Enterprise SEO Success Story: WebQuest & Client Case Study

Campaign Objectives

The client (an online car retailer) approached WebQuest with a brief to:

1. Increase the visibility of its website within Oman.
2. Gain visibility in three new regions: UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
3. Cater to English and Arabic speakers.

OBJECTIVES

The client and WebQuest agreed on the following:

1. Keywords: To rank for as many non-branded keywords as possible across 4 countries, in English and Arabic, on the first page.
2. Traffic: To improve total traffic by 100% within 12 months. Traffic per region to increase:

• Oman (native region):
  • Overall (organic) sessions by 50%.
  • Overall (organic) unique users by 50%
  • Clicks by 50% (non-branded).
  • Impressions by 50% (non-branded).
• UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (new regions):
  • Organic sessions by 100%.
  • Unique users by 100%. 
  • Clicks by 250% (non-branded).
  • Impressions by 250% (non-branded).

Target audience & strategy

TARGET AUDIENCE

• Region: Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait.
• Languages: Arabic and English.
• Age: 25-45.
• Gender: Male and female.
• Intent: Individuals looking to purchase new/used cars.

STRATEGY

To reach the target demographic and meet our objectives, we would undertake:

• Research: understand the intent behind searches.
• Keyword research and mapping: defining search entities, defining attributes to the entities, defining makes and models for each manufacturer, and categorizing search intent behind the searches.
• Website: restructuring website to capture transactional searches in English & Arabic. 
• Reviews and continuous feedback with the client
• Reporting: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Data Studio, Semrush, and ahrefs
• Localization: Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait
• Website optimization: improve website crawlability, load-time optimization, backlinks, land anding pages.
• Technical: Server logs, Google Search Console API, comparing to XML sitemaps, adding analytics for conversion rates.

Implementation & creativity

IMPLEMENTATION

The client website is a completely custom architecture, which required us to collaborate closely with the client’s web team and also engineer solutions entirely from scratch, including:

• Keyword research: Conducted across four countries in Arabic and English. To nest non-branded search phrases for cars, which have hundreds of possible permutations, we created scripts to automate intent classification, and mapping segments, to determine precisely what the buyer is searching for.
• Total website restructure: Created a new URL structure, internal linking structure, and language siloes; switched from client-side to server-side rendering, conducting server-log analysis; configured on-page elements, devised a new strategy for XML sitemaps, enhanced core web vitals performance, schema implementation.
• Data pipeline & analytics: Built scripts to pull data through the Search Console API to get insights into the data set, and overlay data from server logs to better understand crawler behaviour.
• Optimizing crawlability: We discovered significant index bloat and noticed that the crawl budget was being wasted on unproductive URLs. We therefore aimed to continuously clean up the index and conducted regular crawls & server log analysis.
• Localization: Because this is a custom platform, we implemented hreflang tags as well as international targeting to build 8 sections for the website (two languages, four regions).

CREATIVITY

1. Schema implementation: Previously, the client had no structured data approach for products & sections across the website. Therefore, we implemented multiple schema types across the website, including:

• • Website.
  • Autodealer.
  • CollectionPage.
  • Car.
  • BreadcrumbList.
  • Product.

2. Ongoing analysis: We built live dashboards on Google Data Studio to compare/analyse search, per language, per region, for branded and non-branded search (weekly and monthly).

RESULTS

1. Keywords Results:

The client now ranks on hundreds of non-branded keywords across 4 countries, in English and Arabic, on the first page.

2. Traffic Results:

This campaign delivered 1.4m searches on a three-month basis (vs. 316k pre-campaign) and a 441% increase in non-branded search across four regions in just 12 months! (vs. 100% target):

• All searches: 
  • Total clicks – 38.7k (vs. 15.7k pre-campaign).
  • Total impressions – 1.4m (vs. 316k pre-campaign).

• Non-branded searches:
  • Total clicks – 10.3k (vs. 2.3k in pre-campaign). 
  • Total impressions – 901k (vs. 162k pre-campaign).

By Region Results:

• Oman:
  • Overall organic sessions increased 62.83% (vs. 50% target).
  • Overall unique organic users increased 118.27% (vs. 50% target).
  • Clicks (non-branded) increased 172% (vs. 50% target)
  • Impressions (non-branded) increased 188% (vs. 50% target).
• UAE:
  • Overall organic sessions increased 339.78% (vs. 100% target).
  • Overall unique organic users increased 264.17% (vs. 100% target).
  • Clicks (non-branded) increased 1,780% (vs. 250% target).
  • Impressions (non-branded) increased 1,794% (vs. 250% target).
• Saudi Arabia:
  • Overall organic sessions increased 981.51% (vs. 100% target).
  • Overall unique organic users increased 904.45% (vs. 100% target).
  • Clicks (non-branded) increased 2,010% (vs. 250% target).
  • Impressions (non-branded) increased 2,154% (vs. 250% target).
• Kuwait:
  • Overall organic sessions increased 983.67% (vs. 100% target).
  • Overall unique organic users increased 867.97% (vs. 100% target).
  • Clicks (non-branded) increased 1,930% (vs. 250% target).
  • Impressions (non-branded) increased 1,411% (vs. 250% target).

3. Website Optimization

We helped the client’s web development team achieve the following:

• Mobile speed score of 81 (for main listing pages).
• Desktop speed score of 99 (for main listing pages).

CLIENT SATISFACTION

Client commented: “We are delighted with what WebQuest has achieved in such a short space of time. Not only have they massively increased our visibility across MENA in three of our target markets, but they have also increased our traction in our home market of Oman. We plan to continue working with WebQuest for the foreseeable future.”

Looking to improve your website’s performance and visibility? Our SEO Strategy services can provide the strategies and solutions you need to achieve sustainable growth.