How We Ranked #1 for “Buy Bitcoin With Credit Card” (KD 72)
SEO case study · Link building · Crypto
How we ranked a crypto exchange #1 for “buy bitcoin with credit card”
A “super hard” keyword with about 25,000 searches a month, and a page bouncing between positions 8.5 and 12.8. Every site above it had more authority and more links. It took about 1.5 years, 954 backlinks we built by hand and a link rate raised from 1 to 5 a week to 60+.
- Crypto
- Link building
- Technical SEO
- Content
01 · The problem
Stuck at the edge of page one, against much bigger sites
Going from the end of page one to #1 is much harder than going from position 50 to page two. The page was close, but every site above it was bigger, older and better linked.
| Site | Domain Rating | Backlinks to domain |
|---|---|---|
| Our client | 65 | 632.9K |
| buybitcoinworldwide.com | 76 | 1.4M |
| Bitcoin.com | 84 | 15.5M |
| Binance | 86 | 29M |
Source: Ahrefs via the SEOquake bar on Google results, May 2020.
A page that would not settle
Between March and May 2019 the page averaged position 8.5. On a good day it showed at 9.2, on a bad day at 12.8, the start of page two.
Too few links, too slowly
The client gained 1 to 5 backlinks a week. The top 10 competitors averaged 43 a week over six months.
Too little content
The site had a handful of articles. Competitors had an average of 1,000+ articles bringing them traffic and links, and the existing content did not match search intent well.
A site that was hard to fix
97+ product pages in 8 languages, including Korean and Arabic, and 3,000+ redirects. Even simple fixes had to be repeated across every language.
02 · Our solution
Research first, then three workstreams at once
We started with a full audit: technical, on-page, content against competitors, and how many links we would need each week to catch up. That gave three areas of work, run in parallel.
- 01
Fix the technical issues
Every redirect chain cut across 3,000+ redirects. Every important page reachable in 3 clicks or fewer. HTTP pages moved to HTTPS, unimportant pages taken out of the index, broken pages fixed, plus page speed, mobile issues and schema.
- 02
Rework the content and intent
Transactional pages kept to 80 to 90% transactional keywords, and articles kept off buy keywords. Cannibalized pages fixed. New topics chosen by search volume, allintitle ratio and the strength of the pages already ranking.
- 03
Raise links from 5 a week to 60+
Half the effort went into reaching sites that linked to pages ranking top 10 for our keywords, sending 400+ personal emails a day across about 20 campaigns. The rest went into reviews, guest posts, infographics, link reclamation and broken-link building.
| Link source | Share of effort |
|---|---|
| Sites linking to similar pages | 50% |
| Guest posts | 20% |
| Reviews | 20% |
| Infographics | 5% |
| Other methods | 5% |
For new articles we did not rely on keyword difficulty scores. We looked for keywords under 1,000 searches a month where the allintitle count divided by search volume was below 0.25, the top 10 pages had weaker domains than ours, and at least one new page already ranked. You can check the allintitle count with our free allintitle checker.
03 · Results
#1 by May 2020, and held
04 · Timeline
How it unfolded
- March to May 2019Average position 8.5, swinging between 9.2 and 12.8. The client gains 1 to 5 links a week.
- 2019Audit, technical fixes across 8 languages, content rework and the outreach system built up towards 60+ links a week.
- 13 May 2020#1 on Google for the focus keyword in Ahrefs’ position history.
- Mid 2020Still #1 several months later. 954 hand-built links in total, and 300 new links in 30 days earned by the content.
05 · What to copy
What you can take from this
- Measure link velocity, not just link totals. Count how many links the top 10 gain each week over six months, then plan to beat that number.
- Pick content by the pages that rank, not by a difficulty score. Low allintitle ratio, weaker domains in the top 10 and at least one new page ranking are better signals.
- Keep transactional and educational pages apart. Buy pages should target buy keywords. Articles that compete for them pull the money page down.
- Fix redirects and crawl depth first. Links pointing through redirect chains or into pages five clicks deep are partly wasted.
- Change the plan about every three months. Look at which campaigns brought the most links and which content brought the most traffic, then do more of that.
FAQ
Questions about this link-building case study
How many backlinks do you need to rank #1 for a competitive keyword?
How long does it take to rank #1 for a keyword with difficulty 72?
What is link velocity?
Are 60 links a week safe?
Which link-building methods worked best?
Why not just use keyword difficulty to choose topics?
What is the allintitle ratio?
Can a site with a lower Domain Rating outrank stronger sites?
Is this the same client as the crypto traffic case study?
Do you offer link building on its own?
Need links that move rankings?
We took a crypto exchange from the edge of page one to #1 above Binance. Tell us the keyword you want and we will tell you what it takes.
- 01ApplyTell us about your site and the goal you have in mind.
- 02Get your auditWe look at your rankings, your competitors and what is realistic.
- 03Meet the teamIf we can grow you, we say how. If we can’t, we say that too.