+71% blog traffic in 4 months by optimizing what already worked
SEO & content strategy case study | Jul–Oct 2018 (initiative)
(CPC Strategy later became Tinuiti.)
The results
+71%
blog traffic growth (Jul–Oct 2018)
289k
organic sessions at peak (monthly)
~3k
leads at peak (monthly)
Overview
CPC Strategy’s blog had strong traffic, but it wasn’t reliably turning into the right leads.
Our content team was small but FAST at creating new pieces of content. But I noticed something else: our older “pillar” posts were quietly holding the whole thing together while newer pieces took time to build (and sometimes didn’t). Meanwhile, those pillars were aging out, overlapping topics were creeping in, and redundancy was starting to dilute performance.
Instead of just producing more, I built a repeatable process we called retroactive optimization: work smarter by improving the posts most likely to generate qualified leads, not just traffic.
The challenge
High traffic volume, inconsistent conversion to qualified leads
Sales reported low-quality conversations from blog-driven leads
Older top performers were decaying (outdated info, weaker structure, missed conversion opportunities)
Redundant/overlapping posts were competing with each other
What I owned
Built and led the retroactive optimization initiative
Audited existing content based on lead quality and buyer intent, not page views alone
Rewrote and restructured top posts for stronger SEO clarity and conversion (and trained the team on the process)
Added/updated relevant lead offers and CTAs on posts showing buyer intent
Created briefs + SEO strategy docs and managed execution
Oversaw freelance writers and coordinated publishing across internal teams
Partnered with sales + account teams to surface real questions worth answering
How we did it
Identified high-traffic posts that were underperforming on qualified lead generation
Prioritized topics with proven buyer intent and relevance to our ideal customer profile
Rebuilt pages with tighter structure, clearer takeaways, and better-aligned CTAs/offers
Reduced redundancy by folding weaker/duplicate posts into a single stronger piece when it improved authority and focus
Turned the work into a repeatable system the team could run alongside new publishing
The results
+71% increase in blog traffic in four months
Organic sessions peaked at 289,092/month
Leads peaked at 2,948/month (averaging ~1,700/month)
MQLs peaked at 269/month (averaging 111/month)
Improved lead quality, contributing to stronger sales conversations