My Baskets - Case Study
My Baskets is a leading Canadian online retailer specializing in luxury gift baskets for various occasions. The website offers a wide range of themed baskets, including gourmet food, wine, baby gifts, and corporate gifts, ensuring a premium gifting experience for every customer.
Objective
The primary goal was to regain top rankings for major keywords like "gift baskets Toronto," "gift baskets Canada," and "gourmet gift baskets Canada," after noticing a significant drop in positions due to increased competition.
Challenges
Initial SEO Status
My Baskets had stable positions at 2 and 3 for major keywords but dropped below position 20 by spring 2023.
Key Obstacles
Competitors aggressively built new links, and previous link-building efforts were ineffective due to poor quality and relevance.
Resource Constraints
The budget limited the ability to match competitors' link output, necessitating a strategic approach.
Strategy
To address these challenges within the budget constraints, the following strategies were implemented:
1. Anchor Text Audit and Optimization
Conducted a thorough audit of internal and external anchor text portfolios to align with targeted anchor text distribution for the homepage and internal collection pages.
Important Note
Ensuring the proper distribution of anchor text is crucial for achieving optimal SEO results to supplement low budget off site SEO campaigns.
a. For the homepage, the target distribution was approximately 5% exact match anchors, 10% partial match and related anchors, and 85% branded and generic anchors,
b. For internal collection pages, the target was 10% exact match anchors, 50% partial match and related anchors, and 40% branded and generic anchors,
2. Internal and External Link Building
Combined internal and external link-building efforts to achieve the desired anchor text ratio.
3. Topically Relevant Publications
Focused on publishing content on topically relevant websites with a contextual fit in lifestyle, parenting, and relationships.
4. Quality Standards
Ensured publications were on websites with a Domain Rating of 50+, organic traffic of 1000+ with Canadian traffic in the top three, and preferably a .CA ccTLD.
5. Link Velocity Management
Used daisy chaining to boost indexation time and matched link growth percentage rather than the exact number of links.
6. Content Tweaks for Internal Links
Enhanced internal links by tweaking content within the
7. Content Tweaks for External Links
Maintained a 6:1 ratio of internal to external links to encourage frequent Googlebot visits in Refresh mode.
8. Long-Term External Links
Kept all external links live for at least 11 months after publication.
Execution
Due to budget limitations, the team focused on:
Results
Despite competitors' higher link output, the combined efforts led to significant improvements:
"Gift Baskets Toronto"
From outside the top 20 in June 2023 to position 2 by October 2023, surpassing bloomex.ca and baskits.com.
"Gift Baskets Canada"
From outside the top 20 in June 2023 to position 1 by October 2023, outranking bloomex.ca, baskits.com, and costco.ca.
"Gift Basket"
From fluctuating and disappearing from the top 20 in summer 2023 to position 1 by October 2023, competing strongly with bloomex.ca, baskits.com, and costco.ca.
Googlebot in refresh mode visits have become more frequent and stable
Due to external link daisy chaining we’ve managed to keep new backlink indexation to above 80% within its first month of publishing, whereas it’s a common industry standard for it to be ~60% within the first three months of publishing
Due to automated backlink health checks with our internal Python scripts, we’ve never lost a single link for more than 48 hours keeping it within the index at all times. Our total link loss for this client was less than 0.5% within 11 months, whereas industry standard can be anywhere between 35%-60% within first six month of their publication.
Conclusion
Anchor text distribution optimization played a crucial role when external link building was limited.
By maintaining quality standards and consistent link velocity growth, we improved the referring domain average DR distribution, keeping an edge over competitors.
By following this structured approach, My Baskets successfully regained top positions for critical keywords, demonstrating the effectiveness of strategic link- building and anchor text optimization.
All external links built by our team remain active, ensuring that our clients continue to benefit from their investments.
This project exemplifies how precise, strategic actions and full collaboration between the client’s team and our in-house experts can achieve outstanding results, even without the initially anticipated budget, by adhering to best practices rather than outspending the competition.
