Growing an Australian Mushroom Niche Website from Zero to 3K

This case study examines the SEO journey of a niche website in the mushroom industry, targeting an Australian audience. Starting from scratch in December 2022, the website has grown organically to 3,000 monthly users, with a goal of reaching 10,000 users per month. This growth has been achieved without an initial backlinking strategy and through a meticulous focus on technical SEO, on-page optimization, and strategic content planning.

Initial Challenges and Strategy

When SEO efforts began, the client had a limited budget, requiring a phased approach:

1. December 2022 Website Development The primary focus was on setting up a solid technical foundation.
2. February 2023 Sales Generation The first wave of organic traffic led to initial sales.
3. Mid 2023 Website Design & UX Enhancements Investments were made in improving the site’s aesthetics and user experience.
4. 2024 Content Expansion & Category Optimization A refined content strategy was implemented to support stable rankings.

Despite these efforts, the site experienced a minor traffic decline after Google’s March 2024 update. However, swift corrective actions, including user intent optimization and structured product categorization, stabilized the rankings.

Key SEO Strategies Implemented

1. Technical SEO & Indexing Optimization

A thorough technical audit was conducted, leading to multiple optimizations:

• 404 Cleanup & Redirects
  • Extracted 404 errors from Google Search Console GSC and identified URLs with external backlinks.
  • Redirected high value 404 pages to the most relevant existing URLs.
• Crawling & Indexing Fixes
  • Analyzed ‘Discovered – currently not indexed’ URLs from GSC.
  • Used Google App Scripts to extract HTTP status codes and identify active URLs that were not indexed.
• DNS & Robots.txt Review
  • Ensured no staging sites or unwanted subdomains were indexed.
  • Verified that robots.txt returned a proper HTTP 200 status.
• Canonical Optimization
  • Prevented pagination series from being canonicalized to the root page.
  • Addressed unnecessary canonicalization of parameter driven URLs.
• Disavow File Review
  • Removed unnecessary disavows where no manual action was issued.
• Rendering & Live URL Inspection
  • Used Google’s Live URL Inspection tool to confirm correct rendering across page templates.
• Parameter Cleanup
  • Analyzed Shopify generated filter parameters that created excessive URLs.
  • Used robots.txt to manage crawling efficiently.

2. Content Strategy & On Page SEO

• Category Page Optimization
  • Reorganized all products into well defined categories.
  • Optimized category pages with targeted keywords and user friendly layouts.
  • Applied ‘noindex’ tags to thin or duplicate pages.
• User Intent Enhancement
  • Structured content to match search intent, ensuring users quickly found the products they sought.
  • Implemented clear CTAs and internal linking to improve engagement.
• Duplicate Content Management
  • Fixed duplicate content issues where canonical tags were missing.

3. Organic Backlink Growth & Future Link Building Plans

Initially, no backlinks were manually built, yet the website naturally acquired 133 backlinks. Recognizing the importance of authority building, the next step involves securing high quality links from country specific sites and authoritative platforms like Yahoo, Forbes, and MSN.

Results & Future Goals

• Achieved
  • Grew from zero to 3,000 monthly users.
  • Established stable rankings despite a minor Google update impact.
  • Successfully competed with aged domains in the niche.
• Next Steps
  • Expand link building efforts.
  • Continue refining content based on user behavior.
  • Aim for 10,000 monthly users through sustained SEO efforts.