In June 2013, we added a new project to our portfolio: Crystal Chocolatier. The task assigned to our web agency and SEO company was to build a website that will make it to the first results on Google and generate business leads to the chocolate factory. It was a challenge as Crystal Chocolatier was, back then, a small chocolate factory located in a Lebanese mountain serving mostly individuals in the neighborhood. Wanting to expand their reach to the region, they decided to have an online presence that targets retailers. So our job was to create and optimize a website that targets chocolate shops in the MENA region searching on Google for a chocolate provider. Challenge accepted!

A year after developing the website and setting up the SEO strategy for specific countries, we witnessed an increase in traffic of around 350%. About 88% of these visits were generated by Google and other referring sites. For those that are not familiar with the term, referrals are a source of traffic coming from manually placed links on other websites. Furthermore, less than a year later, the website’s visits witnessed a growth of 65%.

The challenge wasn’t simply to generate traffic, but to attract quality visits of potential business leads. Therefore, the keywords our SEO experts carefully chose corresponded to the mostly searched expressions on Google by chocolate shops. Today, the new factory is competing with established brands, like Patchi and Souchet, by appearing on Google’s first page of search results. Terms like "chocolate factory Middle East" and "chocolate Lebanon" became the main source of visits to the website in several targeted countries. Consequently, traffic from the entire region increased, for example, visits from UAE grew by 200%.

As a result of this positioning on Google and the increase of relevant traffic, more businesses started contacting the chocolate factory to request their products. Crystal Chocolatier experienced a growth of more than 100% in leads directly from the website. The number of phone calls and emails from prospective clients also increased since the SEO strategy’s implementation.

Google recently updated their search algorithm to make mobile-friendliness a ranking signal. So, to maintain their ranking, the factory’s website was amended to adapt to mobile screen sizes. Today, Crystal Chocolatier reached their goals by competing with well-known brands. So, when done properly, SEO helps businesses achieve their business objectives.

Here’s the power of SEO! Contact us now to create your own success story.