Hockey Stick Effect

In my 23 years as an SEO consultant, I’ve seen countless competitor online stores lose significant organic traffic overnight. And I have helped many of our clients’ online stores achieve the hockey stick effect really quick.

Two cases really stood out to me over the years.

First, a generalist online store with an integrated marketplace added four new top-level categories. Within a week, they lost 30% of their organic traffic.

Second, we have deleted two smaller subniche’s categories from a client’s niche online store with two distinct subniches. The result? A 30% increase in organic traffic—just two weeks later.

Sounds illogical, doesn’t it? But it’s not. In this lesson, we’ll uncover why these outcomes make perfect sense, and how you can use strategic category cleanup to achieve the hockey stick effect.

Entities, Clusters, Niches, and Subniches

To understand why those outcomes make sense, let’s break down how online store structures work. From a content perspective, entities represent main topics, like Sports. Entities are divided into clusters, such as ball sports or athletics. Clusters break down further into niches, like basketball, baseball, or soccer. A subniche is even more specific. For example, in the basketball niche, subniches could be basketball shoes, basketball rims, or basketball shirts.

An online store selling products from one entity or cluster is a dedicated online store, such as a sports or athletics store. If it sells products from one niche or subniche, it’s a niche online store, like a basketball-only store or one for basketball shoes. The general rule is to stay within one subniche, niche, cluster, or entity.

However, some online stores sell products across multiple entities, such as home appliances, furniture, and electronics under the theme of "home." When online stores sell unrelated products across many entities, they’re generalist online stores, typically covering more than 10 entities. Now, why does this structure matter?

Let’s play a quick game: Find the odd one out. Imagine an online store called Greenwood sells roller skates, skateboards, e-scooters, and trophies. The odd one out is the trophies. By removing this category, Google can better recognize Greenwood as an urban transportation online store, boosting its rankings in relevant niches. Additionally, the online store can redistribute its link juice to focus on core categories, improving their rankings.

Here’s a real example from one of our clients. They sold bathroom products like bathtubs, showers, sinks, toilets, mirrors, and tiles, but also kitchen sinks and tiles. We moved the kitchen products to a separate store, and the main store gained 30% more organic traffic in just two weeks.

Entity Cleanup

Finding the odd one out can sometimes be challenging, but there are two ways to make this process clearer. The first is to use your offline experience. If something feels out of place, think about whether you’ve seen that category in a comparable dedicated offline store. For example, have you ever seen kitchen sinks in a bathroom supply store? Probably not. Or have you found showers in a kitchen showroom? Of course not. This perspective can help you figure out which categories don’t belong.

The second way is to use Google Shopping’s categorization, which is available online. Their system has clear dependencies and structures, making it easy to see how categories and subcategories are connected. This will also be useful in the next lesson when we talk about restructuring. Subcategories need to belong to the right category in order to reach their full ranking potential.

Once you’ve identified the odd category—or categories—you have two options:

1. Option A is to delete the categories and redirect all their URLs, including the associated products, to the homepage using 301 redirections. This helps redistribute link juice across the rest of the online store.
2. Option B is to create a separate online store under a new domain for the odd categories. To do this, you need to set up one-to-one 301 redirections from the old URLs to the corresponding URLs in the new online store. Then, remove all internal links in the original online store that point to those redirected URLs.

If you aren’t familiar with how to set up redirections, watch Lesson #8, where we cover this in detail. And if you face any obstacles, you can use the “ask a question” feature in SEOLAXY or reach out to our community. We’ll be happy to help.

Why Does This Work?

Have you ever walked into an offline store that sells cell phones, funny T-shirts, and aromatic candles? Did that store’s ambiance make you feel like they’re experts in any of those products? Probably not. You’d only stay in such a store if you had no other option, maybe all other stores were closed, or you were in a big hurry.

The same principle applies to online stores. Google doesn’t want to promote online stores that lack focus or a clear entity. Imagine a crane online store with just 30 cranes in three subcategories, but also a category for motor scooters with 200 different models. Even though it looks like a crane-focused online store, the scooters outnumber the cranes, creating confusion. Google would likely leave a question mark on this store’s identity and revisit it later to reassess.

To avoid this, you must clearly declare the entity on the online store’s homepage. Use Title Tags, H1 headings, and content to reassure both Googlebot and potential customers that they’re in the right place. If you don’t, Google will keep that question mark in its database until:

• A manual reviewer confirms that the store primarily focuses on cranes, or
• You remove the confusing scooter category.

Customers trust dedicated online stores. They shop with higher confidence, leading to better conversion rates. Specialized online stores also tend to offer better prices, which customers love. And what customers love, Google promotes.

Quiz and Next Steps

Now, let’s do a quick quiz to test what you have learned in this lesson. You are going to see three questions. For each question, you will have 10 seconds to think before the correct answer is revealed. After that, we’ll move on to the next question. Keep track of how many answers you get right. At the end, I’ll recommend what you should focus on learning next based on your results.

Question 1:

What is an entity in the context of online stores?

• A) A product sold in the store.
• B) A main topic or broad category.
• C) A subcategory within a niche.
• D) The brand name of the store.

Correct Answer: B

Question 2:

What is one option for handling unrelated categories in an online store?

• A) Move the category to a different part of the store.
• B) Delete the category and redirect its URLs to the homepage using 301 redirects.
• C) Ignore the category and leave it as is.
• D) Add more products to balance the store.

Correct Answer: B

Question 3:

What is the hockey stick effect in SEO?

• A) A sudden drop in organic traffic.
• B) A sharp increase in organic traffic.
• C) A steady increase in traffic over time.
• D) A rapid decline in traffic followed by a sharp recovery.

Correct Answer: B

If you got all three answers right, great job! Your next step is to watch the next lesson about restructuring. If you got the first or second questions wrong, I recommend watching Lesson 8 about redirections again to strengthen your understanding. And if you got all the questions wrong, rewatch this lesson carefully and focus on the key concepts we covered.