SEO and Content Growth Field Notes and Case Studies From The Trenches
- Arun Kothapally
- Jul 17
- 27 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Case Study: How Edureka Scaled Organic Growth Through Ruthless SEO Execution
Vertical: EdTech
Duration: 2.5 years
Goal: Outrank major competitors like Simplilearn and Great Learning
Results: Domain Rating grew from 30 → 75+
Blog traffic increased by
150K+ through pruning alone, the YouTube subscriber base scaled to
2M+ 800–1000 articles shipped in 5 months. Organic leads scaled without ad spend.
Starting Point: A Good Product. A Weak SEO Moat.
Edureka already had solid demand — learners flocked to upskill in DevOps, Java, Python, and more. However, their domain rating and organic footprint lagged significantly behind those of their peers. The blog was hosted on WordPress (edureka.co/blog), while the product site utilized a custom CMS — an operational challenge, but not a blocker. The real problem was scale and authority.
There were three big levers to pull:
Build backlinks
Scale content
Clean the junk
1. Link Building — Compounding Trust Over Time
Monthly Budget: ₹2–8LTimeline: ~30 months
Edureka didn’t dabble — they front-loaded investment in backlinks. By hiring a dedicated link-building specialist, giving them direct PayPal access, and keeping approvals to a single email, they removed friction.
Execution Details:
Started with paid placements & contextual link insertions.
Avoided cheap directory links; prioritized editorial context.
Focused on topics with deep link potential — e.g., Java, AWS, Cybersecurity.
“We didn’t ask for 1000 links overnight. We aimed for 50–100 quality links every month. Over 2 years, this moved our DR from 30 to 75.”
The outcome? They began matching the traffic and visibility levels of giants like Great Learning and Simplilearn.
2. Content Scaling — 1000 Articles in 150 Days
To dominate high-volume beginner searches (e.g., What is Python?, What is HTML?), Edureka did something smart:
They hired 20+ 4th-year CSE interns via Internshala.
These interns were cheap, eager, and already familiar with the subject matter. The SEO team structured clear briefs — they just needed good-enough execution for low-complexity queries.
Key Tactics:
Targeted “What is ___” and “Top ___ interview questions” keywords.
Prioritized high-volume, low-depth terms for intern execution.
Used content calendars + Notion checklists to scale ops.
That aggressive output doubled blog traffic within a matter of months.
3. Content Pruning — Deleting to Grow
In 2018, a blog audit revealed the usual suspects: thin content, duplicate clusters, outdated info.
Result:
Deleted 300+ outdated articles
Merged related pieces
301-redirected content that had some link equity
This alone lifted blog traffic by ~30% (~150K visitors/month) — proving that sometimes growth = subtraction.
4. Topical Authority Strategy — Hub & Spoke at Scale
They grouped content around clear themes:
Java + JavaScript
DevOps
Cloud / AWS
Data Science & Python
Each hub had spokes: definitions, comparisons, tutorials, interview questions, and certification guides.
This approach:
Helped Google understand topical relevance
Increased average session time
Led to natural backlinks from learners, bloggers, and Quora users
5. Learner Journey Intelligence
Edureka didn’t just guess what to write.
They surveyed users across funnels, analyzed chat logs, and ran interviews to understand career goals:
“Switching from digital marketing to product management”
“Breaking into cybersecurity from IT support”
These insights shaped their content calendar, ad targeting, and even course creation. The SEO team worked backwards from user journeys.
6. Multi-Channel Content Ops: Blogging + YouTube + Webinars
The audience preferred video + blog formats. So Edureka doubled down on both:
Invested in YouTube early — now at 2M+ subscribers
Repurposed blog articles into YouTube explainers
Hosted live Q&A and webinars to capture email leads mid-funnel
Result: SEO + YouTube became the top organic acquisition channels, beating paid CAC in multiple geographies.
7. Enablers: Buy-in, Budgets & Workflow
The CEO assigned one full-time developer just for SEO tasks — huge unlock for implementation speed.
No gatekeeping: budget approvals for links were a single-email process.
SOPs and checklists were built into sprint cycles.
Key Takeaways
Play | Impact |
Link velocity of 50–100/mo | DR 30 → 75 |
1000 articles in 5 months | Doubled traffic |
Content pruning & redirects | +150K visits/month |
Hub & Spoke topical design | Higher rankings & backlinks |
Surveys + interviews | Aligned content to real career goals |
YouTube + blogs | Dominated high-intent search + discovery |
Case Study: How Noon Academy Scaled K12 SEO to 100K+ Monthly Visitors Across 10 Countries
Vertical: K-12 EdTechRegion: Middle East + Emerging MarketsScope: Multi-country, multi-language SEO expansionTimeline: 6–12 monthsResults: 100,000+ monthly organic visitors 30,000+ pages indexed 72,000+ visitors enabled by CMS migration to WordPress 20,000 blog articles created Structured data deployed for rich results Tool-based pages earned natural backlinks and rankings
Problem: Tech Blockers, Thin Content, and No Visibility
Noon Academy — a fast-scaling K-12 edtech platform in the Middle East — was losing the organic game. Their legacy CMS was slowing down content velocity, country-level localization was missing, and Google barely indexed their content.
To scale efficiently across multiple regions and languages, Noon needed:
A fast, flexible CMS
Localized content at scale
A way to drive visibility and backlinks without massive paid budgets
Solution 1: WordPress Migration to Unlock Speed and Autonomy
The first unlock was migrating part of their site to WordPress, allowing the content and marketing team to:
Publish content independently (without engineering bandwidth)
Implement SEO plugins and structured data natively
Test and ship new formats (e.g., blogs, Q&A, tools)
Impact: Over 72,000 organic visitors came from this content layer alone — just by removing the tech bottleneck.
Solution 2: Multi-Country Content Strategy for the Middle East
Noon’s product spanned 10+ countries in the Middle East, each with unique curricula and search behavior.
They built a localized SEO playbook:
Customized meta titles + content per country
Keyword research segmented by dialect and curriculum
Created 20,000 blog articles mapped to local education search queries
They also improved crawl efficiency and indexing across 30,000+ pages by:
Fixing internal linking logic
Generating fresh XML sitemaps
Removing duplicate content caused by curriculum overlaps
Result: Traffic ramped up to 100K/month in less than 6 months, all while staying low on paid spend.
Solution 3: Structured Data to Own SERP Real Estate
Noon implemented educational structured data markups across their core and blog pages.
They used:
Education Q&A for subject-specific queries
Course schema for class-specific content
VideoObject and HowTo for tutorial-rich posts
PracticeProblem markup for student exercises
Outcome: These markups made their results richer, more clickable, and improved visibility for zero-click queries — a crucial edge in mobile-heavy markets.
Solution 4: Tool Pages as Backlink Magnets
Inspired by what platforms like TutorialsPoint achieved with tools like the Java Online Editor, Noon launched free, usable tools tailored to students:
Examples:
Math equation solvers
MCQ practice widgets
Interactive curriculum explorer tools
These utility pages:
Attracted natural backlinks from blogs, forums, and school portals
Boosted average time on site
Gave Google more indexable, value-driven content
Learning: Tools don’t just solve problems — they build authority without outreach.
Key Strategic Takeaways
Lever | |
WordPress Migration | +72K organic visitors unlocked |
Localized Content at Scale | 20K articles, 10 countries, 100K traffic |
Structured Data SEO | Better clickthrough and rich snippets |
Free Student Tools | Earned natural backlinks & search equity |
Crawl + Indexation Fixes | 30K pages indexed cleanly |
Case Study: How Lido Learning Scaled K-12 SEO From 0 to 500K Visitors with Backlinks, Question Banks, and Smart Ops
Industry: K-12 EdTechRegion: IndiaSEO Growth Timeline: ~6–12 monthsHighlights: 0 → 500K non-branded organic visitors/month Domain Rating (DR) 15 → 50 in 3 months 30 pages → 18,000+ indexable pages 15,000 outreach emails → 60% free backlinks Infographic-led link building Internal team of teachers as content creators
The Problem: Thin Site. No Authority. Low Trust.
When Lido Learning began their SEO push, they had:
Fewer than 30 pages indexed
Zero non-branded organic traffic
A Domain Rating of 15 (too weak to rank for anything competitive)
A small in-house team with no dedicated SEO function
But they had ambition — to rank for curriculum-level topics (NCERT chapters, CBSE questions), K-12 concepts, and homework help keywords.
The Goal: Build Topic Authority at Scale (and Fast)
Lido wasn’t chasing vanity traffic. They wanted:
Qualified, curriculum-aligned traffic
Topical authority in subjects like Science, Math, and English
Search visibility without heavy ad spend
A structure that mirrored how students learn
They focused on non-branded queries like:
What is photosynthesis Class 6
CBSE science Chapter 2 notes
Laws of motion class 9 solved questions
Step 1: DR 15 to 50 in 3 Months via Link Velocity
Before scaling content, they needed Google to trust the domain.
So they built authority like this:
Manual Outreach at Scale:15,000 emails sent → 4,400 people reached → ~5% reply rateA 3-member team managed this over 5 months.
Infographic Play:They built a “Game-Based Learning for K12 Students” infographic in Canva in 1 day.It was sent to:
Parenting blogs
Child psychologists
Teachers and curriculum designers
EdTech journalists
Outcome:~60% of backlinks were acquired for free. A few wanted payment, but many accepted the link due to the relevance and effort shown.
Takeaway for You:Don’t start content scaling until you raise your DR.Focus on editorial context, not shady sidebar links. And remember: a useful asset + smart segmentation + clean outreach = links.
Step 2: 30 Pages to 18,000 Pages — Without Burning Out
Once domain authority rose, Lido expanded their organic footprint. But they didn’t hire a 100-person team. Instead, they:
✅ Leveraged Their Question Bank
Existing internal database of questions → converted into SEO-optimized Q&A pages
Added teacher-written answers to build value for both learners and Google
Result: 18,000+ indexable pages over ~12–18 months
✅ Hired Teachers to Create Content
Trained K-12 teachers to use digital whiteboards
Created videos + accompanying text content
Solved the copyright issue + created genuine educational material
Teachers were given writing templates and sample structures (think: explain concept → show diagram → apply to example → quiz question)
✅ Introduced Book-Like Internal Linking
Topics were linked like chapters in a textbooke.g., “Light - Class 8” linked to “Laws of Reflection”, “Uses of Mirrors”, etc.
Built logical flow for Google and users = topical authority
🧠 Takeaway for You:Your biggest SEO moat may already exist — repurpose it.If you have a question bank, curriculum map, or FAQ archive, structure it like a book. Create answers, not just pages. And don’t silo videos from written content — marry them.
Step 3: Topical Authority and Non-Branded Growth
Lido didn’t chase rankings for their own name. Instead, they:
Created clusters by subject and class
Built pages for every chapter, topic, and sub-topic in NCERT/CBSE
Focused on clear intent matching — not just keywords
They won on:
CBSE Class 6 Science Chapter 2 Solutions
Newton's laws of motion for class 9
English grammar worksheets for class 7
These weren’t just one-off wins. Their non-branded traffic scaled to 500K/month, largely from long-tail curriculum searches.
🧠 Takeaway for You:You don’t need to go viral. You need to go structured + deep.Winning 50K curriculum keywords at 10–20 visits/month is more stable and scalable than winning 1 viral post.
Execution Systems That Made This Work
1. Outreach CRM (Manual or Buzzstream)
Contact discovery, tracking replies, tagging high-response niches
2. Content Workflows for Teachers
Training + templates + deadlines
Weekly feedback loops to improve quality
3. Internal Link Maps
Built like textbooks → from chapter → to sub-topic → to concept
4. Playbooks for Structured Data
Used schema like EducationQ&A, VideoObject, HowTo
Ensured rich snippets for core questions
Key Learnings for Any EdTech or Content Marketer
Strategy | Outcome |
Focused link building upfront | DR 15 → 50 in 3 months |
Repurposed internal assets (question bank) | 18K SEO pages without scale burnout |
Teacher-created content + internal training | Authentic, accurate material at scale |
Internal linking like a curriculum | Higher topical authority + better UX |
Infographic-led backlink acquisition | Free links, not just paid placements |
Non-branded curriculum SEO | 0 → 500K monthly organic visitors |
🏆 Case Study: Practo’s SEO Engine – From Street Maps to 20% of India’s Doctor Search Market
Company: PractoIndustry: Healthcare / Local ServicesCore Focus: Doctor Discovery, Consultations, Clinic BookingsMonthly Organic Reach: ~3M visitsUnique Advantage: 5M+ structured local pagesUse Case For: Local service marketplaces, aggregator platforms, healthcare SaaS
🎯 The Goal: Be the Default Platform for Health Queries
Practo didn’t aim to just “rank on Google.”They wanted to own discovery for health services in India, encompassing conditions, symptoms, specialties, and cities.
And they got there.At its peak, Practo captured ~20% of all doctor-related search traffic in India, ranking on the first page for:
“dentist in Andheri East”
“hair transplant cost in Lucknow”
“vitiligo treatment near me”
“dermatologist Indira Nagar”
“gastroenterologist in Kolkata”
🔨 The Engine: Offline → Online Execution at Scale
How did they build this moat?
With boots on the ground. Literally.
Deployed a team across 26 Indian cities
Mapped every doctor, clinic, and hospital
Collected real-world data: names, experience, fees, timings, reviews
Structured all of it into custom CMS templates
Built 5 million+ local landing pages
Each page was unique — no thin content, no junk
This gave Practo something no competitor (not even Google Maps) had:Verified, structured, local healthcare data — at scale.
🧠 Play for You:
Build what crawlers can’t find. Use ops to create defensible content assets. When data = content, SEO is the outcome.
📍 Local SEO That Won India
Execution Highlights:
Practo ranked #1 or #2 in most Tier 1/2 cities for “doctor near me” queries
Created city-by-specialty index pages (e.g., /bangalore/dermatologist)
Built internal link structures from homepage → cities → specialties → profiles
Added microdata/schema for doctor name, rating, opening hours, specializations
Enabled GMB and Maps listings for brand amplification
Result:
Search “dentist near me” in any Indian metro — there’s a 9/10 chance you’ll see Practo above the fold.
💡 Strategic Framework 1: “Jobs to Be Done” SEO
Practo’s biggest unlock wasn’t just in pages.It was in understanding how different health needs trigger different search behaviors.
Example 1:
Situation: Sudden toothache
Motivation: Pain relief
Job: Find a nearby dentist
Outcome: Book appointment fast→ In this case, the user might directly open the Practo app — SEO isn’t even needed.
Example 2:
Situation: Ankle injury after a run
Motivation: Figure out if it’s serious
Job: Decide if a physiotherapist is needed
Outcome: Book one if needed→ Here, user Googles: “physiotherapist near me” → SERP becomes battleground.
Key Insight:
You win in “micro-moments” by understanding intent better than anyone. Not by keyword stuffing.
🔺 Strategic Framework 2: Intent Pyramid for Health Content
For content beyond doctor listings, Practo (and other health brands) need to serve searchers at different levels of readiness.
Here's how to segment it:
🔴 High Intent
“Weight loss diet plan for PCOS”
Ready to act. Needs a solution.
Goal: Offer a bookable service or personalized plan.
🟡 Medium Intent
“belly fat burning foods” or “how to lose weight naturally”
Exploring. Not ready to commit.
Goal: Educate and move them toward action.
🟢 Low Intent
“how to stay motivated to lose weight”, “best podcasts for discipline”
Early-stage or tangential.
Goal: Build trust and brand familiarity.
How to Win:
Create content at each level
Match content type to user mindset
High = product pages, calculators, book now
Mid = articles, checklists, expert advice
Low = stories, podcasts, soft content
Benchmark by tier → Track conversions, rankings, CTR separately
🧠 Play for You:
Don’t dump all content into “blogs.” Build funnels. Serve mindsets. Map your content calendar by intent, not topic.
🧱 Challenges Practo Faced — and Solved
Challenge | Solution |
Scaling local content | Field team → CMS pipelines → Structured URLs |
Ranking for hyper-local intent | Built city-specialty clusters + schema + GMB |
Indexation issues with 5M+ pages | XML sitemaps + crawl controls via Search Console |
Content quality for YMYL topics | Partnered with health-specific content agencies |
Execution lag due to shared tech team | Front-loaded changes pre-Q4 to avoid bottlenecks |
💥 Why It Worked
Executional Depth — Not "growth hacks", but real-world field ops.
Content as Product — The listings were the value prop. SEO just revealed it.
Search Behavior Understanding — Strategy matched how people think in pain, not how SEOs write keywords.
Hyper-Localization — Most brands localize via translation. Practo localized via infrastructure.
Practo SEO + Content Case Study: How They Became India's #1 Doctor Discovery Platform
Industry: Healthcare (B2C + B2B)Growth Strategy: Local SEO + Scalable Content Marketing + Technical InfrastructureOutput: 5M+ indexable pages, 3M+ monthly traffic, 90%+ visibility on doctor-related queriesWho This Is For: Local platforms, marketplaces, city-by-city aggregators, healthcare search apps, and teams building SEO scale into product
💡 Core Strategy: Be the Default Option for Doctor Search
Practo didn’t “do SEO.”They designed their entire product to be crawled and ranked by Google.
“Content is the product” — and it shows:
Asset Type | SEO Function |
Doctor profiles | Long-tail local queries ("pediatrician Whitefield") |
City-specialty pages | Category-level queries ("gynecologist in Delhi") |
Disease and treatment guides | Mid-funnel content to educate and convert |
Blog articles and health tips | Awareness + topical authority |
Microsites | Specialties like dental, dermatology, surgery, etc. |
Schema + structured data | Rich snippets, ratings, and click-through lift |
🚧 Local SEO: City-Level Precision at National Scale
"Google Maps + custom CMS + human ops = Practo's moat"
Execution Summary:
Mapped doctors, clinics, hospitals across 26 Indian cities
Created 5M+ structured pages across combinations of:
City
Locality
Specialty
Individual doctor/hospital profiles
Used a custom CMS to handle multiple layers of data:
Name, fee, timings, experience, languages spoken, verified reviews, etc.
Built deep internal link graphs (e.g., /bangalore/cardiologist/indiranagar → /dr-mayank-kapoor-cardiologist-profile)
Implemented LocalBusiness, Physician, and MedicalClinic schema markup at scale
🧠 Takeaway:If you're in any local discovery vertical, SEO begins with data structure, not just keywords. Think taxonomy before traffic.
🧱 Technical SEO: Scaling 5M Pages Without Collapsing
Practo’s technical SEO wasn’t flashy — but it was fundamental.
Key Technical Challenges & How They Solved Them:
Problem | Solution |
Massive crawl budget issues | Used dynamic XML sitemaps segmented by city/specialty |
Duplicate content (doctors in multiple clinics) | Canonical tags + location-specific URLs |
JavaScript rendering delay | Switched to server-side rendering for profile/index pages |
CMS rigidity | Custom CMS templates built for SEO first, design second |
Performance drops during peak health seasons | Preloaded high-volume pages into crawl queues via GSC API |
Unused/expired content | Quarterly audits + automated 301/410 logic |
🛠 Monitoring Stack:
Search Console for crawl stats & indexation
Screaming Frog for JS rendering gaps
Data Studio reports by location, specialty, and funnel stage
Ahrefs for tracking backlink wins and losses
Custom scripts to flag broken pages, meta tag issues, and index bloat
🧠 Takeaway:
SEO at scale is 80% maintenance engineering. Not hacks. Not blog posts.
✍️ Content Marketing: Built for the Funnel
While their pages ranked for local and transactional queries, Practo also ran a full-funnel content machine.
🧠 Strategic Content Layers
Layer | Example | Intent |
City + Doctor | “dentist in JP Nagar” | High intent |
Treatment Pages | “hair transplant cost Bangalore” | Commercial research |
Condition Pages | “symptoms of PCOS” | Informational |
Lifestyle Guides | “tips to sleep better” | Awareness |
🔍 Intent-Driven Content Examples
“knee pain treatment in Pune”
“cost of IVF in India”
“when to see a dermatologist for acne”
“how to prepare for wisdom tooth surgery”
These weren’t just written blindly. Practo used:
Search volume + CTR data from GSC
User search logs from app and web
Survey inputs to find “invisible queries” patients ask in clinics
🧠 Takeaway:
SEO content doesn’t have to be a blog. Think like a product designer — what’s the next question a user has after they land?
💣 The Moat: Content Collection as Competitive Advantage
26-city physical data ops team
Verified every clinic, hospital, and practitioner manually
Created the only truly reliable source of structured doctor data in India at the time
Used this to create:
Best-in-class local SEO pages
Automatically updating specialty pages
Real-time slot availability and booking widgets
And while Google Maps could surface locations, Practo surfaced trust:
Verified listings
Experience
Language spoken
Specializations
Price transparency
Instant appointment booking
🔎 Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) SEO
Practo won because it mapped content to action — not just awareness.
2 Common Use Cases:
1. Acute Problem → Urgent Resolution
Situation: Toothache at night
Job: Find a dentist open nearby
Outcome: Book and go
SEO angle: Optimize for “emergency dentist near me,” highlight open hours, show availability above the fold.
2. Chronic Condition → Research Mode
Situation: PCOS diagnosis
Job: Understand treatment options
Outcome: Compare clinics, talk to a gynecologist
SEO angle: Create detailed guides + city-wise cost comparison + highlight top doctors.
🧠 Takeaway:
Content ≠ blogs. Think in user moments, not traffic.
🔺 Intent Pyramid in Action: Weight Loss Vertical
To expand into wellness and nutrition, Practo applied intent segmentation:
Sample Keyword Map
Intent | Keyword | Asset Type |
High | “weight loss plan PCOS” | Consult + pricing page |
Medium | “how to lose belly fat fast” | Blog article + internal CTA |
Low | “how to stay motivated to lose weight” | Podcast + community signup |
🧠 Takeaway:
Map intent → Create 3-layered content → Measure CTR, conversion, scroll depth → Iterate monthly.
🧩 Key Metrics and Results
Metric | Outcome |
Domain Rating | 79+ |
Monthly Non-Branded SEO Traffic | 3M+ |
Share of Search for Doctor Queries | ~20% in India |
Indexed Pages | 5M+ |
Page #1 Rankings for Local Queries | 90%+ of Tier 1 & Tier 2 cities |
Bounce Rate for Local Pages | < 25% |
Conversion Rate (Booking) | ~6–9% on doctor profiles |
💡 What You Can Learn from Practo
Tactic | How You Can Apply It |
Local pages at scale | Build geo-specialty pages: city × service × persona |
Ops-led content | Use phone surveys, offline audits, or existing CRMs |
Schema markup | Use Physician, LocalBusiness, FAQ, and Breadcrumb schema |
Intent Pyramid | Plan content calendars by conversion tier |
Custom CMS | Don’t rely on generic page builders — build for speed and scale |
GSC API + segmented sitemaps | Essential for large sites to stay indexable |
🛠️ Executional Systems Practo Used (But Most Teams Miss)
1. Quarterly SEO Planning (Not Monthly or Ad-Hoc)
Practo planned SEO work in quarterly OKRs.
Key insight: They often knew in advance they would miss current quarter targets, because SEO results lag — so they used Q4 to plan for Q1.
🧠 Takeaway: Set quarterly implementation sprints. Measure results in the next quarter, not the same one.
2. Front-Loading SEO Work Early
They shipped the bulk of technical/content changes in Q1–Q2 to give time for Google to crawl and reward them.
They built this into the company culture: “Do the work now, show the result later.”
🧠 Takeaway: Don’t spread SEO execution across 12 months. Front-load aggressively.
3. Clear Budgeting for Links and Content
Practo had a link building budget, which they tried (and often failed) to get approved.
Since buying links is a hard sell, they relied more on:
PR from product launches
Doctor press mentions
Partnerships with media
🧠 Takeaway: Budgeting ≠ just tools. If you want links/content at scale, set hard numbers.
4. Dedicated Developer for SEO
One of their biggest unlocks: dedicated tech bandwidth.
They had a developer aligned to SEO to ship:
Structured data
CMS changes
Crawl fixes
XML sitemaps
Indexing APIs
🧠 Takeaway: SEO = 50% engineering. No dev = no traction.
5. Cross-Team Collaboration Was Systematized
Team | Dependency |
Product | Approval for structural SEO changes |
Design | Needed to optimize UX for SEO pages |
Tech | Required to ship SEO tickets |
Legal/Compliance | For YMYL content approvals |
Sales/Partnerships | For local clinic partnerships & backlink ops |
✅ They used RACI-style documentation (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) to keep ownership clear.
🧠 Takeaway: Create a shared spreadsheet where every SEO initiative has R, A, C, I assigned — or it won’t move.
6. Reporting Was Weekly, Not Monthly
They used Data Studio dashboards for real-time reporting.
Every week, stakeholders saw:
Organic clicks
Top queries
Pages growing/declining
Conversion from SEO pages
Cities where traffic dropped (mapped against doctor supply)
🧠 Takeaway: SEO reporting isn’t “views.” It’s business impact + momentum.
7. Content Governance Was Ongoing
They pruned and updated old doctor listings quarterly.
Ran audits for:
Bounce rate > 80%
Thin pages
Inaccurate or outdated listings
Built internal tools to flag low-quality pages automatically.
🧠 Takeaway: For large sites, you need content hygiene automation — not just creation.
8. Hiring Specialized Content Teams
Healthcare content required MBBS grads and medically-reviewed writers.
They worked with specialist content agencies, not generalists.
Even blog content went through internal medical review loops to pass YMYL guidelines.
🧠 Takeaway: In healthcare, authority = non-negotiable. Hire accordingly.
9. Playbooks for Internal Reuse
Practo developed reusable playbooks like:
“How to create a new specialty page”
“SEO checklist for new city launch”
“When to redirect or delete a doctor profile”
These reduced onboarding time and improved consistency.
🧠 Takeaway: Document everything once. Reuse forever.
🧩 Summary: What to Add to the Case Study
Area | What's Missing | Why it Matters | |
Planning & Timelines | Quarterly OKRs, front-loading | Reflects SEO’s long cycle | |
Resourcing | Dedicated dev, content budgets | Removes execution friction | |
Team Structure | RACI for cross-functional SEO | SEO = 5 departments, not 1 person | |
Reporting & Dashboards | Weekly visibility + business KPIs | Ties SEO to revenue, not rankings | |
Content Ops | Governance, pruning, hiring experts | Makes scale manageable and accurate | |
Systems Thinking | Templates, frameworks, SOPs | Enables repeatable wins |
🧠 Case Study: Wysa's Lean SEO Strategy — Winning Long-Tail Search in Mental Health
Company: WysaMarket: Global (US-focused mental health users)Product: AI-powered mental wellness chatbot + therapy marketplaceFunding Stage: Bootstrapped / SeedSEO Themes: Long-tail strategy, E-A-T, YMYL compliance, lean content opsAudience: Mental health startups, solo founders, behavior-change apps, wellness marketplaces
🧩 The Challenge: High-Trust Category. High-Competition SERPs. No Budget.
Wysa was entering a space dominated by big brands like:
Headspace (DR 90+)
BetterHelp (massive PPC + SEO footprint)
Calm (strong brand awareness)
NHS, WebMD, Mayo Clinic (trusted gov/edu/medical domains)
And here was Wysa:A bootstrapped startup with limited backlinks, no publishing team, and a product in a YMYL (Your Money Your Life) category — which means Google’s quality bar is sky-high.
But Wysa had an edge: They understood user pain better than their competitors did.
🎯 Strategy 1: Intent-Driven Long-Tail SEO
Wysa knew they couldn’t win head-to-head on keywords like:
“online therapy”
“depression help”
“anxiety symptoms”
So they flipped the script:
✅ Focused on "real user search phrases":
“should I go to therapy?”
“how to talk to someone without being judged”
“i’m not okay but i don’t want to explain”
“how to stop overthinking at night”
These weren’t medical terms — they were emotional micro-moments.
✅ Data-Driven Keyword Discovery
Wysa didn’t start with SEMrush. They started with:
Google Play reviews
Reddit threads (r/depression, r/anxiety, r/mentalhealth)
Quora questions
YouTube comment threads under therapy videos
They mined phrases people used like:
“talk to someone” (way more common than “seek therapy”)
“help me understand myself”
“don’t want meds, just want to feel heard”
🧠 Insight: In mental health, people Google their feelings, not their diagnoses.
🧱 Strategy 2: Build Trust in a YMYL World
Google treats mental health content as high risk. If you give bad advice, it can harm people. That’s why Google expects:
Author expertise
Medical review processes
Citations and links to credible sources
Clean site structure + clear disclaimers
How Wysa Navigated This:
✅ Structured Their Content by Symptom, Not Condition:
Instead of just publishing “Depression 101” or “Anxiety Guide,” they created hubs like:
“Feeling stuck and unmotivated”
“Waking up anxious every day”
“I overthink everything”
“How to talk to parents about mental health”
These were emotional entry points, which mapped to product features like:
Journaling
Self-talk via chatbot
CBT-based interventions
✅ Schema Markup for Rich Results:
FAQ Schema → “Should I go to therapy?”
Q&A Schema → Built on community comments + reviews
Breadcrumb Schema → Structured navigation: Home > Symptoms > Overthinking
✅ Lean Link Building:
Wysa couldn’t afford PR agencies or massive outreach. Instead, they:
Got backlinks from mental health non-profits by sharing free toolkits
Linked to and cited gov sites (CDC, NHS, APA)
Earned mentions from university programs that reviewed mental health apps
Optimized Google Play listing → high visibility → natural backlinks from reviewers
🔄 Tactical Execution Stack
Function | Tool/Approach |
Keyword Research | User reviews, Reddit, Quora, Google Autosuggest |
Content Writing | 2 freelance writers + clinical psychologist for review |
Approval | Internal “therapist + founder” review loop (no external legal gatekeeping) |
Schema | Manual JSON-LD injection + RankMath plugin |
Reporting | Google Search Console + Looker Studio weekly insights |
💥 Results (Qualitative + Quantitative)
Ranked top 3 for multiple long-tail queries like:
“should I go to therapy”
“how to stop overthinking everything”
“talk to someone anonymously online”
Grew backlinks from 50 → 700+ over 18 months
Increased organic trial signups without paid spend
App downloads from SEO landing pages + App Store links
Built a trust flywheel: credible content → backlinks → rankings → user trust → more downloads → better reviews
🎬 Case Study: Typito’s SUM Growth Playbook — Scaling a Video Editor SaaS with Content Alone
Company: TypitoIndustry: SaaS – Video EditorMarkets: US, EuropeCore Strategy: SEO + User Research + Micro-Solution ContentResults: 10X SEO traffic in 5 months (with minimal backlinks)
⚡️ The Problem: Competing with Giants, with No VC Budget
Typito was a bootstrapped video editor SaaS.Its competitors? Canva, InVideo, VEED, Kapwing — companies with 10x teams and 100x marketing budgets.
There was no way to win on paid ads or general “video editor” keywords.The team had to build something deeper, sharper, and far more customer-led.
🎯 The Strategy: SUM – Survey → Use-case → Micro-solution
Typito’s SEO success was not magic. It was method.
Step 1: 📋 Survey Your Best Users
Instead of guessing use cases, the team surveyed 159 paying users who had been active for 3+ months.
Key question:
“What kind of videos do you create regularly?”
The Results:
75% of responses fell into 3 verticals:
Education (e.g., YouTube teachers, LMS creators)
Health & Wellness (e.g., fitness coaches, wellness brands)
Media & Entertainment (e.g., TikTokers, meme pages, YouTubers)
🧠 Takeaway: Don’t segment by industry. Segment by use-case + intent.
Step 2: 🎯 Create Use-Case Specific Landing Pages
Most of Typito’s existing content was generic.But Google — and users — wanted specific.
So the team launched landing pages for:
✅ Fitness influencers → “How to create fitness videos for Instagram”
✅ Gym trainers → “How to use Instagram Reels to get gym leads”
✅ TikTok creators → “Add captions to funny videos”
✅ Online coaches → “Use text overlays to explain workouts”
These pages targeted low-volume keywords like:
“Fitness video editor”
“Add captions to gym video”
“How to make workout highlight reels”
Despite being under 100 searches/month, they converted.
Typito didn’t chase traffic. They chased intent.
Step 3: 🧩 Break the Product into Micro-Solutions
Borrowing from Canva’s model, Typito deconstructed the big idea — “video editor” — into searchable, bite-sized problems.
They created pages/tools for:
🔧 “Add logo to video”
✂️ “Online video cutter”
🔇 “Remove audio from video”
🖼 “Rectangle to Square video converter”
🧑💼 “Video resume maker”
🔄 “Reverse video online”
⏩ “Fast forward video tool”
Each of these tools:
Solved a narrow pain point
Could be used without login
Ranked for long-tail SEO
Gave users a product experience instantly
SEO became product discovery. Product became SEO.
Step 4: 🧠 Build Topic Clusters Around Use-Cases
For example, in the fitness niche, Typito published:
“Top 5 Fitness Influencers Using Reels Right Now”
“How Gym Trainers Use Text in Their Workout Videos”
“How to Caption Your Instagram Workouts for Better Engagement”
“How to Create a Fitness Brand Using Only Instagram and Typito”
Google didn’t show search volume for these.But guess what? The traffic came anyway, and more importantly — the right users came.
🧠 Takeaway: Treat “no volume” keywords as early-buyer signals, not dead ends.
Step 5: 📊 Audit and Iterate Ruthlessly
The team ran a content audit with 3 brutally honest questions:
What type of content are we publishing?→ Too generic, not use-case specific.
What is Google actually ranking?→ Micro-solutions, not “how to edit a video” 101 stuff.
What is our audience asking for that we’re NOT creating?→ TikTok-specific help, video resumes, motivational reel formats.
This helped them:
Prune dead content
Merge scattered articles
Create intent stacks (one use-case → 3–5 related blog posts + 1 feature page)
🚀 The Results
Metric | Before | After (5 months) |
Organic sessions/month | ~5K | 50K+ |
Converting SEO pages | < 20 | 120+ |
Top 10 rankings for micro-tools | 2 | 25+ |
Organic trial conversions | Low | Meaningful contributor to MRR |
No paid ads.Minimal backlinks.100% content + intent-led growth.
🧠 Key Lessons for Other SaaS Teams
Play | Insight |
Survey first | Let your users tell you what to write |
Break down features | One page per micro-solution = more search reach |
Don't ignore low-volume keywords | They often signal buying intent |
Launch landing pages per use case | Authority beats breadth |
Make tools free-to-use | SEO is the front door, not the paywall |
Audit and adjust | What got traffic last month won’t win next quarter |
📺 Case Study: How VOOT (Now JioCinema) 5X’d SEO Traffic by Fixing the Fundamentals
Company: VOOT (Viacom18) → now integrated under JioCinemaIndustry: OTT / Video StreamingMarket: IndiaPages: ~300K–500KPrimary Goal: Scale non-branded SEO traffic, fix indexing, and improve crawlabilityImpact: +5X non-branded traffic, +50% clicks, +30,000 new pages indexed in days
🎯 The Problem: Massive Inventory. Tiny Visibility.
For a platform with:
Hundreds of thousands of videos
Daily celebrity, sports, and reality content drops
Exclusive IPs like Bigg Boss, Cricket Live, Khatron Ke Khiladi...
…VOOT's SEO presence was disproportionately weak.
They had:
Low indexing of high-value URLs
Irrelevant or incorrect sitemaps
Crawl budget wasted on AMP pages
Flat navigation with poor internal linking
No PR-to-backlink strategy
And a video-first site that Google wasn’t reading properly
🔍 Step 1: Technical SEO Audit Revealed the Real Bottlenecks
Arun's team began by crawling the full site and analyzing search console + sitemap logs.
🔧 Critical Issues Identified:
Broken Sitemaps
Sitemap URLs were being pulled from API responses, not actual page routes
Example:
AMP Bloat
Over 228,000 AMP URLs were indexed but added no SEO value
They were removed to reclaim crawl budget
Sitemap Coverage Gaps
Only 12K–20K URLs were listed out of an actual ~40K+ valuable URLs
Many “money pages” (episodes, shows, matches) were missing
Interstitial Popups
JavaScript-based interstitials blocked content behind overlays, impacting crawlability
Flat Navigation & Internal Linking Gaps
No mega-dropdowns like Hotstar or Netflix
Users had to click 2–3 times to reach category or show pages
Limited crawl paths = Google couldn’t reach most URLs
⚙️ Step 2: Fixing the Foundation
🔄 Actions Taken:
🛠 Updated the sitemap generator to fetch real frontend URLs, not backend routes
🔥 Deindexed AMP URLs (using noindex and sitemap cleanup)
🚀 Requested devs to resurface missing URLs (e.g., new episodes, regional shows)
🧭 Rebuilt navigation architecture — added dropdowns for TV, Movies, Sports
📉 Removed or suppressed interstitial popups
📥 Indexed new URLs using GSC API for URL Inspection and submission
📈 The Results: Growth Within Days, Not Weeks
Metric | Before | After (within 7 days) |
Indexed URLs | Baseline | +30,000 new pages |
Clicks (non-branded) | 100% | +50% |
Impressions | 100% | +20% |
Traffic | 1X | 5X in 5 months |
Core episodes ranked | Fragmented | Consistently indexed & ranking |
🎯 One sitemap fix + crawl optimization = thousands of pages discovered instantly.
📡 Step 3: PR-Backlink Strategy for Domain Authority
Even with technical SEO fixed, Voot wasn’t earning the backlinks it deserved from all its media partnerships and show mentions.
So Arun created PR Link Guidelines for internal & external teams:
✅ Backlink Criteria:
From news + entertainment sites (not finance, education, etc.)
Must have 50K+ monthly visitors (verified via Similarweb)
Dofollow, editorial context only
Embed with source link below videos when syndicated
All backlinks to point to the canonical content page (not homepage)
"Every media mention = backlink opportunity. Every embed = link opportunity."
✅ Execution Plan:
Shared PR + backlink SOPs with brand and partner teams
Created a list of high-priority shows (Bigg Boss, Roadies, sports events) to focus on
Setup monthly backlink audits to track referring domains
🧠 Content Strategy Lessons for OTT Platforms
1. Use Video Categories as SEO Clusters
“Drama Shows”
“Reality TV”
“Cricket Highlights”
“Kids Cartoons Hindi”
Group your shows, characters, and episodes under structured hub pages.
2. Optimize for “Entity” Search
Searches like:
“Bigg Boss 14 Episode 21”
“Roadies finale winner”
“Ranveer Singh Simba Movie Voot”
→ Need clean, canonical URLs, matching title tags, and clear breadcrumbs
3. Leverage Structured Data for Video
Use:
VideoObject schema → Helps Google rank your videos directly
BreadcrumbList → For proper hierarchy indexing
Episode + TVSeason markup → Google understands show structure
4. Internal Link Depth = Indexing
Flatten your site.Use mega-navs, carousels, “related shows” and cross-linking per episode page.
More internal links = higher crawl priority.
5. Kill What’s Not Working (AMP, Popups, Thin Pages)
Crawl budget is finite.Make sure Google is spending it on your best pages.
🧭 Final Takeaways
Principle | What Voot Did |
Crawlability first | Fixed sitemaps, removed AMP bloat |
Technical cleanup | Removed broken JS overlays, improved navigation |
Indexation strategy | Prioritized “money pages” and used API pushes |
PR for backlinks | Wrote SOPs to convert brand activity into SEO fuel |
Structured video SEO | Schema, breadcrumbs, entity optimization |
Internal linking | Modeled after Hotstar/Netflix category depth |
📺 Case Study: VOOT’s 5X SEO Comeback – How Fixing Technical Blind Spots Unlocked Millions in Visibility
Company: VOOT (Viacom18) → Now JioCinemaIndustry: OTT / Streaming (TV shows, sports, reality content)Market: India (blocked in US)Pages: ~300K–500KSEO Project Goal: Increase discoverability, fix indexing, and remove technical bottlenecksResult: +30,000 pages indexed in days +50% increase in clicks 5X growth in non-branded SEO traffic
🧱 The Problem: A Streaming Giant with a Broken Web Presence
VOOT was one of India’s top OTT apps. But SEO said otherwise.
Despite having hundreds of thousands of content pages, the site suffered from:
Poor indexing
Flat navigation
Crawl budget waste
Major rendering issues
And a Googlebot problem no one else saw coming
🔬 The Audit Revealed Two Critical Breakpoints
1. 🚫 Googlebot Couldn’t See Anything
Due to copyright restrictions, VOOT had geo-blocked their site in the US.This made sense… until you realized:
Googlebot crawls from the US.
So what did Google see?
A blank screen.No titles. No links. No content.Just empty JavaScript shells.
2. 💤 Lazy Loading Was Killing Visibility
Even when content did load for users, it used lazy loading via JavaScript.
Images, show cards, thumbnails, episode metadata… all hidden behind on-scroll triggers.
Googlebot doesn’t scroll.
Result? None of it was indexed.
🧠 Takeaway: Modern JS frameworks + default lazy load = SEO suicide.
🛠️ What We Did: Technical Fixes That Changed Everything
✅ Intersection Observer API for Lazy Load Fix
Instead of hiding elements until scroll, the dev team implemented the Intersection Observer API.
Tells the browser (and Googlebot): “If this element is in viewport, render it now.”
Ensures images, titles, metadata load immediately, even for crawlers.
Works across browsers and respects performance.
This fix unlocked content visibility across tens of thousands of pages.
✅ Bypass US Crawl Block for Googlebot
We detected this crawl-block using:
GSC (showing 404/blocked pages)
“Fetch as Google” tool
External crawl simulators from US IPs
Solution:
Whitelisted Googlebot in the CDN/GeoIP firewall
Set up logic to serve full content for User-Agent: Googlebot
Ensured no cloaking — same content was served to any US crawler or user-agent for compliance
Within days, ~30,000 URLs appeared in Google’s index.
📈 Other Fixes That Multiplied the Gains
Problem | Fix |
❌ Broken URLs in Sitemap | Rebuilt sitemap using correct canonical paths |
❌ AMP page bloat (228K+ pages) | Deindexed, removed from sitemap |
❌ Flat navigation (2+ clicks to reach shows) | Added dropdowns, cross-linking like Hotstar |
❌ Missing 20K+ high-value URLs | Programmatically exposed them via sitemap + nav |
❌ Interstitial pop-ups blocking content | Removed to improve crawlability & user experience |
🎯 The Impact
Metric | Before | After |
Indexed URLs | Baseline | +30,000 |
Impressions (7-day view) | 100% | +20% |
Clicks | 100% | +50% |
Non-branded traffic | 1X | 5X in ~5 months |
🧠 SEO Lessons for Streaming Platforms
Lesson | What to Do |
Don’t block your own crawler | Check crawl region + firewall logic |
Lazy load ≠ SEO friendly by default | Use Intersection Observer or SSR |
Googlebot ≠ user | Test with US IPs, mobile emulation, JS rendering |
JavaScript ≠ magic | Render content on load, not on scroll or interaction |
Sitemap = your roadmap | 100% of high-value URLs must be there |
CDN & Edge Rules = SEO tools | Don’t leave these to DevOps alone |
🛍️ Case Study: Shopsy by Flipkart — Building an SEO-First Marketplace from the Ground Up
Brand: ShopsyParent Company: FlipkartIndustry: E-commerce (Value/Budget Retail)Focus: SEO Framework, Category Growth, Crawl Budget EfficiencyChallenge: Launch a new e-commerce platform and grow it organically from zero in a highly competitive, price-sensitive market.
🧱 The Context: A Flipkart-Built Marketplace for Bharat
Shopsy was designed for:
Price-sensitive shoppers
Tier 2/3/4 audiences
Mobile-first users who compare by “under ₹500,” “best shoes for women under ₹300,” etc.
Instead of throwing paid media at the problem, Flipkart’s growth team made a strategic decision:
Build an SEO-first engine for Shopsy — from day zero.
🧰 The SEO Strategy: Crawl-First, Intent-Focused, Scalable
✅ 1. Canonical URL Structure
Every product and category followed a standardized path:
bashCopyEdit
/category/subcategory/product
Dynamic filters (size, brand, price) were properly handled with canonical tags
Prevented duplication across variant URLs
Ensured category pages were the core SEO asset
🧠 Why it matters: E-commerce SEO breaks when 1000s of filter-variant URLs get indexed.
✅ 2. Sitemap Infrastructure from Day One
Sitemaps were auto-generated using real-time product feed
Segmented by category, brand, and price range
Crawl priority assigned to:
High-volume categories
Best-selling products
Seasonal or campaign-specific pages
✅ 3. Page Templates Aligned to How Indians Search
Flipkart’s team knew this wasn't about branded search like “Nike shoes” — it was about:
“Sandals under ₹200”
“Top kurtis for summer”
“Men's t-shirts under ₹300”
Shopsy launched template-driven landing pages that matched this bottom-funnel intent directly.
Each page:
Had a clear, query-matching title (Best T-Shirts Under ₹300)
Contained top products, quick filters, and FAQ content
Was tied into internal linking from relevant blog + nav sections
✅ 4. Internal Linking & Crawl Depth Fixes
Category and filter pages were:
Interlinked via dropdowns and carousels
Indexed in footers and collection links
Clustered logically by:
Occasion (wedding, casual, office)
Type (sneakers, flats, heels)
Price bands
🧠 Goal: Flatten the crawl depth and let Google reach all high-intent pages fast.
✅ 5. Structured Data: Product, Offer, Review
Shopsy applied:
Product schema → name, brand, price, availability
Offer schema → discounts, shipping details
Review schema → UGC snippets shown directly in SERPs
Result: Rich results like ratings, prices, and stock info showed up on Google listings — improving CTR dramatically.
🔄 Continuous Ops: Not a One-Time SEO Setup
The Shopsy growth team didn’t stop at setup. They built:
A category content calendar based on seasonal queries (e.g., “Onam sarees,” “Diwali gifts under ₹500”)
A monitoring system to catch orphaned URLs and crawl waste
Templates for long-tail product guides (e.g., “Top Bluetooth earphones for students”)
Internal feedback loops between SEO, merch, content, and tech teams
💥 The Results: Organic = Primary Growth Lever
While exact numbers aren’t public, here's what was achieved within months:
Metric | Outcome |
Indexed URLs | Grew from zero to 100K+ within weeks |
Category page rankings | First-page visibility for dozens of “budget shopping” keywords |
Organic share of traffic | Became one of the top 3 drivers of daily active users |
CAC | Significantly lower than Flipkart’s paid channels for the same user segments |
🎯 Lessons from the Shopsy Playbook
Principle | Execution |
SEO starts at the CMS level | Structured URL and sitemap design from day one |
Bottom-funnel > vanity traffic | Built for “under ₹500” not “best clothes” |
Programmatic pages ≠ have thin content | Added FAQs, filters, and UGC to every landing page |
Crawl depth = ranking power | Flattened structure with carousels, nav links, footer links |
Content and commerce must work together | Campaign landing pages were built with SEO in mind, not just design |
