B2B SaaS SEO + AEO Case Study
Craze
Building organic search from zero, twice.
I built the entire organic channel from scratch at a YC-backed SaaS starting at DR 0 with no non-branded traffic, turned it into a measurable lead engine and a source AI engines cite, then scaled the same playbook as Craze expanded from HRMS into the AI space.
Figures verified in Google Search Console; visibility metrics from Ahrefs and Amplitude.
Role
SEO Lead · owned organic end to end
Scope
Strategy · Content · Technical · Links · AEO / GEO
Market
India · B2B SaaS
Duration
May 2025 – present
01 · The Challenge
A standing start in a crowded market
Zero organic footprint, entrenched competitors, and a mandate to build pipeline rather than a vanity traffic chart.
A standing start
Domain Rating 0 and effectively no non-branded organic traffic. The site barely surfaced for its own core searches.
A crowded category
HRMS is packed with entrenched, high-authority incumbents with years of content and links already banked.
Pipeline, not vanity
The brief was a channel that generated qualified pipeline, not a traffic chart that looked good in a deck.
The question: how do you build trust, traffic and pipeline through organic search from a standing start, and keep it working as the product grows?
The engagement, in two chapters
The strategy evolved with the product
2025 · Era 01
HRMS + AI recruiting
Built the HR content engine and the organic pipeline from zero.
2026 · Era 02
AI platform · automation & agents
Extended the same playbook as Craze moved into the AI space.
Recruiting-era content was retained through the transition, so the story reads as one compounding engagement: a build, then a scale into an adjacent category.
02 · The Strategy
A phased plan, sequenced to the site's authority
Each quarter targeted exactly what the domain could realistically rank for at that stage, compounding into the next.
Zero-volume, high-value commercial intent
With DR at 0, I opened on low-competition, high-traffic-value keywords: competitor brand searches with commercial intent. It sidestepped the authority barrier and produced early leads while link building started in parallel.
ToFu–MoFu clusters + authority pacing
As authority grew, I scaled into medium-volume topical clusters across the HR space, pacing the backlink programme alongside a content velocity of roughly 25 pieces a month.
Mid-to-high volume capture
Broadened into higher-volume MoFu–ToFu topics to capture demand at scale, still compounding authority through targeted links and earned listicle placements.
Downloadable-asset ToFu engine
Launched a downloadable layer of letter formats, HR policy templates and free tools (a salary-slip generator) to capture broad top-of-funnel ICP traffic for brand recall, feeding it into email nurture.
The funnel architecture
Letter formats, HR policy templates and free tools (salary-slip generator) for broad discovery, nurtured via email.
Topical clusters: PF/ESI compliance, payroll, onboarding, engagement, leave & attendance, performance.
"[Competitor] alternatives / review", "A vs B", and "best X software" listicles, feeding MQL / SQL pipeline.
03 · Verified Results · the HRMS build
From flat line to category-leading
Pulled from the property, not estimated. Twelve months of compounding organic growth.
0 → 56K
Search clicks / 12 mo
GSC11M
Impressions / 12 mo
GSC2,196
Ranking keywords (659 top-3)
Ahrefs0 → 233
Referring domains
Ahrefs
The receipts
Ahrefs and Search Console, at full size.
Top pages by clicks
| Page | Clicks | Pos |
|---|---|---|
| /hr-hub/formats/salary-certificate-format | 1,894 | 5.3 |
| /hr-hub/formats/increment-letter-format-templates | 1,707 | 5.3 |
| /blog/calculate-pf-from-ctc | 1,015 | 6.6 |
| /blog/pf-contribution-breakup-calculation | 702 | 4.7 |
| /hr-hub/formats/joining-letter-format | 480 | 2.6 |
| /blog/notice-period | 403 | 2.6 |
| /tools/salary-slip-generator | 188 | 11.0 |
Top non-branded queries
| Query | Clicks | Pos |
|---|---|---|
| relieving letter format | 1,854 | 3.9 |
| salary certificate format | 379 | 5.1 |
| relieving letter | 378 | 4.6 |
| increment letter format | 345 | 4.2 |
| increment letter | 228 | 4.0 |
SERP features won
Featured snippets and page-1 rankings across high-volume HR queries.
04 · The AI Expansion
Re-running the playbook in a new category
As Craze moved into the AI space, I focused the content on where the new buyers were searching: competitor-alternative clusters to place Craze alongside Make, Zapier and Lindy, and "best X tools" clusters across AI platforms, chatbots and agents. Everything was AEO-optimised and produced through a fact-checked content-automation pipeline with a final human review, so scale never cost accuracy.
The headline result
A DR 36 page outranking pages at DR 74, 92 and 99, and sitting inside Google's AI Overview, on "ai platforms".
Quality and answer-engine optimisation beating raw domain authority, within a month of publishing.
Ranked and growing
Alternatives rankings and the new cluster in Search Console.
The new AI cluster in Search Console
| Page | Clicks | Impr | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|
| /ai-tools/ai-platforms | 136 | 17,361 | 9.1 |
| /ai-tools/ai-agents | 17 | 2,291 | 8.5 |
| /ai-agent/anatomy-of-ai-agent | 9 | 11,414 | 6.0 |
| /ai-tools/ai-chatbots | 9 | 1,067 | 10.4 |
28-day window. ai-platforms grew +222 clicks month-on-month.
05 · Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO / GEO)
Becoming the source AI engines cite
As search shifted to AI answers, ranking a blue link stopped being enough. I structured content to be quotable, tracked visibility across a prompt set in Amplitude, and pushed generative-engine optimisation off-site through LinkedIn and Reddit.
Off-site, LinkedIn Pulse articles and Reddit threads mentioning Craze started ranking in Google, helping win #1 plus AI recommendations and citations on the core, high-authority "best HR software" term, a keyword that normally demands far more brand and authority than a young startup has.
Cited across the answer layer
Google AI Overviews and Bing Copilot, spanning the HRMS and AI eras.
06 · Business Impact
What the content architecture paid for
Beyond rankings: a channel that produced pipeline, brand presence in AI answers, and authority that compounded.
Organic became a lead channel
ToFu assets fed email nurture; MoFu and BoFu comparison content produced MQLs and SQLs for the sales pipeline.
Visibility inside AI answers
Craze became a recurring citation across Google AI Overviews and Bing Copilot, capturing demand at the answer, not just the link.
Less dependence on paid
A compounding, owned organic channel reduced reliance on paid acquisition to reach the same audiences.
Authority that transferred
DR 0 → 36 and 233 referring domains became an asset that carried straight into the AI expansion.
07 · What Made It Work
The principles behind the numbers
Sequence beats volume
Every phase matched the authority the site actually had that quarter. Commercial intent first while DR was 0, high volume only once links had compounded.
Assets are a moat
Downloadable letter formats, templates and free tools captured broad ICP demand cheaply and fed a nurture list competitors could not easily copy.
Own the answer layer
Structuring content for AEO and GEO, on-site and on LinkedIn and Reddit, made Craze the source AI engines quote, not just a blue link.
Built to evolve
The same playbook re-ran cleanly in a new category, reaching top-3 on high-difficulty AI terms within a month.
"Organic isn't a support channel. Built right, it's the growth engine, and it keeps compounding as the product evolves."
From DR 0 to the most-cited source across 1,160 AI prompts, then again in a brand-new category, through content built for search intent and answer engines.
Tools & Stack
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