Background

Bees Lighting partnered with The HOTH to bridge the authority gap against eCommerce lighting juggernauts with our link-building and Digital PR expertise. 

In particular, they needed online signals to match their high-quality in-house operations, 20 years of expertise, and BBB Accreditation standards. 

They weren’t after artificial gains, either. 

The client wanted to build long-term brand trust with audiences, search engines, and AI search platforms. 

We knew that required a link-building campaign that focused on editorial quality, helpfulness, and relevance over sheer quantity. 

Thanks to wins like top-tier brand mentions on major outlets like MSN and Yahoo, the client saw major increases in organic traffic, page 1 keywords, and AI citations after only 6 months. 

Read on to learn the specifics behind our SEO strategy.  

The Challenge

eCommerce is fiercely competitive in terms of SEO, regardless of what you’re trying to sell. 

In the eCommerce lighting space, high-intent product searches like ‘LED ceiling lights’ are dominated by major retailers like Home Depot and Wayfair. 

These brands have DR scores of 70+ that they built over decades. 

For Bees Lighting to compete, they needed scalable authority through strong editorial placements, helpful link insertions, and Digital PR tactics like journalist outreach.

Backlinks like these take real expertise and infrastructure to build, and most companies don’t have in-house link-building teams (understandably so). 

As a result, many eCommerce brands find themselves between a rock and a hard place when trying to market their products through search engines. 

That is, unless they outsource their SEO and link-building needs to an expert agency like ours.  

The Strategy 

We executed a layered authority-building approach to establish the kind of long-term brand trust the client wanted:

• Targeted link outreach and insertions

  We conducted outreach to high-DR, niche adjacent sites like interior design blogs, home improvement sites, and contractor resources. We used a combination of exact and partial match anchors for terms like ‘high bay LED lights’ to fuel keyword visibility without overdoing it.

• Digital PR

  We leveraged our media connections to secure high-value backlinks and brand mentions. In particular, journalist outreach was able to secure contextual brand mentions on MSN (DR 92) and Yahoo (DR 94), which provided a significant boost in trust and authority. AI search platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity look for editorial brand mentions like these to establish trust with brands.

• Product-to-category distribution

  We made sure to diversify the link equity we built across SKU pages, collection hubs, and cornerstone content. This prevented us from overloading the homepage and key product page with too many backlinks, which can attract penalties. Also, spreading out the link equity helped scale visibility for long-tail keyword searches.

The authority engine we built delivered measurable compounding effects. 

The Results 

After only 6 months, the client’s organic traffic grew 17% from 22,760 visitors to 26,549 visitors (an increase of 3,789). 

There was also a surge in page 1 keyword visibility, with 843 relevant keywords ranking on page one of Google. This broadened visibility for important product categories like ‘LED ceiling lights’ and ‘high bay LED lights.’ 

Bees Lighting also acquired 1,065 AI citations during the time of the campaign, with notable mentions on MSN and Yahoo (among others). 

Here’s what the client had to say about working with us:

"Partnering with The HOTH has been a strategic catalyst for Bees Lighting's digital growth. In just six months, we've realized a 17% increase in organic traffic and successfully pushed nearly 1,000 additional keywords to Page 1. As a BBB Accredited Business with 20 years of expertise, this campaign has provided the external authority needed to match our high-performance in-house operations. By securing placements on high-DR platforms like MSN and Yahoo, we aren't just ranking—we are building the long-term brand trust that turns searches into lasting professional partnerships."

As you can see, we were able to deliver Bees Lighting’s goal of matching their online authority with their internal expertise. 

This case is proof that any eCommerce brand can compete with major players when the right authority-building strategy is in place. 

Want to Improve Your Brand’s Visibility on Google and AI Search Tools?

If you need professional help improving your SEO, don’t wait to book a free call with our team to develop the perfect search strategy for your needs!

Also, don’t wait to try out our AI Discovery service to boost your brand’s visibility on AI search tools in particular.   

Book a Call Now 

The Proof 

The AI citations obtained during the campaign:

The MSN placement:

A high-DA link insertion:

The client’s organic traffic improvement: