The project was made by:
Konstantin Buravikin, Project Manager Department
Eric Klyuev, Head of SEO
Service: SEO at the stage of website development.
Project: winetime – an online store of elite alcoholic beverages.
Region: Ukraine.
Term of work: 3 months.
Task: development and optimization of a new website.
In our work, we often encounter the fact that when creating websites with cutting-edge design and updated functionality, not every online business owner pays enough attention to SEO optimization of a new web resource at the project development stage. And this then leads to the fact that precious time is wasted until the online business starts working at full capacity.
However, the owners of the Winetime online store did not make this mistake. They turned to the Elit-Web team and set a task to develop and SEO-optimize the new website. In the long run, this made it possible to save several months, not to waste time on making the necessary technical improvements, and to achieve faster traffic growth to the new web resource and bring it to the top of search results.
What is special about the Winetime online store
The company is known for operating in Ukraine since 2010. During this time, it has grown into a national chain of gastronomic stores offering elite alcoholic beverages and related products from around the world.
Winetime’s priorities include controlling the high quality of its products, developing ethno-gastronomic culture and complying with Ukrainian legislation on alcohol sales.
Purchases made at Winetime can be a unique gift for the holidays or a worthy addition to a wine collection. The company’s experts regularly hold tastings and master classes to reveal to their customers the secrets of combining food with wines of different brands and introduce them to a variety of flavors.
In response to the challenges posed by restrictions in certain areas of life due to the pandemic and military events in our country, Winetime set out to increase its online presence and create an effective online store that could quickly reach the top of search queries.
Work on SEO optimization of an online store of elite alcohol
The Elit-Web team was tasked with performing SEO optimization of the project at the stage of developing a new website, checking technical and usability parameters, and forming an extensive structure of the web resource. This was to improve the site’s visibility in search.
To solve these problems, Elit-Web specialists have planned their work in the following areas:
- forming the optimal structure of the new website and semantic core;
- technical support of the project;
- content optimization.
Step 1. Formation of an extended site structure
The specialists decided to start working on the project by developing a website structure that could meet the expectations of consumers in the process of choosing goods. When creating categories, subcategories, and filters on the online store’s website, the following features were taken into account:
- for wine and spirits, subcategories were defined – the presence of sugar in the drink (for wine), type, country of origin, region, producer, volume, grape varieties, etc;
- for food and beverages – type, type, manufacturer and country of origin;
- for accessories – type, purpose and country of origin.
We also took into account the combination of food with different alcoholic beverages.
Detailed elaboration in these areas became the basis for the next stage of semantic core development.
Step 2. Compiling and thoroughly studying the semantic core
In order to understand what queries people use when searching for products related to the site’s topic and to further optimize the content, our specialists spent a lot of time collecting the semantic core of the new site.
Six teams specializing in SEO promotion were involved in this task. The queries were obtained from various sources: Serpstat, Google Ads Keyword Planner, search tips, Google Analytics, phrases used by competitors, and other resources. The result of this work was a starting list of more than 500 key queries that were prioritized.
Then, based on the semantic core, the specialists planned to create optimized website content to increase its relevance to users’ search queries.
Step 3. Works on technical optimization of the site
To successfully launch the new project, it was necessary to ensure its error-free operation. To optimize the web resource, our team suggested that the developers implement the following changes to the site:
- check the quality of adaptation for mobile devices;
- create a template for generating meta tags;
- correctly configure Canonical, Hreflang attributes, sitemap and other important elements;
- create page addresses of the web resource in a convenient and understandable format that allows users and search robots to easily understand what the page is about;
- implement navigation elements on the website.
Particular attention was paid to improving usability, with separate recommendations for the development of each type of page. All these measures helped to make the new project technically flawless so that we could focus on other areas of SEO promotion in the future.
Step 4. Thorough analysis of the target audience
The target audience research was conducted to, firstly, clearly understand who is interested in the company’s products, and secondly, find out the likely reasons for not returning to the online store for repeat purchases.
Based on the data obtained, our specialists offered:
- focus on the mobile version of the website, as the majority of customers aged 25 to 34 make orders from mobile devices;
- develop loyalty programs to encourage repeat orders. This can include creating a personal account, introducing a bonus system, creating a wish list, and sending email newsletters.
By implementing these recommendations, a new website will quickly gain high rankings and have a high conversion rate.
Main results of the project
The result of this project was a new Winetime online store that had a branched structure with a large number of pages and categories. It was fully prepared for a successful quick launch, as it was optimized for search engines. Thanks to the parallel SEO work and website development, the client saved several months that are usually required to optimize and create content for such a large number of pages. In the process, the Elit-Web team prepared an expanded list of keywords for future pages and terms of reference for content creation, formed meta tags, and developed an external optimization strategy.
Our experience shows that it is very important and strategically correct to engage in SEO at the stage of website development. This helps to quickly index a new project and has a positive impact on the site’s starting position in search results. The use of predefined keywords and the implementation of a prepared content strategy allow you to fill the pages of a web resource with material that meets the needs of the target audience. All this work creates the foundation for effective search engine optimization and saves resources.
