Direct4Baby is one of the biggest independent nursery retailers in the UK. Their mission is simple: to make parenting easier by providing high-quality, affordable, and convenient products for little ones. Operating both an ecommerce store and Liverpool-based showroom, Direct4Baby needs to drive sales through both channels. But with so many high-profile competitors, the team felt they were falling behind in terms of brand awareness and sales volume.
When we began working with D4B, they were struggling to compete against many long-established household names. What Direct4Baby has over their competitors however is affordability and a stronger ecommerce presence. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns meant that more and more consumers were turning to online stores to get all of their baby essentials – many of Direct 4 Baby’s biggest competitors relied heavily on physical retail stores and a presence on local high streets.
We devised a strategy designed to help D4B secure prominent positions in the SERPs and win traffic from more well-known competitors. In 2020, we developed and launched a new Shopify website to help them keep up with increased demand.
We began working on Direct-Baby’s SEO activity in May 2019. In just 12 months, we had achieved a record-breaking 317% increase in total revenue, and a 483% increase in organic search revenue.
Our team created an SEO plan, conducting research on search trends, keyword gap/opportunity analysis and deep dive competitor and keyword research across current website visibility.
On-page SEO analysis allowed us to make recommendations for copy, page titles and meta data. Audits were also conducted across products, collections and blog content to ensure all copy was of high-quality and optimised for target keywords.
Through relevant blog content, the brand was able to engage with both new and existing customers and provide guidance on the topics most valuable to the target audience.
The SEO strategy was implemented in four stages:
We continue to work with Direct4Baby on monthly blog content and on-page optimisations in order to maintain and improve search rankings.
We decided that the Shopify Advanced plan would provide the best platform for Direct4Baby. It’s designed for larger brands with sizable product catalogues, and offers the flexibility to customise without the need for complex coding knowledge.
A multi-level category and menu structure was implemented to improve user experience for the customer and also help to boost organic visibility in the SERPs. This means that products can now be merchandised across multiple categories to maximise exposure and increase conversions.
Product page templates were designed to provide multiple images and detailed product information, both of which are very important for Direct4Baby as many of their products have price points. The page content is flexible to support a range of configurable and customisable products, and supports various integrations such as reviews.io, Klarna and share buttons.
*July 2020 vs July 2021