SEO case study - 0 to 200,000+ monthly organic traffic in under 2 years, zero link-building ops

[exuperius]

So a while back, we grew a SaaS website from 0 to 200,000 monthly organic traffic in less than 2 years with zero active link-building. We ranked them for some very high-competition keywords (15 USD CPC and above). The SEO sub really liked the case study so thought you guys might dig it too.

Tl;dr:

• Audited the client’s existing keyword sheet. Scrapped everything that wasn’t (at least loosely) related to the product (workflow software).
• Audited the content already published and marked a ton of the articles for a rewrite.
• Took over content operations. Established writing guidelines to make sure that the writing team created the right type of content from then on.
• Set up internal linking ops. Taught writers how to do internal linking right and made sure old/new content was linked together.
• Overhauled the blog visuals. Removed stock photos of “office people smiling” and added graphic CSS boxes that added value to the content.

Freebies: There's a bunch of free resources I mention in the post below (content outline examples, writer guidelines, and so on). You can grab them on this Google Doc here, no email opt-in or other BS required

 

[yankeesgiants]

@exuperius Thanks this is great!

Two questions!

1. Do you have any numbers on how many of the 200k visitors per month result into signups for the SaaS projects. Do you include a lot of "call to action" type stuff in the articles for SaaS signups?
2. When is there too much internal linking, if you have a lot of articles I'd imagine at some point each article will have like 3 links per sentence!

 

[613jono]

@exuperius Wow! Thanks for giving away this comprehensive process for FREE! As for overhauling blog visuals, I know stock pics aren't preferred by the algo gods, but can you please tell me if the revamped visuals had a huge impact on the ranking?

 

[exuperius]

@613jono Right, so here's what I can tell ya about this.

The user experience of your content matters. The more easy to read, enjoyable, etc. your articles are, the better engagement metrics you're going to have, which can impact your rankings for sure.

In more competitive niches, this plays a bigger part. If you're NOT in a competitive niche, though, it's mostly a "nice to have."

 

[613jono]

@exuperius That answered my query. Thank you so much!

 

[estherofazuza]

@exuperius Great info and tips. Quick question, how well do the "PDF version of this" work for getting subs?

 

[exuperius]

@estherofazuza Pretty meh, a freebie would definitely work better but we're not super focused on growing an email audience.

 

[jenur]

@exuperius Would link building have accelerated this process?

 

[exuperius]

@jenur Absolutely yeah. Link-building can get you to rank way, way faster. In some niches, namely in very competitive niches like CBD, casinos, VPN, and the like, link-building is the only way to rank in the first place.

In this case, the client specifically didn't want to focus on link-building for whatever reason.

 

[anniew]

@exuperius Super quality content for this sub. Awesome breakdown and love that you got technical. We're gearing up to launch our SaaS startup's blog and will definitely be putting these into play (focused keyword strategy and ongoing interlinking are going to be huge for us). Shooting you a DM to grab those content and technical guidelines! Thank you.

 

[exuperius]

@anniew Thanks fam, best of luck!

 

[jorgeh]

@exuperius Great tips! All about getting the fundamentals and search intent right!

 

[samu]

@exuperius Wow great post.