24Kitchen A SEO strategy growing traffic by 28%

We have had the pleasure to work with 24Kitchen since 2016. 24Kitchen is one of the most influential players when it comes to cooking recipes and all things food-related, online as well as on Dutch television. “What are we eating today” remains the question of the day and thanks to their 6.000+ recipes which are updated daily, home cooks across the country can get inspired and show off their cooking skills.

The One Metric that Matters 

The starting point as always is determining a One Metric that Matters (OMTM). The OMTM shows what drives value for the user and the business. For 24Kitchen, this is pageviews: A pageview means a user has viewed a recipe and drives advertising revenue. Our main goal was to increase their visibility in search engines by improving their organic ranking and domain authority. For 2019 the OMTM was: 

Increase organic traffic by 20% compared to the previous year.  

Setting the OMTM gave us a clear direction on which tasks to pick up in close cooperation with the 24Kitchen team. By focussing on SEO, through extensive keyword research, accompanying content creation and technical optimisations, we established a significant growth in the acquisition of website traffic. Combining it with Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO), we were able to increase the amount of new, as well as returning, organic users. Next to that, we also increased the overall page views by using browser notifications and growing the existing email list.

We’re extremely proud to tell you that not only did we hit a 20% growth in organic visitors but established a 28% lift in the total number of organic users (2019 vs. 2018). Alongside the increase in organic traffic, the optimisations also caused an increase in page views. The total amount of page views by organic users increased by 29% and the average time they would spend on a page increased by 39% as well. This could be achieved mainly thanks to the great cooperation and close alignment with the 24Kitchen team.

So how did we do this? By taking the following steps:  

Using Search Engine Optimisation to gain traction 

Step 1: Spotting the opportunities 

First, we conducted an SEO audit to spot areas for improvements. We used Mozlow’s Hierarchy of SEO Needs by Moz to define a tailored optimisation strategy, focussing on the seven most important SEO pillars. Based on the audit and input from 24Kitchen, we defined keyword optimised, compelling content and simultaneous technical analyses to identify how to improve the experience users have on the website as our main optimisation pillars. Below an overview of Mozlow’s Hierarchy of SEO Needs:

Step 2: Combining content creation and technical optimisations for impact 

First, we focussed on building a structured user-centric content creation strategy together with the 24Kitchen team, as this is a bottom level pillar with a bigger impact. Based on extensive keyword and competitor research we created a regularly updated content planning, advising 24Kitchen on which themes to focus at during which specific period for relevancy. We analysed the impact of optimising old content vs. creating new content to ensure we created the right mix to get the most out of it. We also advised on and help set up overview pages that focus on specific themes (e.g. spaghetti recipes) with links to various recipes, helping orientating users looking to get inspired and increase internal linking. 

While doing so, we also performed regular technical SEO audits to spot errors or missing technical aspects of the website in order to increase the ranking of its pages. Making a website faster, easier to crawl, and understandable for search engines are the key pillars of technical optimisation, and central for user-friendly web experiences. With a constantly changing website as large as 24Kitchen you need to do regular technical checks.

Introducing Conversion rate optimisation to increase pageviews and retention 

Step 3: Implementing smart hacks to stay top of mind 

Besides focussing on gaining new organic users through content creation and technical optimisation, which ultimately increased the organic impression share in search engines, there was also a focus on increasing the number of page views and increasing retention. Why? Because although we saw an increase in organic traffic, the total amount of pageviews was not growing with an equivalent growth percentage. Moreover, 24Kitchen wanted to further expand their mailing list by introducing lead magnets so they could also increase retention through regular mailings. 

We did this through the following: 

Browser notifications 

One of the hacks we implemented to increase retention was to set up browser notifications. By sending browser notifications about new content pieces that could potentially interest the user, we aimed to retrieve old web visitors back to the 24Kitchen website.

Example of browser notification

Pop-ups 

We also set up landing pages for free e-books (e.g. healthy and easy recipes, vegetarian recipes, Easter special) and implemented pop-ups to get old web visitors to sign up to their mailing list. We segmented visitors that showed interest in specific recipes, to target them with relevant pop-ups linking to matching content / e-books. By getting them on the email list we could retain users for a lower cost than running ads. An example is the healthy and easy recipe e-book we created, for which we set up pop-ups on pages focused on healthy recipes and food articles.

Conclusion  

Thanks to all of the discussed efforts we were able to make an impact together with the 24Kitchen team, resulting in key-advantages that form the basis of the current and future success of this collaboration: 

• Data-driven user-centric approach to content creation and optimisation of the customer journey. 
• Closing the gap between a user’s search intent and ranked pages. 
• Looking at a broader context and focusing on increasing the amount of returning users and pageviews.

What’s next for 24Kitchen? 

As mentioned before, for an extensive daily updated website like 24Kitchen, it is essential to perform regular SEO and technical audit checks, keeping in mind the SEO pyramid pillars mentioned earlier. Through continuous meta optimisations and structured data implementation, we aim at further improving 24Kitchen’s search engine visibility. While doing so, we are also increasing our CRO efforts by implementing regular A/B tests on their most visited web pages, expanding segmentation possibilities, and kick-starting personalisation. This, to further expand our user-centric approach to content creation and web experience.