A lot of companies focus on paid promotions and ad campaigns to boost their website traffic. However, they often forget the importance of SEO to drive website traffic.

If you can boost your organic traffic, it will be beneficial for you in the long run. Why? Because you won’t be dependent on referral traffic and paid promotions to drive traffic to your website.

I wanted to increase organic traffic to my website shanebarker.com. And I achieved that by applying a few tips and tricks that I will detail in this case study.

If you want to boost your organic traffic, read this case study to see how I did it.

Disclosure: This content may contain a few affiliate links, which means if you click on them, I will get a commission (without any extra cost to you).

Objective

I wanted to increase the organic traffic to my website and rank well for the more competitive keywords in my industry.

I started the website back in 2011 and until 2016, I used to get a few thousand annual organic visitors. But I wanted to improve this number and get more organic traffic to help me compete with the leading players in my industry.

Challenges

1. Keyword Competition

I am in the digital marketing industry, which is one of the most competitive as I have to compete with SEO experts. Back then, I was comparatively new in the field and was competing with leading players in the industry. The popularity of the digital marketing industry has been rising and so is the competition.

keyword competition seo case study

Image Source: Google Trends

We were all competing for popular keywords like “digital marketing consultant,” “influencer consultant,” “celebrity consultant,” etc. Due to the high intensity of competition and poor backlinks, my website was ranking lower in organic search results for these and other keywords.

2. Fewer Website Visits

In 2016, my website’s total organic traffic was a little short of 10,000 visitors. Due to lower site ranking in organic searches, I used to get a very low number of website visits from search results.

fewer website visits seo case study

3. Poor Backlinks

The domain authority for my website was also low because I hadn’t yet gained enough backlinks from reputed industry sources. There were some smaller referring domains, but I wasn’t getting good quality backlinks from websites with high domain authority.

poor backlinks seo case study

Solution

1. Backlink Audit and Disavow Bad Links

The first thing that I did was to conduct a thorough backlink audit focussed on checking the number and quality of backlinks. I updated my disavow sheet and removed all poor quality backlinks. And we still regularly audit backlinks.

disavow bad links seo case study

backlink audit seo case study

2. Perfect On-Page Optimization

I improved the number and quality of my web pages by focussing on on-page SEO aspects like keywords, tags, meta descriptions, structured data, and images. I also improved the usability features like mobile optimization to ensure that my site’s web pages were fully optimized. We have been doing regular on-page optimization and site audits to maintain and continue to improve rankings.

perfect on-page optimization seo case study

3. Proper Content Planning and Posting

We prepared a content calendar and started posting content regularly. We also used tools like Buffer to schedule content posting for social media platforms.

proper content planning and posting seo case study

4. Content Distribution

I used various forms of organic content promotion and distribution channels to get my content noticed. This included consistently promoting my website’s content through blog posts, guest posts, emails, newsletters, and social media. We also use content tools like Quuu to make the process more efficient.

content distribution seo case study

5. Link Earning Approach

A. Guest Posting

I started writing guest posts for websites and blogs that had good domain authority. This allowed me to earn some good quality backlinks from reputed sources. For example, I regularly write guest posts on websites like Social Media Examiner and tech.co.

guest posting seo case study3

Image Source: Google

B. Infographic Outreach

I also created infographics that could be posted on multiple websites to earn backlinks from different websites using the same content. For instance, I created this infographic on “Is Influencer Marketing The Future Of Marketing?” & published on my blog. Here is an example of our outreaching efforts.

infographic outreach seo case studyImage Source: Google

C. Speaking Events/Conferences

I have also spoken at several speaking events, workshops, and seminars. I have participated in reputed events like the Influencer Conference organized by Influencer Marketing Hub and the Influencer Marketing Days Conference.

speaking events conferences seo case study

Image Source: TBCasia

D. Podcasting

I have also hosted several podcasts covering specialized industry topics to build my reputation in the field. And it worked because now I get invites from other reputable industry players to be featured on their podcasts. Below is an example of a podcast that I was invited to speak on:

podcasting seo case study

Image Source

E. Discussion Forums

Participating in discussion forums like Quora is another great way to establish your authority in your industry. I have participated in several such forums and have spoken about topics in my area of expertise. This helped me build industry connections and earn links from reputable sources.

6. Competitor Analysis

While it is important to analyze your website’s SEO performance and keep improving it, it should not be done in a silo. You need to compare yourself with your competitors to better assess your SEO performance.

I continuously keep track of my competitors’ performances and keep comparing my website with theirs. This helps me get ideas of how I can improve my SEO efforts and measure the benefits of my past initiatives.

competitor analysis seo case study

7. Timely On-Page Audit

A webmasters audit is essential for any website owner hoping to measure and improve your SEO performance.

A. SEMrush

SEMrush is another SEO audit tool that I use to check my website’s on-page SEO performance. It measures the various factors that affect a website’s organic SEO performance.

semrush seo case study

B. Google Webmaster Tool

Google’s Webmasters tool (now renamed Search Console) tells you how Google sees your website. It can show you:

  • If your pages are indexed properly or not
  • How fast the website is loading
  • How good the website’s mobile user experience is
  • What keywords your website is ranking for

google webmaster tool seo case study

Results

After implementing the solutions and techniques mentioned above, I was able to improve my website’s organic SEO performance.

Following are some key statistics that saw tremendous improvements:

12X Improvement in Organic Website Traffic During 2016-18

A YoY increase of 364% in the number of users in YTD 2018.

yoy increase of 364% seo case study

A YoY increase of 275% in the number of users, in 2017.

yoy increase of 275% seo case study

Significantly Higher Rankings For Competitive Keywords

higher rankings for competitive keywords seo case study

FAQs

Q1. How to write an SEO case study?

A. Follow these tips when writing an SEO case study:

  • Tell an enthralling story.
  • Make headlines powerful.
  • Follow journalism rules. Pay attention to the who, what, how, when, why, and where.
  • Show your working process.
  • Clearly define your metrics.
  • Indicate the time frame.
  • Provide benchmarks. Have you achieved the same results for other clients, or are these better?
  • Focus on relevancy.
  • Show your data concisely and transparently.
  • Have a conclusion.

Q2. Where can I find examples of SEO campaign case studies?

A. The following are examples of SEO campaign case studies you can learn from:

Q3. What are the details you look out for in an SEO case study?

A. The following are things to look for when studying an SEO case study:

  • Title
  • The client/Hypothesis
  • Problem
  • Execution strategy
  • Solution
  • Results

Q4. Which are the best SEO strategies?

A. These are the best SEO strategies:

  • Keyword optimization
  • Content marketing
  • Visual marketing
  • Social media marketing
  • Email marketing

Q5. How to optimize case study pages for SEO?

A. Employ these tactics when optimizing your case study pages for SEO:

  • Make your URL easy to read.
  • Write a catchy headline and optimize your meta description.
  • Categorize your content.
  • Ensure user intent.
  • Publish useful, emotional, and valuable content.
  • Optimize your images.
  • Add schema markup.
  • Perform technical SEO. Ensure the page loads fast, has no code errors, has no duplicate meta tags, has no broken links, and has structured data.
  • Focus on Core Web Vitals.
  • Ensure good page design.
  • Make the page accessible to all users, including those with disabilities.
  • Internally link your page content to other relevant content on your site.
  • Guest post on relevant sites and include a link to your case study.

Conclusion

Contrary to popular belief, driving organic traffic is not that difficult or time-consuming. If done right, these SEO techniques can help you boost your organic website traffic in a matter of two years, as it happened in my case. All it takes is consistency and hard work. The main benefit? The best ROI. A dollar spent on SEO returns much more than any other kind of paid promotions.

If you have any further questions on how to boost your organic traffic, feel free to ask me by commenting below.

One Comment

  1. This blog post was really useful for me and I learned a lot. Thanks.

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