Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Every marketer I know has been there. You're sitting in a conference room, whiteboard covered with different search engine marketing tactics - SEO, PPC, content marketing, technical optimizations. The promise is always the same: "implement these tactics and watch your traffic soar."
But here's what actually happened when I worked with a B2B SaaS client who had tried every search engine marketing tactic in the book. They had beautiful technical SEO, solid keyword research, optimized ad campaigns, and... almost no meaningful growth. Their user acquisition was stuck despite following every best practice.
The problem wasn't the tactics themselves. The problem was that they were optimizing for the wrong thing entirely. While everyone else was playing the tactics game, the real growth was happening through a completely different approach that most businesses overlook.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
Why most search engine marketing tactics fail to drive meaningful business results
The fundamental flaw in how companies approach search marketing
What actually worked for a struggling SaaS client (and why it surprised everyone)
A proven framework for search marketing that focuses on business outcomes, not vanity metrics
How to identify when tactics are helping versus hurting your growth
Conventional Wisdom
What every growth team has been told
The search engine marketing industry has created a playbook that almost every business follows religiously. Walk into any marketing meeting and you'll hear the same tactics being discussed:
The Standard SEM Playbook includes:
Technical SEO optimization - Fix crawl errors, improve site speed, optimize meta tags
Keyword research and targeting - Find high-volume, low-competition keywords
Content creation - Publish blog posts targeting specific search terms
PPC campaign optimization - Test ad copy, adjust bids, refine audience targeting
Link building - Acquire backlinks to boost domain authority
This conventional wisdom exists because it's technically correct. These tactics do improve search visibility. The problem is that improved search visibility doesn't automatically translate to business growth.
Most businesses get trapped in what I call "tactics theater" - they're busy implementing every search engine marketing tactic they can find, measuring clicks and impressions, but missing the bigger picture. They're optimizing for search engines instead of optimizing for customers.
The result? Companies spend months perfecting their SEO strategy, see traffic increases, and wonder why their revenue isn't growing proportionally. They're winning the tactics game but losing the business game.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When this B2B SaaS client approached me, they had everything that should have made them successful in search marketing. Their technical SEO was pristine, their blog was publishing keyword-optimized content weekly, and their Google Ads were running with decent CTRs.
But they were stuck at around 2,000 monthly visitors with minimal conversions. The founder was frustrated because they'd been following every search engine marketing tactic recommended by consultants and agencies for over a year.
As I dug deeper into their analytics, something interesting emerged. Their "direct" traffic was accounting for a huge portion of their highest-quality leads. But when I investigated further, I discovered these weren't really "direct" visits at all.
The breakthrough came when I analyzed their conversion paths more carefully. The users labeled as "direct" traffic were actually people who had been following the founder's personal content on LinkedIn for weeks or months. They would see a valuable post, get curious about the founder's expertise, and eventually type the company URL directly into their browser when they were ready to evaluate solutions.
This was a classic case of attribution failure. The analytics were giving credit to "direct" traffic, but the real source was the founder's personal branding efforts on LinkedIn. All their search engine marketing tactics were optimizing for cold traffic, but their best customers were coming through warm, trust-based channels.
Here's what was really happening: The founder's LinkedIn content was acting as the top-of-funnel awareness driver, while their website was merely the conversion point. They were treating these as separate channels when they were actually one integrated system.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Once I understood what was actually driving their growth, we completely restructured their approach to search marketing. Instead of more tactics, we focused on amplifying what was already working and fixing the attribution problem.
Step 1: Content-First Search Strategy
Rather than chasing keyword research, we shifted to a content-first approach. The founder's LinkedIn posts that were generating the most engagement became the foundation for their search content strategy. If a LinkedIn post about "API integration challenges" got hundreds of comments, we'd create comprehensive search-optimized content around that topic.
This approach worked because we were creating content around proven interest rather than theoretical search volume. The LinkedIn engagement validated that people actually cared about these topics before we invested time in search optimization.
Step 2: Distribution Channel Integration
Instead of treating LinkedIn and search as separate channels, we created an integrated distribution system. Every piece of search-optimized content became source material for multiple LinkedIn posts. Every viral LinkedIn post became the foundation for detailed search content.
The key insight: LinkedIn built trust and awareness, while search content captured that interest when people were ready to go deeper. They weren't competing channels - they were complementary parts of one system.
Step 3: Attribution System Overhaul
We implemented a simple tracking system using UTM parameters and customer surveys to understand the real customer journey. Instead of relying on Google Analytics' last-click attribution, we started asking customers directly: "How did you first hear about us?"
This revealed that over 60% of their "best" customers had followed the founder on LinkedIn for months before converting. The search engine marketing tactics were supporting the bottom of the funnel, but personal branding was driving the top.
Step 4: Quality Over Quantity Content
We stopped publishing weekly blog posts chasing search volume and instead focused on creating one comprehensive piece of content monthly that could serve multiple purposes: LinkedIn content, search content, email newsletter material, and sales enablement resources.
Each piece was designed to demonstrate expertise rather than just capture search traffic. The result was content that performed well in search AND built authority with their target audience.
Trust Building
Personal branding drove 60% of their highest-value customers, not search tactics
Content Validation
LinkedIn engagement validated content topics before investing in search optimization
Attribution Fix
Simple customer surveys revealed the real conversion paths hidden by analytics
Quality Focus
One comprehensive monthly piece outperformed weekly tactical content creation
The transformation was remarkable and happened faster than anyone expected. Within three months of implementing this integrated approach:
Business Impact:
Monthly recurring revenue increased by 40% despite lower total website traffic
Customer acquisition cost decreased by 25% because prospects were pre-qualified through content
Sales cycle shortened from 3 months to 6 weeks on average
Content Performance:
Organic search traffic quality improved dramatically - fewer bounces, longer sessions
LinkedIn followers grew 300% and engagement rates doubled
Email list grew from 500 to 2,000 highly engaged subscribers
The most surprising result? Their total search traffic actually decreased slightly, but conversions increased by 180%. We were attracting fewer but better-qualified visitors who were already familiar with the founder's expertise.
This proved that search engine marketing tactics should serve your broader content strategy, not drive it. When you focus on building relationships and demonstrating expertise first, search becomes a natural amplification channel rather than a primary acquisition strategy.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
1. Most Search Marketing Fails Because It Optimizes for Search Engines, Not Customers
The biggest mistake I see companies make is treating search engine marketing as a technical challenge rather than a relationship-building opportunity. They focus on rankings instead of relevance, traffic instead of trust.
2. Attribution Is Broken for Complex B2B Sales Cycles
Google Analytics will lie to you about where your best customers come from. In B2B especially, the customer journey is long and involves multiple touchpoints. What looks like "direct" traffic is often the result of weeks of relationship building through other channels.
3. Content Validation Beats Keyword Research
Instead of guessing what people might search for, start with content that you know resonates with your audience. If it works on LinkedIn, Twitter, or in your email newsletter, it will probably work in search too.
4. Quality Compounds, Quantity Doesn't
One piece of truly valuable content that gets shared, linked to, and referenced will outperform 20 mediocre posts optimized for search. Focus on creating content worth talking about.
5. Integration Beats Isolation
The most effective search strategies don't treat search as a separate channel. They integrate search with social media, email, sales, and customer success to create a cohesive experience.
6. Personal Brands Drive Business Brands
Especially in B2B, people buy from people they trust. Building the founder's personal brand often drives more qualified traffic than any search engine marketing tactic.
7. Measure Business Outcomes, Not Search Metrics
Rankings, traffic, and click-through rates are vanity metrics unless they correlate with revenue, customer acquisition, and business growth. Always connect search performance to business performance.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups, focus on:
Building founder personal brand through content marketing
Creating search content around product use cases and integration guides
Implementing proper attribution tracking beyond Google Analytics
Focusing on content that serves multiple distribution channels
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores, prioritize:
Product-focused content that demonstrates value beyond specifications
Building trust through customer stories and use case content
Creating buying guides that capture commercial search intent
Leveraging social proof in search-optimized content