32% more organic category clicks, 44% fewer orphaned URLs, and crawl depth reduced for 126 priority ecommerce pages.
- Client type
- Large E-commerce
- Channel
- Technical SEO
Internal Linking Cleanup for a Large E-commerce Site
A technical SEO case study for a large ecommerce site that needed internal linking cleanup, crawl path improvements, and category restructuring.
What changed from the first constraint to the measured outcome.
Challenge
Important product and category pages were buried because internal links had grown messy over time.
Strategy
Crawl paths, link depth, anchors, category relationships, and priority pages were reviewed before restructuring recommendations were made.
Impact
32% more organic category clicks, 44% fewer orphaned URLs, and crawl depth reduced for 126 priority ecommerce pages.
What HGM actually did to create movement.
A practical view of the workstreams behind the result, before the long-form story expands on the details.
01
Find the real constraint
We reviewed where large e-commerce growth was stalling across visibility, content depth, technical health, conversion paths, and measurement.
02
Rank the work by impact
The Technical SEO work was ordered around the changes most likely to influence qualified demand, not around a generic checklist.
03
Execute the growth work
Crawl paths, link depth, anchors, category relationships, and priority pages were reviewed before restructuring recommendations were made.
04
Track the movement
32% more organic category clicks, 44% fewer orphaned URLs, and crawl depth reduced for 126 priority ecommerce pages.
The decisions, fixes, and execution behind the result.
Who Was the Client?
A large ecommerce website with many products, categories, subcategories, and supporting content pages.
What Was the Challenge?
As the catalog expanded, internal links became inconsistent. Some high-value categories were too deep, product groups were poorly connected, and supporting content was not passing relevance to commercial pages.
What Was the Strategy?
We audited crawl depth, internal anchors, orphaned pages, category paths, navigation links, and blog-to-category connections. Recommendations were organized by commercial impact.
What Were the Results?
- Priority categories surfaced more clearly
- Internal links mapped around revenue pages
- Crawl paths simplified for important templates
- Scalable linking rules created for future products
Impact Metrics
- 32% increase in organic clicks to category pages
- 44% reduction in orphaned URLs
- 126 priority pages moved closer to the homepage
- 18% lift in product-page revenue from organic traffic
Why Did This Work?
Large ecommerce SEO depends on architecture. Internal linking cleanup helped search engines understand which categories mattered and how products related to search demand.
We came in needing better visibility, but HGM also fixed the way we explained our offer. The reports were easy to read, the priorities were clear, and the work felt like it was connected to sales, not just traffic.
Elena Royston · E-commerce Brand Lead
Want to know what kind of movement is realistic for your site?
Book a free consultation and we'll map the constraints, channels, and fixes most likely to create measurable progress.