{"id":1946,"date":"2021-04-26T07:56:03","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T07:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seobuddy.com\/blog\/?p=1946"},"modified":"2021-04-26T08:15:55","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T08:15:55","slug":"my-seo-journey-sam-davidson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seobuddy.com\/blog\/my-seo-journey-sam-davidson\/","title":{"rendered":"My SEO Journey: Sam Davidson from batchusa.com – How to key in on current trends with custom landing pages to grow your organic traffic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My SEO Journey is a new series where entrepreneurs and Indie makers will share their honest SEO Journey filled with failure and success, and most importantly proven results. Episode #11 features Sam Davidson from Batch.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sam<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Batch<\/a> began in 2013 exclusively as a subscription box company. Back then, we wanted to feature the best artisan-made products of our hometown (Nashville, TN). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our hope – since this was still our side hustle – was to work our way up to 200 monthly subscribers by our third month. Due to a lot of hard work, we reach that within 30 days and had 1,000 subscribers by our third month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bigger than subscriptions, however, was the possibility to convert our small eCommerce company to a full-fledged gift business, focusing on artisan products that reflect a sense of place. To this end, we opened a brick-and-mortar retail store (since closed due to COVID-19) and line of corporate gifts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m proud to say that while we’re still based in Nashville, we source products from over 20 American cities and work with over 400 small business vendors (more on that later). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are on a mission to save small businesses. So many have closed or been reduced in scope since the pandemic began and we’ve worked hard to feature their products to our customers and ship gifts all over the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our hope is to continue to grow our eCommerce and corporate gift businesses to continue to support these hard-working entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admittedly, at Batch<\/a>, we are just now (nearly 8 years into running this business) getting around to really focusing on our SEO game. Due to the pandemic, we were forced to shut down our physical retail store and focus entirely on our eCommerce and corporate gifting business. Even during COVID-19, we grew those lines of business by over 2.5x!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was all done in-house, with no outside assistance. In fact, we stopped paying for Google Ads entirely when the pandemic started and still grew our organic search results!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Search<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Why did you stop Google Ads?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We noticed that the small amount ($300 or so) we were spending on AdWords each month wasn’t accomplishing much. It didn’t seem to impact traffic, was not leading to direct sales and did not help us generate leads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That data, plus budget tightening due to the pandemic, led us to cut back on that spending and work instead to drive traffic organically. In retrospect, this worked, but it did increase the manual labor needed to build and maintain so many landing pages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worth it? Yes. Easy? No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Content Strategy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Domain<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

While we do plan to hire a professional in 2021, along with spending money on Google Ads, I\u2019m happy to share what worked for us in 2020. It involved a lot of hard work, time spent focusing on content, and a team that was passionate about bringing our brand to more people. For us, every new customer that finds us via search is one step closer to accomplishing our mission to save small businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because we source products and sell themed gifts from several cities across the country, we wanted to build targeted landing pages with direct calls to action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, we wanted to target corporate gift buyers who need gifts for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n