Funpup SEO Case Study
When Anderson Press acquired Dalmatian Press and began building its new digital brand, Funpup.com, the company faced a significant challenge: it had a new name, very little brand awareness, and a website that wasn’t yet positioned to generate consistent organic traffic or sales.
Funpup offered educational games, worksheets, coloring pages, books and activities for parents of preschool and early elementary-aged children. Anderson Press’s larger business objective was to grow the brand, create steady revenue streams, and increase the value of the company for an eventual sale.
The opportunity was there.
The digital foundation needed work.
Services: SEO • Website Strategy • Conversion Optimization • Content Strategy • Paid Advertising • Digital Growth Strategy
Results at a Glance
300.99%
Increase in Unique Visitors
40
First-Page Ranking Keywords
6 Months
To Achieve Significant Organic Growth
And ultimately, Funpup achieved Anderson Press’s larger business objective: the company attracted a buyer and was sold.
The Client
Building a New Digital Brand From an Established Publishing Company
Anderson Press acquires recognizable companies, improves their business performance, and ultimately positions those businesses for resale.
After purchasing Dalmatian Press, the company began developing Funpup.com as its new digital brand.
Funpup was created for parents of younger children and offered educational resources including games, worksheets, coloring pages, books and other projects.
But changing the brand name created an immediate digital challenge.
Dalmatian Press had history.
Funpup didn’t.
The new brand needed to establish its own visibility, attract traffic and begin generating sales.
The Challenge
A New Brand With Almost No Search Visibility
Anderson Press wanted Funpup to generate steady revenue that would increase the value of the business.
At the beginning of the project, however, several problems were standing in the way.
Little Brand Awareness
There was virtually no awareness of the Funpup name. The primary connection between the old and new brands was a redirect from the former Dalmatian Press website.
Limited Organic Traffic
Funpup needed to establish organic search visibility under its own brand rather than relying on residual recognition from Dalmatian Press.
Weak Conversion Paths
The website needed more focused landing pages that would make it easier for visitors to find relevant products and complete purchases.
Limited Content & Products
The site didn’t have a blog and needed substantially more educational activities and products, including coloring pages, games, videos, books, and activity pages.
But there was an even bigger problem underneath all of this.
What I Found
More Than 11,000 Website Errors, and Only One Ranking Keyword
I began with an SEO audit to understand what was preventing the site from gaining visibility.
The audit uncovered more than 11,000 website errors that needed to be corrected.
At the same time, Funpup was ranking for only one keyword.
The company also had limited social media exposure under the Funpup name and no existing blog to support organic content growth.
That made the strategy clear:
We couldn’t simply add a few keywords to the website and expect meaningful growth.
We needed to improve the site’s technical foundation while simultaneously building the content, visibility, and digital presence of the new brand.
The Strategy
Build the Foundation While Building the Brand
Rather than treating SEO, content, paid advertising, and website optimization as separate projects, I approached Funpup as an interconnected digital growth strategy.
There were several priorities.
Fix the Technical Foundation
The thousands of existing website errors needed to be addressed so search engines could better crawl, understand, and rank the website.
Expand Search-Optimized Content
Funpup had significant opportunities around educational activities, coloring pages, games, videos, books and other resources for parents and children.
Creating useful content would give the website more opportunities to appear in search while also creating material people could discover and share.
Build Authority & Awareness
The new Funpup brand needed exposure beyond its own website.
That meant pursuing relevant links and expanding visibility through social media and other digital channels.
Improve Conversion Opportunities
Growing traffic wasn’t enough.
We also needed landing pages that aligned with what potential customers were searching for and made it easier for them to find and purchase relevant products.
Expand Product Visibility
Funpup’s products shouldn’t only be discoverable on Funpup.com.
Expanding onto additional shopping platforms could introduce the brand and its products to entirely new audiences.
What We Changed
Technical SEO
I worked through the major errors identified during the audit, making technical and on-page improvements across the website.
This included optimizing page content, URLs, and page titles, correcting code where necessary, and implementing redirects.
Within a couple of months, the major errors identified during the initial audit had been eliminated.
Content Strategy
We introduced a blog and expanded the amount of useful content available through the website.
This gave Funpup more opportunities to target relevant searches while creating resources that could be shared through other digital channels.
Search Engine Optimization
Existing pages were optimized around relevant search terms, and additional opportunities were identified for keywords where Funpup had the potential to compete.
Link Building & Brand Awareness
I pursued links from relevant, reputable websites to increase awareness and strengthen the site’s search presence.
Social Media & Paid Advertising
Content was distributed through Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, while Facebook PPC advertising and Google AdWords, now Google Ads, were used to drive additional targeted traffic.
Conversion Optimization
Existing pages were optimized, and dedicated landing pages were created around products that were showing stronger search trends.
Ecommerce Expansion
I helped expand the number of products available on Funpup.com while also listing products through Amazon and Google Shopping, increasing the number of places customers could discover the brand.
The Results
From One Ranking Keyword to 40 First-Page Rankings
Within approximately six months, Funpup went from ranking for only one keyword to ranking for 40 keywords on the first page across the three major search engines referenced in the original project.
At the same time, unique visitors increased by 300.99%.
But the most important result wasn’t a ranking.
It wasn’t traffic.
It wasn’t even a conversion rate.
The strategy supported the actual business objective.
Anderson Press’s goal was to build Funpup into a more valuable business that could eventually be sold.
Following the growth of Funpup, Anderson Press was approached by another company that purchased the business.
That’s the distinction between chasing marketing metrics and building a digital strategy around a business goal.
Why This Strategy Worked
No Single Marketing Channel Created the Result
Funpup didn’t need “just SEO.”
The technical problems affected search visibility.
Limited content affected keyword opportunities.
Low brand awareness affected discovery.
Weak landing pages affected conversions.
Limited product distribution affected reach.
Each problem influenced the others.
By addressing the website, search visibility, content, paid advertising, social exposure, conversion experience, and ecommerce presence together, we created a stronger digital ecosystem around the brand.
That’s how I still approach digital strategy today.
The platforms have changed dramatically since this project.
Google AdWords became Google Ads. Search has evolved. Social platforms have changed. Analytics has changed. And AI-powered search is creating another major shift in how businesses are discovered.
But the fundamental question remains the same:
What combination of digital strategies will help this particular business achieve its actual goals?
Need More Than a Single Marketing Tactic?
If your website isn’t generating the visibility, leads, or growth you expect, the answer may not be another isolated SEO campaign or a larger advertising budget.
There may be several pieces working together, or working against each other.
I’ll help you identify what’s happening, prioritize the opportunities, and develop a digital strategy around where you want your business to go.
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