Start: a good product, but a "raw" SEO foundation
About the project
In 2022, the online store Sunshouse.com.ua approached us at SEOquick. It is not just a reseller but a factory that has been sewing men's jackets, coats and parkas for many years and selling them under its own brand through the site and marketplaces. The task was quite clear: bring the site to a level of stable sales from organic search, especially for competitive queries in the "men's jackets" and "men's coats" cluster.
The main problem was a weak link profile and generally weak organic traffic at the start.
When work began, the project had a picture typical of a manufacturing brand:
- the site was actively filling up with products, but the category pages lived "a life of their own": short texts, little value, no proper presentation of the assortment;
- a strong offline/brand factor (factory, experience, assortment), but this was barely "packaged" into SEO signals;
- internal linking was weak: a user landed in the jackets section and then "drowned" in filters and cards, without moving between seasons, styles and lengths;
- the link profile — mostly natural mentions and a bit of marketplaces, with no systematic work.
In fact, the strong manufacturer's site was losing to marketplaces and large online stores precisely at the level of semantics, structure and content.
The main challenge of the project
A strong offline brand and factory, but it was not "packaged" into SEO: thin category texts, weak internal linking, a minimal link profile. The manufacturer's site was losing to marketplaces.
The solution: a semantic core around the "men's jackets" cluster, repackaging categories into micro-clusters (season/style/length — one page = one intent), internal linking + structured data, and off-site work via directories and review sites.
Semantics and content audit: building the core around "men's jackets"
The first month was focused, per the plan, on on-page optimization.
We started with a content audit and assembling the semantic core across key directions:
- the general "men's jackets" cluster;
seasonality: winter, autumn, spring, demi-season, summer; - types and styles: classic, elongated, short, hooded, with fur, etc.
languages: RU + UA (men's jacket / men's jackets / куртки чоловічі / купити куртку чоловічу, etc.).
In the spec for the "Men's jackets" cluster we gathered dozens of high- and mid-frequency queries:
men's jacket, buy a men's jacket, куртки чоловічі, мужские куртки, купить мужскую куртку, чоловічі куртки, купити куртку чоловічу, etc.
Right away in the same file we set the structure of the future texts: blocks about assortment, materials, styles, price ranges, product-selection inserts and a micro-FAQ. That is, the semantics were immediately "stitched" into the future content, rather than just sitting as a list of keywords.
In parallel we ran an audit of existing texts:
which categories were underwritten, where texts were "watery", where there was no SEO description at all, and which pages cannibalized each other for similar queries.
Reworking categories: each page for its own micro-cluster
The next logical step — repackaging the category pages.
A large spec was prepared for the copywriter — a big document with sheets by page type:
"Men's Jackets", "Winter men's jackets", "Demi-season", "Autumn-Winter", "Classic", "hooded", "with fur" and so on.
We built the approach:
- One category — one clear intent
If the page is "Winter men's jackets", the text answers questions about warmth, fillers, moisture protection, temperature range, etc., rather than just "one more text about jackets". - Structured content for keywords
The spec includes blocks:- which models are in stock;
- which materials are used (fabric, insulation, lining);
- which styles and for which occasions (everyday, office, for the car, etc.);
- how the brand differs from competitors (service life, warranty, patterns) — taken directly from Sun's House's own advantages.
- Commercial meaning in the texts
We did not write "abstract SEO canvases" — the spec directly embedded phrases like:- "in our assortment you will find…"
- "you can choose a model for your height and body type…"
- "there are both basic models and trendy solutions…"
- Integration with the product grid
One of the tasks specified: "insert a table with 6 jacket names and prices…" — that is, part of the content worked as a mini-showcase right inside the SEO text.
As a result, each key page stopped being a "mandatory SEO description" and became a full entry point from search: for the query "winter men's jacket", a user landed straight on a page that explains, to the point, what the models are, how the insulation differs, what weather they are designed for and what the prices are.
Internal linking and structured data: connecting seasonality, styles and length
The next block of work per the plan — internal linking and structured data.
We prepared a separate internal-linking spec:
- from the general "men's jackets" categories — links into seasonal and style subcategories;
- cross-links between sections close in meaning (for example, "winter jackets" ↔ "winter elongated jackets" ↔ "jackets with fur");
- accent links from texts to specific selections ("see all winter jackets in black", "go to the elongated coats section", etc.).
The internal linking was done once and for all — through optimizing the filter categories.
This solved two tasks at once:
- Search: it is easier for the bot to understand the logical structure of the assortment and the connections between sections.
- Behavioral: the user does not hit a "dead end" but can move to a narrower or neighboring segment if the current option does not suit them.
In parallel we issued a structured-data spec to the developer: product markup, breadcrumbs, snippet improvements. For a clothing store this is critical — correct snippets with price, availability and rating help stand out against aggregators.
Off-site promotion: directories, reviews, forums
The first-month work plan lays out exactly this block:
- submitting to catalogs and directories,
- parsing catalogs and forums,
- finding review platforms.
The task was not just to "throw links around", but to:
- register the store in key Ukrainian directories and catalogs where users actually search for clothing stores;
- expand the brand's presence on review platforms — so Sunshouse.com.ua wouldn't look like a "lone" site but part of an ecosystem: catalogs, reviews, ratings, marketplaces;
- obtain a mix of branded and semi-branded mentions: queries like Sunshouse jackets reviews, Sunshouse coat, Sun's House clothing.
This formed a natural profile of links and mentions — logical for a manufacturer with history and a wide assortment.
Content plan and continuation of work
On-page optimization and category rework is not a one-off "campaign", so a separate content plan was made:
- which categories to write first (by priority of demand and margin);
- which topics to take to the blog (how to choose a jacket, how fillers differ, how to care for outerwear, etc.);
- how to use seasonality: warming up demand before the autumn-winter and spring seasons.
Thus, Sunshouse.com.ua gradually turned from just a product catalog into a content-and-commerce project, where the user not only sees cards but also gets answers to their questions.
Based on the work, we recorded improved positions for key clusters, especially in the men's jackets and coats section.
The positions report for the period May 23 – June 22, 2023 shows:
- the project developed a noticeable share of queries in the TOP-10 and TOP-20, and part of the semantics settled confidently in the TOP-3;
- the average monitored position holds around the middle of the first page/start of the second (the average-position chart moves down, i.e. toward improvement);
- for a number of priority queries the results reached TOP-1 to TOP-2 — for example, info-commercial queries such as
"men's drape coat", "men's jacket size chart", "men's jacket sizes" appeared in the top positions in Google Ukraine.
This matters: the monitoring included not only purely branded keywords but also commercial assortment queries, where Sunshouse.com.ua competes with marketplaces and large clothing stores.
| Promotion region | all of Ukraine |
|---|
Results
The positions report for May 23 – June 22, 2023 shows steady improvement in the men's jackets and coats cluster:
- a noticeable share of queries in the TOP-10 and TOP-20, part of the semantics in the TOP-3;
- the average position moves toward improvement (middle of the first / start of the second page);
- a number of priority queries ("men's drape coat", "men's jacket size chart") in the TOP-1–TOP-2 in Google Ukraine.
Source: the Sunshouse.com.ua positions report, May 23 – June 22, 2023. The monitoring includes not only branded but also commercial queries (competing with marketplaces).
Project team
The project was handled by the SEOquick team:
- Nikolay Shmychkov — SEO strategy (Deputy Director)
Full team and roles — on the About page.
What's next
A similar e-commerce case: SEO for the Belsta online store.
Have an online store or a manufacturer? The concrete next step is to get a semantics and structure audit.