What was the challenge?
A trading company re-exported building materials, tyres and electronics to buyers in several export markets. Those buyers searched "tyre supplier" or "wholesale electronics export", but the company only had a catalogue PDF. Directories like Alibaba and TradeKey captured the searches and took a cut of every enquiry.
What was the strategy?
- 01
Turn the PDF catalogue into indexable product pages with specs and minimum order quantities
- 02
Create a page for each export market with shipping times, documents and payment terms
- 03
Add French pages for francophone markets
What exactly was done?
4 moves, each with what was done and why it mattered.
- 01Site structure
Product pages from the catalogue
Turned 420 catalogue lines into product pages with specifications, brands, packaging, minimum order and an RFQ button.
Why it mattered: Trade buyers search by product and spec. Each page could now rank for a specific search and capture the enquiry directly instead of through a directory.
- 02Content
A page for each export market
Built pages for each of its five main export countries covering shipping routes, transit times, documents and payment terms.
Why it mattered: Buyers want to know a supplier already ships to their country. Market pages answered that and ranked for searches naming the destination country.
- 03International SEO
French pages for francophone buyers
Translated the top 80 product pages and the francophone market pages into French, with hreflang tags.
Why it mattered: Many buyers in Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal search in French, where competition is much lighter. French pages produced a quarter of new enquiries by month twelve.
- 04Conversion
WhatsApp-first enquiries
Added WhatsApp Business buttons with a pre-filled message naming the product, alongside the RFQ form, and tracked both.
Why it mattered: Most of its trade buyers prefer WhatsApp. Meeting them there more than doubled the enquiry rate on product pages.
What do I stand for?
Own the enquiry
Directories rent you visibility. Ranking your own product pages keeps the buyer and the margin.
Speak the buyer's language
Literally: French pages opened a market that English pages could not reach.
About this case study
- This is an example engagement: a representative project showing how I approach SEO for this industry and the kind of results the approach is built to deliver.
- The business, figures and charts are examples, not a specific client's verified data. For verified results, see my SEO case studies.
Import & Export SEO Consultant in Dubai
Product pages with specs and MOQs, market pages for each export country, and French pages for francophone buyers.
