SEO Audit and Migration Case Study: Star Group
SEO Audit and Migration Case Study: Star Group
Star Group, one of New Zealand’s leading hospitality groups, came to Somar Digital to assist with the SEO transition resulting from the merger of Kāpura and Joylab.
Tasked with preserving and enhancing their SEO equity during this transition, Somar Digital performed an in-depth SEO audit and developed a comprehensive 301 redirect strategy to safeguard existing keyword rankings and preserve link equity.
Initial Discovery Session
Between Kāpura and Joylab there were 53 venues with multiple domains, ranking for relevant keywords. Somar’s job was to assist Star Group so that all of their hard-earned keyword rankings transferred to the domain: stargroup.nz. During the initial discovery session, we discussed their key needs and pain points:
- Client’s Needs: Seamless SEO migration to the new stargroup.nz site.
- Significant Pain Points: Potential loss of SEO rankings and traffic during the domain consolidation.
Comprehensive SEO Audit
To achieve Star Group’s objectives, we conducted a comprehensive SEO audit. The audit focused on several critical areas:
- Technical SEO Audit: Analysed the technical health of the existing kapura.co.nz, joblab.co.nz websites and associated individual venue websites, identifying opportunities for SEO improvements and potential pitfalls.
- 301 Redirect Map: Developed a meticulous 301 redirect strategy to ensure old URLs redirected correctly to new ones, preserving SEO equity.
- Keyword Research and Backlink Analysis: Reviewed keyword rankings and backlink profiles for both Kāpura and Joylab venues to retain and enhance SEO value.
SEO Audit Findings
Our SEO audit revealed several key areas for improvement:
- Optimise Google Business Profiles: Ensured all venue profiles were up-to-date and optimised for local search.
- Keyword Strategy: Identified new keywords to target and improve existing keyword rankings.
- Schema Markup: Implemented schema markup to improve search engine understanding of the site content.
- Technical SEO Improvements: Addressed issues such as site speed, mobile optimisation, and structured data.
Recommendations and Implementation
Based on our findings, we provided and implemented several recommendations:
- Recommendations:
- Optimise Google Business profiles.
- Develop and implement a comprehensive keyword strategy.
- Integrate schema markup for better search engine understanding.
- Address technical SEO issues identified during the audit.
- Implementation Steps:
- Conducted extensive keyword research.
- Optimised Google Business profiles.
- Applied schema markup.
- 301 redirects map - retain backlinks and keyword rankings
Outcomes
Keyword Rankings
Ranking for more keywords increases a website's visibility, driving higher organic traffic from diverse audiences. This boosts conversion potential, reduces reliance on a few high-performing keywords, and improves brand awareness.
With Somar's help Star Group managed to achieve 701 keywords in the top 10 rankings.
Domain Authority
Domain Authority (DA) score is a metric that predicts how well a website is likely to rank on search engine result pages (SERPs) and provides a benchmark for evaluating the overall strength and SEO performance of a domain compared to competitors.
Star Group's DA score reached 41, indicating high authority. This score reflects strong backlinks, quality content, and good overall SEO practices.
Sustained SEO Performance Improvement
Maintained and improved keyword rankings, enhanced visibility, and established a strong foundation for future SEO growth. The SEO work Somar did is designed to provide in-depth information to inform Star Group going forward.
Somar Digital's SEO tools and expertise focuses on sustained growth and adaptive strategies, ensuring the site consistently meets the evolving needs of its audience and search engine algorithms.