At a glance
- Client: Online fine-jewellery store, name kept private
- Service: Editorial link building to a money page
- Publication: Sarasota Magazine, a US city lifestyle title with 11.1K referring domains
- Placement type: Labelled partner feature, a buyer’s guide
- Went live: July 2026
The challenge
Between March and July 2026, the store’s US ranking keywords fell from 18,110 to 7,478.
Most of the losses were weak positions on pages 6 to 10, but the money pages were exposed too. The brand needed authority pointed at the pages that sell, not just the homepage.
What we did
- Matched search intent. We wrote a buyer’s guide that answers the questions shoppers ask before they buy, the same intent the client’s category page targets.
- Right audience. A lifestyle magazine with an affluent local readership, the people who actually buy fine jewellery.
- Linked to the money page. One branded link to the homepage and one descriptive link straight to the key category page.
- Transparent placement. The feature is clearly labelled partner content, as reputable publications require. Its value comes from relevance and authority, not from hiding what it is.
The results
| US organic (Semrush) | July 2026 | October 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top-3 keywords | 841 | 1,262 | +50% |
| Top-10 keywords | 2,061 | 2,864 | +39% |
| Total ranking keywords | 7,478 | 10,458 | +40% |
The decline stopped in July, and rankings grew every month from August to October. The biggest gains were at the top of page one, where clicks and sales happen.
An honest note on attribution
Recoveries usually have more than one cause, so we don’t claim the whole recovery as ours.
What we can show is that authority was pointed at the right page at the right time, and the top-3 rankings that matter most grew by half in the following three months.
Lessons for e-commerce brands
After a ranking drop, many stores build links to the homepage only. Category and product pages are where revenue lives, so that’s where authority should go. Google’s guide to SEO for e-commerce sites covers how those pages are evaluated.
Want the same approach for your store? Start with a free SEO audit, explore our link building services, or go back to all case studies.
Data: Semrush US database, snapshot of 20 October 2026. Client identity and the article URL are private. The live placement is shown on request on a private call.