Home / Case studies / SEO/GEO · Pet food

Case study · SEO and GEO

Google only found them by name. Today they're No. 1 without it

A Spanish natural dog and cat food brand, present in five European markets, trusts us to break out of its own brand universe: to show up when someone searches for food for their dog, not once they already know the brand's name.

883
first-page keywords in Spain, up from 563 a year earlier
48 %
of the site's total traffic now comes through organic, the top channel of all
No. 1
on generic searches in its sector that don't mention the brand
Let's talk about your SEO See the SEO service
01 · The starting point

A brand its customers love and everyone else can't see

The initial audit lands an uncomfortable diagnosis: the domain ranks for none of the generic searches in its business. Not dog food, not cat food, not kibble. Anyone who doesn't already know the brand has no door to find it through.

Under the hood, the store carries years of growth with no eye on search: hundreds of errors, more than a thousand pages excluded from Google with no rationale, and every product sharing the same description. Even the categories speak the company's language, not the customer's: they're called "products," not "food."

What the audit finds
  • No ranking on the sector's generic searches: only people looking for the brand find it
  • 688 404 errors and 1,340 pages excluded from search with no rationale
  • The same description duplicated across every product
  • Inbound links almost entirely branded: authority pushes no generic term
02 · The strategy

Speak the searcher's language, not the catalog's

01 Recover the generic searches Keyword research by language and categories renamed by search intent: where it said "products for cats" it now says "cat food." Unique titles and descriptions per page, headings put in order, errors and exclusions fixed.
02 Content built for search engines and for AI A blog with an editorial plan by species and an SEO/GEO focus: each article answers a real question and links to the category or product that solves it, so Google and AI search engines find both the answer and the path to purchase.
03 Editorial authority, not just links Our own articles published in specialist trade media, written by us and linking to the pages competing for the generic searches. Authority stops pushing only the brand's name.
03 · The numbers

Five markets, the same method

The annual report's comparison: first page of Google in each market, one year against the last. And the searches that matter, the ones without the brand, out in front.

  • No. 1 on generic searches for wet cat food and hypoallergenic dog food
  • Organic is the site's top channel: 48% of all traffic
  • 259 pages of the site ranking on the first page of Google
ES Spain: from 563 to 883 on the first page The home market adds 320 new first-page keywords in a year, counting only searches that don't mention the brand.
FR France: from 139 to 246 The second market nearly doubles its first page and takes No. 1 across much of the grain-free search universe, the heart of its category.
PT Portugal: from 53 to 69 A smaller, steadier market: it owns its brand and keeps winning generics, with the next batch waiting just below the first page.
IT Italy: 362 on the first page in its first year in the report The market that joins last grows faster than any other: the full catalog optimized in Italian and new terms landing straight in the top positions.
UK United Kingdom: a work in progress, and we say so The most competitive market moves slowly: early positions in the top 10 and a base that's growing. The report tells it exactly as it is, no gloss.

First page: positions 1-10 on Google · annual and quarterly report comparison · SEO tool on the domain

a year ago today Spain: from 563 to 883 first-page keywords Spain 563 883 France: from 139 to 246 first-page keywords France 139 246 Portugal: from 53 to 69 first-page keywords Portugal 53 69
First-page keywords by market, one year against the last · annual report comparison
563 883 1,170 923 start of the series year-end a quarter later the next one
Spain: the full first-page series, with the quarter that dips included · annual and quarterly reports
04 · What the reports don't show

The quarter that dips gets shown too

Ranking curves don't climb in a straight line. There's a quarter where Spain drops from 1,170 to 923 first-page keywords, and the report says so in those words, not with a trimmed axis. Just as it says the United Kingdom is moving slowly, because it is.

And when a campaign on another channel spikes direct traffic for two months, the report doesn't claim that peak: it separates what the campaign brought from what search brings, which is back to being the top channel the following month. Measuring right is worth more than looking good.

Does your brand show up when people aren't searching for it by name?

Tell us where you stand in a 25-minute conversation, free of charge. You'll leave knowing whether we can help and where we'd start.

Let's talk

Another international SEO case: ecommerce logistics across four markets →

See all projects →