- URL : https://www.armysurplusworld.com/
- Business Type : Business to Consumer
- Focus : Ecommerce
- Client Industry : Clothing, Fashion, Footwear, Hobbies & Leisure, Sports & Outdoors, Sports Apparel
- Platform : BigCommerce
- Services Provided : AI SEO, PPC, Retainer, SEO, Web Design, Web Development
- Launch Date : 06/16/2025
Overview
Army Surplus World is an ecommerce store that sells gear, clothing, tactical equipment, and other outdoor essentials. After years of success with our search engine optimization (SEO) Magento services, the client asked us to design and develop a new website and migrate their store to BigCommerce. The goal was to modernize their website, and improve performance, scalability, and user experience while maintaining organic visibility and revenue.
Problem
Platform migrations are a high risk for SEO as even small missteps can negatively impact ranking positions, traffic, and revenue. The client’s Magento site had issues with site speed, bounce rate, and average time spent on page. Our challenge was to perform a Magento migration and launch a modern BigCommerce website that fixed these problems without diminishing search visibility or ecommerce performance.
Solution
Website Redesign & Development
We designed a custom BigCommerce website with a focus on user experience and performance. A new mega menu was created to open and close on click, preventing accidental closures when users scroll. This improved navigation and reduced frustration for users.
We added advanced functionalities. We integrated the Searchanise AI Search & Filter app to help with filtered search options, and apps for user-generated reviews, loyalty rewards, and accessibility options. Multiple payment solutions such as Sezzle, PayPal Buy Now Pay Later, and Authorize.net were integrated to give customers flexible payment choices.
We integrated other apps to help streamline the business operations. Among these were Vertex Tax, Klaviyo for email marketing automation, GA4 ecommerce tracking, and DataFeedWatch for product feeds. All shipping and payment methods were configured and tested for accuracy, while checkout flows were optimized for speed and simplicity.
Search Engine Optimization
Our team created a detailed migration plan to protect the brand’s SEO performance. Before we made any changes, we backed up the Magento website. Every traffic-generating URL was mapped to its BigCommerce equivalent. To ensure comprehensive coverage, we pulled URLs from several sources, including sitemaps, crawls, backlink profiles, and analytics data.
Wherever possible, we kept strictly identical URLs between platforms to minimize the risk of traffic loss and preserve existing rankings and backlinks. All critical on-page elements like metadata, schema, page content, and internal linking structure were migrated accurately. This involved a detailed evaluation of both the Magento and BigCommerce version of each page to identify and transfer any missing or mismatched elements for SEO consistency.
A technical audit was performed on the staging site to fix crawlability issues and optimize Core Web Vitals (CWV) before launch. We also verified mobile usability and crawlability via Google Search Console and third-party tools.
After going live, we updated the Google Merchant Center feed to maintain a healthy and compliant product feed, ensure continued visibility in Google Shopping, and provide an ideal product feed to be prepared for ChatGPT Instant Checkout. Our team resolved all product feed-related issues such as missing product attributes and disapprovals. We also performed a post-launch audit to quickly identify and resolve any new SEO and UX issues to ensure a smooth transition for both users and search engines.
AI SEO
We optimized the content for LLM search engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Meta AI, and other AI platforms. Conversational content focused on natural language queries were added on a vast array of topics that align with users’ interaction with AI search engines.
Content with long-tail keywords that mirrored actual questions that users ask AI powered search engines were added. Across www.armysurplusworld.com, our writers added copy written with a human voice with no AI-generated fillers. We also integrated Bing’s IndexNow API to help with the indexing of new pages. Additionally, we added structured data to help LLMs’ understanding of the site’s content and boost the store’s visibility in AI-generated responses.
In addition to new content, we frequently updated existing content on the site to ensure information was as current and accurate as possible, providing meaningful recency signals to LLMs that favor recent content. We also updated the structure and formatting of content to ensure LLM readability and optimize for chunk-level retrieval and answer synthesis.
We surfaced relevant conversations across industry-relevant forums and text-based social platforms like Reddit to engage with and provide helpful expert perspective, highlighting Army Surplus World as a solution to users’ problems or needs where appropriate. We also provided links back to the site where relevant, expanding the brand’s presence across a platform that many LLMs cite frequently.
We also optimized the site’s robots.txt file to ensure LLMs could access and cite the website’s content in AI search results, and published an llms.txt file for any LLMs that may reference it.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
Alongside the migration, we scaled paid campaigns to drive growth. We launched Performance Max campaigns, optimized seasonal promotions, and removed underperforming ads.
Final Product
Results
Our proven migration strategy helped to not only maintain the pace of SEO growth they were experiencing, but improvements were seen. After a full-scale platform migration, Army Surplus World experienced no drop in organic traffic after launch.
Two months after launch, organic sessions increased by 25%, while active users grew by 27.5%.
Comparing pre- and post-launch traffic, clicks increased from 32,700 to 33,400 and impressions grew from 2.31 million to 2.54 million.
Core Web Vitals showed significant improvements. On mobile, good pages increased from 36 to 720, poor pages dropped from 268 to zero, and pages needing improvement fell from 234 to 28. On desktop, good pages increased from zero to 468, and pages needing improvement dropped from 530 to 0.
Google Ads campaigns produced returns on ad spend ranging from 5x to 8X. Similarly, Meta Ads achieved six to eight times, and catalog ads consistently delivered eight to nine times ad spend.
Army Surplus World now operates a faster, more scalable BigCommerce website with improved user experience, SEO foundation, and profitable paid campaigns.
Army Surplus World is now showing up in AI generated search responses.
25%
Organic Sessions
Growth
27%
Active Users
Growth
800%
Return On Ad Spend