SEO Turnaround Case Study: Organic Traffic Up 171%

What happened

We found why traffic fell and kept the post on its original URL. We updated it there and resubmitted it to Google.

Organic traffic rose 171% in the 90 days after the June 2024 update. The post reached first place for "kitchen lighting trends" in July 2024.

The post before the update

The client published a kitchen lighting trends post in 2023. It brought steady traffic. Its content aged, and its Google rankings fell.

Monthly organic traffic to the post fell 61% from January to May 2024. Source: Google Analytics.

Why the post kept its original URL

When traffic fell, the client planned a new post on a new URL. The old URL was still indexed and still ranked, but its content was out of date.

How we assessed the post

We compared the post's traffic and keywords against its publish date. We also checked that Google still indexed the URL.

The URL still ranked, even with "2023" in it. The decline matched the post's age, and Google did not need a new URL to reassess it.

The fix

We updated the post in June 2024 and again in February 2025, both times on its original URL. We cut outdated trend references and wording tied to a single year. After each update we resubmitted the post in Google Search Console.

The original URL kept its place in Google's index and the links pointing to it. In early 2025 the post slipped in the rankings for "kitchen lighting trends," so we updated it again in February.

Results

• Organic traffic up 171% in 90 days. Organic traffic rose from 844 to 2,285 sessions. Source: Google Analytics organic sessions, June 19 to September 16, 2024, against the prior 90 days.
• Almost six times the traffic in the first month. Organic traffic rose from 120 to 713 sessions in the 30 days after the update. Source: Google Analytics.
• First place for "kitchen lighting trends." The post moved from tenth to third within a week of the update, and reached first place in July 2024. Source: Semrush rank tracking.
• Best year in 2024. The post drew 7,248 organic sessions in 2024, its highest year, on a URL that still contains "2023." Source: Google Analytics.
• Peak month after the second update. Organic traffic reached 882 sessions in March 2025, the month after the February update. Source: Google Analytics.

A diagnostic comes first

This work started with a diagnostic of the post's traffic, keywords and index status. Our AI search case study covers what AI says when someone asks about a business. More results sit in our case studies.

Our SEO services start the same way. To talk about your site, book a meeting.