5+1 lessons I learned growing organic traffic from 0 to 2.5m in 12 months

When I initially thought about writing this post, I had some second thoughts, as it’s been a few years since that time. But then I realised that I still talk about this case study many times every year. Most of the time, people ask me: How did you achieve that? What was your strategy and secret sauce?  However, I also realised that I almost never share the lessons I learned throughout this journey.

So, that’s why I decided to create this post. I want to share my lessons and help people when crafting their strategy.

Lesson 1

This is not normal growth. Let me explain further: what we achieved was great, but it’s not a usual result. So if you’re working on SEO and aiming for a high-growth 12-month roadmap, it’s totally fine not to achieve a 250,000,000% increase.

You should not get hyped or heavily influenced by super-successful case studies being promoted on LinkedIn.

Not all niches and industries are the same. Demand might be higher or lower, and the same applies to competition. A 3,000% YoY increase might be great for Niche A, but might not be possible for Niche B, as the TAM is significantly lower or the competition more fierce.

Also, a lot of LinkedIn case studies are bullshit. Plain and simple.

Lesson 2

Do the math. Although growth might sometimes be higher or lower than expected, you still need to work out your numbers and ensure that you have an idea of where you will be based on your strategy and investment.

For example: I will create 200 pieces of content in the next 2 months. I project to acquire X amount of organic traffic by the end of the 5th month after these pages go live. 

If you can go one step further and project the next core metrics (e.g. with an average CVR of 1.5% I expect Y monthly installs, and with a $20 LTV the revenue will be $Z), even better.

Lesson 3

You need to already have the “what’s next” plan. Let me elaborate. When we started with Peanut, we literally had 0 non-branded traffic. So before thinking about users, app installs, and revenue, we needed to solve the traffic problem first—bringing potential users to our website.

However, while working on this initial first-year strategy, I also started working on what’s next. Although I couldn’t know the exact traffic numbers we were going to drive, I was planning what to do with that traffic. How can I convert this into something more important for the business? How can I transform this vanity metric into a core business metric?

So, it’s important to create a roadmap that progressively evolves from traffic to core business outcomes. That’s how you get easier buy-in and trust from senior management.

Lesson 4

Be flexible. You should create a long-term strategy that is also flexible enough to change and adapt when needed. Your strategy should not be written in stone. If you see that something is not working as expected and the return won’t align with your projections, you should be able to manoeuvre and make the necessary adjustments.

Creating a long-term strategy helps you a lot with the above. It must be flexible and easily adaptable when needed. And this is why you need to constantly track your progress; to ensure you can act fast.

Lesson 5

Be patient. When I started implementing my strategy, the first 2 months were super slow and almost nothing was moving. I was sceptical, I was under pressure, and I had second thoughts about whether my strategy was correct.

However, I didn’t stop investing and following the plan. I was tracking some key metrics which, although vanity and very early signs, still gave me insights into whether things were moving in the right direction. As long as that was the case, I kept investing until reaching a specific checkpoint I had set as a milestone.

Bonus: Lesson 6

Huge growth builds a higher appetite for more - and most of the time, this is difficult to maintain. When I achieved these great results within a year, everyone was impressed and excited about what would happen next.

However, year 2 was slower. Don’t get me wrong, we were growing our traffic and our other (more important) metrics (installs, new users, revenue). But still, people were obsessed with the first year’s growth, and in their eyes something wasn’t right since we didn’t grow as fast as the previous year.

What’s the learning here? You need to make sure key people understand how SEO works; and that growth is not always linear.

Final Thoughts

Exponential growth is possible but you need to be prepared to handle it and more importantly answer the 'what happens' and 'what's next' to the key stakeholders.

I hope my learnings can help your growth journey. Happy growth :)