CASE STUDY

Increase Organic Rankings & AI Visibility

/

/

Increase Organic Rankings & AI Vis …

Increase Organic Rankings & AI Visibility

Campaign Snapshot

B2B CAREER DEVELOPMENT BRAND

MONTHS

12

BACKLINKS

144

AVG. LINK DA

56.4

ORGANIC TRAFFIC

↑ 257%

AI CITATION RATE

88%

CONVERSIONS

↑ 174%

Client Profile

This client is a mid-sized, B2B provider of career development and career-transition programmes for Fortune 1000 and large public-sector employers across North America.

Each engagement is sold as a bespoke package that averages €10 K.

Prior to this campaign the client relied almost entirely on referral partners and PPC, leaving significant organic growth untapped.

Objective

With organic growth flat for six months and no visibility in AI search engines, we provisioned a 12-month “authority lift” plan that would:

Strategy

Research Foundation

1. Princeton GEO Findings (Aggarwal et al., 2024)

Embedding expert quotes and timely statistics yields a 37% uplift in AI-search visibility on Perplexity.ai.

2. SERP Correlation Study (Ahrefs, 2025)

Analysis of 1 million US-keyword SERPs shows referring-domain count still correlates strongly with Google rankings (ρ ≈ 0.255), reaffirming backlinks’ critical role.

3. Backlinks’ Monthly Gain vs. Ranking (Search Engine Land, 2024)

Top-ranked pages acquire 5-14% more followed backlinks per month compared to lower-ranked pages – demonstrating a clear link between ongoing link acquisition velocity and high SERP placement.

How This Research Drives Results

Producing citation-rich Digital PR articles and earning a consistent cadence of high-DA backlinks directly addresses all three findings – boosting AI visibility, improving organic rankings, and sustaining long-term growth.

Project Builder Setup

Strategic Foundation

Rank Engine’s Project Builder turns monthly campaign planning into one, 10-minute setup.

Precise audience filters, content exclusions, and Smart Select criteria fed our AI agents the exact same blueprint – so every article and site-selection stayed perfectly aligned with the client’s message.

Key setup benefits

CAMPAIGN TYPE

Digital PR was selected as the campaign type, which integrates the brand as a real-world example within editorial and thought-leadership articles.

DELIVERY TIME

Delivery time was set to a 30-day drip-feed. You can also choose 1- or 2-week schedules when speed is the priority.

REGIONAL FOCUS

Regional targeting was set to ensure content (news, facts, stats, quotes) focused on the client’s area of operations.

CONTENT EXCLUSIONS

Content exclusions were set to maintain clear brand positioning, ensuring the client is not mentioned in excluded contexts.

DA TARGETING

Smart Select was chosen – balancing the best outcomes for relevance, traffic, and authority. DA40 / DA50 / DA60+ options remain available when DA is the primary goal.

TLD TARGETING

Global TLD targeting balances authoritative prospects with geographic relevance. This allowed for a mix of authoritative .coms as well as niche .us placements.

URL & ANCHOR

The target URL and anchor text were entered here. Clicking ‘Add’ opens another placement slot, so you can set up additional articles/backlinks.

APPROVALS

Clients who prefer oversight can tick either box to review article drafts or site choices before anything goes live. Left unchecked allows for fully managed publishing

Content Production

Topic Refinement

The platform refines and expands any client-submitted topics, layering in deep research from the brief, industry news, and expert commentary.

Autonomous Ideation

If no topics are provided, the system analyses the client brief, scans current industry news, and reviews fresh expert commentary to surface the most relevant angles.

Content Drafting

The platform generates an editorial-quality draft for each theme, integrating case studies, data points, expert quotes, and the client’s core expertise.

Link & Media Enrichment

We embed contextual backlinks to the client’s pages, add relevant images, and include external citations, ensuring each article is rich, credible and visually engaging.

Editorial QA

Our team then verifies all facts, polishes tone, and ensures brand mentions read as genuine insight, not promotional content.

Monthly Process

Research & Content
AI agents conduct deep research across industry sources and expert commentary, drafting editorial-quality articles that blend real-world examples, mini case studies, and the client’s career-development expertise. Every piece is then proofread to verify facts and align tone with the client’s messaging.
Prospecting
This client chose Smart Select to score thousands of sites on relevance, traffic, backlink health authority and other ranking factors. DA-first targeting is available when strict authority ranges are required. Only the top-scoring candidates advance to outreach.
Approvals
Clients can opt in for Content Approval and/or Placement Approval before publication. This optional oversight ensures both messaging and partner selection meet their standards. Unlimited revisions and full Google Docs access enable real-time collaboration.
Outreach
Each article is pitched as an insight-driven piece. The client selected a 30-day drip-feed delivery window (versus 1- or 2-week options), allowing slower-responding but highly authoritative sites time to accept. These negotiations secured placements on relevant sites that boost search visibility.
Publication
Accepted articles publish within 24–72 hours on approved, reputable sites, featuring natural brand mentions and targeted anchor text aligned with SEO objectives. Each placement is relevant to career development topics, reinforcing the client’s expertise.
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Link Building Strategy

Strategic Blog Selection

We targeted sites where career transition and leadership content naturally belonged, ensuring editorial placements felt authentic to readers.

BACKLINK DISTRIBUTION

Branded anchor links to the homepage establish natural link patterns and strengthen overall domain authority. While not the primary traffic goal, these links support the entire site’s search performance and avoid over-optimisation flags.

The client allocated more links to their primary service page  based on higher keyword competition, with other target pages receiving proportional distribution.

HOMEPAGE PRIMARY TARGET SECONDARY TARGET THIRD TARGET BUSINESS PUBLICATION DA 52 HR INDUSTRY BLOG DA 48 EXECUTIVE MAGAZINE DA 55 LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS DA 51 WORKPLACE TRENDS DA 46 CORPORATE JOURNAL DA 58 MANAGEMENT REVIEW DA 49 TALENT STRATEGY DA 53 CAREER DEVELOPMENT DA 47 INDUSTRY WEEKLY DA 54 PROFESSIONAL GROWTH DA 50 EXECUTIVE TODAY DA 56

The sites named in the diagram are examples.

Results

KPI

Organic Traffic
AI Citation Rate
Conversions

Baseline

7,000 /pm

0%

68 /pm

Month 12

25,000 /pm

88%

186 /pm

Change

↑ 257%

↑ 88 points

↑ 174%

Key Takeaways

Sustained Ranking Momentum

Strategic, relevance-led link building delivered a 257% traffic increase and secured Top 3 rankings for key product pages, demonstrating the compounding returns of steady, high-authority placements.

AI Search Visibility Surge

Initially absent from AI-generated results, the brand gained citations across platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity in 88% of tracked queries – driven by improved rankings and location-targeted content that fed directly into AI summaries and recommendations.

Commercial Impact Delivered

Conversions grew from 68 to 186 per month, confirming that this wasn’t just vanity traffic – these were engaged prospects aligned with high-intent search queries.

Results You'll Love
ROI You'll Love Even More

Completely Risk-Free:

Money-Back Guarantee

If you’re not satisfied, we’ll refund in full and remove any live links.

Content & Website Approvals

Nothing goes live without your sign-off - free approvals on your first order.

2-Year Uptime Guarantee

While rare, if any backlinks go offline, we’ll restore or replace them for free.

No Lock-in Contract

Cancel at any time, order whenever you need.