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Saas SEO case study: In this SaaS SEO case study, we will present How we took a sales engagement SaaS website from 0 traffic to 75k in 8 months, net additional 7k new monthly recurring revenue and 700 sign-ups every month.

The Client

Cliently, an up-and-coming sales engagement SaaS company, came to us after hitting the growth ceiling regardless of rigorous outbound expansion and link-building attempts.

Like any aspiring startup company, their desire was simple: increase organic traffic- No problem, that’s what we do.

The Client’s Target

1.  Outreach.io
2.  Salesloft.com
3.  Mailshake

Though a budding company, like any startup Cliently, aimed for the stars.

They wanted to compete with behemoths like outreach.io & salesloft.com, which both averaged user traffic of 70k/month, and technical front runners Mailshake, which averages 120k user traffic per month.

Endeavoring an SEO campaign typically comprises a startup putting in its order with the expectation of higher ROI returns.

But Cliently was different.

As master software developers but novices in business, Cliently wanted a clear framework on how ROI works, what strategies are typically employed, and what creative and technical metrics our approach would be. A transparent blueprint of our amassed data and potent insights for planned growth.

No problem.

We appreciated the initiative and frankness of the client and complied fully before entering into any agreements or contracts. Satisfied and convinced, Cliently decided to proceed.

 What Exactly did We Provide Them?

A transparent window on our sharp insights, the data to back up our inclinations, and a furnished air-tight strategy that acted as an optimized microcosm for organic growth.

Our Insight

We were frank- Most businesses and startups are under the impression that search engines rely on vanity metrics such as website traffic, email newsletter sign-ups, webinar sign-ups, social media likes, etc., which are accurate indicators of growth.

However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

That is why existing content you often see presents a clear paradigm of a glittering skeleton of keywords but no meat of the content, compelling writing, or link juice.

It’s akin to cc-ing 2000 people you don’t know or have priorly engaged with and being appalled when only 20 people show up to the event. We had to avoid this sinkhole.

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic, tangible ROI numbers -proof with no sugar-coating- need to be evaluated, recognized, and worked upon.

What’s great about doing business with growth companies is sweet talk only stays sweet until the numbers reflect otherwise.

A misdirected SEO strategy that does not establish growth with a sound and realistic approach are why you see multiple pages based on well-to-do keyword research but lacking quality content or flow.

Employing such content is as good as throwing money down the drain – or in the sea of SEO web pages- is ineffective in blossoming organic traffic.

How To Do It?

The obvious and direct objective: increase ROI aggressively but organically– no hollow mirages of proxy sign-ups or inflated fables of projections.

No problem, that’s what we’re here for. But the client was adamant about us educating them on the ROI process. What route would we take, essentially providing them a foundation of unbiased knowledge met with the curated strategy we would employ for their company?

How we started: Getting Down to the “Brass Tacks.”

October 2021-We attacked the brass-tacks: what was the number of leads/revenue/sales we needed in the client’s case to break even- laying a foundation to build upon so thereupon Growth = Net Profit.

But we do so by honestly addressing the brass tacks of flaws and the industrial pressure points we need to focus on to seep the product into the right niches within the market.

The Numbers We Needed to Lay the Groundwork:

1. Annual ticket size
2. Lead to close rate (being very conservative)
3. Cost of content marketing

• Client’s annual ticket size: $10k
• Client’s annual closing: 5%
• Average lead revenue: $500 – ( 5% of $10k)
• Content Marketing cost? $4k

Therefore, the Average number of leads needed to break even= 8 ( Marketing Cost/ Average Lead Revenue)

Technical Audit: What We Discovered and Our Solutions

What We Analyzed:

• Analysis of each web page of their website.
• Assessing overall website structure and evaluating how to streamline the user experience included.
• Our Technical Audit: broken link & Crawler discoveries, accessibility testing & our subsequent recommendations.

Implementation Needed:

• Employing Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
• Improve overall site speed.
• Optimizing research through cellphone data analysis.
• Implementation of a content table and other aiding elements to streamline the UX and UI of every web page.

Foundation Set:

With the stepping stone of a target set, we projected we would achieve it in 8-12 weeks.

Phase 1: Linear Growth- Months 0-4

Step1 Employing Google Analytics:

We employed Google Analytics (GA) to measure user sign-ups and conversions.

We created a back-response “Thank-you page” for every sign-up form submission.

Cheesy? Actually, the tactic proved to be very successful- demonstrating and delivering a sense of catering and acknowledgment to the customer from the get-go.

Such seemingly subtle and cheesy gestures establish a foundational base, however small, of expectable consideration and catering in service – The SaaS & SEO equivalent of establishing a first-name basis relationship and setting stones for future interaction and business.

Step 2 Multi-Touch Conversion Numbers, Content gap analysis and inverting the Keyword equation

3% is an excellent target to judge the conversion rate. But what is the disconnect between traffic and conversions?

Come-around Customers:

Most people don’t sign up on the first go; even you don’t.

Shifting your priority from plucking and convincing the customer like a pesky telemarketer to leaving an impression on a customer base is how actual, organic link-building blooms.

Tracking “come-around” users that do not sign up initially but eventually do, i.e., the majority of users, is vital and the pressure point most growth seekers fail to realize.

Step 3: Content gap analysis

Boots on the Ground Approach: Know Thy Customer

Our Due-Diligence in Researching:

1. Analyzing clients’ sales call recordings to assess and focus on objections to create a direction of target keywords to focus on.
2. Analyzing customer chat and feedback forms to assess what users liked and didn’t on the client’s web pages, including content gap analysis and user experience stop-gaps.
3. Reaching out to loyal customers to know their impression: What attracted them in the first place, and what are some thorns that can be plucked from the experience?

Not only did we do real-world modifications, but we subsequently optimized our judgment of specific keywords to increase the effectiveness of our quality content by catering to the niche of a particular target audience with each post. You’ll reach your destination more quickly if you lay out a map and set a direction first, right?

We reflected and subsequently focused on encircling keywords that concentrated on the best features that attracted consumer traffic. Collecting and infusing the fruits of our research and analysis is the product of an ever-streamlined process of refining focus and resources according to actual points of growth and popularity.

1. Survey questions:
   What better direct indicator of what the users think and want? We didn’t want to lead people to an answer; we wanted them to share their thoughts with Cliently. We saw a wide range of responses, and then we went after responses we got multiple times.

You guessed it, we encircled specific keywords based on these responses and further boosted organic traffic by building our on-page SEO upon what’s already working and tweaking and optimizing what was not.

1. Competitor analysis:
   We looked at existing content from like-wise competitors providing quality SaaS SEO content, such as G2 and Capterra, both of whom are laden with keywords.

We learned from their own diligent content marketing efforts to not only draw inspiration and use it as an effective tactic to bloom new content and long-form writing

The scope for potential duplicate content issues do not arise even with the hundreds of thousands of SaaS companies’ sales teams targeting the same keywords to increase organic traffic.

Why? Due to our content being carefully crafted with the finesse of tone and flow, strategically using keywords to boost the content quality, not using them as a lucrative solution to chekmarking generating SEO metrics resulting in a glimmering yet hollow template of SEO software approved targeted metrics without substance. We divert from hollow writing.

Our Content:

Based on our multi-faceted research, we were able to optimize the content we produced for the client:

Multi-layered: Our content was layered with the consistently accessible and approachable language yet with the second tier of grit and technical terms for users in the know to grasp and educate every level of reader.

Lateral-linking: Links and chronological division of topics provided a model of layered writing wherein the more the user wants to get involved and explore further, the more they can.

We encourage and facilitate user engagement, keeping them in the web of the client’s content, using internal linking and outbound links, promoting both individual and niche growth.

● Niche Growth Why do you want to encourage chain building within your niche? Not only does it draw attention to the market of your products, but it connotes confidence and establishes your company’s voice as being a knowledgeable and self-confident authority,

Optimized: We were fortifying the writing with SEO metrics using ClearScope and adding meta descriptions for each piece of content to add another stepping stone to lead user flow- weaving top-hitting keywords into our content as points of focus but not disrupting flow: Adding current, not ripples.

Standing out: There are tens of thousands of articles on the best lawn furniture, but is yours the best? Or is it a fragile stitched skeleton of buzz and keywords?

The momentum of writing: We champion the craft of seamless writing and educating content encouraging an organic provocation and interest to create reader traction and establish a company voice of authority and confidence.

SEO metrics should not be approached as a rubric but rather as an undercurrent to guide the user naturally to thought provocation or action. To create a flow of content that seamlessly embeds keywords and SEO metrics without being on the nose is the goal.

Gravitating the slide of user behavior to the eventual call to action, with the continual confidence established with seamless educating backed by reputed sources and content internal linking, external link chaining, and magnetic writing to attract the reap of those efforts to funnel the user to actual conversion—a tangible subscription, a contract of business a direct call.

No fluff, solid growth.

We extract our goal by user intent

• Why did they search for that specific term or question in their web browser?
• What do they want to get out of that?

The 5 types of posts we deployed:

Comparison Posts: This framework objectively compares your product or service to top-tier competitors in the sphere.

Best Product Lists: A curated list of the top products in the sphere substantiated by deep research, pros, and link building through encouraging chaining of product pages, u.i. and u.x. factors assessment and opinions, and overall capability.

Alternatives to ‘X’ product: A “one-to-many” direct comparison branching out from the popular go-to product and providing direct points of contact and comparisons to depict one on one contrasts of a wheelhouse of products being in a common sphere encouraging the bi-product of link building in the process.

Pricing Articles: Directly chronological lists of products based on pricing is a streamlined filtered relay of content for particular criteria for potential customers.

Use Cases: We supplied product and service use cases- showcasing the client as a capable solution for common problems.

All content was polished and curated, composing of all the bells and whistles of quality, technical SEO content based on optimized primary keyword research to quench the expectations of each topic subject with a professional voice and crafted showcasing of the product’s prowess through that of our own- writing and brand communication

Target Achieved: March 2022

And we were right!

In 3 months (March 2022), Cliently was producing 1600 users who continued on its exponential trajectory to grow 10x by December with an average of 16000 users!

How did We Achieve the Mid-target with Organic Traffic?

You don’t grow a plant; it grows on its own.

Organic connotes a sense of self-blooming. I.e., it is uninfluenced. So how do you promote its environment?

Organic search is only sustained with organic and compelling on-page content that is honest, unbiased, and quotable as a credible source.

We do business with clients with great products but need exposure for the masses to discover them.

Cliently was one such client with compelling software that we professionally wanted to communicate to the masses, and we were successful.

Your job is to provide the capacity for exposure and link building. In the sphere of brand communication and product exposure, this translates to honest & effective advertising with optimized content that captures the fundamental determining factors used by search engines to rank important pages.

How do you stimulate Organic growth?

Leads are a guarantee of business; traffic is a free sample you give out, hoping for a tangible purchase. It means nothing but wide-eyed projections.

Traffic does not equal Leads.

Companies often present the low-hanging fruit of glimmering SEO opportunities promising more leads and content that will increase traffic using software-recognized key metrics.

But what is the result? An ineffective, hollow over optimization produces low quality pages in its cookie-cutter glossiness.

High-volume queries are typically the terms that target the top of the funnel target keywords for your product or service — very few searches have intent. On average, lower-volume keywords typically target the bottom of the funnel — fewer people searching but with higher purchasing intent.

Another advantage is that it is easy to rank, as your competitors aren’t trying to rank for low-volume keywords. So the way to go about it is to understand buyers’ intent and pain points and find keywords and topics that discuss solutions to the problem the searcher is trying to solve.

Phase 2: Exponential Growth- Months 5-8

Our strategy going forward: Increasing resources for a Variable Business Model; Expanding as Business Grows

Flowering: Expansion through backlinking

Backlinking is the virtual equivalent of swapping business cards in a social gathering- establishing a symbiotic, co-influential link of business.

If a user wants to know more about car tires, why not link them to the car paint business? The gesture often proves a two-way street of good faith and everyday business. A car wash business might now see you as a competent partner and offer you a beneficial discount to advertise their business in your shops.

Networking or backlinking creates communal credibility and increases your sect of traffic and growth. Your conglomerate now seems more influential and credible to users, and as the rich get richer, its popularity grows even more so. Launching companies in that streamlined trajectory is what we do.

The trebuchet to your growth, we springboard growth through a faculty of deep data, thorough analysis, and insightful critical thinkers to enhance our symbiotic relationship and link building with our existing and future clients.

Not only did we increase organic traffic, but we also presented an honest reflection of our client as a competent SaaS company with the Google index to match.

We further expanded the output as the client expanded itself. This came through dedicating 4 additional professional writers, running a SERP Analysis, Anchoring backlinks to flow back to the client’s website, and reading on-page signals to optimize further content to streamline brand communication and tune a well-oiled machine of customer acquisition.

Step 1: Refortifying Resources and Content

Employed 4 Professional top-tier writers thoroughly experienced in the sales & marketing niche. Articulate, seamless, and honest content and brand marketing drove organic traffic and converted visitors to customers instantly. How? Business Value. What is business value? measure of a tactic’s actual conversion numbers.

Keywords: Inverting the Pyramid & Pain-Point SEO

We discovered that bottom-of-the-funnel, “long-tail keywords” actually target the long-term customers you would want. Our previous structured analysis of user behavior and trend allowed us to judge the critical tier of keywords that magnates genuine users who will do business with you.

Why? The chances are learned readers are motioned by the current of the bottom-of-the-funnel long-tail keywords, bring invested enough to read beyond the layer of superfluous top-layer keywords, and dive into the depth of the topic and web of links the niche occupies.

These invested users will listen to comprehensive, accurately substantiated content delivered with confidence and backed up with facts and legitimate sources, simultaneously establishing a positive impression about your brand and credibility.

Meta Descriptions

We produced educational meta descriptions for each article, i.e., the line of text underneath the link to a post in the SERPs- the first opportunity to hook a client or reader. Meta descriptions act as your first pitch to potential readers to click further.

SERP Analysis

The truth about Google’s Index

Google is smart-Not just influenced by generic SEO metrics and keyword research; the actual influencing undercurrent search engines target is a genuine user engagement and credibly factual content.

The final filter of Google’s own content reviewers assessing content eliminates any scope of automated slip-ups that would let potentially hollow but SEO-approved content slip through.

The proper multi-faceted, wholesome SEO rubric must be understood and danced with. Creating content is not getting your 2k words in with every suggestion of your SEO tool. If that were the case, all you would have to do is click on every keyword, headline, and vectored guideline.

You would come out with an SEO score of 100, but like a poorly glued fake gemstone that comes apart as users discover an ill-chained line of gibberish and buzzwords- you need the finesse of stitching to create an embroidery greater than the sum of its parts.

If you have done your job right, the user has been seamlessly educated and propelled to the next step: what to do with the data they have acquired, with an immediately accessible call to action readily available linking to customer acquisition for the client.

Playing the odds? Not really.

Quality content tactfully deployed according to our content calendar elevates our product pages to gravitate eyes and funnel traffic into direct subscriptions naturally, come-around acquisitions, or a parting brand impression for further pondering and discussions leading to either action or impression. You are the house, the house always wins.

Step 2: Anchoring Backlinks & Analyzing On-Page Signal Behaviors

Appropriate anchor text real estate

Some basic on-page optimization to the articles—like inserting the target keyword into their title tag & subheadings, or using an SEO tool like Surfer SEO to add relevant keywords throughout the blog, is a busy league and requires a further layer of tailored outreaching based on deep data insights.

• Secured Paid Backlinks: Generic and News Sites deployed in genuinely relevant text to most effectively increase the conversion potential based on the location of Backlinks for the most likely users, all reverting to Cliently’s home page.
• Cold-emailed companies with 50-80 DR and 10k+ user traffic & secured 6-8 Premium Backlinks from single guest posts
• ABC Backlink Exchanges: secured premium Backlinks, ClickUp, for example, and employed this technique to establish a web of interlinked SaaS websites.

On-page Signal Behaviors

On-page signal behaviors let us know how long readers spend on our posts and interact through clicks and links, thus giving us an accurate read on whether we satisfied their search intent and propelled them to take action based on our content.

The higher the on-page behavior signals, the higher you rise in Google’s hierarchy of search results, i.e., the more users interact and engage with your website- active organic growth and exposure- the higher Google will rank you recognizing your page’s ability to quench user problems and providing something that is attracting legitimate traffic.

The ranking system is democratic- the direction the uninfluenced everyday users are genuinely finding helpful are elected further up the list—a direct reward for hard work crafting the best solutions for user problems.

The Results?

In Phase 2, with our continuing insight, reconcentration of resources and our second boots on the ground push to secure customers, we exceeded our targets before our schedules and continued to provide the client with our services as they grew exponentially.

Today:

• 75k web traffic/month plus
• 700 new monthly subscription sign-ups
• Additional $7k/Monthly Net Revenue and continuing due to the seeds of our anchored Backlinks and potent content.

Last 6 months:

November 2021 to September 2022 (monthly traffic)

• All bofu and mofu pages are amassing real traffic.

Cliently on CrunchBaseProfile