How I Created an SEO Strategy That Increased a Client’s Search Visibility by 375%

Organic visibility is under pressure. Many websites are losing traffic and rankings due to volatile SERPs, AI search features, and constant algorithm updates.

Despite that, my team and I built an SEO strategy that boosted a client’s search visibility by 375%. It’s a repeatable process grounded in technical SEO, targeted keywords, and focused execution.

In this article, I’ll share the six-step framework we used so you can apply it to your search strategy.

But first, a few essentials to lay the foundation…

Start with the acquisition cost model to define SEO’s role

I focus on market penetration and conversion rate. I can’t control how sales close a lead, but I can control how much of the market I capture and how well that traffic converts. That’s where SEO has the biggest impact.

In this model, market size equals the total number of searches across my target keywords. Traffic reflects how much of that market I’m capturing, and conversion rate shows how well traffic turns into inquiries, signups, or sales.

Once I have those three, I can reverse-engineer market penetration and see where my strategy needs to improve.

Be like Sun Tzu and choose SEO battles you can win

I build a diversified keyword portfolio and focus on improving the group’s performance. Some terms will perform better than others, but the aggregate impact grows steadily over time. That’s how I lift visibility without relying on outliers or unrealistic wins.

One example is Bond Global, a small recruitment firm operating in the UK and the US. They came to us with a Domain Authority of just nine. 

Most people would say that’s too low to make an impact, but we didn’t waste time chasing high-volume, high-competition terms. Instead, we focused on strategic, lower-friction opportunities, resulting in a 493% increase in market penetration.

That’s the value of battle selection, where small wins across many fronts compound over time.

6 SEO strategies to drive rankings and increase visibility

Step 1: Use keyword selection to identify strategic opportunities

I’m not aiming for perfection. I want volume, so I cast a wide net to build a long keyword list. For Bond Global, that meant keywords like clean tech, deep tech, and recruitment terms by role, location, and function.

We build combinations like a barrel lock, rotating through features, location, and use case to map the market.

Use Moz tools and competitor research to build your keyword list

I use Moz’s keyword research tool to create this list without committing to a Campaign. It lets me explore broadly without cluttering the list with low-value terms.

Build seed lists around your core products or services

To build seed lists, start by identifying the business’s primary services. For Bond Global, that was executive search and recruitment across clean and deep tech sectors.

To expand the list further, analyze competitor domains in Ranking Keywords to see which terms they target and rank for, and add them to your keyword list.

I download the keyword list into a spreadsheet and group them into logical sets by theme, product, or audience type. 

Use volume and search intent scoring to narrow the list

Once the long list is in place, it’s time to cut. Start by sorting your keyword list by search volume (highest to lowest) to get a sense of market size, but don’t let volume be the only filter. A smaller keyword in the top three is more valuable than a high-volume keyword buried at the bottom of page one.

Next, filter keywords based on intent to convert. Ask yourself: Is someone searching this term likely to become a lead, signup, or customer?

For example, here at Plug and Play, we’re looking for people who self-identify as looking for a web design agency rather than a ‘web designer’. They know that they need a business rather than an individual to help them, and they are more likely to convert into new business by being more aligned with our core offering.

Score each keyword for intent based on low, medium, or high, and aim to prioritize terms that attract qualified traffic.

Analyze the SERPs to assess difficulty and specificity gaps

Search volume and intent give you the “what,” but SERP analysis gives you the “how.”

Use Moz’s SERP Analysis and Domain Overview tools to check:

• Domain Authority (DA)
• Page Authority (PA)
• On-page Optimization Score

These metrics show how competitive a keyword is. Compare them to your site stats and look for SERPs where competitors have similar or weaker authority, or where their content is poorly optimized.

For Bond Global, our DA was only 11, but we ranked for high-intent keywords because other results with higher authority had weaker optimization or broader pages.

Sometimes, you’ll see a page ranking because the keyword appears in the domain name. That’s useful context, but not unbeatable. Specificity and optimization still win.

Export your keyword list and annotate with the following as a guide:

• Add notes on competitor metrics
• Mark high-potential opportunities
• Flag keywords that are “maybe later” targets

Assign one primary and one secondary keyword per page

After trimming the list, assign each keyword to a page, but avoid keyword stuffing or overloading.

Stick to:

• One primary keyword
• One secondary keyword
• Supporting variants, only where they add value

This keeps the page tightly focused. If you try to cover too many topics, the page becomes generic, and generic doesn’t rank.

Step 2: Use on-page optimization to increase specificity and rankings

Log in to your Moz Pro account and select On-Page Grader from the left-hand navigation. Enter the page URL and target keyword, then review the Page Factors influencing performance. Use Moz’s suggestions to optimize elements like headings, keyword placement, structure, and metadata.

For Bond Global, we saw results from improving alignment between keywords and on-page elements. Even with a Domain Authority of 11, a high on-page score helped us outrank more authoritative competitors.

Further reading 

A guide to on-page optimization

Step 3: Use technical SEO to improve crawlability and performance

Start with crawl diagnostics using Moz and Screaming Frog

I rely on a combination of tools here, but Moz’s SEO audit tool is one of the most useful. It provides a top-level view of code quality, speed, sitemap coverage, and crawlability. It also flags less obvious issues like missing schema markup.

Not everything flagged is a problem. Some things are intentional, and that’s fine. I run Screaming Frog alongside Moz to catch daisy-chained 301 redirects and generate clean, structured reports. Sometimes it catches things Moz misses and vice versa. The tools complement each other and provide full coverage when used together.

In addition to crawl tools, I use Google Search Console to view external links pointing to a site, even when they land on 404s that I’m not linking to internally. It gives me an opportunity to 301 redirect those broken links to the most relevant live page and recover the authority.

Further reading:

Technical SEO audit checklist

Step 4: Avoid cannibalization to consolidate ranking power

Click the dropdown on any keyword and check if you have multiple pages ranking for the same query.

If two pages rank (home page and careers page) but serve different purposes, that’s fine, but if there’s overlap, you should fix it.

Consolidate, canonicalize, or redirect overlapping pages

When keyword overlap shows up, you’ve got three options:

• Merge content into the stronger page and 301 redirect the weaker one
• Canonicalize if the content must stay live but shouldn’t rank
• Leave both live if they serve different intents or funnel stages

In one case, we found pages ranking at positions 12 and 35 for the same keyword. Neither was on page one, so we merged them and redirected the lower-performing page to consolidate authority and improve the overall ranking.

Avoid the temptation to deoptimize content because it weakens both pages. Instead, put that combined firepower to better use.

Build a clean redirect strategy

Redirects are a key part of the fix, especially during migrations or CMS changes.

For example, in Shopify, URLs often default to /products,/pages, or /collections. When we move clients to headless setups or rebuild their URL structure, we set up 301s to preserve authority.

Best practices include:

• Use 301 redirects for permanent changes
• Use 302 redirects for temporary updates (e.g., seasonal tests)
• Use Screaming Frog to find and flatten redirect chains
• Manually review all redirect rules before launch

Step 5: Build landing pages to match search specificity

Think of each page as a mini-homepage for its topic. If someone lands there from search, it should stand independently, deliver value, and convert.

The best-performing pages are:

• Cleanly structured: /deep-tech-recruitment or /cleantech-talent
• Highly specific to a user’s search
• Consistent with intent and messaging

Step 6: Use geotargeting to localize your visibility

We followed this approach with Cole & Son, a wallpaper retailer using a headless Shopify backend and WordPress front end. We rolled out eight localized versions of their product categories, each with hreflang tags linking equivalent content.

The result was a 2000% increase in search visibility across eight international markets, while preserving the authority of the original UK site.

Concluding thoughts: The basics still work when applied strategically