I run a cross-border store on TEMU. I also built, wrote and shipped my own English store — end to end.
Three years of ToC e-commerce operations, plus a self-taught independent-store project where I did the design, the build, the content, the SEO and the deployment myself — no developer, no agency.
01 · The live store
Pro Nail Tools — an English nail-tools storefront
https://pro-nail-tools.pages.devA small but complete storefront for nail tools: five products, a shop page, a blog, the trust pages every store needs (about, contact, shipping & returns, privacy, terms), and a working cart. The whole thing runs on a monochrome black-and-white-grey design system I built from scratch.
What I did
- Designed the visual system — one accent (near-black), a neutral grey scale, product photos kept in full colour so they stay the focus.
- Built the store — WordPress with the Astra theme, five product pages with real specs and pricing, cart and checkout flow, plus a custom footer and logo.
- Wrote the content — every product description, the about page, and the store policies (shipping, returns, privacy, terms).
- Wrote and published 3 SEO articles — 1,200–1,550 words each, with comparison tables, internal links and image alt text.
- Configured on-page SEO with Rank Math across all pages — titles, meta descriptions, focus keywords, alt text, internal links.
- Set up measurement — GA4 and Cloudflare Web Analytics on every one of the 22 pages.
- Packaged and deployed it — generated the static build, verified every page and image, and shipped it to Cloudflare Pages.
02 · Content & on-page SEO
Three articles, each targeting one keyword with a clear search intent. All three were written, optimised and published by me; each one scores 77–82 in Rank Math with focus keyword, meta description, internal links and image alt text all in place.
| Article | Focus keyword | Type | Rank Math |
|---|---|---|---|
| How to Do a Salon-Quality Manicure at Home | manicure at home | How-to | 77 |
| How to Use an Electric Nail Drill at Home | electric nail drill | How-to | 80 |
| Glass Nail File vs Emery Board: Which Is Best for Your Nails? | glass nail file vs emery board | Comparison | 82 |
Before writing anything I grouped the keywords by what the searcher is trying to do, then sent each group to the page that can actually answer it — transactional words to product pages, informational and comparison words to articles. A keyword is only worth targeting if there is a page that deserves to rank for it.
| Keyword | Search intent | Page it targets |
|---|---|---|
| nail tools | Commercial | Homepage |
| glass nail file | Transactional | Product page |
| electric nail drill | Transactional | Product page |
| cuticle nipper | Transactional | Product page |
| manicure at home | Informational | Blog article |
| glass nail file vs emery board | Comparative | Blog article |
03 · Paid search plan
For the glass file I wrote a complete starter plan for Google Search: two ad groups split by intent, strict match types, a negative-keyword list, ad copy written to Google's character limits, a daily budget with a day-7 decision rule, and one landing page.
| Element | Decision |
|---|---|
| Ad group 1 — product intent | [glass nail file], "glass nail file for natural nails", "crystal nail file" |
| Ad group 2 — problem intent | "best nail file for natural nails", "nail file for brittle nails", "nail file for weak nails" |
| Negative keywords | free · how to · tutorial · diy · cheap · wholesale — cut wasted clicks without cutting reach |
| Ad copy | 5 headlines (≤30 chars) and 3 descriptions (≤90 chars), written to the real product benefits |
| Budget & bid | $10/day for 7 days, max CPC $1.20, manual bidding — no smart bidding before there is data |
| Landing page | The glass file product page — never the homepage |
| Day-7 rule | A keyword needs ~20 clicks before it can be judged. Below that, fix the page or the copy — do not raise the budget. |
Ad rank is not "who pays the most" — it is bid × Quality Score. On the same position, an ad with a strong Quality Score might pay $0.40 a click while a weak one pays $1.50. Since Quality Score is driven by expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing-page experience, matching the ad to the page it points at matters more than raising the bid.
04 · Store operations experience (TEMU)
- Product selection and listing — screened candidates on a monthly cycle, then took the ones that passed through to live listings.
- English listings — wrote product titles, bullet points and detail-page structure myself; reworked keyword placement after reading category search terms and competitor listings.
- Listing optimisation — tracked exposure, click-through and ranking week over week, then changed titles, images and pricing accordingly.
- Campaign operations — signed up for platform campaigns and produced the promo assets: graphics plus 15–30 second short videos.
- Weekly reporting — traffic, click-through rate, conversion rate and campaign ROI, with a decision on what to change the following week.
- Asset library — standardised file naming and folder structure for images, videos and documents so the team could reuse them instead of rebuilding.
05 · Measurement
The store ships with both analytics layers installed on all 22 pages, so every decision above can be traced back to data instead of opinion.
- GA4 — traffic sources, page performance and events, across every page of the site.
- Cloudflare Web Analytics — server-side page views, referrers and countries, unaffected by ad blockers.
06 · Tools I work in
| Build & CMS | WordPress, Astra, Elementor, WooCommerce basics |
|---|---|
| SEO | Rank Math, keyword research and search-intent mapping, on-page optimisation, internal linking, sitemaps |
| Analytics | GA4, Cloudflare Web Analytics, Excel (weekly reporting, campaign ROI) |
| Content & design | Photoshop, Canva, short-form video editing, English product and blog copywriting |
| Code | HTML, CSS, JavaScript basics — can read a theme, change page styles and debug layout issues myself |
| Deployment | Static site packaging, Cloudflare Pages |