Mountford Wines is a sustainable, certified organic winery in Pemberton. They produce consciously crafted wines and ciders that are kind to the environment and deliciously exceptional for your tastebuds.
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In August 2022, owners Andrew and Sue engaged my creative copywriting services to amplify their business. After visiting their winery and seeing first-hand how great this brand is, I quickly experienced their unique point of difference and the distinctive complexities of their products. Not to mention, the handbuilt cellar door that reflects everything Mountford Wines is about. Quality, sustainable living and authentic experiences.
My husband and I were instant customers. But without a well-performing site, they were missing out on organic search traffic and sales.
Although a well-established business, having been around since 1987, Mountford Wines was missing the mark in communicating their offerings from a digital marketing perspective. The brand is outstanding with an impressive product. But their original web copy didn’t capture the essence of the artisan, family-owned business.
Mountford Wines had three goals:
I carried out an SEO audit of their existing content to understand how everything was performing and identify content gaps. Then I put together my recommendations and established a plan for the project.
The original site was a good starting point, but there was a lot of work needed to build high-quality traffic and capture users’ attention.
At the time, the overall look of their website was professional, however, it was lacking fundamental SEO requirements. This is common in a design-first approach where technical SEO is not a priority. While they were getting some organic traffic each month (an average of 127 visits), the content was thin and inefficient.
To improve search engine rankings for Mountford Wines, I had to ensure the website structure and copy were optimised from an SEO point of view. I performed keyword and competitor research, and mapped a plan for turning thin content into creative copy that communicates their point of difference.
I also recommended blog content as a powerful and profitable way to connect with their audience and build organic traffic. Although, it was important to prioritise the web copy first.
Here’s a snapshot of what TLT did for Mountford Wines and Tangletoe Cidery.
Despite not having done keyword research on the original site, Mountford Wines was already ranking for some good search terms. This is because they’ve been established for many years. However, to amplify organic traffic and be found easier online, keyword research and technical SEO were necessary.
I implemented an SEO strategy to ensure their site met best practices and achieved objectives. This included the initial seed research, including relevant search terms their competitors were ranking for that Mountford Wines hadn’t tapped into yet. The keyphrases were mapped to each page, targeting primary and secondary search terms.
With the right words in place, I was able to improve the site and its power to convert. Then I set the foundations for a successful SEO strategy by implementing:
Mountford Wines chose Wix as their CMS for a simplified way to manage the site. With this design already in place, my focus for the project was on content and SEO.
But because good design, UX and SEO go hand-in-hand, there were design improvements that needed to be made. In particular, the home and about pages.
I added content and SEO elements, with better implementation of graphics, logos and technical elements throughout the site.
A creative content marketing strategy was developed to address gaps in the existing copy, ensuring it provided value and met the user’s search intent. The content focused on priority pages first, with a plan to rewrite more pages later.
I wrote optimised web copy for the Home, About, Shop, Blog and Contact pages. The creative copy now provides value to Mountford Wines’ audience, highlighting their unique selling points and small-batch products. More recently, the FAQ and Winery Art Gallery pages have also been updated.
It was also important for the new web copy to meet Google’s recommended word amount.
Although word count is not a ranking factor, a higher word count is useful for helping website visitors (and Google) understand what your copy is about. Numbers vary, but web copy should fall between 400 and 1,500 words. This is dependent on the website’s page, intent and audience.
Mountford Wines’ initial strategy focused on new web copy. After three months, they saw tangible results and understood the value of targeted, consistent content. It was time to plan onsite articles to further improve their brand awareness.
Blog content is a great way to update readers with industry news and informative content. Now, monthly blogs are helping to meet one of the initial goals: to keep visitors in the loop about new releases and winery updates.
In September, I began writing educational blog articles for their wine blog. Topic ideas were sourced from the initial keyword research, which was useful in identifying themes with high search traffic to target and attract users.
The onsite content strategy has proven to be a success, helping Mountford Wines’ website gain more traffic and rank higher for their search terms.
Mountford Wines has seen some outstanding results over the past six months. With updated web copy and valuable SEO blog content, rankings have grown, resulting in a 220.16% increase in organic traffic.
They are dominating top positions for keywords like ‘organic winery Pemberton’, ‘cidery Pemberton’ and ‘sustainable wine blog’, and ranking on page 2 for broader search terms such as ‘organic winery’. This is a great achievement considering how competitive the industry is.
Highlights:
Compared to the initial months of the project, online sales have amplified by 71%. The majority of these sales came from organic Google searches, followed by direct and referral traffic.
Overall Mountford Wines experienced good short-term growth, but the real benefit has come in the long-term, emphasising the importance of building an online presence the right way – with consistent content and audience-focused strategies.
The website structure, strategic content and keyword research have held them in a good position, and continue to build on the foundations put in place.
Over the coming months, SEO blog writing will remain a focus. After positive results from the web copy, Mountford Wines invested in my blog management services to stay connected with their audience and gain trackable outcomes.
Curious to know more? Please fill out the form and let me know about your copywriting needs.
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