Business & Pleasure: A Comprehensive Technical SEO Cleanup

Founded in 2016, Business & Pleasure Co. is a leading lifestyle brand that specializes in vintage-inspired outdoor products. The brand is renowned for its high-quality beach umbrellas, chairs, and accessories, blending classic, nostalgic designs with modern functionality. With a focus on craftsmanship, durability, and sustainability, Business & Pleasure Co. has grown into an internationally recognized brand, providing beautiful, timeless pieces for outdoor living.

Business & Pleasure Co. faced several technical SEO issues, including:

Broken links from high-authority sites cause a loss of valuable link equity, which is crucial for boosting a site's credibility and improving its search visibility.

Additionally, broken links are harmful to SEO because they disrupt the user experience, lead to lost traffic, and signal poor site maintenance to search engines, potentially lowering search rankings.

We identified over 2,000 broken links, including those from high-authority sites like Vogue, Oprah Daily, GQ Magazine and Buzzfeed.

The site also had numerous broken internal and outbound links, both of which are quality issues that can negatively impact SEO performance.

At some point in time the store had a Canadian location turned on, duplicating the entire site into an en-ca subfolder.

This setting was subsequently disabled, resulting in indexed and linked pages that were 404 (File Not Found) errors.

As a result, search results were often showing two results, one of which worked and one which was broken, giving the user a 50% chance of getting a 404 error.

The site theme was developed such that it generated unique product URLs for each collection a product belongs to, creating an excessive number of URLs. For example, the Premium Beach Umbrella (Dusty Pink Check) could have multiple URLs such as:

• .../products/the-premium-beach-umbrella-dusty-pink-check
• .../collections/deluxe-beach-umbrellas/products/...
• .../collections/all-products-no-boats/products/...

This was creating 10+ URLs for most products, inflating the site’s URL count, diluting SEO value, wasting crawl budget, and causing duplicate content issues.

Search engines rely on unique, relevant page titles and meta descriptions to understand, rank and display pages. When these elements are duplicated or poorly optimized, it decreases the chances of pages appearing in search results and leads to lower click-through rates, reducing overall visibility and traffic.

The Business & Pleasure website had unoptimized, incorrect, and duplicated meta descriptions and/or page titles, negatively impacting search visibility and click-through rates.

The site's rich schema was improperly implemented, preventing key information such as reviews, ratings, and pricing from being displayed in search results, which reduced visibility and engagement.

This lack of proper schema markup also affected SKU correlation with Google Merchant Center, making it difficult for their products to appear in Google Shopping.

The product pages of the site were listed as not mobile friendly.

Mobile-friendly pages are essential for SEO because search engines prioritize mobile usability when determining rankings, especially with mobile-first indexing.

Core Web Vitals measure key aspects of user experience. Optimizing these metrics improves site performance, enhances user satisfaction, and can boost search rankings.

Among other coding issues, the site was loading 52 pieces of javascript taking ~29.7 seconds for the javascript alone to load.

We dove deep into the store's code, tackling the challenges and implementing targeted fixes to transform complex technical issues into a robust SEO foundation.

We identified and resolved over 2,000 broken links by implementing 301 redirects.

This allowed the brand to reclaim valuable link equity from high-authority sites like Vogue, Oprah Daily, GQ Magazine and Buzzfeed.

Broken internal and outbound links were all identified and corrected.

The duplicate site that was previously contained in a en-ca subfolder was redirected such that every page was correlated to the same page without en-ca in the url.

This mapping helped to properly resolve the issue while maintaining indexing and user experience.

The theme coding was modified to consolidate the product URLs under one /products/ URL. Canonical tags were verified, and over time Google adjusted the indexing.

We optimized 900+ titles and meta descriptions to ensure they were optimized and unique.

The product schema was adjusted for proper ratings, reviews, and pricing, resulting in improved search engine results listings, enhancing search visibility and user engagement.

We added SKU and GTIN schema for correct correlation with Google Merchant Center,, improving product visibility in Google Shopping and driving more potential sales.

Article schema was also corrected to properly link to the article thumbnail image which had been previously broken.

Code changes were made to the site to correct the non-mobile friendly elements and all pages are now verified as mobile friendly.

Every template file of the Shopify Theme was compared against the original theme to identify changes.

All customizations were optimized and the code base was completely cleaned up removing things that were no longer utilized.

An entire CSS framework that was loaded for 2 small sections of the site was removed and the CSS for those sections was updated.

All third-party apps and javascript were reviewed and the unnecessary code and apps were removed. Documentation was put in place to track all app usage going forward and a process was put in place to review performance of apps before installation.

Legacy code that remained for Shopify apps that had been uninstalled was removed.

Javascript was reordered and render blocking scripts were moved to the footer where applicable.

<link rel=”preconnect” was added to speed up the connection to third-party scripts.

The theme's code was modified to apply loading="lazy" to images below the fold, preventing them from loading until viewed by the user, resulting in an increase in page speed.

The internal graphics team was informed on how to compress images for optimal file sizes.

Automatic IP based redirects were removed and a non-intrusive, geo-targeted interstitial was developed for country selection.

Both desktop and mobile had full-screen intrusive popups which were changed to non-intrusive sizing.

As a result of these changes, Core Vitals were vastly improved.

By addressing the client's indexing issues, we provided them with a solid technical foundation for SEO success.

• Broken Links Corrected: Preserved SEO rankings and enhanced user experience by fixing broken in-bound and out-bound links.
• Duplicate URL Content Resolved: Consolidated SEO value, saved crawl budget, and prevented duplicate content issues.
• Titles and Meta Descriptions Optimized: Improved ranking and click-through rates with strategic adjustments to metadata.
• Rich Schema Corrected: Enhanced search engine listings by accurately displaying reviews, ratings, and prices, boosting visibility and click-through rates.
• Mobile-Friendly Issues Resolved: Ensured compliance with mobile-first indexing for an optimal mobile experience.
• Core Web Vitals Score Improved: Delivered a faster site and better user experience, critical for both customers and search engines.
• Code Base Cleaned: Removed unnecessary bloat, making the site easier to maintain and improve for future development.

Our meticulous approach to resolving critical technical problems ensured their store was optimized for search engines and users alike, creating a seamless path to better rankings, increased visibility, and improved performance.

Is your Shopify store ready for better indexing and smoother performance?

By addressing key technical SEO challenges, we’ll help you build a solid foundation to boost your visibility, attract more traffic, and deliver a seamless user experience.

Don’t let technical roadblocks hold you back. Hire us today and take the first step toward lasting growth.