Skincare & Beauty SEO Case Study: REFY

REFY is a young, innovative beauty brand founded by influencer Jess Hunt, known for vegan and cruelty-free products. Initially propelled by Jess’s strong social media following, the brand shifted focus to scaling growth through organic search as the business matured. Their breakout product, the Brow Sculpt, set them apart as industry pioneers.

Technical SEO Optimisation: We initially focused on addressing technical issues, including fixing breadcrumb links and restructuring the website’s <head> section. We identified and removed Shopify plugins and apps that were negatively affecting site performance. We also resolved collection page canonical linking issues and implemented schema markup for the organisation, products, and collection pages. Additionally, we disallowed .atom pages to improve site indexing.

Full Metadata Overhaul: We carried out a full metadata overhaul to improve search result visibility and relevance. This involved rewriting titles and descriptions to better reflect user intent and the brand’s unique selling points. We tested and uploaded different messaging variations to monitor their impact on click-through rates (CTR), allowing us to optimise the most effective language. Part of this strategy included adding clear calls-to-action (CTAs), such as highlighting free shipping, to encourage users to click through and engage with the site.

International SEO: We advocated for translating the website’s domains to better reach international audiences, with the German subdomain translation delivering excellent results. When REFY Beauty launched in the US, we supported their expansion by providing trend analysis and keyword research to capitalise on the new market opportunity. Additionally, we ensured the correct implementation of hreflang tags to help search engines serve the right content to users based on their language and location.

Balancing SEO and Design

We faced the challenge of delivering strong SEO results while respecting REFY’s desire for a minimal, sleek design. This meant working with very limited on-page content, which required careful balancing to optimise for search engines without compromising the brand’s clean aesthetic.

Small Product Range

REFY has a small, highly focused product range but aims to compete with major beauty brands that offer much larger selections. This required a targeted SEO strategy to highlight their unique strengths and stand out in a crowded market.

Faulty Plugins & International SEO

REFY faced challenges with international SEO and achieving correct rankings due to a faulty Shopify plugin that disrupted hreflang implementation. With limited resources for Digital PR and a slow buy-in on translating content, progress was gradual but crucial for expanding their global reach.