Case Study: From 300 to 9000+ Monthly Clicks in One Year (2,900% Growth)

This case study covers the first 12 months of work for a content-driven publishing brand that requested to remain anonymous. The client approached us with the goal of significantly increasing their organic visibility and traffic in a sustainable way, without relying on paid advertising.

The brand operated in the B2B PR space and was quite established thanks to other marketing efforts. But it had never received a consistent, focused SEO push. As a result, it wasn’t reaching anywhere near its potential audience.

The Challenge

Despite having a history of publishing content, the client’s website was underperforming in organic search. Traffic levels were stagnant, and their existing content strategy lacked the consistency and optimization needed to compete with higher-authority competitors.

Key challenges included:

• Low monthly organic clicks: Averaging around 300 clicks every three months before we began.
• Under-optimized content: Many pages had potential but weren’t targeting specific keywords effectively.
• Lack of a publishing system: No formal workflow for content creation, review, and publishing, leading to inconsistent quality and frequency.
• Minimal backlink acquisition: Few efforts were made to build authority through strategic link building.
• Neglected evergreen content: Older posts hadn’t been refreshed in years, limiting their ranking potential.

The brand also faced the growing challenge of AI overviews in Google Search, which can reduce traditional click-through rates. This made it even more important to create highly clickable titles, deliver clear value, and ensure that content was visible for queries where AI-generated summaries were appearing.

Our Approach

We began work in May last year, assembling a dedicated team and creating a structured system to handle content production, optimization, and link building. The strategy focused on three pillars:

1. A Scalable Content Production System – Build a repeatable workflow that ensured every article met strict quality standards before going live.
2. Targeted SEO and Optimization – Use keyword research, competitor analysis, and on-page best practices to create content that could rank for valuable, intent-driven terms.
3. Authority Building – Acquire high-quality backlinks and strengthen brand signals through multiple channels, including social media.

Our philosophy was simple: quality first. Even though we set an ambitious target of publishing 10 articles per week, we only published pieces that met our standards — no exceptions.

12-month clicks/impressions growth:

1-month clicks/impressions:

Content Strategy: Building a System for Consistent, High-Quality Output

From the outset, we knew that scaling content successfully required a repeatable system, not just ad-hoc publishing. Our first step was to design and implement a workflow that every piece of content would follow, ensuring both consistency and quality.

1. A Structured Workflow

The system we created included multiple quality checkpoints before content went live:

1. Keyword Research: Using a mix of direct intent targeting and competitor gap analysis, we identified opportunities where high-authority competitors were ranking without truly optimizing for specific queries. These gaps became prime targets.
2. Content Creation: Writers produced drafts based on detailed briefs, ensuring alignment with the target keyword, intent, and audience needs.
3. Editing & Optimization: Editors refined the drafts for clarity, accuracy, and SEO readiness, while keeping the writing natural and human-first.
4. Content Manager Review: Each piece underwent a holistic review for readiness.
5. Upload & Pre-Publish Check: A team member uploaded the content to the CMS, after which the content manager checked formatting, SEO elements, and overall presentation.
6. Post-Publish QA – A final check was done on the live version to catch any oversights.

This multi-layered review process ensured no content went live unless it was truly ready.

Quality over quantity was the focus, and our rule was simple: if it’s not ready, it doesn’t get published. 

In some weeks, that meant publishing only 6 or 7 pieces. This unwavering commitment to quality meant that every article we produced had the potential to perform and support our broader SEO goals.

2. Making Every Piece a Linkable Asset

Beyond writing for users and optimizing for search, we added a third layer: What would make someone want to link to this?

By asking this question for each article, we often found opportunities to add:

• Original statistics or curated research
• Downloadable PDFs or templates
• Unique, reusable visuals or infographics

While not every piece needed these elements, treating content as a potential linkable asset ensured we created resources that could naturally attract backlinks.

3. Optimizing for Clicks in the AI Overview Era

With AI overviews increasingly visible in Google Search, titles became more critical than ever. For each article, we revisited the title — even if it seemed good — and asked, “Can we make this more clickable?”

We also optimized metadata and preview elements, including:

• Meta titles and descriptions
• Open Graph previews for social media
• Pinterest descriptions and imagery

Combined with engaging introductions, these optimizations helped drive clicks despite the potential traffic loss from AI overviews.

Backlink & Authority Building Strategy

While content quality and optimization were crucial, we also knew that authority would be a deciding factor in the client’s ability to compete with larger, more established sites. Our backlink strategy combined both active outreach and earned opportunities.

1. A Diversified Link Profile

We avoided relying on any single link-building tactic. Instead, we developed a healthy mix of backlinks to strengthen both relevance and authority:

• Guest Posting: Publishing high-quality, relevant articles on reputable sites to secure contextual backlinks.
• Earned Links: Attracting organic backlinks by producing content worth citing, such as research-driven articles or well-structured guides.
• Business Directories: Leveraging credible, niche-relevant directories to reinforce brand presence and trust signals.

While all three contributed value, the combination of guest posting and earned links proved the most effective for long-term authority growth.

2. Leveraging Social Media Signals

Although social media backlinks are typically nofollow, we still used them strategically to drive visibility and indirect SEO benefits. By maintaining a consistent posting schedule across platforms, we increased referral traffic and brand recognition.

Our approach included:

• Posting daily in the early stages to gather user data, and later adjusting to 1–3 times per week for quality control.
• Prioritizing short-form videos and visual posts, which performed best for the brand.
• Utilizing stock imagery and graphics that align with the brand’s editorial style.

This steady activity helped create positive brand signals and supported the backlink profile with a diverse range of link types.

3. User Experience & Performance Improvements

Backlink strategy alone wasn’t enough — we also made user experience (UX) and page performance improvements to ensure visitors stayed engaged once they arrived.

Key upgrades included:

• Improved site readability with better font sizing, spacing, and image presentation.
• Streamlined navigation and calls-to-action.
• Migrated to a faster hosting environment, significantly improving load times.
• Optimized images and reduced unnecessary code for better Core Web Vitals performance.

These improvements helped reduce friction for users, which indirectly supported SEO by improving engagement signals.

1-month traffic sources:

Results

The combined impact of high-quality content production, strategic link-building, and ongoing UX improvements was evident in the data. Over the course of 12 months, the client saw steady and significant growth in both traffic and visibility.

1. Organic Search Growth

Organic search was the primary target, and it delivered. By the end of the period, over 80% of all traffic came from Google, reflecting the effectiveness of optimization efforts.

Key points:

• Year-over-year, total sessions increased substantially.
• Search Console data showed a consistent upward trend in impressions and clicks.
• Several competitive keywords moved onto the first page, some into the top three positions.

This dominance in Google traffic confirmed that our focus on writing for humans first, optimizing for search second, and refining for linkability third was the right approach.

2. Monthly Traffic Milestone

By the latest reporting period, the site was averaging around 10,000 monthly visits across all channels, with organic search as the overwhelming driver.

This milestone not only validated the SEO strategy but also positioned the site as a stronger authority in its niche, opening more opportunities for natural backlinks and partnerships.

3. Impact of Content Refreshes

Refreshing select evergreen articles led to noticeable traffic boosts for those pages. In each case, the updates improved keyword targeting, relevance, and user satisfaction, proving that strategic updates can be just as powerful as publishing new content.

12-month traffic sources:

Conclusion & Acknowledgements

This project demonstrated that sustainable SEO growth stems from striking a balance between ambition and discipline. Setting a target of 10 high-quality articles per week pushed the pace, but the unwavering rule of “nothing goes live unless it’s ready” ensured that growth never came at the cost of quality.

By combining content excellence, strategic link-building, consistent social media activity, and thoughtful UX improvements, we not only increased visibility but also established long-term authority. The traffic gains and improved search rankings were the direct result of aligning every tactic with the core principle: write for people first, optimize for search second, and refine for linkability third.

This approach is repeatable in other contexts, regardless of industry — provided there is a commitment to consistent execution, ongoing measurement, and continuous improvement.

While this report focuses on strategy and results, it’s important to acknowledge that this success was a team effort. Every article written, title refined, backlink earned, and layout adjusted was the product of collaborative work behind the scenes.

Even though the brand remains anonymous in this case study, we thank everyone who contributed to this project for their commitment to excellence and their ability to adapt quickly in an ever-changing search landscape.

Gabriel Nwatarali

Gabriel Nwatarali is a copywriter, SEO expert, and the founder of Tech Help Canada. He helps founders attract the right kind of search traffic through SEO strategy, content that ranks, and conversion-focused copy. In one project, a single copy tweak helped a brand increase downloads from a few hundred to 10M+. Want a second set of eyes on your site? Reach Out Here