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Ironfish

Rebuilding Digital Authority Through Technical SEO

WP CreativeApril 2023 - August 2023Product Manager
SEOTechnical InfrastructureReal EstateGrowth

Summary

Diagnosed and fixed critical technical SEO issues blocking a real estate investment firm from ranking. Achieved +100% organic traffic growth by addressing site architecture, page speed, and content strategy.

The Challenge

Ironfish, a real estate investment firm, had invested heavily in content but saw minimal organic traffic. Despite quality content, they were invisible in search results. The site was slow, had indexing issues, and lacked technical SEO foundation.

My Approach

  • Conducted comprehensive technical SEO audit using Screaming Frog and Google Search Console
  • Identified critical issues: slow page speed (5.8s load time), broken internal links, missing schema markup
  • Prioritized fixes by impact: Core Web Vitals, crawlability, indexing, then content optimization
  • Implemented systematic monitoring and testing framework
  • Trained team on SEO best practices for sustainable growth

The Solution

Executed a three-phase technical SEO overhaul: (1) Performance optimization - reduced load time from 5.8s to 2.1s through image optimization, lazy loading, and CDN implementation, (2) Site architecture - fixed 200+ broken internal links, implemented proper URL structure, added XML sitemaps, (3) Content enhancement - added schema markup for rich snippets, optimized meta descriptions, improved internal linking strategy.

Measurable Impact

+100%
Organic Traffic

Doubled organic search traffic within 4 months

-64%
Page Load Time

Reduced from 5.8s to 2.1s, improving user experience and rankings

+127%
Indexed Pages

Increased from 230 to 522 pages properly indexed by Google

+85%
Keyword Rankings

More keywords ranking in top 10 positions

Key Takeaways

Technical SEO is foundational. Great content can't rank if the site infrastructure is broken.

Page speed matters more than we think. -64% load time correlated with +40% engagement.

Systematize fixes: Created a checklist that prevented future technical debt.

Visibility compounds: Each fixed page improved the authority of connected pages through internal linking.

Technologies & Tools

WordPressGoogle Search ConsoleScreaming FrogSchema.orgCDNImage Optimization