SEO SUCCESS STORIES

Black Pepper: From Browsing to Buying

Black Pepper, a beloved Australian women’s fashion brand that has a loyal and strong community ethos, partnered with StudioHawk to elevate its organic search presence. Over eight months, our SEO campaign delivered remarkable gains in keyword rankings, organic traffic, and revenue growth.

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302%

Total clicks increase (YoY, over 3 months):

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98%

Total impressions increase (YoY, over 3 months)

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715%

Top 3 keyword positions increase (Collection pages)

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About Black Pepper

Black Pepper is a much loved Australian clothing brand catering to women aged 50 and above. With a devoted customer base, Black Pepper blends style with connection, making every in-store shopping experience feel personal. Their customers aren’t just shoppers; they’re part of their brand.

Despite their strong retail presence and loyal customers, their online visibility was being underutilised, and the team saw an opportunity for growth through SEO and organic search strategy.

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The Need

Black Pepper’s website had untapped SEO potential - and we had some specific goals that we hoped to achieve through a sophisticated (it's StudioHawk...) SEO strategy:

- Expand its keyword footprint by 36.36%

- Increase page-one rankings by 108.33%

- Grow organic sessions by 10.49%

- Drive organic revenue growth by 130.77%

- Boost organic transactions by 205.87%

With these goals in mind, we designed a SEO strategy which tailored to Black Pepper’s target audience and business objectives.

Our additional work with providing workshops for the in-house Black Pepper team allowed them to feel empowered and provide us with support throughout the campaign. This collaborative approach has helped to lead to these results, which mat not have been possible otherwise due to a limited budget. As we continue to work with Black Pepper, we will continue to provide refresher training and additional workshops on different areas of SEO, to ensure that the site continues to grow.

StudioHawk Team

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The Plan

Our strategy focused on foundational SEO improvements, content expansion, and site architecture enhancements. By addressing technical seo limitations and creating valuable, targeted content, we aimed to build sustainable organic growth.

Key strategic initiatives included:

Site structure revamp: Implementing an information architecture (IA) by introducing new collection pages to capture high-intent, niche search queries.

Optimised content: Crafting engaging, SEO-friendly copy for product collections and enhancing internal linking to strengthen page authority.

Seasonal strategy: Launching audience-relevant campaigns such as a Mother’s Day Gifting Hub to capture timely search demand.

Collaborative training: Hosting workshops to equip Black Pepper’s internal team with SEO best practices, giving them the confidence to maintain and build on the SEO efforts.

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The Execution

IA Structure Overhaul

Black Pepper’s site structure had lacked 'depth', which was ultimately limiting their organic reach. The website had broad categories like "Tops" and "Pants," but failed to address specific, high-intent search queries.

We conducted an in-depth keyword analysis to identify niche opportunities where Black Pepper could rank competitively. Working closely with their internal team, we developed and launched over 100 new collection pages, each strategically optimised with metadata, keyword-rich descriptions, and internal linking.

This process required collaboration with internal stakeholders to ensure that the new collections aligned with inventory availability and customer demand. Our team provided forecasting data to demonstrate the revenue potential of these collections, securing buy-in from key decision-makers.

Content Strategy

To complement the new IA structure, we developed SEO-optimised content for collection pages. Each page featured well-crafted, user-focused copy both above and below the fold, enhancing engagement and search performance. Below-the-fold content incorporated strategic internal links to guide users toward products while reinforcing topical authority.

Given Shopify’s flat URL structure, internal linking was a crucial focus. Without a third subfolder, we leveraged on-page content and contextual linking to establish relationships between categories and improve discoverability.

Internal Linking Enhancements

To further strengthen internal linking, we collaborated with developers to implement an internal linking widget across all collections. This widget not only improved user navigation but also enhanced crawlability, ensuring that search engines could efficiently index and rank the new collections.

Seasonal Campaign: Mother’s Day Gifting Hub

Understanding Black Pepper’s audience and their shopping behaviours, we introduced a Mother’s Day Gifting Hub in April 2024. Despite limited development resources, this initiative performed exceptionally well, capturing valuable seasonal traffic and driving conversions during the lead-up to Mother’s Day.

SEO Education and Stakeholder Alignment

One of the campaign’s standout elements was the collaboration between StudioHawk and Black Pepper’s internal team. Recognising that SEO was a relatively new focus for the team, we provided ongoing training sessions to upskill their team on best practices, technical SEO, and content strategies.

These efforts paid off significantly—what initially required extensive buy-in and approvals became a seamless process, allowing for faster implementation of key initiatives. As a result, Black Pepper’s internal team could independently manage certain optimisations, compounding the campaign’s success.

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Conclusion

Black Pepper’s SEO transformation is a testament to the impact of technical improvements, content expansion, and team collaboration. By restructuring the site, and creating unique and relevant content for their audience, and fostering a culture of SEO awareness within the Black Pepper team, we created a sustainable SEO structure that will continue to deliver results.

With a stronger search presence and improved internal capabilities, Black Pepper is well-positioned for ongoing success.

Are you an online store in need of a tailored eCommerce SEO strategy? Not stress StudioHawk can take a look and see where SEO can help - get started with a free SEO audit.

302%

Total clicks increase (YoY, over 3 months):

A strong in-store reputation, but some serious online optimisation needed for this much-loved Australian women's clothing brand.

Black Pepper: From Browsing to Buying

Keyword Performance (SEMRush):

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