Client: transportika.net, after 2017 - transportica.com
Subject: transportation service in Ukraine
Cooperation period: from 2016 to 2020
Services: SEO at the stage of website development and regular SEO-promotion
In 2016, a client approached us with an idea for a startup. He wanted to create an analog of Uber for logistics - an online service for finding contractors for long-distance freight transportation. The service's client could leave a request for cargo to be transported across Ukraine, and the contractor could provide his own transportation.
There were already strong competitors in this niche, so in addition to website development and basic SEO optimization, it was necessary to find an approach to get to the top of the search results. This is how transportika.net came into being, and after the move - transportica.com.
How did SEO optimization affect the initial stages of website development?
If you are creating a website from scratch, optimize it before launch. Thanks to the recommendations of an SEO specialist at the creation stage, you won't have to spend time and money on redesigning functionality in the future.
In our case, the programmers from the client's side initially wanted to build a SPA-site using the Angular framework. That is, instead of the usual HTML markup, the user would receive JavaScript files with all the necessary code. From a technical point of view, this would speed up loading: the browser would show only the part of the site that the user requested. But it would complicate SEO promotion, because search engine robots need to see the HTML code in order to understand what content is on the page.
At first, we suggested using an analogue of the prerender.io service - self-hosted prerender, which allows search engines to crawl SEO-optimized versions of website pages. Later we switched to Server Side Rendering (SSR) - a technology that runs JavaScript code on the server (not in the browser, as usual) and sends the finished result to the user. This reduced the load on the browser of website visitors and allowed search engines to determine the content of pages.
After the client decided on the platform, in March 2016 we made the first recommendations for the future site: we assembled the semantic core, agreed on the structure, developed page mockups, and coordinated the design. To make it easier for visitors to navigate the site, we used the interface of Uber-like projects as a basis.
Based on the semantics, we created the necessary pages and wrote texts for the first 30 of them. Since the site was new, we chose mostly low-frequency queries (types of cargo, types of transport for transportation). This way it was easier and faster to get to the top and get traffic. We collected all the pages in one document, where we tracked the status of the tasks:
The client was betting that the mobile app would become the main tool for interaction between drivers and customers. Therefore, in order to become more visible to Play Market users, we selected and optimized key phrases. Two weeks later, the following results emerged:
While expanding semantics in 2017, we came across the query "dokload" and together with an expert logistician we decided to add this service. Then we supplemented the site with new pages filled with content on hitchhiking and dokruz. This way we expanded the project's target audience, increased the number of orders, filled the transportation with cargo, and made the product more flexible. This is how SEO can help you refine your project and increase revenue.
To keep the price of services always up-to-date, we decided to update the price list for different types of freight/transportation manually every three months. Later, the programmers automated the monthly price calculation and displayed it on the main page of the site and pages by type of transportation, cargo, and destinations:
Also, in early 2017, suggested generating distance, freight and transportation pages between areas and cities to generate traffic that can be converted into leads and further increase the platform's visibility.
Distance Page:
Transportation Page:
General cargo page:
Increased positions by renting links due to small budget
One of the options to improve the ranking of a site is linkbuilding - building up "link mass". The more sites with a good reputation refers to your site, the higher the level of trust in search engines. You can be placed on thematic sites, forums and news resources. Links can be rented for a while or bought out for permanent placement. It is important that the sites were authoritative and did not fall under the sanctions of search engines. Otherwise, links to them will only spoil the reputation of the site.
Having received the first traffic, we focused on selecting quality resources and placing links. We bought links mainly on news and automotive sites with a high level of trust from search engines. The budget was not enough to buy a good permanent link. Therefore, every month we prolonged placement on very good, but temporary, places.
We also placed advertisements on Youtube from reputable bloggers on the subject of trucking. Basically, we purchased pre-roll ads - 15-30 seconds long, which are placed in the video with a corresponding label. This increased brand awareness among drivers and brought traffic to the links under the video:
Fixed errors after domain change without team's knowledge
The client decided to take a break from work and in the meantime moved to the transportica.com domain on his own. With his team of programmers, he created subdomains for each country to expand the geography of the project.
They committed three fumbles in the process of the move:
- Implemented redirection to different versions of the site depending on the ip address. That is, different pages were given to users and robots in different countries.
- All versions with www by country redirected only to the main domain, without www.
- When moving to a different domain name, the sitemap of the old site https://transportika.net/sitemap_index.xml was updated to https://transportica.com/.
The site got a problem with crawling, indexing and ranking, traffic sagged:
We went back to work and fixed crawling errors: we set up redirects from www to non-www for each country. Generated sitemap.xml for each domain. We did the relabeling again.
After the problems were fixed, we returned to the scheduled work. The site was still optimized for Ukraine, but the design, edits and logic of page formation were extended to the main domain and all subdomains. We conducted an audit, implemented a new design. The client's copywriters began systematically writing texts according to our specifications for the blog pages.
Got traffic through the blog and optimized pages of the website
We needed to familiarize the target audience with the product. Therefore, we selected copywriters who were familiar with the subject matter, set detailed TORs, proofread the texts, saturated them with images and useful elements. Weekly articles on the subject of trucking were published on the site, which would be of interest to drivers and customers.
At the end of 2017, the site started to rank in the top 10 for commercial high-frequency and mid-frequency queries:
At the beginning of 2018, we implemented additional functionality on the blog. We added the function of commenting and evaluating articles, date of publications. We developed a template for generating meta tags. We divided the articles into headings and placed a list of links to the blog's headings on the homepage.
After working with snippets, remove service characters:
We further optimized the text on the pages with the necessary keys, displayed useful information for the user: graphs, tables, maps.
We smoothly built up link mass, wrote optimized articles. We set up analytics: events and goals via GTM, checkout, funnel and other CTAs. After that, in the first half of 2018, we entered the TOP on high-frequency queries:
In 2019 we continued to work with snippets, op-page optimization, link mass, blog. We controlled the implementation of edits and technical tasks, set up analytics.
This is how the visibility and average core position of 1600 queries looked like after the implementations:
Held the top spot for business keyword phrases for late 2019 early 2020.
Home page metrics:
On a "find a shipment" request:
On the request for "hitchhiking":
In February 2020, due to the Coronation Crisis, they stopped cooperating.
Results
During the time I have been working with iConsult Agency have brought the site to these results:
- Created a website from scratch and brought it to the top 3 results for queries on the topic of trucking.
- We overtook competitors Della, Degruz and almost caught up with the main competitor - Lardi in terms of visibility of desired queries.
- Worked through pages that fully respond to the user's request so that traffic continued to grow after the partnership ended.
- Grew traffic to the blog pages:
- Grew traffic to the "Search for Transportation" pages:
- Grew traffic to the Cargo Search pages:
- Grew traffic to distance pages:
After the traffic to distance pages sagged due to core update - changing the algorithm for generating the title tag.
This was an interesting challenge for our specialists, as it was the first SPA-site promoted by our agency. Thanks to the client's trust, we quickly implemented the edits without unnecessary approvals. It was pleasant and efficient to work in a team with our project manager Maria Pikuzo and specialists from the client's side: Kondrat Voronov, Bogdan Shanovskiy and Karina Rubenstein.
Alexey Grishin, team lead iConsult Agency
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