What we had before the work
Belsta is an online store of quality home footwear — slippers and travel shoes in genuine leather, eco-leather and textile for the whole family. 15 years on the market, own production, a leading position in its niche.
The niche is tricky: home footwear is seasonal with a low average order value and heavy marketplace competition. A large share of demand is branded and long-tail category, so non-brand traffic grows slowly and sensitivity to Core and Product Review Updates is above average.
The project arrived in March 2023 for an audit. The site wasn't 'at zero', but it was losing rankings and traffic — primarily because of two algorithm updates back to back.
| Metric (start, March 2023) | Value |
|---|---|
| Average monthly traffic | ~9,000 visits (Ahrefs) |
| Traffic structure | branded dominates the share |
| Trend | drop after the March 2023 Core Update and Product Review Update |
| Link profile | low quality, needed cleanup |
Source of starting data: Ahrefs for the Belsta domain (March 2023).
The project's main challenge
The problem wasn't a single factor but their overlap: the site dropped from a content-focused Product Review Update and a general Core Update at once — on a weak link profile that added no trust. Simply 'building more links' here is dangerous: it could amplify the negative signal.
Work done
Schema brief
So cards and categories feed data correctly into snippets and stand out against aggregators.
Speed audit
Footwear is browsed mostly on mobile — mobile speed directly affected bounce.
Content-manager brief
Many products 'duplicated' and competed with each other — we removed cannibalisation and raised relevance (a direct answer to the Product Review Update).
Developer brief
Technical cleanliness as the base, without which content and links don't work at full strength.
Link strategy
Competitor backlink audit, a pool of platforms, outreach and content per each — trust growth without exchange risks.
Organic doubled in 6 months
The content work paid off by July. The link strategy launched by April and its effect showed in September 2023 — traffic went up.
| Metric | Before (Mar 2023) | After (23 Oct 2023) |
|---|---|---|
| Organic traffic from Google | ~9,000 visits/mo | ~23,000 visits/mo |
| Growth | — | ×2.5 (+156%) in 6 mo |
| Links built | — | 90+ (social programs, directories, PR) |
Source: Google organic search data / Ahrefs for the Belsta domain, March–October 2023.
Team and project parameters
Work period: March–October 2023 (6 months). Region: Ukraine. The project was led by Nikolay Shmychkov — SEO strategy (deputy director, SEOquick). Full team and roles on the 'About' page.
What's next
A similar case in an adjacent e-commerce niche: SEO for the Sunshouse.com.ua clothing store. Want to gauge your store's potential? The concrete next step is an e-commerce audit.