Case study
Australia was a strong market. It was never going to be the only one.
Modelers Central had built a specialist business around wooden model ship kits, supplies and tools. By mid-2022, organic traffic had been declining for more than a year, and international growth was still more ambition than operating reality. The opportunity was to build a search system that could take an existing catalogue into markets where more customers could find it.
The challenge
Modelers Central had a large specialist catalogue and a loyal niche audience, but the website architecture was not making enough use of either. Organic traffic had fallen from a 2020 peak of roughly 12,000 monthly sessions to around 5,000 by mid-2022. Category templates struggled with the breadth of the catalogue, internal linking and navigation were inefficient, and despite international ambitions there was no search architecture designed to support different languages and markets.
Paid search had its own problem. Specialist hobby terms could be expensive, and the account lacked the targeting and query discipline to separate useful demand from expensive noise. The Australian market still mattered, but there was only so much growth available from asking the same domestic audience to buy more.
The catalogue was built for the business Modelers Central already had.
- Organic traffic down from a 2020 peak to around 5,000 sessions a month by mid-2022
- Category templates not built for the breadth of the catalogue
- No international site structure despite global ambitions
- Paid search spending on expensive niche terms without query discipline
The result
Growth came from making the catalogue discoverable to new audiences, not just squeezing harder on the old ones.
Revenue is the combined SEO and Google Ads result; cost per acquisition is Google Ads only. The broader result is that international expansion became an operating search programme rather than an ambition, while paid acquisition became more efficient at the same time.
- +233%
- Revenue SEO and Google Ads combined
- +400%
- Organic traffic Engagement baseline to peak · published case study
- +566%
- Top-3 ranking keywords Published case study
- −50%
- Cost per acquisition Google Ads, AU and US
The insight
The growth ceiling was not the catalogue. It was how far the catalogue could travel.
Modelers Central already had the products. The strategic opportunity was making them discoverable to more customers, in more markets, without rebuilding the search system every time another market was added.
That meant the international work could not start with translation. The category architecture, internal linking and page templates needed to work at scale first. Only then could new language versions inherit a structure worth expanding.
The strategy
Build once for scale. Then take the catalogue further.
- Fix the catalogue architecture first.We redesigned category layouts and internal linking so the breadth of products, supplies, parts and educational resources was easier for both buyers and search engines to navigate. This was the foundation the international programme needed.
- Make international discovery operational.Once the structure was stable, Modelers Central expanded across 12 language versions with hreflang, market-specific content, localised currency and shipping rules, and market-level Search Console and analytics segmentation. The shift was from “we can ship internationally” to “customers in those markets can actually discover and understand the catalogue”.
- Keep paid search precise while organic expanded.Google Ads in Australia and the US was rebuilt around product category, audience and market. Existing modellers, adjacent enthusiasts and gift-purchase intent were treated differently, while negative-keyword discipline reduced spend on low-converting hobby searches. Cost per acquisition fell 50%.
The expansion
One catalogue. Twelve language markets.
- AustraliaExisting catalogue · existing demand
- Scalable search architectureCategory templates · internal linking · structured data
- 12 language versionshreflang · market-specific copy · local currency and shipping
- Market-level discovery and measurementSearch Console and analytics segmented by market
What we did
Category architecture. Redesigned category templates and internal linking around the breadth of kits, supplies, tools, parts and educational content. Product, Offer and BreadcrumbList structured data was implemented, parameter duplication was reduced and thin pages were pruned.
International search. Built 12 language versions with hreflang, market-specific category copy, local currency and shipping treatment, and segmented analytics and search reporting so each market could be reviewed separately.
Paid search. Rebuilt the Australian and US programme by product category and market, with audience segmentation across existing modellers, adjacent enthusiasts and gift-purchase intent. Query control, bids, copy and landing experiences were then continually optimised.
Measurement. Segmented Search Console and analytics by market so international performance could be evaluated as markets rather than one blended global number.
The takeaway
Search became infrastructure for expansion.
Modelers Central did not need another domestic SEO campaign bolted onto an Australian ecommerce site. It needed a site architecture that could support the catalogue at scale, language versions that could make that catalogue discoverable elsewhere, and paid search precise enough to capture demand without wasting the economics.
The products were already capable of travelling internationally. The search system had to catch up.
More work
eCommerce Hobbies Direct Search investment aligned to product economics and commercial demand. Search strategy & intelligence · Paid search & media · SEO & search performance · Data, measurement & insights 
eCommerce Fieldfolio Marketplace architecture rebuilt around how buyers searched. Search strategy & intelligence · SEO & search performance · Content & search experience