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      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market

      Author
      Author: Andrii Lehkobyt
      Optimizer
      Reviewer
      Head of SEO
      2023-03-29

      We published our first case on this project in September 2021: Promoting a premium car rental website in the US.

      In the current part of the case, we will describe the results for 2022 and early 2023.

      Client

      A premium car rental company (Land Rover, Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, Porsche, Maserati, BMW) in New York.

      Our task

      To improve positions and target organic traffic across New York City for general topic queries: luxury car rental/premium car rental and specific car brands/models.

      Additional objective: to monitor and maintain the company's reputation on review sites.

      Input data

      Niche and competitor analysis

      At the beginning of the second part of our case, it should again be noted that this niche is particularly competitive; the sites ranking in the top 10 are:

      1. International car rental companies such as enterprise.com, Avis.com, hertz.com, alamo.com, budget.com, sixt.com:
      2. # Target Domain Rating Domains Total Backlinks Total Keywords Total Traffic
        1 enterprise.com 81 53913 4931316 613787 9167660
        2 avis.com 81 39322 4216420 298289 3443712
        3 hertz.com 83 40458 4830913 440496 4788351
        4 alamo.com 76 14615 702854 168056 1187893
        5 budget.com 78 36214 860470 273153 3832380
        6 sixt.com 78 19262 1068869 246365 1244315
      3. Car search and rental aggregators such as kayak.com, turo.com, yelp.com:
      4. # Target Domain Rating Domains Total Backlinks Total Keywords Total Traffic
        1 kayak.com 84 98181 32691189 3615885 21256396
        2 turo.com 81 29959 300903 299725 1861238
        3 yelp.com 95 1072897 182523794 32691995 220384728
      5. Local premium car rental companies (direct competitors) such as gothamdreamcars.com, veluxityexoticcarrental.com:
      6. # Target Domain Rating Domains Total Backlinks Total Keywords Total Traffic
        1 realcar.nyc 35 475 2339 2400 5494
        2 gothamdreamcars.com 39 2900 34011 6570 16157
        3 veluxityexoticcarrental.com 4.2 193 1570 3008 5837

      List of project works for 2022

      Technical optimization

      1. Our experts have upgraded the engine, resulting in faster website performance. As of today, the loading speed according to pagespeed.web.dev:
      2. Mobile devices — 61/100;
      3. PC — 98/100.
      4. We have implemented functionality to filter the car catalog by body type: SUV, Sedan, Convertible, EV.
      5. Our team has updated the design and layout.
      6. Our optimizers have audited the mobile app, providing recommendations on how to optimize it (ASO).

      Semantic core and content plan

      1. The project team expanded the semantics by adding new query groups for such brands to the promotion: Mercedes Benz, Land Rover, Porsche.

      These pages are ranked by common query groups: car brands + rental, car brands + rental nyc/new york.

      Query positions for some car brands:

      Porsche

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 1

       

      Land Rover

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 2

       

      Filtering by body type: SUV, Sedan, Convertible, EV. These pages are ranked by common query groups: car type + rental, car type + rental nyc/new york.

      Positions by query for some vehicle types:

      Electric

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 3

       

      2. On all pages of the website we have implemented an information block FAQ, which provides answers to possible user questions on car rental. This block is displayed in the output and has had a positive effect on the CTR of the snippet.

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 4

       

      3. Following the expansion of the company's fleet vehicles, our experts have taken 6 new car cards into promotion, including:

      Cadillac Escalade

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 5

       

      BMW 840i convertible

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 6

       

      External optimization

      For successful website promotion, the quality of external links is more important than their quantity. Due to high competition in the niche, quality backlinks are a key factor in success.

      Work with toxic backlinks

      Considering the constant appearance of low-quality links, our specialists review the backlinks every 2-3 months and reject toxic ones using the Google Disavow Tool.

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 7

       

      Link building

      To build links, we used the following methods:

      1. Outreach - a "white hat" approach to increasing the number of links to a website, which involves finding quality web resources and reaching agreements with owners for placement. This is one of the most challenging but effective ways to increase the number of donors.

      Examples of guest posts placements using outreach:

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 8

       

      These articles are ranked for thematic queries and generate organic traffic.

      Example of Link Insertion placement (adding links to existing articles) that rank for informational thematic queries in the top 3:

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 9

       

      As you can see, this page ranks for 1.6K keywords and generates nearly 5K organic traffic. Placement in such articles provides not only maximum impact for position growth but also referral clicks.

      2. Exchanges - the method involves placing articles on quality platforms using link exchanges. Unlike Outreach, this method simplifies the search for platforms since the exchange already has agreements with them, and we can choose a platform from the list considering the necessary criteria and cost.

      3. Directories and aggregators - the method is used to diversify the link profile, increase trust, and attract additional audience.

      Examples of directories where we conducted placements:

      4. Crowd marketing is a link building method that involves placing links on thematic forums and is used to increase the diversity of the link profile.

      The high quality requirements for the link mass are the reason for the large number of different methods for its growth. The more high-quality links from various sources lead to the website, the more natural the link mass will be. This ensures more effective and safe promotion.

      Work with Google My Business

      Working with the company's profile on Google My Business helps increase the visibility of local businesses on Google Maps and in organic search results, thereby increasing website traffic and conversion.

      In addition to basic profile optimization, we:

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 10

         

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 11

       

      As a result, the number of interactions with the company's profile keeps growing:

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 12

       

      The number of website visits from the company's profile is 30-40 per day, which is considered a very good indicator:

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 13

       

      Reputation management

      To promote our clients' websites, we utilize SERM optimization, which helps enhance the business's reputation online. Considering that the website falls into the YMYL category, we pay special attention to E-A-T factors such as expertise, authority, and trust.

      Our specialists consistently monitor the company's reputation through branded queries and generate positive reviews on third-party review platforms. As a result, the top 10 search results for the brand look like this:

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 14

       

      Project results

      Position dynamics for queries by semantic groups:

      Luxury Car Rental NYC

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 15

       

      Premium Car Rental NYC

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 16

       

      Luxury Car Rental Near Me

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 17

       

      Position dynamics for specific car models and brands:

      Range Rover Evoque

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 18

       

      Range Rover Sport

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 19

       

      Porsche Panamera

       

      98% of queries in Top 1 on a highly competitive topic in the US market 20

       

      Plans for 2023

      1. Launch the promotion of a similar website for Miami on a separate domain.
      2. Expand the semantic scope and create new landing pages to generate targeted traffic.
      3. Create a blog to generate informational traffic.
      4. Launch the promotion of a mobile application on the App Store and Google Play.

      Conclusion

      Despite the high competition in the car rental niche in the USA, our team managed to achieve top positions in search results for a small niche website.

      Factors contributing to the achieved results

      1. High level of technical optimization of the project.
      2. Expansion of the website's structure to cover the entire target semantic scope.
      3. Growth of high-quality backlinks.
      4. Effective management of the company's profile on Google My Business.
      5. Reputation management for the brand online.

      Project team members

      Project manager: Kateryna Tymoshenko

      SEO expert: Andrii Lehkobyt

      Link builder: Yevhen Fedchenko