How a Clean Skincare Brand Scaled Organic Visibility to 2.63M Impressions and 23.9K Clicks in ~Six Months
Brand & Market Context
Moon and Skin is a clean, science-first skincare brand competing in a fiercely saturated DTC landscape. The search results for high-intent queries—like routines by skin concern, ingredient education, and product comparisons—are dominated by retailer marketplaces, publisher “best of” lists, and heavyweight incumbents with deep backlink profiles. Before engagement, the site’s organic footprint was small, traffic was inconsistent, and most non-brand queries simply didn’t surface Moon and Skin within the first several result pages. The mandate was clear: build an SEO engine capable of compounding growth without sacrificing product authenticity or on-site UX.
Diagnostic Findings
We kicked off in late April 2025 with a comprehensive audit of Google Search Console data, template performance, and crawl/indexation patterns. The prior six months showed 80 clicks and 24.3K impressions, with a 0.3% CTR and average position of 70.1—a classic sign of weak topical coverage and limited eligibility on mid- to bottom-funnel keywords. Our crawl analysis surfaced duplication across parameterized URLs, thin PDP copy, inconsistent canonicalization, and a lack of structured data on key templates. Internally, content hubs existed but weren’t connected: editorial posts seldom passed authority to commercial endpoints, and the navigation hierarchy hid important discovery paths.
From this, we set a simple, measurable objective: expand topical coverage 10×, improve average position by at least 30 spots, and translate new visibility into sustained click growth by fixing CTR drivers (title/meta, schema, SERP features).
The Growth Blueprint
A custom three-track plan aligned technical clarity, scalable content, and durable internal links.
1) Technical Overhaul and Crawl Optimization
We consolidated variants with strict canonical rules, cleaned up parameterized paths, and rebalanced sitemaps to emphasize “money” pages and semantically rich guides. Robots directives were tightened to prevent crawl waste. Core Web Vitals improvements on primary templates stabilized LCP and CLS, which aided recrawl rates and ensured new pages were discovered and evaluated quickly. We added Product, FAQ, and HowTo schema where appropriate, increasing rich-result eligibility and giving search engines clearer context about Moon and Skin’s product line.
2) Content Architecture and Topical Expansion
We re-mapped the information architecture around concerns → routines → ingredients → products. This made discovery intuitive for users and sent stronger topical signals to search engines. PDPs were upgraded with problem-solution framing, use cases, before/after expectations, and ingredient substantiation. Editorial content became a strategic acquisition layer: evergreen skincare education, ingredient explainers, and routine builders targeted specific intents and funneled readers to PDPs through contextual CTAs and inline cards.
3) Programmatic Content Scaling
To accelerate coverage without bloating editorial bandwidth, we introduced programmatic templates for long-tail demand: routines by skin type and concern, ingredient combinations, and product-led FAQs. Each template carried consistent modules (benefits, how-to, risk/contraindications, related products) and an internal linking scaffold that routed authority back to priority PDPs and hubs. The effect: a rapidly growing surface area of relevant pages that still felt cohesive, useful, and on-brand.
Performance After ~Six Months
From Apr 24, 2025 → Oct 25, 2025, results were transformative:
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Total Clicks: 80 → 23,900 (+29,775%, ≈299×)
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Total Impressions: 24,300 → 2,630,000 (+10,723%, ≈108×)
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Average CTR: 0.3% → 0.9% (+0.6 pp, 3× relative)
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Average Position: 70.1 → 34.3 (↑ 35.8 places)
Trajectory explained. The first six to eight weeks reflect discovery: impressions began climbing as new hubs and cleaned-up sitemaps made it easier for Google to crawl and index pages. Clicks lagged—as expected—until titles, meta descriptions, and structured data improvements took effect. A mid-cycle dip corresponded with canonical pruning and page consolidations; while short-term visibility softened during re-evaluation, it set the stage for cleaner, more stable rankings. The subsequent rise shows impressions and clicks moving in tandem, with CTR gains indicating that our SERP real estate became more persuasive (richer snippets, tighter titles, better alignment with query intent).
What the metrics mean. The jump to 2.63M impressions signals dramatically improved eligibility across a wider set of topical queries, including many we previously didn’t appear for. The advance to 23.9K clicks confirms that visibility is translating to traffic, not just impressions. Moving average position by nearly 36 places unlocked mid-page 1 and top-of-page-2 territory for many queries, which is where incremental CTR improvements pay outsize dividends. The CTR lift—from 0.3% to 0.9%—reflects both better snippet presence (thanks to schema) and deliberate copy testing in meta elements.
Key Drivers of Success
Technical Clarity and Efficiency
By removing redundant paths and tightening canonical/robots hygiene, we freed crawl budget for content that matters. This reduced index volatility and made new or updated pages “stick” faster. Performance improvements contributed to faster recrawl and improved user metrics, both of which correlated with steadier ranking trajectories.
Rich Schema Integration
Product and FAQ schema increased the chance of enhanced SERP features, which both lift CTR and improve perceived authority. On ingredient explainers and routine guides, structured data helped search engines understand relationships among entities—skin concerns, ingredients, and products—so Moon and Skin could appear in a broader set of semantically related results.
Programmatic Content Deployment
Programmatic templates let us address long-tail intent comprehensively: routines for niche concerns, ingredient compatibility guides, and “how-to” sequences covering at-home application steps. Because each template reused quality modules and linking patterns, we could scale quickly while preserving editorial standards and UX cohesion. The internal link scaffold routed authority from informational pages to PDPs, reinforcing commercial relevance without resorting to spammy tactics.
Topical Depth and Authority Signals
We organized clusters so that head terms sat atop a lattice of mid- and long-tail pages. This depth clarified expertise to both readers and algorithms. Cross-linking reduced orphaned content and communicated semantic proximity: ingredient pages connected to routines, routines to products, and products back to ingredient science. Over time, this structure supported upward lift for competitive head terms.
Continuous Optimization Loop
Weekly readouts from Search Console and analytics informed quick, surgical updates. We iterated titles to sharpen promise clarity, tested meta description variants to align with user language, and adjusted internal anchors to reflect terms that were actually winning impressions. When we spotted early traction in a cluster, we doubled down with complementary content and additional internal links, compounding gains while the window was open.
What’s Next
With a resilient foundation in place, the next milestones focus on both breadth and depth:
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Internationalization & Localization: Translate and localize high-performing clusters for English-plus markets, aligning to locale-specific concerns and seasonality.
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Visual SERP Expansion: Add how-to images and short-form video modules to eligible guides to win more visual placements.
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Advanced Programmatic Coverage: Extend templates to adjacent concerns, post-treatment care, and ingredient interaction matrices.
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Conversion Layer Enhancements: Introduce on-page comparison widgets and routine builders to turn informational traffic into PDP engagement and lifts in AOV.
Ready to Scale Your Organic Growth?
If you’re a beauty or wellness brand aiming to replicate this trajectory, our approach for Moon and Skin shows what’s possible: technical clarity that accelerates indexation, a content architecture built around intent, and a programmatic engine that compounds. We’ll map your topic universe, ship the right templates, and keep the iteration loop tight so momentum never stalls.
