From Coding Challenges to Google’s Front Page: A Case Study of Website Revamp and SEO Optimization for a Taxi Company

Theme: Taxi Business, Earnings in Auto Industry, Auto Business Investments

Challenge (Initial Obstacles):

  • Google Ads Campaign Issues: Advertising campaigns faced rejection, and the website failed moderation, hindering ad launches.
  • website Errors: Various errors occurred on the website, including the generation of third-party code resulting in pop-up ads.
  • Lack of Prior SEO: The website lacked previous SEO optimization efforts.

Objective: Resolve the viral code issue on the website and optimize it for correct display in search results across two language versions.

Region: Ukraine, Kyiv

Duration: May 2023

Виконані роботи:

  • Full website scan for viruses.
  • Rectification of code vulnerabilities.
  • Development of the website from scratch on CMS WordPress, preserving the old design.
  • Migration from the .rent domain to .ua.
  • Concatenation of the domain with and without www.
  • Competitor and niche analysis.
  • Compilation of the semantic core.
  • Writing and integration of meta-tags.
  • Configuration of robots.txt and sitemap files.

In May 2023, a taxi service provider and auto business opportunity facilitator encountered several challenges that significantly limited its online potential. Google Ads campaigns faced moderation issues, hindering effective promotion. Additionally, the website was vulnerable to various errors and included third-party viral code, leading to the appearance of spammy pop-up ads. The lack of prior SEO optimization complicated the attraction of organic traffic and website conversion. The company sought our agency’s assistance to address these challenges and improve its online presence.

Initially, a series of meticulous checks and scans were conducted on the website to identify the reasons for the appearance of third-party code and viral scripts. Scans were performed both through the website’s hosting and third-party programs. Results showed that the hosting was reliable and had no issues. Although we managed to symptomatically address code vulnerabilities, the problem was not fully resolved, and viral pop-up forms reappeared shortly after. Furthermore, the website still did not pass Google’s verification, causing serious concerns about its security.

Considering the serious problems identified on the website, the decision was made to update the website and migrate it to the WordPress content management platform. Despite this, we fully accommodated the client’s desire to retain the existing design, replicating it on the new platform, and updating the logo, and certain website blocks as per the client’s preferences. One significant change was the migration of the website from the .rent domain to .ua, as the client had a registered trademark, positively impacting the website’s indexing and ranking in search engines. Additionally, we implemented the concatenation of the domain with and without “www” to highlight the main domain name for search engines.

Implemented SEO Solutions:

In parallel with the WordPress website development, we conducted on-website SEO optimization, including a detailed analysis of competitors in the automotive business and investment niche. This analysis helped us better understand the market, allowing us to choose the optimal semantic core for each page of the website. The correctly chosen semantics, in turn, enabled us to configure meta-tags accurately for the two language versions of the website, fully aligning with the client’s service theme and capturing the attention of the target audience. This contributed to improved organic positioning and the attraction of new clients.

 

Finally, we developed and configured robots.txt and sitemap.xml files for the updated website. Subsequently, we conducted a full website crawl to check for errors, ensuring that the website was optimized and free of unforeseen issues. Additionally, we tracked the website’s positions in search engines for important keywords:

 

 

Conclusions:

As a result of our actions, we not only successfully addressed third-party code issues on the website but also achieved impressive results in terms of our client’s ranking on the first pages of Google’s search results. After completing the work, the website started functioning correctly and ceased displaying spammy advertisements. Importantly, the website passed moderation for Google Ads and significantly increased the number of impressions, recognizing it in first positions in Google’s search results.

Outcome:

  1. The updated website began operating correctly, and the viral code issue was resolved.
  2. 55% of keywords are in the top 10.
  3. A rapid increase in organic traffic, with 25% of website traffic being organic.