Project 3
SEO Strategy & Website Refresh
Tools Used
GSC
GSC
SemRush
Webflow
Gemini
Wordpress
Overview
A two-part project combining a brand-level SEO strategy with a full website refresh onto a new CMS. Working alongside an external SEO expert, the goal was to identify and dominate organic search for key brand terms, then apply those learnings directly into the build of a refreshed website.
What we did
Used Google Search Console and SEMrush to identify pillar keywords across our brands, pinpointing content gaps and pages that needed to be created or internally linked to improve rankings for priority search terms. These findings fed directly into a Webflow website rebuild, where SEO best practices were baked in from the ground up
The Build
The starting point was the Ambe Home website, which was hosted on WordPress. Over time the platform had become a limitation — performance issues, restricted design flexibility, and a CMS that made it difficult to implement technical SEO correctly at scale. The decision was made to migrate to Webflow, which offered cleaner code output, better control over page structure, and a more maintainable foundation to build on.
Rather than treating the migration as a straight lift-and-shift, we used it as an opportunity to rebuild the site's SEO from the ground up. This meant going back to basics — auditing every page for correct H1 structure, ensuring heading hierarchies were logical and consistent, and reformatting page layouts to align with how search engines crawl and interpret content. New core pages were created to match our identified pillar keywords, ensuring the site had dedicated, well-structured content for the terms we wanted to rank for. Internal linking was built into the site architecture from the start rather than added as an afterthought, with each page designed to support and reinforce the others.
We deployed localised schemas for each of the Stoke website store variants
The results have been great! Stoke now holds top rankings in both traditional search engines and LLMs for fireplace showroom queries in key regions — with at least one confirmed instance of appearing as the first result surfaced by an AI-driven search response. This kind of visibility in LLM outputs is something most businesses aren't yet optimising for, and getting ahead of it early has been a genuine competitive advantage.
These learnings are now being carried forward into a full new website redevelopment currently underway — an opportunity to apply everything from pillar keyword architecture through to schema implementation and Webflow best practices from day one.
The details of that project will be available to discuss during the hiring process.
A screenshot of Stoke Fireplace Studio being recommended first in Gemini
A redacted snap shot of the top of the new Marketing Report
From there we moved into schema markup — an area that became one of the more significant technical wins of the project. Schema allows you to communicate directly with search engines about what your website is, what it does, and who it serves. Rather than leaving search engines to interpret the site, schema gives them a structured and explicit set of signals to work with. This was where we started to develop a stronger understanding of the different schema types available and how they could be applied strategically across our various websites depending on their purpose and audience.
We then applied these learnings to the Stoke Fireplace Studio website, where the challenge was more nuanced. Stoke operates as a retailer with multiple store locations across different regions, which creates a local SEO challenge — each regional variant of the site needed to be understood by search engines as a distinct local entity. We implemented local business schema across each store region, correctly identifying each location's address, service area, and business type. Crucially, we identified our niche positioning as a fireplace showroom specialising in gas, wood, and electric fireplaces — a specific enough classification that it allowed us to compete effectively in local search rather than getting lost in broader retail categories.
What I Learned
What I learned This project changed how I think about websites entirely. SEO taught me that a website is only as effective as the strategy behind it — understanding your audience, your keywords, and your content structure before you build is what separates a website that ranks from one that doesn't.
Working on the Webflow rebuild gave me hands-on experience with the technical side of SEO that often gets overlooked — hreflang tags, country indexing, and schema markups aren't visible to users but have a significant impact on how search engines understand and serve your content.
It also introduced me to the growing importance of AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) — and how the way content is structured today will determine how it's surfaced by AI-driven search experiences tomorrow.
Skills Demonstrated
Keyword research
Technical SEO/AEO
Hreflang & Localisation
Schema markup