SEO Case Study - The Apple Barn, Chichester
The Apple Barn sells vintage furniture just south of Chichester.
Here’s a great case study of how we got them on Google!
The store is full of beautiful vintage furniture that Pam has bought in and then lovingly restored in her workshop. It is the sort of place that, once you see it, you are just struck by the quality of the furniture she has to sell. There are bookcases, desks, cupboards, ornate clocks, tables and chairs and lots of other things, all polished to a high lustre. Once people are actually in the store, they tend to buy something!
The only problem was getting people to come to the store itself. Not many people have heard of it, even people in the local vicinity and this was the main reason why Pam Crossland (the owner) wanted to meet me. At Access by Design, a web design Chichester company, we also specialise in getting more visitors to our clients websites, through campaigns that just deliver results, time after time. To Pam it was simple, if she could get more visitors to her website, that would, in turn, get more people to come and visit her store. That would then lead to more sales.
Like many business owners in this economic climate, Pam always wants to make sure that every pound she spends on promotion will lead to more sales and, she will freely admit herself, was fairly sceptical about how we would be able to help her with Google.
We conducted some preliminary research and discovered that she was only in Google’s top 20 for one keyword. This was on 2nd October, 2013:
secondhand furniture Chichester (15)
Given the budget the Pam was willing to start with, we concluded that we should start the campaign by concentrating on the following 4 keywords (her position on Google for each keyword at that time is shown in brackets):
- second hand furniture chichester (15)
- vintage furniture sussex (> 100)
- second hand furniture west sussex (>100)
- second hand furniture sussex (>100)
Approximately 1000 people search for these terms organically within Google every month and this seemed to be an appropriate starting point. We agreed to run a small, localized Google campaign from last October, which included a blog to be written every month.
We had a meeting (6th February 2014) to review how the campaign has been progressing and we were all delighted to see that her website had already achieved the following rankings:
second hand furniture chichester (1)
second hand furniture west sussex (7)
second hand furniture sussex (7)
vintage furniture Sussex (3)
Yes, that’s right, page 1 of Google for all 4 keywords!
However, that is not all. Further research revealed that The Apple Barn’s website was now in Google’s top 20 for all of the following keywords as well:
- second hand vintage furniture
- oak magazine rack
- laura ashley coffee table
- second hand antique furniture
- secondhand furniture
- antique second hand furniture
- vintage second hand furniture
- laura ashley leather sofa
- second hand bedside tables
- second hand furnishings
- retro second hand furniture
- used wardrobes
- laura ashley coffee tables
- furniture 2nd hand
- oak furniture chichester
- second hand apple
- second hand sideboard
- used chest of drawers
- mexican pine chest of drawers
- tall pine bookcase
- second hand cupboards
- second hand furniture in
- used bookcases
- pine furniture chichester
So, has this led to an increase in the number of visitors to the website? You bet it has!
Number of visitors to theapplebarn.biz from Search Engines
Since the site was launched in 2011, there had been no noticeable amount of visitors from Google and other search engines to the website until October 2013, the same month we started the campaign!
3 months on, we have gone up to at least 250 visitors per month, coming directly from Google and other search engines!
Has this led to an increase in enquiries and sales? Again, you bet it has!
Despite the bad weather, despite the time of year, Pam has been getting more new enquiries than usual, every day. This has led to an upsurge in visitors to the store and a large increase in sales!
Visitors to the website have seen a piece of furniture they like the look of and rung Pam to ask more about it. They come to the store and often walk away having bought other items as well. This isn’t just restricted to the local area, either! She is making deliveries all over the UK!
Last week she got a call from a visitor in Northampton who had liked the look of a table and chair set. Pam said she could arrange delivery but the visitor liked the idea of a trip to Chichester and came in person. Once there, they bought some more items as well, spending in excess of £1700 overall!
Pam has given us the following testimonial:
“Dear Clive,
I would like to thank you for the work that you have carried out on my website. When you first approached me and offered a campaign to enhance my website performance, I was extremely sceptical and very unsure of spending money.
Since we first began in November, the number of people using my website has increased dramatically. Neither of us believed that the campaign could have proved to be quite so successful. I now know that the way forward in business is via the web and I am delighted that you have been able to help me.
I would encourage other small businesses to follow suit and be happy to recommend your company.
Kind Regards,
Pam Crosland (Proprietor)”
At Access by Design, we are not just a website design Chichester based company… we do simply amazing things with Google as well!
If you would like to see what we could do for you, please follow this link to our confidential SEO enquiry form, call us on 01243 776399 or email us: info@access-bydesign.com
