Ecommerce apparel organic traffic up 20% YoY despite volatile SERP updates
A niche women’s athletic wear and swimwear brand was losing both branded and non-branded traffic to Google’s algorithm and SERP changes, while well-funded competitors raised the bar. A keyword gap analysis guided briefs for the category page updates, and a roadmap ranked by opportunity replaced the ad hoc queue.
- Source
- Semrush estimates, full-year 2023 vs full-year 2024
- Analytics
- The client’s own analytics access ended with the agency engagement
- Source
- Semrush growth report, worldwide organic traffic
- Comparison
- Full-year 2023 vs full-year 2024
The challenge
Branded and non-branded traffic were both slipping
A well-known but niche women’s athletic wear and swimwear brand was losing organic traffic as Google changed both its algorithm and the layout of its search results. Search Console showed branded and non-branded traffic both declining, on top of the brand’s usual seasonal dips.
Well-funded competitors and a fast-changing SERP were raising the bar for visibility at the same time. And responding was slow: updating a category page meant waiting for developer time, so SEO work happened whenever a slot opened up rather than where the search demand was.
The approach
From an ad hoc queue to an opportunity-ranked roadmap
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1
Gap, competitor, and taxonomy analysis
Mapped the non-branded searches competitors ranked for and the brand didn’t, analyzed where competitors outranked it, and reviewed the site’s category taxonomy against that demand. In categories like hiking, that meant competing for visibility with retailers the size of REI and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
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2
Category page briefs
Wrote briefs to guide the category page updates toward the demand the gap analysis surfaced. The pages carried too much copy, so the briefs called for condensing it, making it clearer, and adding internal links.
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3
A roadmap ranked by opportunity
Replaced the ad hoc request queue with a roadmap prioritized by the data from that analysis, so limited developer time went to the pages with the most search demand behind them.
The results
Winning shoppers who used to land on a competitor
Non-branded traffic, the demand the gap analysis and category briefs were aimed at, more than doubled and grew from about a third of organic traffic to more than half.
| Metric | 2023 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-branded traffic | 54.4K | 125.3K | +130% |
| Non-branded share of organic traffic | 31% | 53% | +22 pts |
| Keywords in positions 1–3 | ~2.1K | 2.9K | +802 |
| Keywords in positions 4–10 | ~5.3K | 7.2K | +1.9K |
| Keywords in positions 11–20 | ~11.0K | 12.3K | +1.3K |
| Organic traffic, full year | 197.4K | 236.2K | +20% |
- Source
- Semrush estimates, full-year 2023 vs full-year 2024
- Keyword counts
- 2024 totals with Semrush’s year-over-year change; 2023 counts are derived from those
Non-branded traffic and rankings
Non-branded traffic grew from 54.4K to 125.3K, and rankings improved at every level: 802 more keywords in the top three positions, 1.9K more in positions 4–10, and 1.3K more in positions 11–20.
- Source
- Semrush non-branded traffic and position changes
- Comparison
- Full-year 2023 vs full-year 2024
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