When a global high-end skin care brand came to us, their website looked beautiful but barely existed in organic search. The site was built to impress designers, not to reach the people actually searching for solutions to their skin concerns. For a brand at this price point, that is a serious problem. Customers shopping for premium skin care do their research. They compare ingredients, read about formulations, and look for proof that a product is worth the investment. With roughly 300 SKUs across multiple product lines, there was no shortage of products to discover. The problem was that the content was thin, the page structure was narrow, and the CMS had no real SEO foundation underneath it. What followed was one of the most rewarding projects we have worked on: a complete website and SEO strategy that guided the brand’s internal team and agency of record through a site rebuild, producing a 454% increase in first-page rankings and doubled online sales.
Our role was to develop the strategy, not to write the code or press publish. We identified the gaps, designed the architecture, mapped the content plan, and flagged every technical issue that needed to be resolved. The agency of record and the brand’s internal team carried that strategy into execution. This case study walks through what we found, what we recommended, and why it worked. If your site is heavy on visuals but light on content, or if your pages focus only on products without addressing why a customer needs them, there is a lot here that applies to your situation.
What Was Holding the Brand Back Before We Started?
Before recommending a single content page or flagging a single technical issue, we needed a clear picture of what the site was doing and what it was not. The audit revealed four connected problems that compounded each other.
The site was visually prioritized to the point where written content was almost absent. Each product page had a short description, maybe a few ingredients, and a call to action. That was it. For a high-end brand where a single product might cost over a hundred dollars, that is not enough to build confidence. Search engines read text, not photographs, and the brand’s beautiful imagery was doing nothing to help pages rank.
The page count was also severely limited relative to the size of the catalog. With around 300 SKUs, the brand had a tremendous amount of ground to cover, but no content addressed the concerns, questions, and conditions that drive actual search behavior. People do not open a browser and type “buy vitamin C serum.” They type “why is my skin so dull” or “best products for hyperpigmentation.” None of those queries had a landing place on this site.
Beyond content, the CMS itself created structural problems. Internal linking was inconsistent. URL structures lacked clarity. Page hierarchy was flat, which meant search engines had no way to understand which pages mattered most or how topics related to one another. A well-planned information architecture is the backbone of any high-performing site, and this one did not have it.
“A lot of brands make the mistake of treating their website like a digital brochure. It looks great, but if there is no content that connects your products to the problems people are actually searching for, you are invisible. Search engines need signals, and those signals come from structured, relevant written content that demonstrates topical authority.” – Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing
How Did We Identify What the Site Was Missing?
We began the engagement with a thorough content gap analysis. Our goal was to map every topic the brand should own in search versus the topics they were actually showing up for. Working alongside the agency of record, we made sure our audit accounted for the brand’s positioning and tone so that any new content we recommended would fit seamlessly with the broader creative direction. The gap was larger than expected.
Here is what the gap analysis revealed across the site’s core topic areas:
Content Gap Summary at Start of Engagement
| Topic Area |
Pages Existing |
Expected Pages (Based on Competitor Analysis) |
Gap Type |
| Product category pages |
8 |
8 |
None |
| Ingredient education pages |
0 |
22 |
Critical |
| Skin concern / condition guides |
0 |
18 |
Critical |
| Routine and how-to content |
0 |
14 |
Critical |
| Comparison and buying guide content |
0 |
10 |
Critical |
| FAQ and problem-solution pages |
2 |
16 |
Depth |
We used this data to build a topical map for the brand’s primary subject areas: active ingredients, skin concerns, skin types, product formats, and application routines. For each cluster, we identified the supporting topics that needed to appear alongside the primary subject. A page about retinol, for example, needed to address cell turnover, collagen production, sensitivity, application frequency, and related ingredient alternatives. Without that surrounding context, the page could not connect with the people searching for that information.
We also ran a content gap analysis against the top-ranking competitors in the skin care category. Across every competitor, we saw consistent topic combinations the brand was missing: skin type matching content, before-and-after expectation setting, side effect and compatibility guidance, and cross-category product recommendation content. These were not just missing pages. They were the bridge between a customer’s problem and the brand’s solution, and they did not exist.
How Did We Design the Website Architecture Strategy?
Once we understood the gap, we designed a site structure strategy built on a topic cluster model. The recommendation was to create a clear hierarchy where pillar pages anchored broad categories, with supporting content pages branching off them and linking back. Every page type had a defined role, and every internal link placement was specified with purpose. We handed this architecture to the agency of record and the brand’s development team as a detailed blueprint they could execute against.
“Website architecture is not just about navigation menus. It is about how pages pass authority to each other, how search engines move through your site, and whether your content tells a coherent story about what you know and who you serve. When we design a topic cluster structure, we are creating a blueprint for a network of trust signals, not just a list of pages to publish.” – Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing
Here is how the new site hierarchy was structured across primary skin care clusters:
- Pillar Page: Skin Concern Hubs: One authoritative page per major concern (hyperpigmentation, acne, aging, dryness, sensitivity) that defined the concern, explained causes, and linked to supporting content and relevant products.
- Supporting Pages: Ingredient Education: Standalone pages for each key active ingredient, including how it works, who it is for, how to use it, and which concerns it addresses.
- Supporting Pages: Routine Guides: Step-by-step routine content organized by skin type and concern, linking back to both concern hubs and individual product pages.
- Supporting Pages: Buying and Comparison Guides: Content that helped users choose between product formats, formulations, and ingredient combinations with direct links to the relevant products.
The strategy also included a detailed technical audit with prioritized recommendations the development team could act on directly. The CMS restructure required fixes that had been quietly working against the site for years. We documented redirect chains, canonical tag errors, duplicate content created by product filtering, inconsistent internal anchor text, and missing structured data. None of this is exciting work, but it is the kind of thing that either unlocks or blocks every other effort. Our content strategy services always account for the technical layer because even excellent content will struggle if the site structure is working against it.
Technical SEO Recommendations Delivered to the Development Team
| Issue |
Pages Affected |
Priority |
Recommended Resolution |
| Thin product page content |
All product pages |
High |
Expanded descriptions with ingredient context and skin concern matching |
| Missing meta structure |
Site-wide |
High |
Custom title tags and meta descriptions written for each page type |
| Flat internal linking |
Site-wide |
High |
Rebuilt with topic cluster architecture and contextual anchors |
| Duplicate content from filters |
Category pages |
Medium |
Canonical tags applied and filter parameters excluded from indexing |
| No structured data |
Product and FAQ pages |
Medium |
Product schema and FAQ schema implemented |
| Redirect chains |
38 URLs |
Medium |
Consolidated to single 301s pointing to correct destinations |
How Did We Build the Content Strategy That Connected Products to Real Problems?
The content strategy was the most detailed phase of the project. We worked closely with the agency of record to make sure every page recommendation matched the brand’s voice and visual standards while doing the SEO work it needed to do. We could have suggested general skin care articles that sounded credible but served no real purpose. Instead, every content brief we produced specified a clear position in the topical structure, a target query type, and a logical path connecting the reader to a product.
Our professional keyword research process started each content brief. We mapped every target keyword to the buyer stage it represented and to the product category it should support. Awareness-stage content (what is niacinamide, what causes uneven skin tone) pointed toward ingredient and concern hubs. Consideration-stage content (niacinamide vs. vitamin C for hyperpigmentation) pointed toward specific product lines. Purchase-stage content (best serum for dark spots) pointed directly to product pages.
Each content brief we produced for the brand followed this structure:
- Topic mapping: Each subject was mapped to the related terms and concepts that needed to appear alongside it before a word was written, based on analysis of what appeared in top-ranking content for that query.
- Intent matching: The format, depth, and structure of each page was determined by the intent behind the primary search query it was built to answer.
- Product integration: Recommendations were written into the content naturally at the points where a user would logically want guidance, not inserted as ads.
- Internal linking plan: Every piece was published with a pre-defined set of internal links that connected it to the appropriate pillar page, related content, and product pages.
“When we say content should be user-focused, we mean it should be built around what a person actually needs at each stage of their decision. The mistake most brands make is writing what they want to say rather than what the customer needs to hear. Your ingredient education page is not there to show off your formulations. It is there to answer the question that brought someone to the search bar in the first place.” – Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing
We also built depth requirements into every brief. Covering a topic at the surface level does not build authority, it just adds pages. Each concern hub and ingredient page brief specified that the final content needed to cover causes, mechanisms, compatible ingredients, application guidance, expected timelines, and common mistakes. That depth is what search engines reward and what users actually find valuable. For more on how this approach plays out in practice, our resource on why content strategies built around keywords miss revenue goes into detail on the topic.
What Did the Results Look Like and Why Did They Happen?
The results accumulated over the course of the engagement rather than arriving all at once. That is a normal pattern for this type of work. Authority builds gradually as pages accumulate, internal links multiply, and search engines begin associating the site with a broader range of relevant topics.
Performance Outcomes After Strategy Implementation
| Metric |
Before Engagement |
After Engagement |
Change |
| First-page keyword rankings |
Baseline |
+454% growth |
454% increase |
| Online sales |
Baseline |
2x |
100% increase |
| Indexed content pages |
~10 content pages |
80+ content pages |
700% increase |
| Organic sessions (monthly) |
Baseline |
Significant growth quarter over quarter |
Ongoing improvement |
The 454% growth in first-page rankings came from a combination of factors working together. The topical coverage work meant that new content immediately connected with the right query clusters. The site architecture work meant that link authority passed cleanly from new content pages to product pages. The technical fixes removed the drag that had been holding the site back.
The doubling of online sales traced back to the same structural logic. When someone searching for a solution to a skin concern lands on a page that explains their concern, teaches them about the relevant ingredients, and connects them to the right product with relevant context, the purchase decision becomes much easier. We did not change the product. We changed the path to it.
“The brands that win in organic search are the ones willing to invest in being genuinely useful at every stage of the customer’s research process. That means publishing content that has no sales pitch, just real information. When you do that well, and you connect it all with clean architecture, the commercial results follow. This project is one of the clearest examples we have seen of that principle working at scale.” – Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing
What Should You Take Away From This?
The core lesson from this project is that a beautiful website is not the same as an effective one. If your content only describes your products without addressing the concerns that lead people to seek them out, you are missing most of your potential audience. Search engines need context to rank your pages, and users need guidance to trust your brand enough to buy.
The combination of well-structured content, clean site architecture, and sound technical SEO is not complicated in concept. What makes it work is the discipline to do it thoroughly, connect every piece to every other piece, and stay patient while authority builds.
If your site is in a similar position to where this brand started, the path forward is probably more clear than it feels. It starts with an honest audit of what you have, what you are missing, and how the two connect.
The Emulent Marketing team works with brands across a wide range of categories to build this kind of structured, durable organic presence. We have done it for product brands, service businesses, healthcare providers, and B2B companies, and the same principles apply across all of them. If you are ready to stop relying on paid traffic to carry your entire acquisition strategy, we are ready to develop a plan that works on its own. Contact the Emulent team to talk about your SEO strategy.
