Case study, supplements
From near zero to cited by AI.
CalmGut is a gut-brain axis supplement brand owned by our founder. It is where every method Abovance sells was tested first. These are its real Search Console numbers, small and honestly reported.
Disclosure: CalmGut (now rebranded as Shuven) is owned by Abovance's founder, Ryan Pepple. It is not a paying client.
Results
What changed?
Source: Google Search Console (organiccalmgut.com property) and GA4, read October 2, 2026.
The work
What did we change?
A full rebuild, completed July 24, 2026, organized around the four conditions of the Answer Layer.
- Readable. A clean 17-page architecture (8 hero guides, 9 articles), ghost URLs redirected, redirect chains collapsed to single hops, keyword cannibalization removed and the theme's H1 structure corrected.
- Resolvable. Organization schema with sameAs links, a Wikidata item, a Crunchbase profile and Bing Webmaster Tools verification.
- Citable. Every page rebuilt with verified PubMed and PMC citations, ingredient comparison tables, FAQ structure, a named author, publish dates and a numbered reference list.
- Machine-readable index. A custom llms.txt served at the site root through a Shopify template override.
What it did not fix
What is still not working?
Visibility is not ranking. Across those three months the site's average position was 29.2, and its biggest page, the leaky gut guide, averaged 41.7. That is pages three to five of Google. Search engines were testing the site, not yet trusting it, and click-through stayed under one percent.
The reason is authority. The site had almost no links from other domains, which is the fourth Answer Layer condition, Referenced. That off-site program is the current phase of the work.
AI-feature impressions also peaked in mid-August and settled lower through September. We are not claiming that later period as a result until we know why.
Questions
About this case study
Is CalmGut an Abovance client?
No. CalmGut is a supplement brand owned by Abovance's founder, Ryan Pepple. It is where these methods were tested before being offered to anyone else, and we disclose that ownership on every page that cites it.
Where do the numbers come from?
Google Search Console for the organiccalmgut.com property and GA4, read on October 2, 2026. Search Console data lags by about two days.
Why are the numbers small?
Because they are real. CalmGut was a new brand with no backlinks. The point of the case is the shape of the change, from near zero to a measurable baseline, not the size.