- Client
- Confidential
- Industry
- Cloud security, enterprise software
- Location
- United States
- Company size
- 101 to 250 employees
The situation
The client protects enterprises from ransomware and zero-day attacks. The product was strong, but its search presence was not. Organic traffic had stopped growing, keyword rankings were almost nonexistent and the website was not generating the leads it should have.
Project goal
Make the company’s online presence match the strength of its product. That meant more organic traffic, first-page keyword rankings and a predictable flow of qualified leads from search.
Every lead reported in this case study is a sales-qualified lead (SQL): a demo or contact request routed to the client’s sales team.
What we did
SEO audit
We started with a full audit of the website. We mapped every technical issue and content gap before building the strategy.
Technical SEO
We fixed the site architecture, rebuilt the XML sitemap and resolved the crawling and indexation issues that were keeping pages out of Google’s results.
Content strategy
We planned content around what the audience was searching for: articles, guides, infographics and ebooks designed to attract backlinks. Every piece was connected through internal linking to strengthen the site as a whole.
On-page SEO
Page by page, we optimized titles, meta descriptions, headers and images, so that every important page was clear to search engines and to potential customers.
Off-page SEO
We ran a link building campaign focused on credible, relevant websites. The content we created did most of the work here.
SEO and PPC on one plan
SEO built the foundation. Paid search filled the gaps where competition was too strong to wait for organic rankings. Running both together improved visibility on the results page and brought the cost per click down.
KPI: backlinks
The goal was better links as well as more links, from websites that matter in the cybersecurity space.
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backlinks | 3,097 | 13,152 | +324% |
| Referring domains | 629 | 2,787 | +343% |
| Dofollow backlinks | 2,538 | 10,811 | +326% |
| Dofollow domains | 476 | 2,108 | +343% |
KPI: keywords
We targeted a mix of branded, product and generic keywords to cover every stage of the buyer journey.
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| #1 rank | 1 | 185 |
| In top 10 | 1 | 578 |
| In top 50 | 14 | 1,437 |
KPI: paid traffic
Paid search ran alongside SEO to speed up results in competitive keyword categories. One channel built long-term visibility and the other delivered leads from the first month.
Over one year, the paid campaigns brought 1,692 sales-qualified leads from 72,000 clicks. The report counts them as submissions. The first report below covers that full year. The other two show a single month and the cost per lead in the most recent month.
KPI: website traffic
Better rankings turned into more visitors. Traffic grew year over year.
| Metric | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Users | 33,926 | 44,136 | 57,727 | +70.2% |
| New users | 31,929 | 42,071 | 55,564 | +74.0% |
| Sessions | 47,755 | 59,398 | 78,750 | +64.9% |
Key takeaways
- Content built to earn links did most of the link building. Backlinks grew from 3,097 to 13,152.
- Technical fixes came before content, so new pages could be crawled and indexed from the start.
- SEO and paid search on one plan covered every stage: paid search brought leads from the first month while rankings built.
- Targeting branded, product and generic keywords together moved the site from 1 to 578 positions in the top 10.
Our role
SEO and paid search were planned and run together. Our founder led this engagement before SEO Catalyst was formed.
Frequently asked questions
How many leads did the campaigns generate?
The paid campaigns brought 1,692 sales-qualified leads in one year, from about 72,000 clicks.
How much did keyword rankings grow?
Keywords at rank 1 went from 1 to 185, and keywords in the top 10 went from 1 to 578.
How much did website traffic grow?
Sessions grew from 47,755 in 2019 to 78,750 in 2021, an increase of 64.9%.