SEO Lessons Taken from Overstock’s Bed Bath & Beyond Rebrand
In case you haven’t heard the news, Overstock acquired Bed Bath & Beyond's intellectual and digital assets in June 2023. On August 1, 2023, Overstock.com relaunched as Bed Bath & Beyond.
Why was this a big deal for SEO and digital marketing? Both Overstock and Bed Bath & Beyond had significant organic traffic levels, making the merger a big deal for search marketers.
Eyeful Media’s VP of Digital Marketing, Brian Free, recently took the time to evaluate this digital merger for Search Engine Land. Check out Overstock's Bed Bath & Beyond rebrand: The SEO impact for his complete insights.
Early SEO results
It’s still early in the process, but this merger has seen mixed results so far. Organic traffic is growing but has yet to rebound to the level it was before the bankruptcy.
There are several reasons for such mixed results:
Not all Overstock URLs were redirected to Bed Bath & Beyond URLs.
Some customers may still be looking for the old Overstock website.
Bed Bath & Beyond's organic traffic was driven in part by their physical locations:
Customers would visit the site looking for coupons.
They’d shop online for in-store pickup.
They’d browse products online and then purchase in-store.
It’s unlikely that the new Bed Bath & Beyond site will reach the level of their pre-bankruptcy traffic plus Overstock.com’s traffic. That said, there are some lessons to be learned here and some corrections that could help drive organic traffic to the new site.
What Bed Bath & Beyond can do to improve organic traffic
First, the brand should focus on category page performance. Category pages have seen a significant drop in traffic since bankruptcy was declared. They need to upgrade the content on category pages, enhancing each category with an eye toward SEO.
Next, Bed Bath & Beyond needs to address URLs that currently redirect to the homepage. They should be redirected to the closest counterpart on Bed Bath & Beyond to capture more traffic. To do this, the brand may need to create these corresponding pages.
The brand must work to stop the bleeding on deeper pages. Some of these may contain keywords no longer ranking since the migration. They work to rank for those keywords again to correct this problem.
Finally, it would be wise for the brand to review their crawl logs. This will help them determine if any site sections need help being crawled and accessed. Technical and back-end problems like this can significantly impact site traffic and likely won’t be spotted without an intentional review.
Long-term SEO prospects
Beyond these immediate fixes, Bed Bath & Beyond needs to work on a long-term SEO strategy. The core focus must be getting people comfortable shopping on the new site.
Any time there is a significant change like this, consumers may hesitate to get behind the newly merged brand. Some Overstock faithful may worry that they’ll miss features they enjoyed at overstock.com. Bed Bath & Beyond fans may not know or trust the Overstock brand.
In time, traffic will grow organically if the brand reestablishes itself as a leader in shopping for home goods. They must court fans of Overstock and Bed Bath & Beyond to build on the foundations of these brand names.
If you’d like to learn more about the challenges Bed Bath & Beyond faced with the migration, be sure to check out the Search Engine Land post. You’ll also learn about recommendations on how Bed Bath & Beyond can improve its organic traffic in the future.
Brian Free is the Vice President of Digital Marketing for Eyeful Media. We are a digital marketing agency that believes in partnering with our clients rather than working for them. This focus means that client relationships are our bread and butter, and we seek to show it in everything we do.
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