Unilever - SEO Case Study

Using SEO and Usability Techniques to Increase the Quality of Online Applications

The Challenge

The objective for Unilever was to build brand awareness and transfer the visibility and brand equity from the physical shelf to the digital shelf. The goals for organic and paid search were to dominate the number one position for the respective brand term in Australia and build brand awareness and equity in their websites for conceptual terms, in addition, to increase listings and ensure that anyone searching for Unilever brands would be quickly and easily directed to the relevant campaign sites. The challenge was to achieve these objectives across a diverse range of products, including Flora, Omo, Lipton, Rexona, Dove, Impulse, Sunsilk, Vaseline, Continental and Streets ice cream who each have a dedicated website.

The Strategy

Search Engine Optimisation

Outrider began by conducting a full analysis of the various Unilever websites from an organic SEO perspective and implemented a range of improvements. These included identifying appropriate keywords and phrases, providing content recommendations and developing relevant linking strategies. In addition, a dedicated site optimisation whitepaper was produced to provide the top SEO principles to utilise as a guide when creating and developing websites which took into consideration Unilever’s guidelines, including the use of flash and images, which can be more challenging to optimise.

Pay Per Click Marketing

The pay per click strategies were to strengthen Unilever’s online presence and compliment its offline strategy by bridging the gap. This included developing search campaigns for specific offline campaigns and delivering against brand values and target markets. For example, Rexona Men’s ran a ‘Ricky’s Million Balls’, promotion which entailed an offline campaign in which sporting balls were given away at various sporting events to evoke brand awareness. Search was successfully used to drive people to the dedicated website, providing searchers with details on the locations that the ball giveaways were occurring encouraging them to attend.  Other successful campaigns include Sunsilk Designer Range and Continental side dishes

The Results

Since engaging Outrider, Unilever has enjoyed successful results for both paid search and SEO. This can be contributed to SEO & the paid teams collaborating closely and implementing the most pertinent search strategy to achieve the best results for Unilever’s business goals. 

The SEO strategies implemented has driven an overall traffic volume increase for Unilever across all brands by 151%, in addition, ranking for all brand terms attained the desirable number one position within the search engines for the relevant brand websites.

Paid search also successfully delivered with all search campaigns achieving a top three position for brand and conceptual terms. In conjunction with a high click through rate (CTR) for the search ads for the conceptual terms illustrating the brand, product and relevance. For example Sunsilk ads drew high CTR for terms such as ‘hair styling’ and ‘latest hair styles’ which fit in well with Sunsilk’s offline campaigns.

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