SEO — Case Study
How We Grew a SaaS Brand's Organic Traffic by 4x—Through Technical SEO, Backlinking, and Strategic Indexing
Most companies understand that SEO matters. Far fewer understand why their SEO isn't working. When a fast-growing SaaS company came to Interlink Events after 18 months of stagnant organic performance, our audit uncovered a familiar pattern: solid content, a weak technical foundation, a near-invisible backlink profile, and thousands of pages either duplicated or entirely missing from Google's index.
Over six months, we rebuilt their SEO from the ground up—technical architecture, indexing health, content strategy, and a tiered backlink acquisition programme that earned links from genuine industry authorities. The results weren't gradual. They were decisive.
Six-month organic growth trajectory — tracked via Google Search Console and Ahrefs
Client Background
A B2B SaaS Platform With Great Content—and No Organic Visibility
Our client is a B2B SaaS company offering project management and workflow automation software for mid-market and enterprise teams. They operate across the UK, US, and Australia, competing in a market dominated by well-funded household names.
Their content team had been publishing consistently for over a year—blogs, guides, comparison pages, and use-case articles. Despite the volume, organic traffic had plateaued well below their growth targets. Rankings were inconsistent, major product pages weren't appearing in searches, and their domain authority remained frustratingly low.
An internal hire had tried tackling the problem but lacked the technical depth to diagnose the real issues. When they approached Interlink Events, they needed more than advice—they needed a full SEO engine rebuilt and running.
Project at a Glance
-
Industry: B2B SaaS / Project Management Software
-
Markets: UK, US, Australia
-
Company Size: 50–150 employees
-
Engagement Type: Full SEO Programme (Technical + Content + Links)
-
Programme Duration: 6 Months
-
Services Delivered: Technical SEO, Backlinking, Indexing, Content Strategy
-
Delivered by: Interlink Events – SEO Services
Project Challenges
Our initial audit took three weeks. What we uncovered explained everything about why their SEO had stalled—and gave us a precise roadmap to fix it.
Initial technical audit — crawl errors, indexing gaps, and backlink profile analysis
Critical Indexing Gaps
Google Search Console revealed that only 51% of the site's pages were indexed. Key product pages, feature comparison pages, and high-value blog posts were completely absent from Google's index—either blocked by robots.txt directives, suffering from canonicalisation conflicts, or flagged as "Discovered – currently not indexed."
Weak and Toxic Backlink Profile
The existing backlink profile consisted of fewer than 40 referring domains—most of them low-authority directories and forum links acquired years earlier. Several links were flagged as spammy by Ahrefs, actively harming their domain authority. There were zero editorial links from credible industry publications.
Technical SEO Debt
Duplicate content across pricing variants, missing canonical tags, slow Core Web Vitals on key landing pages, broken internal links, and an XML sitemap that hadn't been updated in eight months. The crawl budget was being consumed by low-value parameter-based URLs that served no ranking purpose.
Keyword Cannibalisation
Multiple blog posts and landing pages were optimised for the same keywords—competing against each other in search results without any intentional strategy. This split link equity and confused Google's understanding of which page should rank, resulting in neither page ranking well.
No Internal Linking Architecture
Content had been published in silos. There was no programmatic internal linking strategy—meaning high-authority pages weren't passing link equity to product and service pages. New content was published without any links pointing to it, leaving it effectively orphaned.
Content Without Search Intent Alignment
Despite over 80 published articles, most were written without a defined keyword target or search intent mapping. Informational content was competing for transactional queries; product pages were too thin to satisfy informational searches. Volume without strategy had produced content that ranked for nothing.
Our Approach & Strategy
SEO isn't one thing. It's a system. Our approach treats technical health, content authority, and backlink acquisition as three interdependent pillars—each one amplifying the other when done in the right sequence.
Fix the Foundation Before Building the House
Too many SEO campaigns start with content and links and ignore the fact that a site with technical problems and indexing issues will not respond to those investments. We always fix the foundation first.
In the first four weeks, we resolved every indexing issue, repaired the site architecture, cleaned the backlink profile with a targeted disavow file, and established a coherent keyword and content strategy—before a single new piece of content was published or a single link was acquired.
This sequencing mattered. When we did begin publishing content and acquiring backlinks in Month 2, the site was technically healthy enough to respond rapidly. Rankings moved within weeks, not months.
Our SEO Framework
-
Full technical SEO audit (crawl, index, Core Web Vitals)
-
Google Search Console indexing diagnosis & remediation
-
Backlink profile audit, toxic link disavowal
-
Keyword universe mapping & search intent classification
-
Topic cluster architecture & internal link strategy
-
Tiered backlink acquisition programme
-
Monthly reporting with rank tracking & traffic attribution
-
Ongoing content optimisation & new content deployment
Search Indexing: Our Approach
You cannot rank for what Google hasn't indexed. Indexing is the prerequisite to everything else in SEO—yet it's one of the most overlooked issues in underperforming websites. Here's how we solved it.
Google Search Console Coverage dashboard — before and after indexing remediation
Full Crawl Analysis & Robots.txt Audit
We ran a complete Screaming Frog crawl alongside manual analysis of the robots.txt file and discovered 23 disallow rules that were unintentionally blocking product pages, blog categories, and author archive pages from being crawled. We rationalised the rules to block only genuinely low-value URLs (session parameters, admin paths) while opening the crawl path to all ranking-eligible content.
Canonicalisation & Duplicate Content Resolution
Pricing pages with filtering options were generating hundreds of parameter-based duplicate URLs, each competing with the canonical version for crawl budget. We implemented self-referencing canonical tags, consolidated parameter handling in Google Search Console's URL Parameters tool, and introduced rel="noindex" on all filter-generated variants—directing crawl budget to pages that could actually rank.
XML Sitemap Rebuild & Automated Submission
The existing sitemap was static and contained 47 broken URLs (404s and 301 redirects). We rebuilt it as a dynamically generated sitemap that updates automatically with each new page publish. We segmented it into a sitemap index file with separate sitemaps for product pages, blog content, and landing pages—making it easier for Google to prioritise crawling by content type. All three sitemaps were resubmitted via Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
"Discovered – Currently Not Indexed" Resolution
63 pages had been seen by Google but not indexed—typically a signal that Google judges them as low-quality or low-interest. For each affected page we identified the root cause: thin content (fewer than 400 words), no internal links pointing to it, or weak topical relevance. We either enriched the content, merged it with related pages, or added internal links to signal importance. Within eight weeks, 91% of these pages were indexed.
Core Web Vitals & Crawl Budget Optimisation
Pages with poor LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) scores were being de-prioritised in Google's crawl queue. We worked with the client's dev team to implement image lazy loading, defer non-critical JavaScript, and preload key fonts. Average LCP across product pages dropped from 4.8s to 1.7s—improving both crawl priority and user experience simultaneously.
Backlinking Strategy & Execution
Backlinks remain the most influential off-page ranking factor. But not all backlinks are equaland in 2025, a handful of high-quality editorial links outperform hundreds of low-quality directory submissions. Our backlinking programme was built on quality, relevance, and editorial legitimacy.
Referring domain growth over 6 months from 38 to 350+ quality domains
Our Tiered Backlink Acquisition Model
We operate a three-tier backlink model that balances volume, quality, and velocity to build domain authority sustainablywithout triggering algorithmic penalties.
Editorial & Media Placements
Guest contributions to recognised industry publications (DR 60+), journalist outreach via HARO and Qwoted, expert commentary in trade media, and podcast appearances with show notes links. These foundational links carry the highest authority and longest-lasting ranking impact. We secured 47 Tier 1 links over 6 months.
Niche-Relevant Content Placements
Targeted outreach to SaaS-focused blogs, project management communities, productivity publications, and B2B software review platforms. Content was written specifically for each target publicationnot repurposed generic articles. 178 Tier 2 links were acquired through relationship-based outreach to vetted site owners.
Directories, Profiles & Citations
Structured submissions to curated, high-quality business directories (Clutch, G2, Capterra, Crunchbase), professional profile completions, and local/industry citation building. These create a natural, diverse link profile that supports Tier 1 and Tier 2 authority. 87 Tier 3 foundation links were built in Month 1 as the base layer.
Toxic Link Disavowal
Before acquiring new links, we audited the existing profile and submitted a targeted disavow file for 31 spammy, low-quality domains. Removing this negative weight was as important as the new links we earned.
Competitor Backlink Gap Analysis
We identified every domain linking to three or more competitors but not the client. This generated a prioritised prospecting list of 840 opportunitiesdomains already proven to link in this niche, dramatically improving outreach success rates.
Digital PR & Data-Led Content
We produced two original research reports using aggregated (anonymised) platform data from the client. These earned unsolicited coverage and links from 14 industry publications without any direct outreach.
Anchor Text Distribution Strategy
All link placements followed a carefully managed anchor text strategybalancing branded anchors, naked URLs, generic anchors, and partial-match keyword anchors to maintain a natural link profile that avoids over-optimisation penalties.
Link Velocity Management
Links were acquired at a consistent, controlled monthly pacenot in bulk bursts. A steady velocity pattern signals organic growth to Google's algorithms, reducing the risk of link-related penalties that can affect aggressive link-building campaigns.
Internal Link Equity Distribution
New backlinks were primarily targeted at cornerstone contenthigh-value pillar pages and product pageswhich then passed authority through a rebuilt internal linking architecture to supporting and transactional pages across the site.
Tools & Technologies Used
Effective SEO is driven by data. Here are the platforms and tools we used across every phase of this engagement.
Audit & Technical SEO
Keyword & Content Research
Backlink & Outreach
Monitoring & Reporting
Results & Impact
The numbers are unambiguous. Six months of systematic, disciplined SEO work delivered compounding returns across every measurable dimension of organic performance.
Post-programme performance dashboard organic sessions, keyword rankings, and referring domain growth
SEO Performance Metrics
Business Impact
-
4x Growth in Organic Sessions
Monthly organic sessions grew from 6,100 to over 24,800 within six monthswithout any increase in paid advertising spend. Organic became the #1 traffic source for the first time in the company's history.
-
312 New High-Quality Backlinks
Over the programme, we acquired 312 new backlinks from 312 unique referring domainsincluding coverage in SaaStr, TechCrunch (SMB section), ProductHunt, and 14 sector-specific SaaS publications.
-
94% of Target Pages Now Indexed
Up from 51% at the start of the engagement. All key product pages, feature comparison pages, and priority blog content are now fully indexed and appearing in search results. Zero critical pages remain blocked.
-
Organic Became a Revenue Channel
By Month 5, inbound leads from organic search had increased by 58%with average deal values from organic leads 22% higher than paid channels, attributable to the higher buyer intent of users arriving via informational and comparison content.
The 6-Month SEO Programme
Sustainable SEO results require a phased approach. Here is exactly how our six-month programme was structured and sequenced.
Month 1 Audit, Fix & Foundation
Complete technical audit, robots.txt and sitemap overhaul, indexing diagnosis and remediation, toxic disavow submission, keyword universe mapping, topic cluster planning, Tier 3 backlink foundation build. No rankings expected yetMonth 1 is entirely about fixing what's broken.
Month 2 Content Optimisation & Tier 2 Link Outreach Begins
Existing content audited and optimised for search intent alignment. Top 20 priority pages refreshed with updated keyword targeting, internal links added, schema markup implemented. Tier 2 outreach pipeline activatedfirst editorial placements submitted for review.
Month 3 New Content Deploy & First Tier 1 Links Live
First cluster of new, SEO-optimised content publishedtargeting informational and comparison queries that feed the top of the buying funnel. First Tier 1 editorial placements go live. Initial ranking improvements visible for long-tail keywords.
Month 4 Ranking Acceleration
Compound effect of technical fixes, content improvements, and backlink acquisition begins to show. 19 new page-one keyword appearances logged via Ahrefs rank tracking. Organic traffic up 180% vs. Month 1 baseline. Digital PR research report publishedearns 7 unsolicited editorial links.
Month 5 Conversion Optimisation & Expansion
With traffic growing, focus shifts partly to on-page conversion: A/B testing CTAs on high-traffic organic pages, adding contextual lead capture, improving page UX for organic visitors. Keyword expansion into adjacent topic clusters begins. Second research report published.
Month 6 Full Performance & Handover
67 keywords on page one. 4x traffic target hit. Full performance report delivered with 12-month continuation roadmap covering content calendar, backlink targets, and technical monitoring. Client team onboarded on SEO best practices for ongoing content publishing. Programme transitions to SEO retainer.
Client Testimonial
"We'd been told by two previous agencies that our SEO was 'fine' and that we just needed to be patient. Interlink Events spent the first three weeks showing usin clear, specific termsexactly why it wasn't fine and what needed to change. The audit report alone was worth more than anything we'd received from previous partners. The fact that they then went and executed everything they recommended, hit every milestone, and delivered a 4x traffic increase in six months is something we genuinely didn't think was possible. Our organic channel now generates more qualified pipeline than our paid campaigns, at a fraction of the cost. We're continuing with Interlink Eventsit's not even a question."
Related Technology Solutions
SEO performs best when combined with a strong digital foundation. Explore the services that amplify organic growth.
SEO Services
Technical SEO, content strategy, backlinking, and indexingeverything needed to grow your organic presence globally.
Learn More →Web Design & Development
A technically optimised, fast-loading website is the foundation of every successful SEO strategy. We build both.
Learn More →Digital Marketing & Social Media
Combine organic SEO with paid and social strategies for a full-funnel digital presence that drives consistent revenue.
Learn More →Let's Build Your Organic Growth Engine
Whether you're starting from zero or trying to diagnose why your existing SEO investment isn't deliveringInterlink Events has the technical depth, the strategic process, and the execution capability to turn organic search into your most reliable growth channel.
We work with clients across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. Get in touch and let's talk about what's possible for your business.
Email: contact@interlinkevents.com