By Rob Woloszyn
Starting an e-commerce business after military service isn’t a shortcut—it’s a mission. Veterans should begin laying the groundwork 18 to 24 months before selling their first product. Google doesn’t care how good your product looks or sounds. What matters is time-in-grade: how long your website has existed, how often it’s updated and how much content is published. Just like in the military, you don’t get promoted until you’ve earned time-in-grade and time-in-service.
I’m Rob Woloszyn, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who transitioned to a 24-year career in the FBI as a Special Agent. After six years in the Marines, I used my Montgomery GI Bill to earn a bachelor’s degree, then began my service with the Bureau. Today, I’m documenting my startup journey into e-commerce. Every step, every challenge, every failure before every victory—this isn’t a polished success story. It’s a blueprint, and you can follow along too by visiting williscandleshop.com/blogs/seo-tracking-blog.
GETTING AHEAD
It may feel like a losing battle trying to compete with websites that have been around for five or 10 years, but they often lack momentum. Most don’t update product pages, post new blogs or optimize their SEO (search engine optimization). That’s your edge. With consistent publishing, backlink building and SEO, your new site can outperform theirs.
Start your push early and sustain it for at least two years. During that time, publish a blog weekly and get five quality backlinks monthly—more if affordable. Rhino Rank backlinks range from $55 to $200. Once you gain traction, maintain monthly blogs and acquire two to three quality backlinks quarterly. Don’t stop. Shift into a long-term content rhythm. This pace builds lasting trust with Google.
START YOUR LLC
Form your LLC at least 30 months before you plan to operate or separate. It secures your brand. My business name, Willis Candle Shop, includes the keyword “candle shop”—searched 6,600+ times monthly in the U.S. If people can’t instantly tell what you sell from your domain (business name), you’ve lost them!
BUILD EARLY
I use Shopify’s Capital theme and Basic plan ($320/year), which beats monthly pricing. Don’t wait for perfection. Launch early—even without products. I lost 12 months of time in grade by waiting to launch. Don’t make that mistake.
SEO STRATEGY
I use Avada SEO Suite, Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, Judge.me (for reviews) and HulkApps (for forms). Only use apps built for Shopify.
For every page:
- Product titles under 60 characters
- 600+ words in the description section with key keywords you’ve researched through Ubersuggest for monthly search volume and SEO difficulty scores
- Meta description (150–160 characters)
- Short URL slug; example: https://williscandleshop.com/products/chocolate-vanilla-candle-10-oz (Max five words after ‘/products’ for SEO)
Example keyword use:
Our chocolate candle is one of our great-smelling candles for home decor ambiance. It features a crackling wooden wick and is hand-poured in our scented candle shop.
Pairing keywords like ‘scented candle’ and ‘candle shop’ expands reach. Google recognizes both.
THE GAME-CHANGER
I went from 17 to 117 indexed pages in Google Search Console in four months. Blogs should:
- Be 600+ words
- Link internally to products or collections
- Link externally (YouTube or backlink sources)
- Refresh monthly; 2–3 new sentences help
THE TOOLS I USE
- Google Search Console (free): Indexing & traffic tracking
- Shopify Basic Plan ($320/year): Website platform
- Ubersuggest ($260 lifetime): Keyword & competitor research
- Ahrefs (free/$99/month): I use the free version
- Avada SEO Suite ($30/month): On-page SEO manager
- SEO On Blog (free): Blog content scoring
- Judge.me ($15/month or free): Product reviews
- HulkApps (free): Form creation
- ChatGPT Plus ($20/month): Content generation
- Voice In ($150 lifetime): Voice-to-text writing
- Canva Pro ($120/year): Labels and branding
- Signs.com (~$30/decal): Truck decals (mine are 18” x 25”)
If your vehicle doesn’t show your business name, you’re missing free advertising. Every time you drive or park, people see it. Mine says Willis Candle Shop. Add QR codes to your vehicle decal and every display—people scan instead of typing URLs.
BACKLINKS ARE FUEL
I picked Rhino Rank after comparing five vendors. They offer curated guest posts and visual links. My rep offered free Zoom calls. I started with curated links, adding 28 from Rhino Rank and nine myself—boosting my domain rating from 0 to 35 in four weeks (via Ahrefs). Don’t buy 100 links at once. Space them out to 10 to 15 per month. Mix domain ratings. This natural pace earns SEO credit. Too many at once triggers penalties for unnatural link farming. It doesn’t appear natural.
TRACK WHAT MATTERS
Startup conversion rates (sales) average 2%. With 20,000 visits/month, that’s 400 transactions. If the average order is two candles, that’s 800 candles and an $8,000 profit (on ~$16,000 revenue). Once established, conversion may reach 5%: 1,000 transactions, 2,000 candles, and a $20,000 monthly profit. Google doesn’t count people typing your domain (like williscandleshop.com) directly. You may have 25% more traffic than reported.
THIS ISN’T A SPRINT
As of April 2025, my domain rating was 35. I have 117 indexed pages and 37 backlinks. Still no sales. Why? Even though my domain rating is 35, I’m still not converting traffic into sales. That’s because Google doesn’t fully trust new websites until they’ve gained time-in-grade and time-in-service—usually 12 to 24 months of continuous publishing, optimization and authority-building. I’m still grinding—publishing weekly, building links and improving.
WHAT GOOGLE MEASURES
Domain rating is just your ticket into the game. Per Hardwick, 2022 here’s what Google really wants (in order of importance):
- High-quality backlinks
- Keyword-targeted content
- Domain age + publishing pace
- Internal link structure
- User behavior
- Mobile-friendliness + page speed
- HTTPS-secure site
Whether I succeed or fail, it’s all documented. If you’re a veteran, you already have the grit and structure to build something real. This mission is winnable.
You are wired not to accept failure—stay in the fight and do what you were trained to do because now it’s for you!
Photo: Rob Woloszyn COURTESY OF ROB WOLOSZYN
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