Case Study: 1,711.5% increase in traffic from Programmatic SEO in 11 months

Client Overview

Industry: SaaS Education Platform

Products/Services: The client operates both on a B2C and B2B level. On the B2C side, they offer medical and nursing courses for students, targeting exams like USMLE steps 1 and 2, Complex, PANCE, and NGN exams. On the B2B side, they provide training solutions to corporations, universities, hospitals, and organizations.

Target Audience:

• B2C: Medical and nursing students.

• B2B: Corporations, universities, hospitals, and organizations requiring training solutions.

• Global targeting : worldwide, with primary focus on the US market and secondary target: Latin America.

Initial Challenges

Key Challenges

Client faced significant challenges, primarily due to a lack of organic growth and a disorganized website structure.

They had no clear content plan, resulting in low organic conversion rates.

Their small team was overwhelmed and stretched thin, making it difficult to implement effective strategies. They were also uncertain about the types of links they needed and lacked linkable assets and hooks for lead generation.

Before our engagement, their monthly traffic was stagnant, averaging around 30-40k for two years. They aimed to break the 100k/month traffic barrier within 18 months, which became our first major goal.

The main challenges included:

• Content: They had no proper blog, linkable assets, gated content, or programmatic SEO content.

• Website Structure: Pages were not correctly structured or optimized.

• Team Capacity: Their small team struggled to manage the workload.

• Link Building: Uncertainty about necessary link types and a lack of linkable assets.

Current Status

We began working with Client in early 2020. Over time, we significantly improved their organic traffic, conversion rates to sign-ups, and overall engagement.

Here's the organic growth over time (new users):

• 2020: 841,387 Organic Sessions

• 2021: 2,809,227 Organic Sessions (233.88% increase)

• 2022: 6,275,480 Organic Sessions (123.39% increase)

• 2023: 9,413,768 Organic Sessions (50.01% increase, first half of the year)

The results we got from Programatic SEO in just 11 months (implementation started in early 2021 and in 2022 we got the results)

Sessions: 4,714.548 (1,171.5%)

Source: Data studio (Programmatic SEO)

Source: 2020 GA3

Source: 2021 GA3

Source: 2022 GA3

In 2024, we are on a trajectory to reach 1 million monthly visitors, while doubling their conversion rate (CVR) to sign-ups.

Existing Content

When we started, their content strategy was lacking:

1. Blog: They had no proper blog.

2. Linkable Assets: No content to attract natural links or encourage sharing.

3. Gated Content: Missing gated content to capture leads.

4. Programmatic SEO Content: No systematic approach to content creation.

After our engagement:

1. Structured Blog: Created a blog covering both medical and nursing topics, categorized for clarity.

2. Medical Concept Pages: Implemented programmatic SEO, focusing on topics like anatomy, adding massive traffic growth.

3. Gated Content: Introduced cheat sheets and other gated content that consistently generated leads.

4. Linkable Assets: Developed numerous linkable assets for use in link acquisition campaigns.

   
   

Objectives

Goals

• Primary Goal: Increase organic traffic by 100% YoY. We achieved this within the first 12 months (Feb 2020 to Feb 2021) and doubled it by 2022.

• Secondary Goal: Improve conversion rate to sign-ups. Through constant A/B testing and experimentation, we successfully improved conversion rates by introducing gated content and leveraging programmatic SEO.

KPIs:

1. Organic traffic growth QoQ, YoY

2. Sign-up growth rate QoQ, YoY

3. Leads from gated content increase QoQ, YoY

Strategy and Implementation

SEO Strategy

Our strategy was built to support a startup with the potential to scale to enterprise levels. Targeting an international audience, with a primary focus on the US market, we also aimed to expand into Spanish-speaking countries.

Our approach included:

1. Scalable Infrastructure: Building a solid foundation and scalable infrastructure.

2. Programmatic Content: Systematically producing content (e.g., medical concept pages) to target long-tail keywords with high search volume.

3. Team Training: Training Lecturio's content writers to create optimized, user-focused content.

4. Technical SEO: Fixing technical issues and supporting the development team to scale effectively.

5. Link Acquisition: Establishing a sustainable link acquisition strategy.

6. Reporting System: Implementing robust tracking and reporting using Looker Studio.

Keyword Research

Keyword research was an ongoing process. Initially, we identified all commercial intent keywords for immediate conversions, then targeted top/mid journey keywords. Our approach focused on intent over search volume to prioritize sign-ups and revenue.

Content Strategy

Our content strategy was comprehensive, aiming to cover all necessary topics swiftly. We identified keywords based on the customer's journey and developed an integrated content strategy focusing on growth and internal links.

1. Student Blog: Created a blog segmented into medical and nursing categories, producing 8-12 posts per month.

2. Programmatic SEO: Developed content systematically on topics like human anatomy, generating substantial traffic.

3. Gated Content: Implemented gated content after initial success, significantly increasing sign-ups and conversion rates.

4. A/B Testing: Conducted numerous tests to ensure minimal impact on rankings before implementing changes across all pages.

Source: Client blog with diverse categories

Source: Programmatic SEO - Medical Concept Library

Source: Data studio (Programmatic SEO)

The results we got from Programatic SEO in just 11 months

Sessions: 4,714.548 (1,171.5%)

in the first two years we didn’t gated the content, we let it rank and generate traffic first.

After that we introduced a gate that ask visitors to sign-up to continue reading.

Initially, we carried out numerous A/B tests and experiments to ensure the changes would not noticeably impact the ranking. Once the tests showed positive results, we applied these changes to every concept page.

Over 11 months, the sign-up rate saw an increase of 5,503.1%, and the Conversion Rate (CVR) rose by 340.7%.

• Sign-up: Increased by +5,503.1%

• CVR: Increased by +340.7%

The programmatic SEO approach was a huge success, leading to an additional 4 million sessions in that year only and more than 100,000 sign-ups, and it keep growing YoY.

Technical SEO

Given the client's large site (>1m pages), technical SEO was crucial. We encountered several challenges:

1. Broken Infrastructure: Disorganized sitemap and navigation.

2. Custom Schema Maps: Required for accurate content interpretation by Google.

3. Indexation Issues: Due to the large number of pages.

4. Thin Content: Presence of low-value content.

5. Page Speed: Issues with WordPress, Elementor, and unoptimized videos.

6. Internal Links and Navigation: Inadequate interlinking of pages.

7. International Expansion: Basic hreflang setup and lack of localized content.

Our strategy involved:

1. Infrastructure Setup: Corrected sitemap and navigation issues.

2. Schema Maps: Manually fixed and implemented product-related schema maps.

3. Content Optimization: Removed thin content and dead pages, continuously monitored errors.

4. Hreflang Implementation: Corrected errors and structured hreflangs with documentation.

5. Internal Linking: Enhanced interlinking to guide users and add value.

6. Regular Audits: Conducted bi-weekly audits using Sitebulb and Screaming Frog.

Link Building

We leveraged diverse methods for link acquisition, primarily outreach. Our process included:

1. Prospecting: Identifying matching sites for linkable assets.

2. Custom Emails: Writing personalized emails for each site.

3. Automation: Using tools like Pitchbox or Quickmail for campaign launches.

4. Tracking and Management: Using CRM (Pipedrive, Airtable) for positive responses and automation to speed up processes.

Source: Prospecting and custom email writing

Source: Outreach Response Tracker

Here are some of the links we acquired

• https://www.studentdoctor.net/2022/10/21/how-to-manage-your-finances-in-medical-residency/

• https://www.thegypsynurse.com/blog/future-of-nursing/

• https://www.studyforfe.com/blog/decrease-studying-distractions-for-fe-and-pe-exam/

• https://mdfinstruments.com/blogs/buying-guides/physical-assessment

We often launch digital PR campaigns. One such example is this:

https://www.lecturio.com/blog/how-would-video-game-doctors-and-nurses-fare-in-the-real-world/

In this campaign, we creatively used public data to craft a catchy title and a compelling story that encourages links.

Our campaigns have resulted in more than 450 publication links. High DA sites like Fox, MCN, Benzinga, The Chronicle Journal, and Yahoo News have featured the story.

Localization

We facilitated the client's entry into the Spanish-speaking market, translating, localizing, and optimizing content. This project involved extensive collaboration with local translators and SEO experts to ensure accurate localization. We also expanded their global presence with an international strategy.

Competitor Analysis

We continuously monitored competitors, using competitive gap analysis to identify top keywords and inform our content creation process.

Source: SEMrush Keywords visibility tracker - top 10

Results

Organic Traffic

Increase client's overall growth was an impressive 1976.32%, increasing from 453,387 to 9,413,768 organic sessions.

• 2021: 233.88%

• 2022: 123.39%

• 2023: 50.01%

Keyword Rankings

We pushed over 70% of initially identified high intent keywords to page 1, achieving a visibility score that surpassed all competitors in the space.

Conversion Rate

By targeting high intent keywords, we consistently improved the conversion rate from organic search to sign-ups.

Signups/Sales

We significantly increased the number of sign-ups, positively impacting the bottom line. While specific numbers remain undisclosed, the substantial improvement is reflected in the retention rate and overall client satisfaction.

Domain Authority

client's Domain Authority (DA) improved from near 20 to 53.

Conclusion and Insights

Summary

Through a strategic SEO approach, comprehensive content optimization, and continuous technical improvements, Lecturio achieved a 1976.32% increase in traffic over three years (from 400k/year to 10m/year in 3 years growth). The implementation of programmatic SEO, enhanced content strategy, and effective link-building were key to this success.

Lessons Learned:

• Structured Approach: A well-structured and scalable SEO and content strategy can yield significant results.

• Continuous Monitoring: Regular audits and optimizations are essential for sustained growth.

• Collaboration: Effective communication and collaboration with internal teams are crucial for technical SEO success.

Future Plans:

• Market Expansion: Continue expanding into new markets and optimizing content for different languages.

• Sustained Efforts: Maintain and enhance technical SEO and link-building efforts.

• Conversion Optimization: Focus on further improving conversion rates and overall digital presence.

the client's success story demonstrates the transformative power of a well-executed SEO strategy.

If you're on a similar path and want to go from 100k to 1m, we're here to help. Let's schedule a 15-minute discovery call and brainstorm together on how we can assist you in reaching your goal.