Metal FX Offroad competes against national brands in one of the most aggressive categories in e-commerce. Paid media was keeping the lights on, but every visit had to be bought again the next day. The brand had the product and the reputation — what it needed was an owned discovery engine that compounded instead of reset.
Michael McBride
Founder & CEO, Atelier Commerce
Metal FX Offroad competes against national brands in one of the most aggressive categories in e-commerce. Paid media was keeping the lights on, but every visit had to be bought again the next day. The brand had the product and the reputation — what it needed was an owned discovery engine that compounded instead of reset.
Michael McBride
Founder & CEO, Atelier Commerce
We stopped renting every visit through ads and started owning our presence. Today, more people find Metal FX on their own than ever before, and they arrive already trusting us.
We stopped renting every visit through ads and started owning our presence. Today, more people find Metal FX on their own than ever before, and they arrive already trusting us.
The Challenge
The brief was structural.
When the brand leaned on paid media alone, every visit had to be bought again the next day. Three structural gaps held organic growth back: A thin organic footprint relative to the category. The brand ranked for a fraction of the terms its larger competitors owned, and rankings were volatile. An under-built local and reputation presence. Business information was inconsistent across the web, the profile was not fully optimized, and reviews were not being actively cultivated. Limited measurement of organic and local value. Without clean attribution, it was hard to see how much revenue organic and local discovery were actually driving, which made it hard to invest with confidence. The goal was to build an owned discovery engine: rank for more of the category, become the answer that engines and AI surface, and turn a quiet local profile into a trust-building, traffic-driving asset.
The Challenge
The brief was structural.
When the brand leaned on paid media alone, every visit had to be bought again the next day. Three structural gaps held organic growth back: A thin organic footprint relative to the category. The brand ranked for a fraction of the terms its larger competitors owned, and rankings were volatile. An under-built local and reputation presence. Business information was inconsistent across the web, the profile was not fully optimized, and reviews were not being actively cultivated. Limited measurement of organic and local value. Without clean attribution, it was hard to see how much revenue organic and local discovery were actually driving, which made it hard to invest with confidence. The goal was to build an owned discovery engine: rank for more of the category, become the answer that engines and AI surface, and turn a quiet local profile into a trust-building, traffic-driving asset.
The System We Built
We treated organic visibility, answer-engine readiness, and local reputation as one connected system rather than separate tactics.
Technical and on-page SEO foundation: We strengthened the technical health of the Shopify store and rebuilt how products and categories are structured and described, so search engines could understand the full catalog, crawl it efficiently, and match it to high-intent queries across the UTV, side-by-side, and off-road wheel space. Category and content depth for a competitive niche: Because the category is dominated by national brands and high-competition head terms, we focused on building depth: richer category pages, clearer product framing, and content aligned to the specific ways off-road buyers search, from fitment and vehicle type to finish and style. Answer-engine optimization (AEO): We structured product and brand information so it can be surfaced cleanly by AI answer engines and rich search features. Clear, well-organized product detail, consistent brand facts, and structured information make Metal FX easier for both traditional search and AI-driven answers to quote and recommend. Local presence and citation building: We built and standardized the brand's presence across the local and directory ecosystem, with consistent name, address, and phone information everywhere it appears. Consistent, widely distributed citations reinforce trust signals to search engines and make the brand easier to find and verify, which strengthens both local and broader organic visibility. Reputation and review management: We optimized and actively managed the brand's primary local profile and put a system in place to cultivate and showcase reviews. A well-maintained profile with strong, recent ratings turns search-result and map real estate into a trust-building first impression. Measurement and attribution: We cleaned up tracking and attribution so organic and local contribution could be measured accurately. With reliable data, the value of owned discovery became visible, which justified continued investment in the channels that compound over time.
The System We Built
We treated organic visibility, answer-engine readiness, and local reputation as one connected system rather than separate tactics.
Technical and on-page SEO foundation: We strengthened the technical health of the Shopify store and rebuilt how products and categories are structured and described, so search engines could understand the full catalog, crawl it efficiently, and match it to high-intent queries across the UTV, side-by-side, and off-road wheel space. Category and content depth for a competitive niche: Because the category is dominated by national brands and high-competition head terms, we focused on building depth: richer category pages, clearer product framing, and content aligned to the specific ways off-road buyers search, from fitment and vehicle type to finish and style. Answer-engine optimization (AEO): We structured product and brand information so it can be surfaced cleanly by AI answer engines and rich search features. Clear, well-organized product detail, consistent brand facts, and structured information make Metal FX easier for both traditional search and AI-driven answers to quote and recommend. Local presence and citation building: We built and standardized the brand's presence across the local and directory ecosystem, with consistent name, address, and phone information everywhere it appears. Consistent, widely distributed citations reinforce trust signals to search engines and make the brand easier to find and verify, which strengthens both local and broader organic visibility. Reputation and review management: We optimized and actively managed the brand's primary local profile and put a system in place to cultivate and showcase reviews. A well-maintained profile with strong, recent ratings turns search-result and map real estate into a trust-building first impression. Measurement and attribution: We cleaned up tracking and attribution so organic and local contribution could be measured accurately. With reliable data, the value of owned discovery became visible, which justified continued investment in the channels that compound over time.
Latest projects
Social Media Marketing
Alicia Adams Alpaca: Where nine in ten organic social visitors are meeting the brand for the very first time
Alicia Adams Alpaca runs organic social as top-of-funnel discovery, not bottom-funnel conversion. Nearly 90% of visitors it sends are first-timers, the brand's highest new-visitor rate of any channel, arriving curious after seeing a styled throw or editorial content, ready to look closer.
Social Media Marketing
Alicia Adams Alpaca: Where nine in ten organic social visitors are meeting the brand for the very first time
Alicia Adams Alpaca runs organic social as top-of-funnel discovery, not bottom-funnel conversion. Nearly 90% of visitors it sends are first-timers, the brand's highest new-visitor rate of any channel, arriving curious after seeing a styled throw or editorial content, ready to look closer.
Moonglow Jewelry: SEO & AEO, One Data Layer, Three Surfaces
We cleaned up a sprawling Shopify Plus catalog and enriched the product data behind it, structured for search engines and answer engines alike. The result: the blue link, the star-rating rich result, a seat in the AI Overview. Same data. Built to be found. Built to be cited.
Moonglow Jewelry: SEO & AEO, One Data Layer, Three Surfaces
We cleaned up a sprawling Shopify Plus catalog and enriched the product data behind it, structured for search engines and answer engines alike. The result: the blue link, the star-rating rich result, a seat in the AI Overview. Same data. Built to be found. Built to be cited.
Latest projects
Social Media Marketing
Alicia Adams Alpaca: Where nine in ten organic social visitors are meeting the brand for the very first time
Alicia Adams Alpaca runs organic social as top-of-funnel discovery, not bottom-funnel conversion. Nearly 90% of visitors it sends are first-timers, the brand's highest new-visitor rate of any channel, arriving curious after seeing a styled throw or editorial content, ready to look closer.
Moonglow Jewelry: SEO & AEO, One Data Layer, Three Surfaces
We cleaned up a sprawling Shopify Plus catalog and enriched the product data behind it, structured for search engines and answer engines alike. The result: the blue link, the star-rating rich result, a seat in the AI Overview. Same data. Built to be found. Built to be cited.
