Photoshoots with flying dresses | SEO promotion / US
This case study outlines the search engine optimization strategy for Santorinidress.com, a company specializing in photoshoots with flying dresses. We will cover the initial situation, key stages of work including technical audit, semantic core development, and link building, and showcase the results achieved in terms of traffic, rankings, and conversions.
About the Client and Goals
- Company Profile: Santorinidress organizes photoshoots with «flying dresses» in various countries. The company prides itself on being the pioneer of this full-service concept and the original designer of the dresses, which have been widely copied by competitors.
- Niche & Region: The company operates in the luxury travel and photography niche, targeting high-income tourists globally. Key competitors are noted in Dubai and Turkey. The primary target audience consists of affluent female tourists, aged 15 to 60+, often celebrating special occasions like birthdays, proposals, weddings, or honeymoons.
- Project Goals: The main goal was to improve search engine rankings and increase organic traffic, with a focus on Google. The client sought professional SEO management after discovering that previous efforts had been inactive for a year.
Stages of Work
Our work was structured in several key phases, from foundational analysis to ongoing optimization and link building.
1. Comprehensive SEO Audit
An in-depth audit was conducted on July 29, 2022, to identify technical, content, and commercial weaknesses.
Key Problems Identified:
- Technical Issues:
- Images with 400 server response codes were present in the sitemap.
- The robots.txt file required updates to disallow indexing of faceted navigation URLs (e.g., filters by price, color).
- Multiple pages used H1-H6 tags excessively.
- The site structure and URL hierarchy were not SEO-friendly (e.g., …/santorini-prices instead of …/prices/santorini).
- Canonical tags were needed for several blog posts and location pages to resolve content duplication.
- Commercial Factors:
- The website lacked dedicated «About Us» and «Contacts» pages.
- Contact information was incomplete, and Schema.org microdata for contacts, breadcrumbs, and FAQs was missing.
- Content:
- While most content was unique, it was not optimized according to a clear SEO strategy. New optimized articles were recommended.
- Meta tags (Title, Description, Keywords) and H1 tags were not optimized for target queries.
- Backlink Profile: An analysis revealed a list of low-quality donor domains that needed to be disavowed to avoid Google penalties.
2. Semantic Core and Site Structure
- Semantic Core: A semantic core was developed, focusing on key service queries such as «outdoor maternity photoshoot,» «best things to do in santorini,» and «photographer in greece».
- Site Structure Overhaul: A new, logical site structure was planned to improve user navigation and search engine crawling. This involved creating new landing pages and blog articles organized by locations (Santorini, Dubai, Italy, Mexico), photoshoot types (Pregnancy, Love Story, Family), and informational topics (Best Restaurants, Hotels, Things to Do). The implementation was planned in 25 distinct stages to systematically expand the site’s content footprint.
3. On-Page Optimization and Implementation
- Meta Tag Optimization: Unique, optimized Title, H1, and Description tags were created based on the new semantic core. A template was developed for generating these tags for new location pages (e.g., «Flying Dress Photoshoot on [Location Name] — Santorini Dress»).
- Content Development: A content plan was created, requiring 27,300 characters of new text to fill the newly structured pages. Technical specifications for copywriters included instructions for keyword integration and internal linking.
- Internal Linking: A strategic internal linking structure was implemented, connecting new blog articles and location pages to relevant service pages to distribute link equity.
4. Off-Page SEO: Link Building
A consistent link-building campaign was launched to enhance the site’s authority.
- Donor Selection: High-quality donors were selected based on metrics like Ahrefs DR, Moz DA, and organic traffic. Examples of placements include devdiscourse.com (DR 77), luxuo.com (DR 67), sunnewsonline.com (DR 74), and github.com (DR 96).
- Link Profile Growth: The number of referring domains grew steadily throughout the campaign.
- Baseline (July 2022): 104 Linking Domains
- October 2022: 114 Linking Domains
- May 2023: 179 Linking Domains
- August 2024: 242 Linking Domains
Results
The systematic SEO efforts produced significant growth in organic traffic, keyword rankings, and conversions.
1. Growth in Keyword Rankings (Google USA)
The website achieved Top-3 rankings for numerous high-volume keywords. Many queries moved from lower positions into the Top 10 and Top 3.
Ranking Dynamics (USA, Selected Keywords):
| Keyword | Aug 2022 | Aug 2024 | Change |
| santorini flying dresses | 2 | 1 | +1 |
| santorini photoshoot dress | 2 | 1 | +1 |
| flowy dress photoshoot | 8 | 4 | +4 |
| santorini photoshoot | 8 | 6 | +2 |
| best photographers in santorini | 18 | 10 | +8 |
| photographer santorini greece | 26 | 18 | +8 |
As of September 2024, the website holds stable #1 and #2 positions for many core queries like «santorini dress» and «flying dress photography».
2. Organic Traffic and Conversions
Organic traffic demonstrated substantial year-over-year growth. For example, comparing January-June periods, traffic increased from 11,460 users in 2022 to 20,423 users in 2023.
Conversions followed a similar positive trend. Comparing the same six-month period, conversions grew from an unrecorded baseline in 2022 to 2,558 in 2023.
Total Conversions (Jan-Aug):
- 2022: 1,729 (Aug-Dec data only)
- 2023: 3,380
- 2024: 3,504
Year-Over-Year Traffic Comparison (Sample Months):
| Month | Traffic 2022 | Traffic 2023 | Growth |
| January | 1,567 | 3,060 | +95% |
| March | 1,993 | 3,339 | +68% |
| June | 3,197 | 4,114 | +29% |
