if you discontinue paid ads, the traffic from those ads would immediately stop. On the other hand, momentum from successful SEO campaigns can last for a long time after initial implementation.

Site Migrations

  • There are some important things to consider with other channels when you migrate, and we have designated specialists for various channels that go over these impacts in detail with you as they apply to your particular combination of marketing platforms. Here are some key elements to consider for major channels:
    • Google Shopping:
      • If using the HTML tag method, the Google verification tag needs to be migrated over from the old website to the new website so that your Merchant Center remains verified and we don’t experience downtime. More information is available with Google support.
      • A copy of the shopping feed should be downloaded. In case any of the product IDs or product types change throughout the migration, this ensures that the specialists are able to adjust the product targeting within campaigns for the new IDs or product types.
    • Pay-per-Click (PPC):
      • Update AdWords and Bing UET tags with revised new subtotal variables and ensure the code has been migrated to the new website.
      • Carry over the remarketing code to the new website.
      • Ensure all Ad, keyword, sitelink, etc. URLs are updated if the new website’s URL structure is not consistent with previous structure.
    • Social Media:
      • Carry over the Facebook and/or Pinterest pixel.
      • Update AdWords and Bing UET tags with the latest new subtotal variables and ensure the code has been migrated to the new website.
      • The new platform could open possibilities for email/social. This would be fully dependent on which platform you are moving to/from.
    • Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO):
      • Any major design changes that are being made without testing have the possibility to hurt conversion rate (CVR). When we test, we typically find that three out of 10 tests win, four or five make no impact and two or three have a negative impact. Each change you make on your website has those odds. We’d highly recommend testing major design changes, or at least doing a slow rollout of each change so we can measure the impact separately.
  • We recommend launching early in the week (not on a Thursday/Friday).
  • We recommend launching during a time when traffic is lowest, usually evening or early morning. Morning is preferred, since the team will be in the office to monitor.
  • We recommend launching in your off-season; at least two to three months before busy season, but ideally six months before.
  • Organic traffic post-migration depends on how much is changing (site structure, layout, URLs, etc.) and if you handled the migration properly (i.e., with 301 redirects).
  • Even when migrations are done properly, we sometimes see traffic drop for about one to two months while Google re-crawls and re-indexes the website.
  • If a migration is not done correctly, websites can lose massive amounts of traffic (we’ve seen anywhere from 25 to 50% loss or more) for extended periods — which, if not quickly addressed, can last months to years.
  • The improvements in user experience that often come with website redesigns can be used to help bolster post-launch SEO efforts.
No! So often, we find clients put SEO on hold until after a migration only to have the migration go poorly and result in significant organic traffic losses. Afterwards, you are not only losing money due to decreased visibility, but you also have to pay someone to figure out what went wrong — then pay to have it fixed. That’s why we offer website migration packages that are focused on preventative measures. We work alongside your dev team from an SEO standpoint to advise you of the pros and cons of all of the changes you might be making.

It’s all interconnected.

For even more growth, combine Organic Search with our other services.

Combined with EXCLUSIVE Paid Search

from Organic Search from Paid Search When you increase qualified traffic along with average order value (AOV), you grow faster. +21 % revenue +10 % AOV +10 % qualified traffic

Combined with EXCLUSIVE Conversion Testing

from Organic Search from Conversion Testing When you increase qualified traffic and conversion rates, you grow faster. +21 % revenue +10 % conversion rates +10 % qualified traffic
Pricing

We create custom service packages so you get exactly what you need.