The Challenge
As Sons were establishing themselves within the hair loss treatment space in the UK, looking further afield specifically in Ireland seemed like the natural progression for them as a brand. With this ambition comes a multitude of challenges but exciting ones all the same. The challenges that presented themselves were:
- Creating an entirely new domain for their IE site.
- 100s of new HREFLANGS.
- Drawing out a content calendar with fresh content and rewrites.
- Extensive KW mapping for new IE site.
- Regular site and content audits.
The Campaign
With plenty of technical challenges ahead, the best place to start was to establish the new IE domain. Alongside this, creating 100s of HREFLANGS tags was of vital importance. HREFLANGS tags help search engines attribute the right page for its geographical location, therefore people in Ireland will now be directed to the correct site rather than the UK one. This also lends itself to more accurate search rankings as there will be a more even spread of clicks and impressions for each site with users now being pointed in the right direction.
With this new domain comes a fresh slate for some fresh content. Having to draw out a content calendar to fit around the Sons products for their Ireland-based customers was important to ensure that there was specific content for specific products. Adapting the existing content from their other site to fit around the IE domain was also a priority with regards to the content. Planning out a calendar where blogs will be produced and uploaded on a consistent basis helps keep the content on the site relevant and with the rewrites, it was important to adapt this copy to help it fit in with the other fresh content on the IE site. Adapting this copy with different but more relevant keywords will also help the search ranking of this content, so extensive keyword research and mapping was in order.
Ensuring that the content on the IE domain was relevant, the keywords in the UK will most likely not match the same volume as the same keyword. Therefore, it is vital to discover more relevant keywords to pepper into the rewritten copy for the IE site as adding these keywords with a higher volume ensures that this domain will be able to establish itself early onto its existence.
There is a level of volatility in the world of keywords and their relevance. Within the field of hair loss and the science that surrounds it, there will always be new findings about the effectiveness of certain products as well as discoveries of new medication. Therefore, it is important to carry out copy audits to ensure that certain keywords that were significant in terms of their rankings are still effective and that people are still searching these terms and queries.
As well is the case of new domains, site audits are also key in terms of making sure that everything is running smoothly and see where there are ways in which to improve. There will always be teething problems in terms of creating a new domain so it is key to keep an eye on how it is performing and ensure that users experiences are as beneficial as they can possibly be.
| Keyword | Ranking | Search Volume |
|---|---|---|
| dht blocking shampoo | 2nd | 170 |
| finasteride ireland | 3rd | 590 |
| minoxidil | 3rd | 260 |
| nootropics ireland | 7th | 170 |
The Results
With the teething problems of creating a new domain, it can take a little while to see the positive results come to fruition. With the Sons adding an Irish domain, it proved to be a positive move for the brand. The results are as follows:
- 412% increase in non-brand organic traffic year on year
- Sons IE site visibility has increased by 30% since its inception
- Ranks first for keyword “Minoxidil” with search volume of 2,900 (as of Dec 2022)
