Something Different: An SEO Reset and Redesign for Little Love Blankets
Not a prototype this time. We'd been doing a lot of SEO research and wanted to see what it could do for Ally's Shopify store.
This one was different for us. Bluprint builds prototypes, and this wasn't one. But we'd been deep in SEO research for our own tools, and we were keen to see what it could do for a real business.
Ally at Little Love Blankets, a Belfast baby-blanket brand, was happy for us to find out. She'd already done the hard part on search: her store came first on Google for car seat blankets, and AI assistants recommended it more than any other shop. Our job was to see what the research would turn up beyond that, and get the store ready for Christmas.
The problem
We started by measuring, not changing. Using Sigleo, our search research tool, we looked at how the store ranked, who linked to it, what parents search for, and which shops AI assistants recommend.
The picture was lopsided. On car seat blankets the store was winning. One step away, on cot blankets, snuggle blankets and newborn gifts, it barely showed up. Product names didn't match the words parents search for, and the photos had no descriptions Google could read.
The store itself had drifted, the way Shopify stores do while the owner is busy running the business. The homepage still promised stroller pads "arriving April 2024", the shipping policy was empty, and the photos came in all shapes and backgrounds, so the collections never lined up.
"After eight years, the Little Love website had grown into something too big for me to keep on top of. There were hundreds of products, old pages and photos that didn't match, and never enough time to sort it all out." Ally, Little Love Blankets
One question kept coming back, and it's the one Ally gets asked more than any other: which blanket do I need? Car seat blankets come in 3-point and 5-point versions to suit the harness, and if you're not sure which your car seat has, it's hard to know what to buy. The store wasn't making that easy to answer.
Our approach
Before changing anything, we built a safe way to make changes. We connected a private app to the store so we could edit in bulk instead of clicking through product by product. Every batch followed the same routine: a dry run showing what would change, a backup, a plain-English approval page for Ally, and only then the change. Any batch could be undone.
The photos. This turned out to be one of the biggest pieces of work, and it's the one almost every shop owner skips. When you add a product, you upload the photos and move on to the next one. Nobody goes back to describe them, put them in order or make them match. Ally never had either, and on a shop like this the photos do most of the selling.
So the photos got a batch of their own. Every photo was given a description written for what it shows. That's what Google Images and screen readers read, and it's how a blanket turns up when a parent searches for one by picture. The photos on each product now follow the same order, so every listing tells the same story: the patterned side, the soft minky side, a close-up, then the blanket on a car seat. We made the in-stock blankets' photos square on a clean white background so the collection pages finally sit in a tidy grid, and where a clean-up made a photo look worse, we left it alone.
A new theme. The store was running on an older theme. We replaced it with Shopify's current phone-first theme, which in practice was a full redesign of how the store looks and works on a phone, where most parents shop.
Taking the question away. To answer "which one do I need?" before anyone has to ask, each car seat blanket page now shows the same design in 3-point and 5-point versions side by side, with a simple strap diagram so you can match it to your car seat. It's a small thing, and we'll keep refining it, but it takes the guesswork out of the choice.
Showing the blanket. Photos are bigger and open full screen when tapped. Collection pages show every blanket whole, not cropped, and sold-out designs are hidden on the car seat blanket pages, so everything you see there can be bought. A "Complete the set" row shows the other pieces in the same design.
Under the bonnet. Product names and descriptions were rewritten in the words parents use. Duplicate listings were merged, with the old links redirected. Collection pages got proper titles, intros and FAQs, the empty policies were filled in, and a Newborn Baby Gifts collection went in ahead of Christmas.
Checkout. We looked at how customers actually shop at the store: mostly on phones, and mostly one blanket at a time. So we shaped checkout around that. On a phone, the Check out button no longer slips off the bottom of smaller screens, and the price and Add to cart stay in reach as you scroll. Free UK delivery now applies itself with no code to remember, and with one blanket in the cart, it suggests a matching taggie. Delivery and returns details sit right under the price, so there are no surprises at the end.
The outcome
It's too early to say what worked. Search takes weeks to catch up, and most of these changes only went live in the last fortnight of October. We've set up Google Analytics, Search Console and Merchant Center so we can measure against where the store started, and we'll share what we find once there's something honest to say.
"Graham at Bluprint Lab took it on, and I've honestly been amazed at how much he's done in such a short space of time. In less than a fortnight we had a new design, every product rewritten so people can actually find us on Google, consistent photos, and a new gifts collection ready for Christmas. Nothing went live without me seeing it first, which gave me real peace of mind. I'm really looking forward to the next phase." Ally, Little Love Blankets
What we can say is that the store now looks like the business behind it, and it was great working with Ally.
If your Shopify store has drifted in the same way, have a look at the Shopify Store Reset, or talk to us.