Bareskin
Bareskin is one of those universally known eCommerce brands here in South Africa — the ones people reference when they need smoother skin, without going through the hassle and pain of appointments at the salon.
Based in Cape Town, they sell an IPL hair removal device that’s designed to make the entire process quick, painless, and, let’s be real, significantly cheaper than going to the clinic.
Except here’s the thing: Bareskin had plateaued.
Lead Time: 6 Months
Sector: Health and Beauty Sector
Target Type: eCommerce Customers
Demographic: Men and Women (20s to mid-40s)
Website Goal: Increase online visibility, Drive more organic traffic, and Ultimately boost conversions and sales.
Services: Technical SEO Audit, Website Speed Optimisation, On-Page SEO Optimization, Link Building, Press Releases, Conversation Rate Optimisation
560%
Increase in Qualified
Leads and Sales
The Challenge
Their website was painfully slow, clunky, and, as a whole, just “blah.”
It did nothing to help the business scale… in fact, it was a bottleneck.
And their CEO (competitive, goal-oriented, results-driven), had been burned by the previous marketing agency (yes, the signs were there when you walked into the meeting — you could almost taste the animosity in the air).
It was quite clear to us from the get-go: things had to change, and change quickly.
Take a look at what Bareskin was dealing with:
- A website that was a real drag. It had minimal traffic. Their conversions were far lower than what they should have been. SEO-wise, the site was a no-show when it came to the basics. Capturing user interest, holding it long enough for them to want to stay on the site, enticing them to move them further down the funnel… there was no engagement and, therefore, no sales. It was as simple as that.
- The increasing disconnect between leads and conversions. The Bareskin team had their eyes on the prize and wanted to expand their business in a big way. However, with such a slow drip of qualified leads (read: sales) they would simply not be able to meet their potential, no matter how hard they tried.
- Website performance across the board was poor. Page loading was painfully slow. The design was outdated. The entire user experience was the polar opposite of what the Bareskin brand should have been — on-brand, clean, luxury, polished. In some ways, it even gave a slightly negative impression, throwing an unintentional “curveball” at the perception of the device.
Marketing that didn’t cut the mustard. Bareskin was preparing to launch a new device (due in Q1 2017) and they needed more than “some marketing.” This was no DIY operation.
The focus had to be on high end, precise press releases, a targeted SEO link-building plan and, of course, one that really did align with the standard of the product itself.
Sluggish Website
Bareskin’s old website was… let’s just say it: not a big fan of Bareskin. Pages loaded so incredibly slowly that many visitors gave up before they even made it to the homepage.
The mobile experience wasn’t much better either: the design felt cramped, the buttons were hard to tap, and navigating the site, in general, often felt like a necessary chore the user didn’t sign up for.
Oh, and speaking of checkout. We can’t lie: it was almost as if the site was trying to make people give up. Step after step, interruption after interruption.
No surprise: the bounce rate was through the roof, shopping carts were abandoned at an astronomical rate, and it almost felt like you could watch the sales disappear into thin air.
Website Speed Optimisation
Site speed had become such an issue, in fact, that Google was starting to show its disapproval (which is usually the point we’re brought in).
On this end, EcoSEO doesn’t do the “slap on some white paint and call it a day” method. We always drill down to the root of the problem, even if it takes a little longer.
Step one was a given: we had to attack the site’s speed problems.
Compression? Every single image was checked and optimised to a tee. Bulky CSS and JavaScript files were slimmed down (some hadn’t been touched in ages) and browser caching was enabled to speed up repeat visits. Slowly, the metrics started to budge.
The end result? A 40% increase in speed, which meant happier users and a boost to the SEO rankings that were, honestly, desperately needed.
Mobile Optimisation
It’s no secret that most shoppers now browse on their phones, and the era of “it’s good enough” when it comes to mobile has come and gone.
We started by rethinking the mobile experience with real people in mind, not just in terms of layout, but in consideration of actual human behaviour.
The mess had to go. Out went the cluttered layout, in came intuitive menus, clear, concise calls-to-action that felt right, and easy-to-tap buttons.
Checkout, which had felt like a marathon to complete before, was streamlined from five steps to a concise three, which alone helped reduce cart abandonment by a whopping 25%.
The metrics told the story: pages loaded fast. Visitors spent more time in the site. Mobile visitors (who now account for over 60% of the traffic) finally had an experience that wasn’t trying to make their lives difficult.
Sales went up by 30% with engagement (think: time on site) in hot pursuit.
Lead Generation And Conversions
The problem was painfully obvious: people would come to the site… and then leave as quickly as they arrived.
Nothing compelling. Nothing guiding the visitors where they were supposed to go. A lot of foot traffic, but not a single conversion.
Calls-to-action? You might not have even noticed them. The buttons blended in, as if they were too embarrassed to stand out. Nothing propelled visitors forward to checkout, or even a reason to linger.
We decided to reverse course.
We placed prominent, hard-to-ignore CTAs (“Shop Now” buttons, “Get Your Free Guide” buttons) where the eye is naturally drawn. Almost instantly, people started clicking them, instead of just scrolling past.
We rewrote the copy, too. Hardly any of the existing descriptions even explained how the product solved a problem or why it was superior. (“Learn How Bareskin’s IPL device can give you salon results without the salon price.”)
We did that instead, and more: why the Bareskin product was faster and more convenient and practical than any other on the market. Even added a bit of scarcity (“Limited Stock Available”). Call us hacks, but if it works…
We offered something of value, a straightforward lead magnet: a skincare cheat sheet (it’s free, in exchange for an email address. Works every time).
The first month? Over 200 new subscribers. The email sequence we set up in follow-up converted at a solid 15%.
We redesigned the landing pages, too. Designed them to a very specific intent (pricing page, product page, review page) rather than trying to cover everything at once. Bounce rates decreased 12% almost overnight.
Now the site has a purpose. The CTAs push visitors forward. The lead magnet keeps new leads coming. The landing pages keep them engaged long enough to take advantage of that interest and make those sales.
Oh, and it looks good, too. It’s just got that professional website feel about it.
Press Release: Bareskin Stands Out
Bareskin was about to launch their new at-home laser hair removal product — and the launch could not have been more challenging.
The landscape was saturated. “Next big thing” was in every other headline. No press or marketing effort on their part, it was going to be a wet noodle.
Press release or not was not even a question, it was the only logical answer. But we still had to develop a strategy to place Bareskin in front of the best eyeballs, not just throw it in to the muck.
It meant double-downing on what really made the product unique: better results, surprisingly easy, and way less expensive than salon prices.
We also had to position those in a human angle. Something people would care about and connect with. Think, “Professional Hair Removal in the comfort of your own home, and for less.”
The release itself was short and clean. Not a word wasted.
We distilled down to Bareskin’s angle of play (affordable beauty) and doubled down with the right CEO quote (“Making beauty accessible”) and an authentic user quote calling it “game-changing.” That helps people have something to connect with.
Then we only sent it where it could make an impact: beauty blogs, lifestyle sites, trade publications, etc. Because people who read those care.
It worked. We placed the press release in 5 top outlets within a week of sending. The site saw a 25% increase in traffic, brand mentions doubled, SEO signals increased. Social engagement grew and conversions increased by another 15%.
One, well-placed press release not only created a lot of noise for a small company, but established Bareskin on the map. It built credibility, it shined a light on the product, and most importantly, moved the needle where it counts: sales and awareness.
Link Building
Bareskin had great products, but their organic traffic graph was a horizontal line.
The problem wasn’t mysterious at all: they had very few high-quality backlinks. You see, Google doesn’t only consider the content on your website in its ranking algorithm. It also takes note of who else is “speaking for you” on the internet.
If other sites of value and authority link to you, Google generally says, “Oh hey, perhaps these people know what they’re talking about. We’d better not ignore their recommendations.”
Lacking any such backlinks, Bareskin’s domain was languishing as a footnote on the third page of search results.
Solution: With a plan in place, we targeted only the sites and publications that would actually help: beauty publishers, wellness blogs, health magazines, and those ever-so-helpful comparison guides (the kind that secretly direct every consumer’s purchasing decision for niche products like laser hair removal).
We pitched like normal human beings, wrote guest posts that offered real value, and provided product reviews that didn’t read like sales pitches. Expert commentary, how-to guides, and informational content that only Bareskin could have written.
We also courted influencers and “nice-persons-in-the-industry” to help the organic backlink acquisition run a little less mechanistic.
Natural and unrequested mentions like these are important because they speak to the value and importance of your content in Google’s ranking algorithm. If a reputable site links to you unsolicited, without being coerced or incentivized, Google sees that. “Oh okay, this site must be legit,” it says.
In 3 months, we built 15 high-authority backlinks, the kind you can actually brag about to your friends.
Domain authority increased 20 points (as per Moz and SEMrush), and Google took notice.
Traffic immediately increased 45% organic, and Bareskin appeared in the top 10 for competitive and desired keyword phrases like “at-home laser hair removal.” For the first time, their product was getting the attention it deserved.
The Results: From Potential to Performance
Honest work with EcoSEO transformed Bareskin.
The at-home laser hair removal market is not a forgiving place to be — it’s crowded, noisy and filled with brands shouting that they’re “the best”. When EcoSEO entered the picture, things started to get easier.
We rebuilt the site from the foundation up. We decluttered, streamlined, optimized it for speed, and — perhaps most importantly — made it convincing. Combined with strategic SEO and a tightly-managed paid ads operation, Bareskin was no longer just joining the conversation. They were leading it.
The difference in their online presence now? Words can’t really do it justice. Here’s the bottom line though:
- 560% more qualified leads and sales.
- Not just random leads. Not just enquiries. Actual, conversion-ready people.
- 13× increase in targeted traffic from SEO.
- The right visitors. Landing on the right pages. Built specifically for them.
- 98% increase in conversions.
- Eliminating friction in the buying process and creating smooth, linear buyer journeys makes people actually do business.
- 457% decrease in cost per lead.
- Optimized SEO, Google Ads and social strategy deliver significantly more at a fraction of the cost.
All of this with a dramatically shorter turn around than we (or they) expected. No short cuts. No fancy gimmicks. Just proper planning, quality content, and a site that finally matched Bareskin’s high-end product offering.
We didn’t just iron out the wrinkles on their website — we turned it into a machine that will continue to work long after the work is finished. Bareskin is no longer “online”. They’re positioned to make serious, sustained growth.
Technical Tools:
Google Analytics, SEMrush, Ahrefs andGoogle Search Console
SEO Services
Technical SEO, Conversion Optimisation, Press Release, Link Building, Conversation Rate Optimisation, Mobile Optimisation, Website Speed Optimisation
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