How UPay Went from 0 to 15,000+ Monthly Organic Visits in Just 10 Months

This case study reveals how Contentika partnered with UPay, an innovative fintech platform, to overcome critical technical SEO barriers and establish the brand as a global payment authority. Through a strategic combination of technical fixes, targeted content creation, and authority building, UPay transformed from virtually invisible online to generating over 15,000 monthly organic visits within just 11 months.

Key Results:

• 149,900% increase in organic traffic (from 10 to 15,000+ monthly visits)
• 3,000% growth in domain authority (from DR 1 to DR 31)
• 2,000+ quality backlinks acquired from 350+ referring domains
• 5,000+ keyword rankings achieved (up from just 3)
• Moved from #99 to #1 for brand name searches

The Challenge

UPay, an innovative fintech platform offering virtual/physical payment solutions, faced critical hurdles:

1. Technical Barriers: The platform was built using a client-side VueJS framework that effectively blocked search engine crawling and indexing. This technical limitation resulted in only 10 monthly organic clicks and a near-zero domain rating of 1.
2. Nonexistent Search Presence: Despite offering a valuable service, UPay ranked #99 for its own brand name and only appeared in search results for three non-branded keywords. In the highly competitive fintech space, this meant virtually no organic discovery.
3. Market Competition: The saturated fintech payment landscape made it increasingly difficult for UPay to establish market differentiation without a strong online presence.

How We Solved It

Contentika implemented a multifaceted, multi-phase strategy that addressed both immediate technical hurdles and long-term authority building. Our approach not only resolved the initial challenges but also laid the groundwork for sustained search engine optimization. 

Here’s an overview of our comprehensive process:

1. Technical SEO Fixes

We began with an exhaustive technical audit that scrutinized every aspect of the website. This audit identified critical issues including server log discrepancies, crawl errors, duplicate content, improper canonicalization, and other indexation challenges. The insights from this audit informed our targeted interventions.

UPay CSR Issues

UPay Rendering Mid-Point into Fixing

UPay SSR rendering now

Crawlability and Rendering

• Client-Side Rendering Improvements: Collaborating closely with UPay’s development team, we addressed client-side rendering issues by transitioning essential JavaScript components to server-side rendering (SSR) where necessary. This change ensured that dynamic content was rendered in a crawlable format and allowed search engines to fully index the content.

• Indexation Optimizations: We also refined our approach to handling AJAX content, introduced fallback mechanisms for JavaScript failures, and resolved issues related to lazy-loaded content that previously hindered full indexing.

Performance, Security, and Mobile Optimization

Our performance optimizations were multi-pronged:

• Page Load Speeds: We improved load times through advanced caching strategies, code minification, and the implementation of lazy-loading techniques for images and media.

• Mobile Responsiveness: By optimizing CSS and JavaScript specifically for mobile devices, we ensured a seamless experience across all platforms.

• Security Enhancements: We reinforced security signals by implementing HTTPS site-wide, updating security headers, and patching vulnerabilities, which collectively boosted user trust and search engine confidence.

Fixing Additional Technical SEO Issues

Beyond the initial fixes, our technical enhancements covered several critical areas:

• Schema Markup Integration: We embedded structured data across the site to enhance rich snippet eligibility and improve content understanding by search engines.

• Hreflang Implementation: To address international targeting challenges and prevent duplicate content across regional variations, we correctly implemented hreflang tags.

• Meta and Title Tag Optimization: Our team audited meta and title tags to eliminate duplicates, fill missing tags, and ensure they were aligned with current SEO best practices.

• Canonical Tag & Duplicate Content Resolution: Proper canonicalization was established to minimize duplicate content issues, guiding search engines to the preferred URLs.

• XML Sitemap & Robots.txt Tweaks: We optimized the XML sitemap and fine-tuned the robots.txt file, thereby enhancing how search engines discovered, crawled, and indexed the site.

Long-Term Monitoring and Proactive Collaboration

We established a proactive and ongoing relationship with UPay’s technical team. This partnership included:

• Continuous Monitoring: Regular system audits and performance tracking to identify emerging issues such as meta tag decay or misconfigurations.

• Process Automation: The integration of automated alerts for key SEO indicators ensured rapid response to potential challenges in areas like hreflang, canonicalization, and site security.

• Future-Proofing: By building a robust troubleshooting framework, we ensured the website remains optimized despite algorithm updates or evolving technical standards.

2. Content & Keyword Domination

Organic traffic via the blog alone topped 11k

Our content approach is designed to build a robust digital presence that not only informs but also engages our target audience.

Therefore, our strategy to dominate content and keywords is built on a multi-pronged approach that balanced technical rigour with creative insight. 

Content Hubs:

8k monthly users to the blog from Google

We have structured our content around several specialized hubs that cater to different user needs and search intents. Each hub is designed to target a specific area of interest within the cryptocurrency and digital payments industry. This strategy includes:

Crypto adoption campaign

• Crypto Adoption Hub:
  Covering localized insights into crypto adoption trends, these guides—such as “Crypto Adoption in Brazil” and “Crypto Adoption in Panama”—offer detailed information on regional regulatory environments, consumer behavior, and payment trends. By incorporating localized keywords, localized schema markup, and hreflang tags, we ensure these pages appear for high-intent, long-tail searches across multiple markets.
• Competitor Comparisons:
  Our competitor comparison pages are dedicated to analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, and unique selling points of alternative digital payment and crypto platforms. These pages help users understand how our offerings stack up against competitors and provide transparent, data-driven insights that build trust and inform decision-making.
• Crypto Terminology Library:
  To demystify complex industry jargon and concepts such as “Bitcoin Sidechains,” we have developed a comprehensive crypto terminology library. This resource not only educates our audience but also targets niche, high-intent queries, thereby enhancing our visibility in search results.
• Merchant Directories & Where T0 Spend Crypto Guides:
  Our merchant directories serve as practical tools for users by listing verified, crypto-friendly merchants by region and category. With advanced filtering options and a user-friendly layout, these directories bridge the gap between informational content and real-world application, further driving engagement and conversion.

Initial keyword performance in month 2

Long-Tail Keyword Optimization

A cornerstone of our content strategy is the focus on long-tail keywords. Through extensive keyword research, we identify and target underserved phrases that reflect the specific queries of our audience. This targeted approach increases the relevance of our content, improves SERP visibility, and ultimately drives quality organic traffic. Each page is carefully structured to capture these long-tail searches, with optimized headings, meta descriptions, and internal linking strategies that enhance overall site authority.

Visual and Multimedia Resources

Recognizing that users have diverse content preferences, we complement our written content with engaging visual formats. Our strategy includes:

• Video Tutorials: Detailed videos that explain platform features, answer frequently asked questions, and provide insights into complex topics.
• Infographics: Visually compelling infographics that illustrate key trends, data points, and comparisons in an easily digestible format.
• Interactive Tools: Where applicable, interactive resources such as calculators and dynamic charts further enhance user engagement by allowing for personalized exploration of the data.

Multi-Channel Content Distribution:

To maximize reach and audience engagement, our content is distributed across a variety of platforms. Beyond our own blog, we actively engage on channels like Medium, Reddit, Quora, and Flipboard. This multi-channel approach not only enhances our backlink profile and social signals but also drives consistent traffic to our hub pages. Additionally, targeted guest posts and social sharing amplify our messaging and bolster our brand’s authority.

Data-Driven Iteration:

Continuous improvement underpins our content operations. By tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) such as click-through rates (CTR), dwell time, and keyword rankings with tools like Google Analytics and Search Console, we refine our strategies on a monthly basis. 

This iterative process—supported by A/B testing and user behavior analysis—ensures that our content remains current, engaging, and optimized for both user experience and search engine performance.

3. Authority & Trust Explosion

We prioritize establishing genuine authority and trust by focusing on acquiring high-quality backlinks rather than low-quality spam links. Our strategy is fundamentally content-driven—our valuable, in-depth resources naturally attract credible, authoritative links. Alongside this organic approach, we execute targeted PR outreach to promote our data studies and amplify our thought leadership.  Key elements include:

Reactive Link-Building

We have executed a rigorous link-building strategy that has resulted in earning over 2,000 high-quality backlinks from more than 350 domains. This process involves proactively identifying relevant, high-authority websites and news outlets, such as Bitcoin.com, HackerNoon, and The Latin Investor, and engaging in targeted outreach campaigns. Our methodology includes:

• In-Depth Outreach Campaigns: We analyze potential backlink sources using metrics like Trust Flow and Citation Flow to ensure that the links we acquire will positively influence our domain authority.
• Content-Driven Acquisition: By producing data-rich, insightful content that addresses pressing industry topics, we create natural opportunities for inbound links. These include research reports, expert roundups, and detailed guides, which are then promoted through press releases and guest posts.
• Ongoing Monitoring and Maintenance: We continuously monitor our backlink profile to validate the quality of our links, disavow any potentially harmful connections, and ensure our profile remains robust over time. This proactive management is crucial for long-term SEO sustainability.

Bing Diversification

Bing traffic

Diversifying our search traffic sources is a key part of our strategy to mitigate the risks of over-reliance on a single search engine. Our content is meticulously optimized for Bing alongside Google, using tailored meta tags, schema markup, and site architecture adjustments that meet Bing’s indexing criteria. Specifically:

• Optimization Techniques: We fine-tune our content elements—such as meta descriptions, headers, and content structure—with Bing’s algorithm preferences in mind. This ensures that our pages are not only accessible but also rank competitively in Bing search results.
• Incremental Traffic Gains: By submitting our sitemaps to Bing Webmaster Tools and tracking performance metrics separately, we have been able to capture a growing share of incremental traffic. This diversification increases overall visibility and helps reduce dependency on Google’s frequent algorithm updates.
• Comprehensive Performance Analysis: Regular reviews and performance audits on Bing’s platform allow us to refine our content and technical SEO efforts further, ensuring that our optimization remains aligned with emerging trends and best practices on this channel.

4. Data-Driven Iteration

Custom Looker Studio report

Continuous improvement through data analysis and market benchmarking is the cornerstone of our strategy. We use an iterative approach that evolves our tactics based on granular performance metrics, enabling us to consistently outpace the competition. Key initiatives in this area include:

Monthly Analytics:

Clarity heatmap dashboard

We leverage advanced analytics platforms—including Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and third-party SEO tools—to monitor critical metrics such as click-through rates (CTR), dwell time, bounce rates, and keyword ranking movements. Custom Looker Studio dashboards are central to our approach, enabling us to quickly visualize and identify emerging trends. This systematic monitoring allows us to:

• Refine Content and UX:
  Insights derived from user behavior analysis (like dwell time and scroll patterns) via Microsoft Clarity and informed adjustments in content layout, internal linking, and overall user experience, ultimately boosting engagement.
• Identify Growth Opportunities:
  We track traffic fluctuations and ranking movements in real time, quickly pinpointing promising content areas as well as sections that require immediate optimization. Regular reporting via our custom dashboards creates an agile feedback loop that informs ongoing strategic adjustments.
• Automated Alerts and Reporting:
  Our custom Looker Studio dashboards, combined with automated alerts, ensure that any significant shifts in performance metrics are promptly flagged, allowing for rapid responses to unforeseen issues or algorithmic changes.

Competitor Benchmarking:

Competitor page

Maintaining an edge over our peers requires continuous in-depth competitor analysis, which we conduct through:

• Detailed Market Analysis:
  Using advanced competitive intelligence tools, we analyze keyword strategies, backlink profiles, and content approaches of our top competitors to better understand the landscape.
• Targeting Underserved Niches:
  By identifying gaps in our competitors’ content strategies, we focus on long-tail keywords and niche topics that are underutilized, resulting in content that caters to highly specific user queries and drives targeted traffic.
• Performance Comparison and Iteration:
  We continuously compare our content performance against key competitors. This detailed benchmarking informs the refinement of our tactics and content priorities, ensuring that we not only match but consistently surpass rival platforms in visibility and engagement.
• Agile Strategy Adjustments:
  The ongoing benchmarking and analysis allow us to quickly pivot our strategy and capitalize on emerging opportunities, ensuring that our content remains dynamic, authoritative, and responsive to both market trends and user behavior.

Business Outcomes

Over the course of 11 months, our data-driven strategy has delivered outstanding results—extending far beyond traditional SEO metrics. By focusing on organic visibility, user engagement, and strategic content-led acquisition, we’ve not only grown traffic but also directly impacted UPay’s business bottom line. Here’s a comprehensive overview of the business outcomes:

Topline Growth Metrics

11 Months. 15,000+ Monthly Organic Visits 

These gains have significantly expanded our search engine footprint, making UPay more discoverable, trusted, and competitive globally.

Additional Wins:

• Bing Traffic: 3,000+ monthly visits, diversifying revenue streams.
• Global Recognition: Secured backlinks from 15+ countries, positioning UPay as a worldwide payment leader.
• Technical Milestones: Resolved CSR issues, enhancing site health.

Business Impact Metrics

While SEO and traffic growth are foundational, the real value lies in what those visits convert into. Our efforts have generated measurable impact on key business KPIs:

User Signups & Acquisition:

• High-Intent Traffic → Higher Conversions: The majority of traffic comes from targeted, long-tail keywords, attracting users with strong purchase or signup intent.
• Improved CTRs & UX: By optimizing content layout, CTAs, and page speed, we boosted conversion rates across core blog and landing pages.
• Result: A 15x increase in monthly user signups, with blog-to-signup conversion rates growing steadily month-over-month.

User Retention & Lifecycle Engagement:

• We implemented content sequencing to match different user stages—from awareness to conversion to retention.
• Re-engagement strategies such as email drip campaigns, newsletter signups, and embedded product tutorials have kept users within the lifecycle.
• Result: Increased return visitor rates, improved email open rates, and better platform engagement signals (measured via average session duration and repeat visits).
• Content-to-Revenue Contribution:
• Middle-of-Funnel Content: Articles comparing UPay to competitors, merchant use cases, and crypto tax/payment guides help bridge interest into action.
• Attribution Tracking: With custom Looker Studio dashboards, we’re able to trace traffic from blog pages to account creation, wallet activation, and card orders.
• Result: Content is directly attributable to a growing percentage of total revenue conversions, contributing meaningfully to customer acquisition cost (CAC) reduction.

Retention Signals & LTV Optimization:

• Beyond just acquiring users, we’ve built trust loops via high-authority backlinks, helpful knowledge bases, and expert insights that increase user confidence in UPay.
• Result: A stronger customer lifetime value (LTV) as more users remain engaged and convert across multiple products over time.

The Road Ahead

With strong foundational gains already in place, UPay is entering a new phase of strategic expansion. Our ongoing momentum—driven by reactive link-building, localized content development, and data-driven experimentation—positions us for exponential growth across traffic, authority, and conversions.

As UPay continues to grow, our content and SEO strategy will remain tightly aligned with product adoption goals, new user acquisition, and brand authority. With a full-funnel, data-driven content engine in motion and global visibility increasing, we are well on our way to becoming the leading crypto payment and digital finance platform across emerging markets.

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