RUNESILK case study
From overlooked product to search-led ecommerce growth
How a four-week Shopify, ecommerce SEO and GEO project repositioned an underperforming anti-dandruff beard shampoo around a clearly defined customer problem, while opening an additional route to market through Amazon FBA.
Early performance
Measurable movement across direct sales, search and AI visibility
How to read these figures
The figures come from different defined reporting periods and should not be combined into one performance calculation. The 94% uplift relates to direct website shampoo unit sales compared with typical monthly sales across the preceding 12 months. Amazon FBA performance is reported separately.
The challenge
A specialist product with a clear purpose, but not enough attention
RUNESILK's SLS-free anti-dandruff beard shampoo had a specialist formula, a genuine customer use case and independent award recognition. Sales, however, were not reflecting the product's potential.
Competing for broad terms such as beard oil would have meant entering a crowded market dominated by larger brands with stronger authority, established content libraries and advertising budgets.
The existing Shopify theme also restricted the amount of product education, comparison material and supporting evidence that could be presented clearly on product and collection pages.
The opportunity was not to shout louder about another beard-care product. It was to become more useful around a specific problem.
The strategic idea
Focus on beard dandruff and the customer problem, not only the product
The strategy centred on visible flakes, itching, dry skin beneath the beard and the practical questions customers ask before choosing a specialist wash routine.
Build useful discovery routes
- Answer early research questions through educational content
- Help customers distinguish beard dandruff from general dry skin
- Explain ingredients and beard-specific product choices
- Guide informational visitors towards relevant commercial pages
Strengthen the commercial destination
- Expand the product page beyond the theme's default limitations
- Add formula, use-case, routine and comparison information
- Improve trust signals, FAQs and purchase context
- Connect the product to supporting articles and collections
Work completed
One coordinated Shopify, SEO, GEO and marketplace project
Shopify redesign
Reworked visual hierarchy, navigation and key commercial journeys around the product opportunity.
Custom Liquid development
Created reusable sections for richer product, collection and educational content.
Product-page rebuild
Added formula details, use cases, comparisons, routines, quick facts, FAQs and stronger buying context.
Content cluster
Produced an eight-part beard-dandruff cluster around real customer questions and search intent.
On-page and technical SEO
Improved titles, headings, metadata, internal links, indexation and relationships between pages.
GEO and AI visibility
Structured the brand, problem, product attributes and evidence more clearly for AI-powered search systems.
Conversion improvements
Repositioned benefits, trust, comparisons, routines and calls to action to reduce uncertainty.
Measurement setup
Connected or corrected Search Console, analytics and AI visibility monitoring.
Amazon FBA launch
Prepared stock and launched a new marketplace listing as an additional purchasing channel.
The eight-part content cluster
Educational pages built around beard dandruff and related buying questions
- Best Beard Shampoo for Dandruff in the UK
- Climbazole in Beard Shampoo: What Does It Do?
- Beard Dandruff vs Dry Skin
- How to Get Rid of Beard Dandruff Without Shaving
- SLS-Free Beard Shampoo: Why It Matters for Facial Skin
- How Often Should You Wash Your Beard?
- Best Beard Care Routine for Itchy, Flaky Beards
- Do You Need a Beard Conditioner?
Performance evidence
Commercial, search and tracked AI visibility moved together
Website performance
- Direct shampoo units sold51
- Individual website buyers47
- Search impressions17,200
- Search clicks183
- Shampoo product-page views210
- Active product-page users150
Tracked AI-search visibility
- Brand visibility62.5%
- Share of voice20.62%
- Recorded sentimentPositive
- Lead over named comparison brand+34.4 pts
These figures apply only to the prompts, competitors and supported AI platforms included in the tracked project. They do not represent RUNESILK's share of all AI-generated answers.
Channel expansion
Strengthening the owned Shopify store while testing Amazon FBA
51 direct units in the first measured period
The owned store remained the main source of product education, brand authority and customer experience. Fifty-one shampoo units were sold to 47 buyers during the first measured 27-day website period.
18 units in the first two weeks
Amazon FBA created a second purchasing route for customers who prefer the marketplace and its fulfilment network. This launch result is reported separately from the direct-store uplift.
What changed
The shampoo became part of a larger discovery and education journey
Customers no longer had to discover RUNESILK through a generic product page alone. They could enter through educational content, compare beard-specific solutions, understand ingredients such as Climbazole and Bisabolol, and move towards the product with more context.
Before
- Underperforming specialist product
- Limited theme templates
- Too little educational and comparison content
- Reliance on crowded broad-category discovery
After
- Clear problem-led positioning
- Richer product and collection templates
- Eight connected educational entry points
- Direct store and Amazon purchasing routes
Measurement limitations
Google Search Console had only recently been connected, so a previously zero comparison reflects missing earlier report data rather than an absence of organic traffic. Analytics tracking was corrected during the same period, making some page comparisons useful directional evidence rather than a final long-term benchmark.
Commercial reality
Delivered without an agency-sized budget or external development team
Limited resources
Strategy, production and implementation had to be commercially prioritised while the business continued trading.
Operator-led execution
Strategy and implementation were handled together, reducing handovers and keeping decisions tied to the live store.
Custom, reusable sections
Purpose-built Liquid sections created richer pages without replacing the entire Shopify setup or adding unnecessary apps.
Key learning
Smaller brands do not always need to compete for the biggest search term
A narrower customer problem can create a stronger commercial opportunity than a broad, heavily contested category keyword. By combining useful educational content with a detailed product experience, RUNESILK created more ways for customers, search engines and AI systems to understand why the product existed and who it was designed to help.
The initial 27-day website period and two-week Amazon launch are early evidence, not a permanent forecast. Search visibility, direct sales, marketplace performance and AI mentions need continued measurement as the content and listings mature.
Relevant Cape Wired services
The connected services behind the project
Shopify support and development
Custom sections, product templates, collection improvements and ongoing storefront implementation.
View Shopify supportShopify SEO
Technical SEO, search-intent research, products, collections, content clusters and internal linking.
View Shopify SEOAI visibility and GEO
Entity clarity, answer-focused content, structured information and defined visibility measurement.
View AI Visibility Review