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Services: SEO, Link Building, GEO, Brand SEO
How We Helped a Bootstrapped Flashcard App Build a Web Engine That Drove 20% of $4M ARR Before an Exit
B2b SAAS Case STUDY
by Dennis Lazard · June 1, 2026
+2,400
New referring domains
5.4X
Pages cited in Google AI Overviews
2X
Mentions in ChatGPT
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About The Brand
The Brand is a B2B SaaS platform used by thousands of global brands to manage their localisation workflows – everything from translating product UI and marketing content to coordinating translators, vendors and localisation teams at scale. It sits in a mature category with established competitors and a steady stream of new entrants, where buyer research now happens as much inside ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews as it does on traditional search.
When the engagement started in July 2025, the platform already had a strong foundation – a Domain Rating of 84 (Ahrefs), 10,900 referring domains and 104 queries ranking in the top 10 on Google. But its presence inside AI search surfaces was thin. Only 17 of its pages were being cited in Google AI Overviews and the brand was mentioned in just 19 ChatGPT responses across its tracked topic set.
With a sales cycle that increasingly starts with prospects asking AI tools to compare localisation platforms, that gap was the priority. The Brand came to ESA Digital with a clear remit: grow visibility in AI search, expand the backlink profile and push more keywords into the rankings that actually drive consideration.
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The Challenges
A full audit of the platform’s presence across traditional search, AI search and the wider web surfaced five core areas to focus on:- AI search visibility was underdeveloped. With only 17 pages cited in Google AI Overviews and 19 ChatGPT mentions, the platform was being left out of the answers buyers were getting when researching the category through AI tools.
- The backlink profile was healthy but growing slowly. 10,900 referring domains for a DR 84 site is solid, but the new-domain acquisition rate wasn’t keeping pace with the ranking growth the team wanted.
- Competitor presence in top/best/comparison content was stronger. The Brand’s competitors were appearing more often in third-party listicles, “best localisation platforms” roundups and comparison articles, which directly fed both buyer research and AI training data.
- The blog had a thin backlink profile – only 107 referring domains – which limited how much authority new informational content could pull in from the wider web.
- Internal linking between informational blog content and commercial pages wasn’t structured, meaning ranking strength wasn’t flowing to the pages that converted.
Strategic Approach
Once goals and timelines were agreed with the client team, we built a roadmap covering link building, GEO, brand SEO and on-site SEO – all running in parallel:
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Step 1: Backlink profile and competitor link analysis
We started with a deep analysis of the platform’s existing backlink profile alongside competitor link audits, identifying the topical authority gaps and the specific domains where competitors were winning and the client wasn’t. This became the master list for outreach across the rest of the engagement. -
Step 2: Link building at scale
Across the six months we ran a continuous link building programme – preparing 15+ articles per month for placement on relevant third-party sites, selecting platforms by topical fit and authority, and managing the full pipeline from outreach to placement to verification. The work covered both the main domain and the blog, with separate strategies for each. -
Step 3: Brand SEO – seeding in top/best/comparison content
Alongside traditional link building we ran a Brand SEO programme focused on getting the client mentioned in the third-party content that prospects and AI tools both rely on – “best localisation platforms” roundups, comparison articles, category guides and ratings content. The goal was to make sure that when a buyer or an AI system went looking for category-defining content, the client was in it. -
Step 4: GEO – content built for AI citation
We built and optimised content specifically for AI search visibility – structuring articles to answer the questions AI tools were being asked about the category, covering comparison and “best LSP” angles, and making sure the brand was contextually present in the responses being generated. This included new blog content (UI localisation guides, business localisation, international marketing, LSP selection) and optimisation of existing pages for AI readability. -
Step 5: SILO internal linking architecture
We designed and rolled out a SILO internal linking structure between informational blog content and the commercial pages it supported, making sure authority flowed from top-of-funnel guides through to the product and solution pages that actually converted. -
Step 6: Ongoing position tracking and keyword expansion
We tracked rankings across the promoted page set on a weekly basis, identifying new keyword opportunities as content was published and link equity built up, and rotating priorities as new pages broke into top 30 / top 10 / top 3.
The Results:
Result 1: ChatGPT mentions doubled in 6 months
ChatGPT mentions grew from 19 at the start of the engagement to 38 by December – a 2X increase across the tracked topic set in just six months.
Mentions inside Perplexity (+83%), Gemini (+60%) and Copilot also grew over the same period, meaning the platform’s presence across the full set of AI search surfaces expanded together rather than in isolation.
Mentions inside Perplexity (+83%), Gemini (+60%) and Copilot also grew over the same period, meaning the platform’s presence across the full set of AI search surfaces expanded together rather than in isolation.
Result 2: Pages cited in Google AI Overviews grew 5.4X in 6 months
When we started in July 2025, only 17 of the platform’s pages were being cited in Google AI Overviews. By December 2025, that number had reached 92 – a 5.4X increase in six months. The growth came from a combination of new GEO-optimised content, brand seeding in third-party comparison content and a structurally improved internal linking model that made it easier for AI systems to surface and quote the right pages.
Result 3: 2.5X growth in top-10 rankings in Google search and 3.6X growth in top-30 rankings
By December, the platform had 257 queries ranking in the top 10 on Google (up from 104 at the start of the engagement, a 2.5X increase) and 205 queries in the top 30 (up from 57, a 3.6X increase). On top of that, 80 queries had broken into the top 3 – a tier that didn’t exist as a tracked group when the engagement started.
Result 4: +2,400 new referring domains in 6 months, with +563 added in December alone
The link building programme added 2,400 new referring domains to the main site over the six months – taking the total from 10,900 to 13,300. December was the strongest month of the engagement, adding 563 new referring domains in a single month as the outreach pipeline hit full capacity. Domain Rating held steady at 84 throughout, reflecting that the link acquisition was happening at a quality level consistent with the existing profile.
Result 5: The blog turned into an AI data source
The dedicated blog link building work nearly doubled the blog’s referring domain count (107 → 204, a 91% increase) and that authority lift had a direct knock-on effect on AI visibility. By December, 65 blog pages were being cited in Google AI Overviews and 30 in ChatGPT – meaning the blog had become a meaningful AI search asset feeding answers directly to prospects, not just a top-of-funnel content layer. For a category where buyer research now starts inside AI tools, that’s the kind of content footprint that compounds month over month.
Working with ESA Digital has been fantastic! They bring deep industry knowledge and used it to build a strategy that delivered exceptional outcomes for our mobile app and our wider expansion. Their data-driven approach and excellent client service mean they consistently go above and beyond to meet our specific requirements. We've accomplished so much together and couldn't be happier with the results!
Andrew Bondarenko
CPO & Co-founder, Noji (Exit to DelightRoom)
CPO & Co-founder, Noji (Exit to DelightRoom)
“I met Dennis and his Google team, when they pitched their startup Smartsub. We accepted them to our accelerator program in 2017, Batch 9 and they successfully passed through it. Within a short period of time they managed to develop MVP of their product, design and implement go-to-market strategy launching the product on the US market. Their broad digital business experience and data-driven approach allowed them to make things done.”
Cristobal Alonso (www.startupwiseguys.com)
CEO at SWG (funded Smartsub in 2017)
CEO at SWG (funded Smartsub in 2017)
“ESA team with their Google Ads skills, growth mindset and natural ability to mentoring are able to bring a lot of value to startup ecosystem with so many tech companies in their growth stage and businesses struggling with Google online advertising.”
Monika Synoradzka (www.hugething.vc)
CEO at HugeThing (funded Smartsub, 2019)
CEO at HugeThing (funded Smartsub, 2019)
ESA team had outperformed my expectations working with one of our main SEO clients. They delivered X2-times organic traffic growth for 12 client’s websites, working with technical, content and link-building SEO optimisation in Google, website structure, navigation, technical code and conversion rate optimisation.”
Maria Kristalinskaya (www.bbdo.com)
Head of Retail Media at eBay (GE), Techstars Startup Mentor, ex-BBDO
Head of Retail Media at eBay (GE), Techstars Startup Mentor, ex-BBDO
