How an Independent Bookstore Grew Traffic by 4,869% in 1 Month
https://www.skylarkbookshop.com/
Stats
3.8K to 189.6K Monthly Visits
Industry
Ecommerce & Retail
Niche
Bookstore
Reporting Date
June 2024
Skylark is an independent bookstore in Columbia, Missouri. It's been a community staple since 2018 but has expanded its reach nationwide in 2024, thanks to digital marketing efforts.
Search engine optimization (SEO) has driven this growth, attracting readers across the U.S.
In just 1 month, Skylark skyrocketed its traffic from 3.8K to an incredible 189.6K monthly visits.
How'd they achieve this level of growth in such a short amount of time?
You’re about to find out.
This SEO case study reveals the strategies behind Skylark's success. We'll also equip you with the tools and tutorials for replicating their wins on your website.
In This Article
The Catalyst: How Skylark Achieved 189.6K Monthly Visits
1. Ecommerce Platform Gets 54K New URLs
Skylark has an online shopping platform under the following subdomain: https://shop.skylarkbookshop.com/.
Users can browse and shop online inventory or see if a book is available in-store.
Based on my findings from the Wayback Machine, Skylark launched this platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semrush confirms this theory, with the first pages appearing in October 2020.
But for the last 4 years, the platform’s inventory has been far from complete.
In fact, the page count on this subdomain didn’t cross 500 URLs until April 2024.
Typically, it was in the 200-300 range.
This all changed in June.
Skylark produced over 54K new indexable pages on its eCommerce site in a single month.
And based on the first few days of July, they’re not showing any signs of slowing down.
Skylark continues to publish new product detail pages (PDPs) for its books.
Users can perform any of the following actions:
- Add to Cart
- Add to Wish List
- Get the Digital Audiobook (if available)
Keyword rankings were quick to follow this outpour of new content.
Earlier months barely register as blip compared to June’s 114.7K rankings.
(For context, May had only 2.1K rankings.)
Why this matters:
This strategy highlights the critical role of content creation in digital success.
By expanding their online inventory, Skylark provided search engines with more pages to index.
This resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of pages new users could discover through search queries related to books.
It’s a huge win for Skylark’s online visibility and brand awareness.
It also improves the user experience for Skylark's existing customers.
Instead of calling or traveling to the store to see if a specific book is available, customers can simply check the inventory on the eCommerce site.
Locals and non-Columbia residents alike can also purchase directly from the website, increasing Skylark's overall revenue.
How to develop a content strategy:
For eCommerce websites, your content strategy may look like Skylark’s: put your products online.
If your site isn’t equipped with buying capabilities, I’ve seen other retailers use product inventory catalogs to achieve a similar effect.
The MarketFair case study is a good example of this. (Users can see in-store inventory but purchase through a retailer’s website. Not as great for sales but incredibly effective for boosting organic traffic and brand awareness.)
For non-eCommerce websites, you’ll have to get more creative.
Here’s how you can develop a content strategy that wins rankings:
- Know your target audience.
- Perform keyword research. (New site or small business? I highly recommend LowFruits. It’s a keyword research and SERP analysis tool that helps you find keywords that are easy to rank for.)
- Understand search intent.
- Create topic clusters.
- Identify the best content type for the keyword.
- Write and publish a high-quality piece of content. (SEOBoost is an excellent content optimization tool. It will help you finetune your on-page SEO for maximum reach.)
- Monitor SEO performance.
Tools for monitoring the efficacy of your content strategy:
Optimizing your website for search engines is an ongoing process.
However, to ensure your content delivers results, you must monitor its performance.
These insights allow you to measure the impact of your SEO efforts and make data-driven decisions for further improvement.
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) makes this process effortless.
The plugin’s Elite plan comes with Search Statistics, a time-saving tool that streamlines tracking your SEO.
I like how the dashboard puts all your key performance indicators (KPIs) in one easy-to-view place. You’ll see SEO Statistics, Keyword Positions, Keyword Rankings, and more.
You can also open any of these reports to get an in-depth view of your content’s performance.
Now, let’s discuss how Skylark made and published over 54K URLs in such a short period of time.
2. Programmatic SEO Scales Content Production
Skylark's content explosion wasn't achieved through manual page creation alone. They likely leveraged programmatic SEO (pSEO) to scale their content production.
Programmatic SEO is the process of using automation and technology to create a large number of web pages at once. It uses software, scripts, and databases to generate unique content for each page.
Ecommerce product pages are one of the most popular uses for programmatic SEO.
They follow a simple format (product name, description, price, etc.) and are easy to produce.
Skylark’s PDPs have tell-tale signs of using pSEO.
First, you get the product name, image, and details.
Then, you can read a Description, About the Author, and Praise.
Every PDP follows the same format.
That’s why it’s highly probable that pSEO is behind Skylark’s recent content expansion.
Why this matters:
Skylark leveraged the full potential of programmatic SEO by crafting a comprehensive PDP template. Each page fulfills search intent and provides an informationally-rich user experience.
Ultimately, this strategy is a valuable lesson for those willing to put in the work.
Programmatic SEO isn't an easy win. It still requires effort, time, and the right tools to get it right.
The good news?
When you do get it right, it can transform your content creation workflow and online visibility.
How to do programmatic SEO:
This Zapier article shows you how to do programmatic SEO on your website.
I’d also like to stress that programmatic SEO isn’t limited to content creation.
You can automate SEO workflows without eliminating hand-written content altogether. (This is generally a safer, more future-proof method than AI-generated content.)
Some ways of doing this are:
- Using AI to write SEO titles and meta descriptions
- Automatically redirecting 404 pages to your homepage (or any custom page)
- Installing an SEO plugin to get internal linking suggestions in WordPress
- Setting image alt text and title tags to generate automatically with image smart tags
Tools for automated SEO processes:
With AIOSEO, you can automate several SEO processes to make your workflows more efficient.
AIOSEO has a tool for each task in the list mentioned above:
- Writing Metadata – The AI Title/Description Generator crafts unique page titles and meta descriptions in 1 click.
- Implementing 404 Redirects – Redirection Manager makes it easy to help users and search engines navigate your site and avoid “page not found” errors.
- Internal Linking – Link Assistant generates internal linking suggestions directly in the WordPress editor. Find linking opportunities fast and add them easily to your content.
- Leveraging Image SEO – The Image SEO tool comes equipped with smart tags that help you customize and automate image attributes.
Let’s dive deeper into this last point in our next strategy.
3. Optimized Images Win Rich Snippets on the SERP
In addition to an influx of rankings and organic traffic, Skylark experienced another SERP win: rich snippets.
Rich snippets are enhanced search listings that display more information than the “blue link.” They can include customer ratings, recipe details, videos, etc.
For Skylark, images were the stand-out element on the SERP.
Here’s an example:
Images are a great way to get users to stop scrolling and click.
They help your search listing stand out from competitors without images, improving your clickthrough rate (CTR).
In June, Skylark won a record-high of 11.9K rankings with images.
Here’s how they did it:
- Uploaded a high-quality image of the book cover.
- Optimized the image filename.
- Wrote descriptive alt text to explain the image.
- Used on-page SEO to send additional signals about the web page’s content to search engines. This includes optimized H1s, body copy, and a URL slug with the International Standard Book Number (ISBN).
I would have also liked to see:
- Schema markup
- Image title tags
Despite these shortcomings, Skylark secured thousands of rich results, a welcomed addition to its SERP presence in 2024.
Why this matters:
SEO statistics reveal that rich snippets get 58% of all clicks.
For Skylark, book covers allow users to recognize the product they're looking for, generating clicks.
High-quality visuals on product pages can also lead to higher conversion rates, boosting sales.
Finally, it’s important to note that proper image SEO can help you rank in Google Images, where there are over 1 billion searches daily.
How to do image SEO:
This tutorial has 18 tips for optimizing your images.
In addition to the steps mentioned earlier (alt text, optimized filenames, etc.), you should also do the following:
- Compress the file for faster loading.
- Write captions when helpful.
- Use responsive images for a positive user experience (UX) regardless of device.
- Create an image sitemap.
- Implement structured data.
Tools for image SEO:
Streamline your image optimizations with AIOSEO’s Image SEO tool.
This feature allows you to automate important image elements using smart tags. You can set variables and generate image titles, alt text, and captions automatically.
If you’re an eCommerce, I also recommend using the Schema Generator.
This tool generates rich snippet schema, helping you win enhanced search listings on the SERP.
You can select product schema markup from the AIOSEO Schema Catalog, and the tool will format the structured data for search engines.
Then, you can add product details, like pricing, shipping information, and customer reviews.
You can also upload an image, encouraging search engines to generate rich results like Skylark.
Standout SEO Wins
Before we conclude, there’s an additional SEO technique worth mentioning at Skylark.
Building Trust: A “Who We Are” Page for Users and Google E-E-A-T
Skylark has a “Who We Are” page that introduces its team. It shares each member's personality and expertise, showcasing a diverse group of passionate bibliophiles.
You'll meet the owner, an international bestselling author, alongside members with credentials such as library science degrees and English doctorates. (There’s also Theo, a friendly dog who roams the shop.)
This approach serves a dual purpose:
- Connecting with Users: The casual, fun tone fosters a sense of community and authenticity. Users get a glimpse into the personalities behind the bookstore, creating a more personal connection than big-name competitors.
- Sending Google E-E-A-T Signals: Skylark's “Who We Are” page strengthens their Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) in Google's eyes. Highlighting team members' credentials demonstrates their knowledge and qualifications within the book industry. This boosts their niche authority and can be used as a positive ranking signal by Google's search quality raters.
Ultimately, this strategy elevates their “Who We Are” page from a standard introduction to an SEO win.
Tool: Author bios are a great way to showcase your team’s talent and optimize for Google E-E-A-T.
And with the Author SEO tool in AIOSEO, they’re easier to create than ever.
This feature includes user-friendly fields for credentials, topics you know about, a photo, and more.
You’ll also control which elements are displayed on the front end of your WordPress site.
Want tips for creating a killer bio?
Check out this article on how to write author bios that boost E-E-A-T.
Takeaways
In our analysis of Skylark Bookshop’s website, we've uncovered several key strategies that fueled their explosive traffic growth.
Now, let's translate these insights into actionable steps you can implement on your website.
Top 3 Strategies to Emulate
- Focus on content creation. Skylark's dramatic increase in content, particularly product detail pages, fueled its organic success. Ecommerce websites can replicate this strategy by building out an online shopping platform. For other websites, it's important to understand your target audience's interests and needs. These insights will help you develop content that resonates.
- Leverage automation to streamline your SEO efforts. Skylark likely leveraged programmatic SEO to scale content creation for its massive inventory. While this approach doesn't work for every business, automation tools provide a versatile solution to streamlining content creation. Explore how you can automate repetitive tasks like writing meta descriptions or image titles. The best SEO plugins come equipped with tools to streamline these processes.
- Optimize images to win rich snippets. Skylark's images were a key factor in securing rich snippets. Implement image SEO best practices, including high-quality visuals, descriptive filenames, and informative alt text. This increases your chances of grabbing user attention and getting clicks in search results.
Bottom 3 Strategies to Reconsider
- Disallowing indexing of key pages. Some of Skylark's landing pages are not indexable. Blocking search engines from indexing important pages on your website is like hiding your storefront from potential customers. If key pages are disallowed from indexing, they won't show up in search results. This can significantly hinder your website's visibility. AIOSEO makes it super easy to show or hide your content in search results. All you have to do is flip a switch.
- Not setting canonical URLs. Several of Skylark's pages do not have canonical tags. A canonical tag tells search engines which URL to use when similar content exists. This avoids confusion about which page to rank and prevents duplicate content issues. It's also an SEO best practice to include self-referencing canonical when you don't have duplicate content. AIOSEO can help you manage your canonical URLs in WordPress.
- Missing meta descriptions. Meta descriptions are short summaries displayed beneath your website listing in search results. While not a direct ranking factor, compelling meta descriptions can improve clickthrough rates. Craft clear, concise, and keyword-rich meta descriptions to entice users to visit your website. You can even use a meta description generator to write them for you.
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Grow Your Online Visibility and Organic Traffic With AIOSEO
Skylark Bookstore's growth journey is a powerful testament to the impact of a well-executed SEO strategy.
While their success involved dedication and resources, you don't need to navigate SEO alone.
AIOSEO can help you replicate Skylark's winning formula and lighten the load.
AIOSEO's comprehensive tool kit empowers businesses of all sizes to achieve organic traffic growth. It's trusted by over 3 million users and has thousands of 5-star reviews.
Here are some of the tools that can help you implement the strategies discussed in this case study:
- Search Statistics: Track your website’s organic performance with comprehensive, easy-to-understand reports. Search Statistics helps you monitor rankings and understand the effectiveness of your SEO over time.
- AI Title & Description Generator: Save time writing SEO titles and meta descriptions with the help of AI. With just a click of a button, you can generate unique metadata for any page on your website.
- Redirection Manager: Prevent humans and bots from getting lost when you move content or domains. Our Redirection Manager helps you easily choose and implement the best redirect type that preserves SEO.
- Image SEO: Turn on automatic image alt text and title attributes with a single click. You’ll save time from manual entries while helping users and search engines understand your images.
- Rich Snippets Schema: Win more rich results with AIOSEO’s user-friendly schema generator. Just pick the schema type you want, and we’ll format the structured data properly for Google.
- Author SEO: Create powerful author bios that showcase your experience and expertise. This add-on aligns your content with Google E-E-A-T guidelines and helps readers trust what you share.
