Service

SEO-promotion, Link building, SEO audit

Project

A Ukrainian online school offering distance education for students in Grades 1–11, preparation for the National Multi-Subject Test (NMT), and additional tutoring services

Objective

– Redesign the website with SEO requirements in mind and build a scalable site structure to support future organic traffic growth
– Increase organic traffic from Google
– Generate more inquiries and applications through organic search
– Improve search visibility for commercial keywords related to online schooling, distance education, and additional educational services
– Expand the website structure to cover new educational programs, school subjects, and supplementary services
– Systematically develop informational content to attract additional relevant traffic and expand the project's keyword coverage
– Strengthen the website's authority and expertise through content development, improved E-E-A-T signals, and ongoing off-page SEO efforts

Niche

Online education and distance learning in Ukraine for students in Grades 1–11, including comprehensive online schooling, NMT preparation, tutoring, and additional educational programs.

Period

January, 2025 - present day

Region

Ukraine

Challenges of the project

At the start of our collaboration, the website was a small educational platform with a very limited structure and low organic search visibility. Despite strong search demand in the online education market, the website was barely tapping into this potential. It had approximately 10 core pages, targeted only a small portion of relevant keywords, and showed no consistent growth in organic traffic. Organic traffic had effectively stagnated, falling well short of the market’s potential and the project’s growth opportunities.

An additional challenge was the planned website migration, which involved changing the domain and moving from Wix to WordPress. This meant that SEO efforts had to run alongside the development of the new website. We needed not only to preserve existing rankings and search signals during the migration but also to redesign the site structure around target keywords, priority educational services, and future growth.

Our team’s initial analysis identified several key issues:

  • Poor website structure and a very limited number of landing pages.
  • Low search visibility for high-priority commercial keywords in the online education niche.
  • Lack of systematic SEO optimization across core pages.
  • A significant number of technical SEO issues for a relatively small website.
  • No well-defined SEO structure for the new website.
  • The need for careful SEO management during the domain change and migration from Wix to WordPress.
  • Underdeveloped informational content and insufficient coverage of relevant search demand.
  • A weak backlink profile and limited external authority signals.
  • Insufficient attention to E-E-A-T factors, which are particularly important in the education sector.
  • No systematic approach to adapting website content and structure for AI-powered search features.

The main challenge went beyond fixing individual SEO issues. We needed to build a new foundation for the project’s long-term growth. This involved developing an SEO-driven website structure, managing the domain and CMS migration without compromising the site’s search potential, implementing technical and content optimization, expanding commercial keyword coverage, consistently developing informational content, and strengthening off-page SEO signals. Our goal was to transform a small website with limited search visibility into a scalable online education platform capable of competing with the leading players in the market.

Project analytics prior to collaboration

Project Visibility:

Conclusion:

At the start of our collaboration, the website was already ranking for 4.26K keywords, but this generated very little organic traffic. Despite the number of ranking keywords, search visibility was just 0.13, with estimated organic traffic of 838 visits. This indicated that most keywords ranked too low in search results to drive meaningful traffic from Google.

In the online education market, these figures highlighted significant untapped potential. The website covered only a small portion of relevant commercial and informational search queries, its structure was underdeveloped, and the existing landing pages provided too few entry points from organic search. As a result, the project was not capitalizing on the opportunities available in the online education market.

Another major challenge was that further growth required more than isolated SEO improvements. We needed to rebuild the website’s foundation by developing a new site structure, preparing for migration, preserving existing search signals, and significantly expanding target keyword coverage.

Traffic analysis:

Conclusion:

The organic traffic analysis showed that the project had no consistent growth at the start of our collaboration. Throughout the year, traffic remained largely within the same range, with occasional short-term spikes followed by a return to previous levels. Traffic peaked at 1.22K visits, but this increase was not sustained.

This trend highlighted the lack of a systematic SEO strategy capable of driving consistent organic traffic growth. The website’s limited structure, small number of landing pages, insufficient optimization for commercial and informational keywords, and narrow search coverage prevented the project from scaling. Despite strong demand in the niche, the website was generating very few new entry points from Google.

Our main objective was therefore to break out of this stagnation and establish a foundation for sustainable organic traffic growth. This required expanding the website structure, creating more relevant landing pages, strengthening commercial service pages, and systematically developing informational content.

Keyword distribution by rankings:

Conclusion:

The keyword ranking distribution showed that the website was already ranking in Google for a substantial number of search queries, but most of these rankings were well beyond the first page of search results. Of approximately 4.25K keywords, only around 421 ranked in the top 10, while 1.83K were in positions 21–50 and another 1.61K in positions 51–100. This meant that over 80% of the ranking keywords generated little to no organic traffic.

At the same time, this ranking distribution revealed significant growth potential. Google was already indexing and ranking the website for thousands of queries, but the site lacked the relevance and authority needed to consistently achieve higher positions. One of our key opportunities was therefore to focus on keywords already ranking in positions 20–50. Optimizing landing pages, content, metadata, internal linking, and off-page SEO signals could deliver faster results than trying to rank entirely new pages from scratch.

However, the existing website structure was still too limited to capture the full range of search demand in the online education market. Our strategy therefore focused on two areas simultaneously: improving rankings for existing pages while creating new landing pages targeting additional commercial and informational keywords. This approach allowed us to pursue quicker gains from existing rankings while building new entry points from Google to support the project’s long-term growth.

Team actions

Project problematics:

  • Migrating to a new domain and from Wix to WordPress without losing search rankings

One of the key challenges at the start of the project was a complete website migration involving both a domain change and a move to a new CMS. This type of migration carries significant SEO risks, as errors during the process can lead to the loss of indexed pages, ranking drops, 404 errors, incorrect redirects, and the loss of established search signals. To minimize these risks, our SEO specialists managed the migration at every stage, from preparing the new website to conducting post-launch checks.

As part of our SEO migration support, we focused on the following areas:

  • Auditing existing indexed pages.
  • Developing a new website structure based on keyword research and future scalability.
  • Preserving the existing URL structure wherever possible.
  • Creating a 301 redirect map for URLs that needed to change.
  • Migrating and verifying title tags, meta descriptions, H1–H6 headings, and SEO content.
  • Preserving internal linking and structured data markup.
  • Ensuring that no unintended noindex directives or other indexing restrictions were in place.
  • Migrating and verifying analytics systems and tracking codes.
  • Providing recommendations and testing forms, buttons, interactive elements, mobile responsiveness, and cross-browser compatibility.
  • Checking redirects, HTTP status codes, and proper indexing after launch.

As a result, we used the migration not simply to move the existing website but also to establish a foundation for future SEO growth. The new site structure was designed from the outset around search demand, key commercial services, and future expansion. This allowed us to avoid carrying over the limitations of the old website to the new CMS and prepare the platform for consistent growth in organic search visibility.

Project problematics:

  • Technical SEO issues and quality control throughout the migration process

Technical SEO optimization was carried out in two parallel areas. On the existing website, we addressed the most critical SEO issues affecting indexing, crawling, and overall page quality. At the same time, we incorporated SEO recommendations directly into the development of the new website to prevent existing issues from being carried over to WordPress and avoid introducing new ones during migration. This approach allowed us not only to resolve existing problems but also to establish a solid technical SEO foundation for the new website from the outset.

As part of our technical SEO optimization and post-migration support, we focused on the following areas:

  • Configuring and verifying robots.txt and sitemap.xml.
  • Monitoring page indexing and accessibility for search engine crawlers.
  • Ensuring proper HTML markup and H1–H6 heading structure.
  • Implementing hreflang tags for different language versions.
  • Implementing and refining structured data markup.
  • Setting up breadcrumb navigation and internal linking.
  • Analyzing Core Web Vitals and website performance.
  • Checking mobile responsiveness and cross-browser compatibility.
  • Testing interactive elements, forms, and CTAs.
  • Verifying analytics systems, Google Search Console, and tracking codes.
  • Identifying unnecessary and technical pages.
  • Reviewing metadata, URLs, and redirects.
  • Conducting follow-up technical audits and post-launch website checks.

The main outcome of this approach was that the migration to a new domain and WordPress did not introduce a large number of critical technical issues, which is a common risk during website migrations.

Our SEO team was involved throughout the entire process: conducting audits, preparing recommendations for developers, reviewing the staging website, and performing additional checks after launch. As a result, the new website had a significantly cleaner technical foundation, allowing us to focus subsequent SEO efforts on expanding the site structure, developing content, and improving search visibility rather than fixing migration-related problems.

Project problematics:

  • Weak and underdeveloped website structure

One of the project’s key challenges was that the website structure was far too limited to capture the volume of search demand in the online education market. Some new landing pages were planned during the design and development stages of the new website to incorporate SEO best practices, keyword targeting, and additional entry points from organic search right from the start. However, implementing the entire planned structure before migration would have significantly extended the development timeline. Therefore, some sections were scheduled for later stages of the SEO strategy.

As part of the website structure expansion, we focused on the following areas:

  • Dedicated landing pages for different learning formats.
  • Separate pages for primary, middle, and high school education.
  • Pages for external study programs, guest student enrollment, and schooling for children living abroad.
  • Dedicated pages for NMT preparation, with plans to expand coverage across individual subjects.
  • Subject-specific tutoring pages.
  • Additional English language learning programs.
  • Pages for courses and supplementary educational programs.
  • Service and commercial pages covering tuition fees, demo access, teachers, FAQs, and other relevant topics.
  • Further expansion of the website structure to target new commercial and informational keyword clusters.

Our work on the website structure continued after launch.

We analyzed competitors, search demand, and the actual performance of newly created pages. Based on these insights, we continued adding new landing pages and entire website sections.

This approach allowed us to complete the migration without delaying the launch to implement the entire planned structure at once. Instead, we gradually scaled the website after launch, creating more relevant entry points from Google and expanding coverage of both commercial and informational search queries.

Project problematics:

  • Insufficient content optimization of commercial pages

At the start of the project, commercial pages lacked proper content optimization. Some landing pages had little or no SEO-focused content, while others failed to reflect relevant keywords and search intent. Another issue was the poor structure of the pages themselves. They often lacked sufficient information on the topic and additional content sections that could address users’ questions while improving the pages’ relevance to search engines.

As part of our SEO efforts, we reviewed and optimized commercial page content based on keyword research and target search queries. For priority service areas, we created new SEO-focused content, updated existing copy, restructured headings, and improved keyword distribution. We also began systematically adding content elements that benefit both users and SEO, including FAQs, tables, key benefits, terms and conditions, pricing, learning formats, internal links, and other relevant sections.

This approach helped us create more comprehensive commercial pages, better align their content with search intent, and improve their ranking potential for competitive keywords.

Project problematics:

  • Lack of a systematic SEO scaling strategy

At the start of the project, SEO efforts focused primarily on existing commercial pages. However, the education niche extends far beyond commercial search queries, covering a wide range of informational, navigational, and seasonal searches that can help attract potential students and parents before they even begin choosing an online school. The website lacked dedicated content areas that could consistently expand its presence in search results and reach new groups of search queries.

As part of our new SEO strategy, we began expanding the website beyond traditional landing pages and blog articles by developing dedicated, scalable content sections. For each area, we analyzed search demand, competition, potential keyword coverage, and opportunities for further expansion. Rather than creating isolated pieces of content, this approach allowed us to build entire groups of pages, each with the potential to become an independent source of organic traffic.

Examples of strategic initiatives implemented as part of our SEO efforts:

  • Creating a career directory with resources on choosing a profession and planning future education paths.
  • Developing interactive tools, including free online tests.
  • Creating curated university lists organized by academic programs and fields of study.
  • Building an educational glossary with dedicated pages targeting relevant terms and concepts.
  • Creating and optimizing content for Google News and Google Discover.
  • Systematically targeting seasonal search demand related to NMT preparation, university admissions, choosing a university, enrollment, and other periods of increased interest.

As a result, our SEO strategy was no longer limited to optimizing existing pages. The website began expanding systematically through new content types and formats designed to reach users at different stages of their educational journey, from choosing a career and university to preparing for exams and applying for admission.

This created additional entry points from Google and established a foundation for further growth in organic traffic.

Projects in the education sector offer virtually unlimited opportunities for SEO growth. Beyond traditional commercial and informational pages, websites can expand into interactive tools, free resources and services that encourage repeat visits, research-based content, programmatic SEO, large-scale content clusters, and related topics that broaden search coverage and create new entry points from Google.

However, scaling SEO should not simply mean creating more pages. Every new initiative needs to be evaluated based on actual performance: keyword rankings, organic traffic, user engagement, and conversions. Interactive tools can improve engagement metrics, curated resources and useful online services can encourage repeat visits, while programmatic SEO and informational content can significantly expand organic reach. But each approach is worth scaling only when its effectiveness is supported by data.

That's why it's essential to continuously identify new growth opportunities, analyze competitors and existing initiatives, and scale the strategies that deliver the strongest results. This approach makes it possible to consistently improve search visibility without investing resources in initiatives that fail to generate measurable results.

Alexey Kondratenko, SEO Specialist

Project problematics:

  • Underdeveloped informational content and insufficient coverage of search demand

At the start of the project, the blog was not being used as a полноценный source of organic traffic. Although some articles had already been published, content development lacked a systematic approach. A significant portion of informational search demand remained untapped, with no well-defined topic clusters or consistent strategy for targeting seasonal queries. This was particularly important in the education sector, where users search not only for online schools but also for information about NMT preparation, university admissions, career choices, universities, and other related topics.

As part of our SEO strategy, we focused on:

  • Developing thematic content clusters.
  • Creating seasonal content around NMT preparation and university admissions.
  • Establishing a logical H2–H3 heading structure and adding tables of contents.
  • Incorporating FAQs, tables, checklists, and comparison sections.
  • Adding author attribution and expert commentary.
  • Improving internal linking.
  • Implementing elements that strengthen E-E-A-T signals and overall content quality.

As a result, the blog became a dedicated channel for organic traffic growth, helping expand the website’s search visibility, create additional entry points from Google, and attract potential students and parents before they had chosen a specific learning format.

Example of Organic Traffic Generated by Blog Articles:

Project problematics:

  • Lack of a systematic approach to AI search optimization

At the start of the project, little attention had been paid to AI search visibility. Content was primarily created for traditional Google Search, without considering how ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity, and other generative AI systems retrieve and cite information. This is particularly important in the education sector, where a large share of search queries are informational and users are increasingly turning to AI-powered search experiences for answers.

As part of our SEO strategy, we made AI search optimization a dedicated area of focus. Our work included:

  • Conducting a separate AI search audit of the website.
  • Analyzing the website’s visibility across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI-powered platforms.
  • Restructuring articles to make information more accessible and easier to extract.
  • Incorporating FAQs, tables, concise answers, lists, and structured content sections.
  • Strengthening author attribution, demonstrating expertise, and improving other E-E-A-T signals.
  • Developing an educational glossary and curated topic-based resources.
  • Expanding internal linking and topical coverage.
  • Preparing technical recommendations, including configuring access for AI crawlers and implementing llms.txt.
  • Analyzing the sources and content formats most frequently used by AI systems when generating responses.

As a result, generative search optimization became an integral part of the project’s overall SEO strategy. New commercial and informational content was developed with two objectives in mind: achieving strong rankings in traditional Google Search and increasing the potential for content to be referenced in AI-generated answers.

This approach helped us gradually expand the project’s presence beyond traditional search results and establish a dedicated strategy for further growth in AI search visibility.

Project problematics:

  • Weak off-page SEO signals and lack of a systematic link-building strategy

At the start of the project, the website’s backlink profile was relatively weak for the competitive online education market. According to our initial analysis, the website had only 62 referring domains and approximately 1.2K backlinks. There was also no systematic strategy for acquiring high-quality backlinks, managing anchor text distribution, or directing link equity toward priority pages.

As part of our SEO strategy, we made off-page optimization a dedicated area of focus. We regularly analyzed the project’s backlink profile and those of its competitors, assessed the quality of referring domains and anchor text distribution, conducted outreach, acquired backlinks from relevant websites, and addressed potentially toxic links. Our primary focus was not simply on increasing the number of backlinks but on acquiring more high-quality referring domains and building a natural, sustainable backlink profile.

As a result, the number of referring domains increased from approximately 62 to 1K, representing more than 16-fold growth. The total number of backlinks grew from around 1.2K to 4.8K, while the website’s Domain Rating (DR), according to Ahrefs, reached 60.

Systematic link building thus became another contributing factor in strengthening the website’s domain authority and improving the search rankings of priority pages.

Example of Backlink Profile Growth Following the Implementation of a Systematic Link-Building Strategy:

Results

Traffic growth dynamics:

Organic Traffic Comparison (Last Calendar Month vs. First Month of SEO Work):

Keyword growth dynamics:

Growth in keyword distribution by position:

Summary

A comprehensive SEO strategy fundamentally transformed the project’s organic search presence. Our work covered multiple areas, including SEO support during the domain and Wix-to-WordPress migration, technical optimization, website structure expansion, improvements to commercial pages, systematic development of informational content, implementation of programmatic SEO, off-page optimization, and a dedicated AI search optimization strategy. As a result, the website moved from low search visibility and stagnant performance to sustained growth across nearly all key SEO metrics.

The results are supported by Google Analytics data. In January 2025, organic search generated 486 users and 790 sessions. By September 2026, these figures had increased to 12,540 users and 15,823 sessions, representing growth of 2,480.25% in users and 1,902.91% in sessions. At the same time, engaged sessions increased from 388 to 11,154, while the engagement rate improved from 49.11% to 70.49%. This shows that scaling organic traffic was accompanied not only by higher visitor numbers but also by improved user engagement.

Keyword rankings saw particularly significant improvements. Initially, the website had just 106 keywords ranking in position 1, 115 in positions 2–3, 76 in positions 4–5, and 124 in positions 6–10. Today, these groups include approximately 1.2K, 4.68K, 4.84K, and 9.34K keywords, respectively. Meanwhile, the number of keywords ranking in lower positions has dropped dramatically, with only 8 remaining in positions 21–50 and 10 in positions 51–100. Most ranking keywords have moved to the first two pages of Google search results, becoming one of the main drivers of organic traffic growth.

Another important achievement was the development of areas that had received little attention at the start of the project. The website now has approximately 1.3K mentions in AI-generated answers, with 426 of its pages referenced by AI systems. The project appears in 370 responses in Google AI Mode, 37 in ChatGPT, 25 in Gemini, 130 in Perplexity, and 94 in Copilot. At the same time, the backlink profile has been significantly strengthened. The website’s current Domain Rating (DR) has reached 60, with approximately 4.8K active backlinks and 1K referring domains.

Ultimately, our work went far beyond the initial objectives. The project evolved from a small website with a limited structure, low search visibility, and no consistent growth into one of the prominent players in its niche. Today, organic search serves as one of the project’s key audience acquisition channels. Further growth is focused on scaling strategies that have already proven effective, testing new growth opportunities, expanding programmatic SEO and informational content, and increasing visibility in AI-powered search.