Creating a Leader in the Garden Furniture Industry; Revenue Springs Up 2.6x YoY

One of the most critical parts of Kettler’s transformation was a complete overhaul of the website’s structure. When we first audited the site, it became immediately clear that the existing structure lacked the clarity and specificity required for a modern eCommerce platform competing in a high-intent, search-driven space. The site was casting an overly wide net, grouping multiple product types under broad umbrella categories in a way that ultimately diluted keyword relevance and created confusion for users and search engines alike.

Our first step was to restructure the site around its core offering: garden furniture. By doing so, we created a central thematic focus that better reflected both user search behaviour and Kettler’s commercial priorities. From there, we broke down the furniture ranges based on key attributes such as seating capacity, usage and material – elements that prospective customers were actively searching for. For example, creating subcategories like “2-seater garden sofas” or “6-seater outdoor dining sets” allowed us to meet users with content and product groupings that mirrored their real-world queries.

Additionally, we broadened the architecture to include more landing pages across product types that had previously been underrepresented. A prime example was conservatory furniture. Despite having a substantial range suitable for conservatories, Kettler’s website offered limited visibility into this category. We rectified this by not only expanding the conservatory product listings but also by creating optimised landing pages enriched with targeted content.

The restructure also involved breaking down catch-all categories into more granular product pages. Rather than housing everything under a single “rattan furniture” label, we created dedicated pages for “rattan chairs”, “rattan benches”, and “rattan sofas”, each optimised for their respective keyword clusters. This modular approach improved keyword targeting and made internal linking significantly more effective, with all category pages feeding authority back to the main “garden furniture” hub.

This restructuring effort also complemented our Google Ads strategy, where we implemented custom labels to categorise products more efficiently. Labels such as “sofa sets”, “parasols” and “table tennis” allowed us to create more targeted ad groups, especially useful for long-tail campaign segmentation. Although we kept PPC labelling slightly more top-level to maintain clean groupings, the SEO-led structure directly influenced our paid media segmentation.

A deep understanding of customer search intent was pivotal to improving Kettler’s organic performance. Luxury garden furniture is a high-ticket and considered purchase, meaning transactional intent trumps raw search volume. We focused on identifying terms that, while potentially searched less frequently, indicated a stronger buying signal.

Through comprehensive keyword research, we discovered a number of mismatches between the site’s current keyword strategy and the actual intent behind those queries. For instance, a category titled simply “chairs” wasn’t resonating with the audience, since it was too ambiguous, and Google interpreted it as being related to indoor furniture. By updating the title and content to target “garden chairs”, the page jumped up to position six in its category. Similarly, “coffee tables” became “outdoor coffee tables” and “dining sets” were relabelled as “outdoor dining sets”. These seemingly small tweaks had a big impact because they realigned our pages with the user’s intent and Google’s interpretation of that intent.

Our aim was to appear in front of customers precisely when they were ready to purchase. For that reason, we deprioritised high-volume but vague terms and focused our content around specific, conversion-focused phrases. This not only improved visibility for those terms but also significantly increased conversion rates as the user journey became more aligned with expectations from the outset.

Competing in the “garden furniture” SERP meant taking on giants like Homebase, IKEA and B&Q. Our solution was to build authority strategically from the ground up, using a long-tail SEO approach focused on high-quality, specific content.

We began by enriching all major category pages with bespoke, high-value content tailored to the newly-discovered search intent. We also introduced internal linking pathways between related categories to distribute page authority more effectively. Every category page was designed not just to stand alone but to contribute to a broader content ecosystem, cross-linking between product types (e.g., from “garden sofas” to “outdoor cushions”) and from high-performing blog content back to key landing pages.

FAQs were another critical part of our authority-building strategy. These were added directly within category pages, answering high-intent questions that users were already searching for, such as “How do I maintain rattan garden furniture?” or “Can conservatory furniture be used outdoors?” When these pages ranked and users clicked through, they received immediate answers, fostering trust while also landing them directly onto a relevant shopping page. This seamless journey led to a measurable increase in engagement and conversion rates.

By targeting less competitive but still commercially valuable keyword sets, and by creating authoritative content to support them, we were able to elevate Kettler’s rankings across the board. As a result, the site began to gain visibility not only for core product terms but also for associated lifestyle and seasonal queries, solidifying its position as a premium garden furniture destination to rival the big names.

Google Ads campaigns were completely rebuilt with new structures, ad groups and targeting criteria. Campaigns were narrowed to UK audiences, product groups were reorganised and new ad copy was created to reflect seasonality and offers. Automated sale campaigns allowed us to be more aggressive with long-tail items, especially during flash sales and Black Friday promotions.

We also overhauled the product feed for Google Shopping. Titles, descriptions and custom labels were rewritten to highlight materials, colours and functions – key attributes borrowed from our SEO strategy that improved query matching. We also made sure that no accessory items, such as spare parts, were in the feed to retain focus on high-ticket items.

Meta Ads were previously underutilised by the client. We introduced optimised feeds and used Kettler’s extensive customer list to build powerful lookalike audiences. With over 50,000 contacts, we were able to hit the ground running quickly despite having never been a focused channel. Visual creatives for static, video and dynamic catalogue were designed to align with product categories, and we leveraged user-generated content by reaching out to users who had tagged Kettler on Instagram and repurposing that content. This gave us access to authentic visuals that performed strongly in Meta campaigns, increasing engagement and extending reach.

Seasonality shaped every aspect of our strategy. We planned months ahead for the summer peak, planting content and ads early enough to rank and gain traction before customer demand surged. In winter, content focused on heaters and conservatory furniture, and we used this period to maintain engagement through blogs and lower-intent ads.

We also used the momentum of the peak season to clear underperforming stock via flash sales, voucher codes and segmented email pushes. Pop-up imagery was swapped based on the season, and seasonal campaigns were built to reflect the weather and customer intent at any given point in the year. In the summer, their pizza ovens were pushed via email, whereas heaters were pushed in the winter, for example.

Out-of-season paid media became one of the biggest hurdles to overcome, as we scaled down and struggled to find buyers for products that relied so heavily on the season. The eureka moment came when we found that Kettler’s garden furniture covers were being sold out of season by people who may have bought a furniture set elsewhere. This, coupled with prolonged sales to entice customers with a last-minute deal, kept everything moving smoothly during the out-of-season periods.

The biggest challenge in terms of preparation was Black Friday. For the largest sale in the calendar, we sent teasers and sneak peeks via email to build anticipation in early November, and during the sale, countdown timers and category-specific promotions created urgency. Each category, from fire pits to garden sofas, was only promoted to audiences who had previously shown interest in those ranges, and these targeted flows resulted in high engagement and conversion. On the paid media front, we created specific Black Friday custom labels and paused all ads that didn’t direct viewers to a sale item, as trying to sell full-price items during Black Friday is a very fruitless endeavour indeed.

As per our recommendation, Kettler migrated from WordPress to Shopify, a much superior eCommerce platform. This was handled with meticulous planning, ensuring all redirects were in place, content was preserved, and internal linking was updated. The migration provided a significant boost in performance, page speed and SEO friendliness. We also consulted on how the new site should be structured, ensuring SEO blocks such as FAQs, headings and internal links could be maintained easily by the client post-launch.