UK Bathroom Store is an online retailer of bathroom furniture, fixtures and fittings to individual customers and the trade. The company stocks products from a large number of branded and unbranded suppliers at different price points and in different styles, and supplies them across the UK.

What Was the Problem?

When UK Bathroom Store contacted novi.digital (back when we were SEO 24/7), they were concerned with their search performance relative to larger businesses in their industry, and wanted to improve performance and, more importantly, drive up revenue.

During initial discussions we worked with them to pinpoint their already-existing USPs (including extensive knowledge of their product range available to their customers, quality products at every price level, and adaptable service, working with their customers to provide better support) and developed a plan to showcase these USPs using organic SEO and paid advertising PPC programs.

UK Bathroom Store say: We initially approached novi.digital as were struggling to improve our organic performance and needed some help with our PPC campaign which had become too much for us to handle internally. We were also starting to suffer penalties from a google update that we just didn’t know how to tackle.

Initially we didn’t know anything about novi but decided to meet them as they were based locally at Lancaster University. Having that access was very appealing to us.

How Did We Resolve It?

As well as creating a PPC plan built around the Google Shopping platform (which would be updated on a regular basis according to changes in search trends and available products), novi began by identifying top priorities and implementing systems to eliminate fraudulent clicks costing money for the PPC campaign.

We also began producing new content – tailored, rich content highlighting the company’s flagship brands (often using multiple marketing streams to direct potential customers to the site) as well as a revamped and revitalised blog with articles specifically targeting trade and individual customers. We also implemented on-site SEO targeted to develop the site’s search performance.

We worked with the site’s web development team to implement and maintain structured e-commerce microdata, allowing customers searching for a particular product to instantly check availability from the search result screen. We also took steps to ‘future proof’ the site’s CMS to ensure that this microdata wouldn’t lose its value as search engine algorithms develop over time.

UK Bathroom Store say: After an initial meeting Aaron looked over our site but focussed on the Google penalty.  I was sceptical that anything could be done to rectify such a serious problem but he was confident.

The team got to work and sure enough they had the problem corrected and the penalty lifted.

Since then we have worked closely with novi on all aspects of the site from on and off site SEO, conversion rate optimisation, improving the user journey and much more.

What Were the Outcomes?

By incorporating CRO techniques into our work, we made visitors more likely to stay, browse, and buy, which not only drove up revenue but, over time, improved the site’s search performance.

Below you’ll see two graphs which demonstrate how the site’s performance has improved by comparing the same month in 2015 and 2016.

The first of these measures the overall number of sessions – how many times the site has been visited. With a 140% increase in sessions from 2015, it’s clear that UK Bathroom Store now draws the attention of more potential customers than before.

Arguably even more impressive is the second graph, which measures the increase in revenue generated for the site in the same timeframe – July 2015 used as a baseline for July 2016’s performance.

With upwards of 140% increase in revenue, the site is performing even better per visit than it was in 2015. This improvement in performance can be attributed to a combination of several factors:

• CRO-focused work meaning that each visitor found is more likely to become a customer than previously
• Enhanced site content driving more purchases per customer
• Structured metadata drawing people who already know what they want to buy to this site rather than a competitor.

UK Bathroom Store’s site now has a much stronger online presence, both overall and in comparison to its major competitors, than before we began. Revenue has risen steadily and revenue streams are stronger.

The composite graph above shows the percentage improvement in a representative month of 2016 compared to the same timeframe just a year before using four key metrics; pages per session (which is a strong indicator of visitor engagement with the site, as they browse more pages and do more reading) up to 110% of the previous year’s performance, total transactions (also up to 110% of previous performance).

There are also two other metrics; we can see that the number of new users has increased, and we can also see that the number of sessions overall is up to 116% what it was before – increasing by more than the increase in new users, showing strong client retention.

UK Bathroom Store say: Their approach is different from the other agencies that we have used in that they take a much deeper interest in the business and goals we are trying to achieve rather than just focus on the ranking of a particular search term. It’s a strategy that we feel sets them apart and gives much better long term results.

What’s Next?

We continue to refine and develop our SEO work, improving onsite SEO, adding additional content to support new brands and models, and refining site performance to encourage visitors to become customers.

In many cases we work with third party developers, web design companies and PR agencies (amongst others) to improve the results of our work and ensure that website continues to evolve and adapt to the ever-changing landscape. To this day we continue to work closely with Gary Forster, the company’s MD, providing accurate data and feedback as well as direct support for his overall marketing plan.

We continue to look to the future; working as closely as we do with the company’s Managing Director, we’ve updated our plans several times as his own stated goals for the company have changed, adjusting our strategies to take into account new ambitions and new data. Our digital marketing strategies continue to evolve.

At novi, we don’t rest on our laurels; there’s always something new we can do in support of our clients, and over our long history with UK Bathroom Store that’s been proven time and again as we achieve one goal and set our sights on the next.

UK Bathroom Store say: One of Novi’s biggest strengths is the depth of their team.  Depending on your specific need they have an expert in house to deal with that and my advice is to use the whole team wisely; the results will speak for themselves.