How we Tripled Organic Traffic for Netguru in Foreign Markets During the Year

It is one of the best known Polish software houses – companies that specialize in the consultation and implementation of mainly web-oriented IT projects. The company with HQ in Poznań (Poland) operates globally, with a team of over 300 people.

At Whites Agency, we specialize in building online brand visibility. We use Data-driven SEO, PPC campaigns, Content Marketing, and Social Media Marketing to implement digital action strategies and achieve maximum results for our clients.

Netguru’s cooperation with Whites

BEGINNING

Our collaboration started in April 2017. Below, we summarized the first year of our cooperation:

BACKGROUND

When we started affiliating with Netguru, they had built up a recognized brand search that had a strong position in the software housing market. The word “netguru” was entered into the Polish search engine 3600 times a month. English-speaking customers were also familiar with the brand: the average number of searches in March 2017 for the USA and the UK was 390.

Apart from the brand itself, Netguru built up visibility in Google, thanks to guides and blog entries, addressed mainly to developers. Phrases related to specific programming problems were included in the TOP 3 results.

Objectives and assumptions

1. INCREASE IN TRAFFIC ON EXISTING CONTENT

We wanted to use the existing potential of the brand and the valuable content published on Netguru’s website. We agreed that our common goal is to accelerate the growth of organic traffic on Netguru’s website. As a KPI, we have adopted a 40% increase in the number of visits per month over the year, with particular emphasis on the UK, where the increase should exceed 50%.

2. BUILDING OF TARGET PAGES FOR “HIGH INTENT” PHRASES

On the other hand, we knew that so far the visibility in the search engine to a small extent includes the so-called “High Intent” phrases – indicating the last stages of the purchasing process – the AdWords campaign would be responsible for reaching potential customers at this stage of the funnel. The Netguru team assigned us the goal of increasing the position and movement of phrases from this category. After analysis, together, we decided on a strategy based on optimized target websites.

What we’ve done: actions

Below we present the course of our cooperation:

WORKSHOPS

In the first stage of our cooperation, we organized a full-day workshop. We had a chance to discuss how SEO works, what we do and how to strengthen our search engine positions. We also gave tips on how to continue working on blog entries to support our target page strategy for high-intent phrases. It was also an opportunity for the Whites team to better understand the client’s business.

SEO STRATEGY

In response to the objectives set for us, we began an analysis, which resulted in a very detailed and extensive strategy which includes the following:

• A diagnosis of the current visibility
• Website analysis in terms of search engine friendliness
• Researching key phrases in terms of location, business value, competition
• Matching the client’s business needs
• Verification of the content available on the Netguru website
• Link profile analysis
• A detailed action plan

CREATION OF SEO TARGET SITES

We focused on phrases from the last operations of the shopping process (high intent) with a small number of monthly queries, but considerable sales potential. An example of such a site is the React Native or Node.js. We assumed that with such a serious purchase, the client had probably already made an analysis of the available options and often has an idea of what technology he wants to use. Therefore, apart from the target pages describing what Netguru does, we created “Landing Pages” supporting them, which describe how Netguru does it, i.e., focused on particular technologies. Each LP was to contain a detailed description of the service, connected with links to relevant guides, case studies, recommendations, and previous implementations. It was a kind of “hub” for the subject, describing a specific service.

KPI: 650 organic visits per month, 6 months after the start of the Landing Pages. We have already exceeded our target in the third month – by 17%.

LINK BUILDING

The Netguru team was working on new target sites, and we – Whites Agency – were retrieving lost links. We identified “broken backlinks”, i.e., links to non-existent subpages and those in the “Lost” category that once led to Netguru but were removed by the linker. In each case, we have corresponded with the owner of the link, trying to restore it. Additionally, we actively conducted outreach activities on British and American valuable websites from the industry.

KPI: We improved the Majestic Flow Trust from 17 to 21. In a year, we exceeded our target to reach a factor of 25.

BLOG OPTIMIZATION

Detailed planning of the Landing Pages is not everything. Their operation should be supported by the SEO power of the entire service, and above all, by building credibility and strength of blog posts, intended for a wider audience.

The concept of Landing Pages was not typical either – they were to contain much more characters than the previous sales websites: minimalistic and mainly based on CTA. Internal contextual linking was also crucial for their success.

INTERNAL LINKING

There were about a thousand valuable content on the website. However, most of them were not optimally linked. We have thickened the structure of internal links based on the so-called topical structure, where the key criterion for links was the context and relations between the individual key phrases.

KPI: Number of organic traffic destinations with more than 50 sessions per month: a planned increase of 50%, achieved: 130%.

The key to success – an agile approach to marketing

Patryk Kalinowski, Senior Online Marketing Specialist at Netguru

By assisting/helping start-ups and technology companies, we can see how the “agile” approach influences the other departments and shapes the organizational culture of the entire company. This is particularly evident in the case of Netguru, which is a great example of an agile company. Our cooperation with them was based on a partnership relationship and a focus on a common goal – values we believe in at Whites. Together with Netguru’s marketing department, we present the results of our work. These were the components of our collective success:

A FOCUS ON THE OBJECTIVE

A well-defined objective was a significant factor in our actions. However, it was a clear division of roles and responsibilities that increased the efficiency of our work. During the periodical talks, we discussed together what else we could do better, what to change.

TRUST

It is the key to success in any relationship, but in the case of positioning it is particularly important – there is no single path to the goal, and recommendations are sometimes based on intuition backed by many years of experience. In addition, the effects of work are not a quick-fix, but a long-term process. Netguru’s marketing department believed in our strategy and did a lot of work on their side to implement it.

COMMUNICATION

About 10 people were involved in both sides of the project. Two aspects turned out to be crucial here – transparency of communication and its dynamics. When conversing with the client’s team, we could always count on sincere feedback. It also included areas where our cooperation required improvement. This allowed us to adjust our solutions to the client’s needs. Our communication was based on tools for real-time cooperation: Slack, online documents, Data Studio, Trello. Thanks to this, we kept up the pace, and we could exchange information with people involved in this project.

Radek Zaleski, Head of Growth in Netguru

Results

1. INCREASE IN ORGANIC TRAFFIC

Organic traffic tripled on the whole website – from 30 thousand visits per month to about 90 thousand per month.

2. INCREASE IN TRAFFIC ON THE MOST IMPORTANT BUSINESS MARKETS

The increase in traffic was the most dynamic in Western countries.

Data: Google Analytics, source: organic, period: March 2018 vs. March 2017.

3. GROWTH FROM “HIGH INTENT” PHRASES

The main goal – the intentional traffic on sales websites – exceeded our expectations. It grew by more than 250 percent over the year.

Chart of organic traffic growth on target websites (implementation of a new version in the 8th month).

The fact that their average CPC for AdWords campaigns in Western markets is 40-60 PLN confirms how competitive and valuable these phrases are in terms of business.

4. INCREASE IN POTENTIAL REVENUE OF ORGANIC TRAFFIC

All increases in movement or position are of little significance when it comes to business value.

The quarterly revenue potential of organic traffic, according to Netguru’s internal tools.

Summary

Business services, which include software houses, are the most expensive category in AdWords in the United States. The competition in this most competitive category was an extraordinary challenge for us, and the successes that we achieved brought great satisfaction.

Source:https://rapidpurple.com/webmaster-news/marketing/infographic-top-25-expensive-google-adwords-keywords/