Case study / SEO & AI search / General store
Bell General Store sells household staples, desk supplies and kids' items online and from its shop in Columbia, Missouri. In the three months to 2 February 2026, its keywords in Google's top 3 rose from 22 to 52 and its AI citations from 43 to 99, according to Ahrefs.
From Ahrefs, 2 Nov 2025 to 2 Feb 2026.
01 / The results
From Ahrefs, the three months to 2 February 2026. Traffic and traffic value are Ahrefs estimates, not the site's own analytics.
Up 136% in three months.
Google AI Overviews alone went from 3 to 38.
Estimated visits a month, up 1.6K.
With backlinks up from 29 to 74.
02 / The challenge and the work
Where the client started, what we changed and what the figures show.
A general store sells across many categories, so it competes with local shops around Columbia and with national retailers that have far more authority, content and backlinks. At the start of the period its product and category pages drew little search traffic, and Google's AI Overviews cited the store only 3 times.
We strengthened the site's technical foundation and its product and category pages, improved local signals for Columbia, built links and mentions from relevant sites, and published content around the store's main product categories.
In the three months to 2 February 2026, keywords in Google's top 3 rose from 22 to 52 (+136%) and ranking keywords from 213 to 391, and estimated organic traffic reached 1.9K visits a month, up 1.6K, according to Ahrefs. Backlinks grew from 29 to 74 and Domain Rating from 3 to 10. Citations in AI answers rose from 43 to 99, led by Google AI Overviews (from 3 to 38), with ChatGPT at 23, Perplexity 20, Gemini 14 and Copilot 4.
03 / The proof
The Ahrefs panels behind every figure on this page, placed side by side and watermarked. Nothing retyped or rounded.
Source: Ahrefs, the three months to 2 February 2026. Ahrefs traffic and traffic value are third-party estimates, not the client's own analytics.
The three months include the holiday shopping season; estimated traffic kept rising through January.
Local results such as Google Maps views, calls and store visits aren't measured in these reports.
Ahrefs traffic and traffic value are third-party estimates, not the client's own analytics.
This is one client's result over the dates shown, not a forecast or a typical result for another business.
What this means for your business
A general store competes in every category it sells. A sound technical base, better product and category pages, local signals and content for each main category gave Google, and AI answers, reasons to show it.
Ahrefs figures are estimates from a third-party tool, not the client's own analytics, and rankings move with every update. This is a record of one client's result, not a forecast for yours.
About these results
Three months: 2 November 2025 to 2 February 2026, from Ahrefs. The period includes the holiday shopping season, and estimated traffic kept rising through January.
How often AI answers cite pages from the site, as Ahrefs tracks it. For Bell General Store they rose from 43 to 99: Google AI Overviews 38, ChatGPT 23, Perplexity 20, Gemini 14 and Copilot 4.
It's an Ahrefs estimate of monthly organic search visits, not the store's own analytics, and the same goes for traffic value. Keyword counts and positions are what Ahrefs tracked in Google.
No. This is one client's result over the dates shown, not a forecast. Results depend on your market, your competition, your website and your budget.
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