How We Took a New Shopping Niche Site from 20 Weekly Visitors to Over 140 Weekly Visitors – Case Study

In this case study, we’ll take you through how our link-building services helped a client’s site skyrocket from a modest 20 weekly visitors to over 140 weekly visitors. We’ll break down the entire process, step by step, highlighting the services used, the strategy implemented, and sharing the valuable data we gathered throughout the journey.

Our client operates a website in a gifting niche. They approached us with a simple yet challenging request: they wanted to boost their organic traffic and get their site off the ground with the help of affordable, targeted link-building. Although their site was relatively new, they had solid content in place, but it lacked one critical factor: high-quality backlinks.

In this post, we’ll show you how we helped them achieve significant traffic growth and how similar strategies might work for you, depending on your niche and competition. If you’re interested in improving your own site’s performance, check out our services page for more information on our link-building packages!

In summary, we will show:

• How we employed a simple link building strategy with our links to help client increase their traffic by about 600%.
• How a relatively new site with little traffic can start attracting significant viewership with relatively few links.
• What link based website growth looks like and potential timeframes involved.

Initial Statistics of the Website

Before we dive into the strategy, let’s take a look at where the website was when we started working with the client:

• Weekly Traffic: 20 users/week
• Backlinks: 3 (as reported by Ahrefs), mostly from indexing sites

While these numbers aren’t terrible for a new website, they clearly indicated the client was struggling to gain visibility. Despite having a decent amount of useful content, their lack of backlinks was holding them back. To break out of this plateau and start driving more organic traffic, the site needed an injection of high-quality backlinks.

Initial Strategy

Since the client had almost no backlinks to start with, our first goal was to build up their backlink profile from scratch. The approach we took is perfect for the new sites, as it helps you build authority over time in a very natural way. Here’s the approach we took:

1. Foundational Links: We started by focusing on foundational links—these are links that just about anyone can obtain from sources like directories and Web 2.0 sites. While these links don’t have much ranking power on their own, they establish the groundwork for a natural link profile and help the website look more trustworthy to search engines.
2. Niche-Relevant Links: Once we had a few foundational links in place, we began building more powerful links from niche-relevant websites. These links were directed mainly at the homepage, which helped with both ranking power and building a natural link profile.
3. Diversifying with Content Page Links: Lastly, we targeted a few content pages that showed promise for driving traffic, using niche edits to further diversify the link profile and help those key pages rank.

The strategy focused on gradual, organic growth. We didn’t rush to build hundreds of links in one go, as this could appear unnatural to search engines. Instead, we paced our efforts to let the link profile grow steadily over time.

Initial Progress

Once we had the strategy in place and with the client’s permission, we began implementing the following products from our link-building packages:

• New Website Backlinks – Plus Package
  • 7 DA15+ niche edits (links placed on established sites within the client’s niche with Domain Authority over 15)
  • 95 directory links (to help build foundational authority)

By mid-January, after adding the initial set of links, we started seeing a small uptick in traffic. The traffic increase was gradual, but this was to be expected with a new site that was just beginning to build authority.

In February, we decided to ramp things up a bit. After discussing with the client, we added 3 more niche edits, targeting key pages on the website. The result was a further boost in traffic, climbing to around 35 visits a week.

Lift Off!

Encouraged by the uptick in traffic, we worked with the client to acquire another 3 niche edits, this time aimed at the homepage to consolidate its ranking power.

And then—we had liftoff!

By the first week of April, traffic spiked to an impressive 484 weekly visits. Upon further analysis, we discovered that the client’s site had started ranking for a high-volume search term in India. While this surge was a bit unexpected and temporary, it indicated that the SEO efforts were having an impact.

After Google recalibrated the rankings to better match the site’s target audience (US and UK), the traffic settled down to a more realistic 150 visits per week, which was exactly in line with the client’s goals.

However, a few weeks later, traffic dropped slightly to about 80 weekly visits. The client suspected that this dip was due to a loss in rankings for several key articles. In response, the client requested another set of 3 niche edits, which we directed at their top-performing content pages.

Shortly after this adjustment, traffic climbed back up to around 180 weekly visitors, before settling at a steady 140 visitors per week—a remarkable 600% increase from where we started!

Final Results

At the time of writing this case study, the results speak for themselves. The site has seen substantial growth, and we continue to work with the client to push these results even further.

• Weekly Traffic: 140 users/week (a 600% increase from the starting point of 20 users/week)
• Backlinks: A total of 111 backlinks, consisting of:
  • 95 directory links
  • 13 niche edits
  • The original 3 indexing site backlinks

These numbers demonstrate the incredible power of link-building when paired with a well-run website that already has quality content in place. The client saw significant traffic growth with just a handful of niche edits, proving that targeted backlinking can yield impressive results even with a modest budget.

Key Takeaways

Here’s what we can learn from this case study:

1. Our Links Work: It’s clear that our backlink-building strategy delivered real, measurable results. With only 13 niche edits driving the majority of the traffic growth, this client saw their weekly visitors increase by 600%.
2. Backlinks and Content are a Powerful Combo: While backlinks are crucial, they work best when paired with well-written, useful content. Our client already had a solid content strategy, which made it easier for the backlinks to work their magic.
3. Results Take Time, but the Payoff is Worth It: Link-building is not an overnight solution. It took a few months for traffic to ramp up, but by following a steady, strategic approach, the client was able to see consistent growth.
4. You Can Achieve Significant Traffic Growth Even with a New Website: Many new website owners believe they need hundreds of backlinks to see any traffic growth. However, this case study proves that even a relatively small number of high-quality niche edits can yield significant results when placed correctly.

In this case study, we’ve shown how our link-building services helped a new website in the gifting niche go from 20 to 140 weekly visitors. By implementing a well-thought-out backlink strategy, paired with the client’s strong content, we were able to help them achieve a 600% increase in traffic.

If you’re looking to boost your own website’s performance, consider trying out one of our affordable link-building packages. Whether you’re in a niche with tough competition or just starting out, we have the tools to help you grow. Feel free to get in touch or check out our shop page to learn more about how we can help you achieve similar results!