Basmo: SEO & Content Strategy Case Study

Growing a startup’s organic traffic from 1,000 to over 100,000 monthly users is no easy feat, especially in a competitive niche like reading and productivity apps.

In this case study, I’ll break down exactly how I helped Basmo scale their organic visibility through a strategic SEO and content marketing approach.

Project Overview

Basmo is a dynamic reading tracker app that empowers users to build stronger reading habits through personalized goal-setting, progress tracking, and deep reading insights.

Industry: Reading & Productivity Apps
Engagement Period: June 2021 – June 2023
Goal: Build a sustainable organic traffic channel, reduce customer acquisition costs, and strengthen online authority
My Role: Led the complete SEO and content transformation, from technical SEO to launching new organic growth channels

Situation & Challenge

When I joined Basmo in June 2021, the company relied heavily on paid installs with minimal organic visibility. At that time:

🚩 Organic footprint: Fewer than 1,000 monthly users, fewer than 100 keywords ranked in Google’s Top 10, and just ~70 referring domains.

🚩 Business pain: Rising customer acquisition costs (CAC) and the urgent need to build a sustainable, compounding organic traffic channel ahead of new funding rounds.

🚩 Technical risk: Basmo had just migrated to a new domain, requiring immediate SEO intervention to safeguard rankings and traffic.

The challenge was bold and clear: Transform Basmo’s limited organic footprint into a scalable, high-performing SEO growth engine fast, sustainably, and globally.

Strategy & Execution

I developed and implemented a comprehensive content and SEO strategy focused on high-quality, optimized, and engaging blog articles. Over 200 meticulously researched and keyword-targeted articles were published, addressing trending and evergreen topics within Basmo’s niche.

Key initiatives included:

🛠️ Oversaw the SEO side of Basmo’s domain migration, managing URL mapping, 301 redirects, internal linking, and technical audits to preserve search performance.

🛠️ Launched a complete SEO and content strategy from scratch, focused on long-term, sustainable organic growth.

🛠️ Built and scaled a high-performing blog, publishing 200+ SEO-optimized articles targeting strategic keywords.

🛠️ Expanded the SEO framework across five languages, localizing and optimizing over 200 articles for international markets.

🛠️ Supervised all aspects of technical SEO, improving site structure, internal linking, and page speed.

🛠️ Developed the Discover Basmo content hub — a curated database of book lists and entries to boost topical authority and capture high-intent traffic.

Results

The results far exceeded the original goals:

✅ Scaled organic traffic from 1,000 to over 100,000 monthly users, driving sustainable user acquisition without heavy paid ads.

✅ Expanded the website’s authority by earning backlinks from over 1,200 referring domains, significantly improving domain strength and resilience.

Basmo Ahrefs Performance

Evolution of organic traffic and referring domains from Ahrefs

✅ Boosted monthly Google impressions from 30,000 to over 8 million, massively expanding brand visibility and search footprint.

Basmo Google Search Console

Evolution of clicks and impressions in Google Search Console

✅ Dominated the SERPs with 40,000+ keyword rankings, including 2,000+ Top 3 positions for competitive terms like: “book tracker”, “best book apps”, “benefits of reading books”, and “what is booktok”.

Basmo. Ahrefs organic keywords

Evolution of keywords in Ahrefs

Basmo top keywords in Ahrefs

Top keywords in Ahrefs

Top Basmo pages in Google Search Console

Top keywords in Google Search Console

✅ Drove tens of thousands of readers monthly to top-performing pages.

Basmo Ahrefs top pages

Top pages in Ahrefs

Basmo top pages in Google Search Console

Top pages in Google Search Console

Impact

By executing a targeted, data-driven SEO and content strategy, Basmo transformed from a little-known startup into a dominant voice in the reading and productivity space, achieving sustainable, global growth and long-term organic success.

Ready to scale your organic growth?

Let’s chat and explore how we can unlock similar results for your brand.