Engineering SEO Case Study

How We Helped A Ball Bearings Company Achieved Rank #1 In Singapore and Malaysia

How Long We Took

12 Months

We hit Page 1 rankings within 12 months. By month 18, we were Rank 1 in both Singapore and Malaysia.

Results

Rank 1

The client started with zero rankings and grew to 50,000+ organic visitors to their website in 2 years.

Budget

$3,500 per month

This International SEO campaign was conducted in 2021 to 2022 with a SEO budget of $3,500 per month

Client Background

Before Working With Us

The client is a provider of business enhancement solutions specialising in mechanical systems, components, and the distribution of high-quality bearings and related items.

They are a prominent and renowned enterprise in Singapore and Malaysia, serving regional customers.
When they approached us in 2021, they were new to SEO. There was no organic online visibility.
The vast majority of their website’s traffic originated from direct and referral sources (i.e., from consumers who are already familiar with them or from offline marketing).
They were neither ranked nor discovered for any keywords in the first ten pages of Google aside from their own brand name.
The COVID pandemic was having an effect on enterprises with no online presence.

Our Findings

SEO Audit & Strategy

1. Deep Dive Into Keyword Research

Our in-depth international SEO research for both Singapore and Malaysia revealed that between 1,000 and 2,000 people per month actively searched for ball bearings or related suppliers.

At first, it was difficult to distinguish between personal and business-to-business searches. However, given that all of the top results on the first page were B2B companies specialising in a variety of ball bearings, we could reliably conclude that the keywords targeted the appropriate audience, which in this case was other B2B entities.

In this enterprise-level undertaking, it is essential to recognise the distinctions. In this context, “enterprise” refers to large organisations, frequently outfitted with intricate web structures. Our client’s website, for example, contained over 100 distinct product pages.

Larger corporations place a greater emphasis on branding, authority, and web traffic than they do on immediate lead generation campaigns, causing enterprise SEO to diverge significantly from local SEO.

2. Running A Comprehensive SEO Audit

Turning our attention to the architecture of the website, our audit uncovered some underlying issues:

Custom CMS Difficulties The website’s backend is powered by a custom CMS, which makes it difficult to implement SEO adjustments. Due to its unconventional structure, it requires a substantial quantity of custom coding to be optimised for search engines.
Inadequate Header Optimisation: The pages were marred by ineffective header optimisation. The site’s indexing capabilities were hindered by the absence of a well-structured H1 and H2 header optimisation and keyword insertion in headers.
Meta Data Absence: A glaring absence of meta data across numerous pages compounded the site’s inefficiencies. Without this critical meta information, search engines like Google grapple with interpreting the content and relevance of the product pages.
Deficient Backlink Structure: The website’s authority was low, particularly in comparison to its page 1 competitors. This was primarily due to the lack of high-quality backlinks leading to the website.
Absence of Localization: The site lacked vital localization elements. Without citations and specific local indicators, search engines like Google struggled to discern the operational region of the business. Consequently, even though the client actively operates in both Singapore (SG) and Malaysia (MY), their online visibility in these countries was severely hampered.

3. Formulating Our SEO Strategy

Once we were engaged for this International SEO campaign, our objective was distinct: establish a dominant online presence for the client in both Singapore and Malaysia.

Local Citations: Established firm local citations in both Singapore and Malaysia. This step ensured that Google could recognize the company’s operational presence in both regions.
Strengthen Google Business Maps: This initiative, building upon the first, enhanced the company’s visibility on search engines in both nations.
Optimize Metadata: With the help of our skilled developers, we overhauled all metadata and headers, embedding keywords throughout the website. This was done within the site’s constraints as a complete rebuild wasn’t an option.
Backlink Boost: We fortified the site with guest posts and niche edits with a Domain Authority (DA) of 40+ and above. Our research indicated that these were far more potent than what the top competitors were using.
Clustered Approach: We deployed an advanced content cluster strategy, grouping related products and services, interlinking them to primary pillar pages. This methodology was ideal due to the diverse range of keywords, each with relatively low search volumes.

After working With Us

The Results

We achieved an 11X organic traffic visitor growth.

Initial 6 Months Detection Was Slow: After a 6-month period of diligent work, search engines began to recognize the site.

Rapid Ascent To Page 1 In Latter 6 Months: The subsequent 6 months witnessed a swift rise, with the site mainly featuring on page 1, leading to a 30% boost in traffic.
Peak Performance In 1.5 Years: By 1.5 years, we achieved the coveted rank 1 position in both Singapore and Malaysia, beating numerous multinational corporations SEO strategies in the process.

From an initial traffic count of only 500 per month, we have grown to over 4,000 per month for Singapore and over 3,000 per month for Malaysia.

11X Traffic Growth: In the second year of the campaign, there were over 50,000 additional web visitors, compared to over 6,000 in the previous year.