1375% Traffic Increase in 9 Months | Sustainable Niche Content Site
See how we managed to grow the client’s website revenue over 37 times with the power of quality link building and AI-powered programmatic SEO.
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Ever wondered how a lackluster website can turn into a web traffic magnet?
The project started with a long list of pre-existing problems. All these issues, plus a streak of stagnant web traffic, equated to zero revenue growth.
Our task was clear-cut: to overhaul the existing SEO strategy and give the website a much-needed jumpstart.
A staggering increase in web traffic, going from around 20,000 to over 275,000 views within the 9-month timeframe.
Revenue increase thanks to increased traffic and additional monetization options, including affiliate and newsletter marketing.
Average engagement time achieved with revised website content focused on visitor engagement.
Brand position built; now considered a trustworthy source of information and opinion, with a team that other media can rely on.
Jumpstart the client’s revenue to a satisfying level – at least 10 times the initial revenue a month.
Optimize the client’s website to ensure a smooth user experience, higher traffic volume, and higher website ranking.
Create high-quality content in clusters aligned with specific intents. Interlink it with AI-written content and further enhance the value proposition.
Supplement the client’s digital PR with super-quality links from reputable sources relevant to the client’s niche.
The website suffered from stagnant traffic for an extended period, which resulted in no revenue generation, posing a considerable challenge to business growth and sustainability.
The website initially showed slow loading times caused by numerous technical issues. This led to poor user experience and, as a result, a high bounce rate and low engagement.
The content shared on the client’s website did not meet Google's standards, leaving the users and Google robots unsatisfied.
The website lacked authority that would prove the client’s credibility and establish its position in the market.
Our team performed an overarching technical audit, implemented necessary changes, and conducted keyword research and content analysis. With that, we developed a new content plan and growth strategy.
We researched the sustainability niche and formulated an extensive strategy, addressing potential traffic sources, monetization options, and content gaps.
We developed a programmatic content plan to build a new section, filling a gainful content gap. The goal was to prepare a data set of over 1200 brands (including reviews, photos, and videos!) and turn it into a comprehensive review database using refined AI tools.
During the implementation phase, we persistently re-audited the page to evaluate the impact of six Google algorithm updates. These included the significant Helpful Content Update, which caused a dramatic fall in the ranking of many websites – but not our client's!
This case study was developed over nine months, with significant Google algorithm updates occurring throughout the implementation phase.
The client came to us with a website that failed to draw in significant traffic or generate revenue despite covering a popular niche.
The first task was to understand why.
The client is an ambitious entrepreneur who recognizes the potential of content-based online businesses. They had a niche website targeting a specific audience – people interested in sustainable living.
As you may expect, this niche generated significant interest given today’s global drive for sustainable solutions, and the competition does not lag behind.
However, the client’s website did. The litany of issues with their site seemed endless, and problems seemed to compound upon problems, sinking the business deeper into search engine obscurity each day.
This is why they reached out to us. They wanted to turn the website into a stream of reliable revenue. And we delivered more than that.
Our Way of Doing SEO
We divide our way of doing SEO into two simple yet actionable points:
- Allow Flexibility: SEO requires flexibility just like your business, and our modular service system allows you to achieve just that. Content, links, technical SEO, consultations… We offer each of them as separate modules, giving you exactly what you need and nothing that you don’t. The best part? You can change those during the execution of your strategy!
- Don’t Shy Away from AI: We recognize the possibilities that come with AI. We know how and where to use it to get the best results without sacrificing quality. With a long record of programmatic SEO solutions built around fine-tuned AI tools, you can trust us to deliver content that engages.
Project Timeline: SEO Strategy Implementation
This project can be divided into three main phases. Let’s briefly go through them and see what it took to grow the client’s traffic over ten times!
The first month was devoted to a holistic process that involved extensive auditing and strategy development.
The audit gave us a lot to work with.
The issues ranged from rather straightforward (though not necessarily simple to solve) issues to more complex challenges.
The former included mainly technical problems.
The latter, among other issues, comprised stale content that was failing to engage the audience and maintain their interest.
Of course, the complete list of problems included a lot more than that – and we went on to fix each and every one of them.
With the updated audit data at hand, we crafted an SEO strategy for the client’s website. At its core, it revolved around three main areas:
There were site structure problems, ineffective internal linking, too many plugins, schema complications, and more.
With the immediate implementation of necessary changes, we kicked off a journey towards increasing website visibility and traffic.
We studied the competition to understand the strategies that worked. Our goal was to establish a strong link profile that befitted this niche.
Simultaneously, we started harnessing AI to create an extensive amount of content, gearing up to establish topical authority.
With the help of AI, we were able to develop and publish nearly 1500 new URLs, in addition to the regular high-quality articles.
This set a new pace for our content cluster while aiding us in filling any content gaps and establishing authority in the client’s niche.
With the SEO strategy in place and the most pressing technical issues being fixed, we could move on to phase 1.
The first phase of our strategy was focused primarily on maintenance tasks.
We finalized our technical SEO revamp. Since then, we have had a solid foundation to build on, and we were ready to continue the SEO strategy implementation:
- Content creation and optimization: In this phase, we optimized the existing content catalog and enhanced it with the first batch of 40 human-written articles that would fill the keyword gaps in the site.
- Outreach link building: we started our link building efforts with 10 links from highly regarded sites in the sustainability niche, such as Earth.Org.
Andreea SavelucOur approach was focused on quality. We didn't just look for any website; we looked for the right ones where our well-researched content would be valued. This strategy helped us connect with a range of websites, big and small, each adding value to our campaign in its own way.
Outreach Team Leader
Around the midway point of our project, we found ourselves navigating through significant Google algorithm updates. Among them was the infamous Helpful Content Update.
What it essentially did was sharpen Google’s interpretation of valuable content. This led to a significant plunge in the rankings of websites that Google deemed to be offering content that was not helpful enough.
Google is slowly killing blogging.
Blogging used to be about providing off the cuff updates, sharing unique perspectives, and interacting with blog comments!
Now Google has forced bloggers to make everything SEO optimized, long form, and tightly focused around a single keyword.…
— Spencer Haws (@nichepursuits) October 24, 2023
The content strategy we put in place with a heavy emphasis on high-quality, AI-generated content proved to be beneficial. Of course, this content wouldn’t be as good without the content team’s constant monitoring, tweaking, and refining. After all, AI-generated content still requires human input and implementation.
Our client’s website persevered and continued to grow despite search fluctuations!
The next months were the embodiment of plan, do, check, and act.
- Plan: Identify goals and the processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with expectations or standards.
- Do: Implement the plan, execute the process, and collect data for analysis.
- Check: Analyze data and outcomes to verify if the planned result has been achieved.
- Act: Implement corrective actions if there are deviations from expected outcomes and standardize the process if the results are satisfactory.
This cycle is repeated in order to continually improve the quality and efficiency of processes.
We kept on optimizing content and building links – month 3 resulted in 40 more articles and 6 quality links.
This was the time when we started leaning into programmatic SEO, or, AI-driven content created at scale.
Jarosław MotylińskiWhat is programmatic SEO? Programmatic SEO is our way of combining technology and SEO expertise to create quality content at scale. It revolves around using AI to create a large volume of content – hundreds or even thousands of articles, each tailored to a specific long-tail keyword. This allowed us to minimize the time and resources typically needed for heavy content creation and maximize the client's reach.
Project owner and AI expert
With the help of this approach, month 4 alone resulted in an impressive number of over 1200 pages, each one optimized for SEO as much as for the reader.
Results and Numbers
The project started in April 2023, but we had to wait four months to see the first changes in traffic. Five more months later, we ended up with great results:
- A whopping 10x growth in traffic for our client’s website, from around 20,000 to over 275,000 clicks in nine months.
- 80.8% growth in average engagement time, signaling the quality of our content.
- Near-zero bounce rate increase – impressive in the context of such a traffic increase.
- Faster and more responsive website. We significantly improved site speed, resolving a major issue behind low traffic volume.
- Stable website authority increase thanks to super-quality links.
- The website survived Google’s Health Core Update unscathed, thanks to the website’s sound condition and high-quality, people-oriented content.
Here’s more data from GA4, Ahrefs and Semrush, further highlighting the astonishing growth.
Increase in new users as reported in Google Analytics 4.
List of domains we secured backlinks from – look at the domain ratings!
A graph showing the increase in referring domains and organic traffic.
Traffic sources as reported by Semrush. You can clearly see a surge in organic traffic!
Case study created by:
Content Coordinator & Social Media Specialist
Our journey with this client was a special one. Sustainability is one of our core values, so it was truly fulfilling to work on a project that aligned so closely with our mission.
Raf ChomskySustainable development is a very forward-looking niche. Massive investments in green solutions by countries like the USA or organizations like the EU, as well as a significant increase in public awareness, have an impact on consumer behavior. Thanks to projects like the one described in this case study, we are changing the world for the better.
CEO of NoN Agency and Sustainable Growth Advocate
With challenges and triumphs at every crossroad and a team dedicated to forming winning solutions, we celebrated a 10x traffic growth in just nine months. And that’s not all: the project is still ongoing (at the moment of writing this case study), and we’re aiming even higher!
Do you want the same for your business?
Book a consultation or leave us a note below, and let us create your own success story together.
