Grew non-brand search performance 183% in six months
A Fortune 500 enterprise software client needed to own a complex, high-intent topic category in search—across multiple markets, from scratch. Over six months, I led content production from brief to final deliverable, scaling the US program while simultaneously piloting a test project in five international markets.
Enterprise B2B SaaS (Fortune 500)
CLIENT
Editorial Lead
role
Oct 2025-Mar 2026
timeline
183%
non-brand search growth from October through March
177
pages live across US and EU markets
52+
articles ranking page one by January
+24.8%
blog traffic growth over six months
the situation
The client is a dominant brand in their category, but organic search told a different story. Non-branded search traffic was underperforming relative to their market position, and an entire high-intent topic cluster around procurement, supply chain, and purchasing was either unaddressed or underdeveloped. The opportunity was clear: own the category in search by building a content program that covered the full topic architecture, not just the obvious head terms.
The added complexity was international. The US program needed to scale while I simultaneously tested a pilot program in five European markets, each with its own search behavior, localization requirements, and content roadmap.
WHAT WE DID
I partnered with an SEO strategist to identify topic clusters to pursue, then put the research into action:
01
Managed end-to-end content production.
Every piece went through a full editorial pipeline with consistent quality standards across a high volume of monthly output. By March, 132 pages were live on the US site alone, with content velocity increasing each quarter.
02
Built compounding topic architecture.
The program was designed to compound, with each piece reinforcing the topical authority of adjacent pieces through deliberate keyword sequencing, internal linking, and funnel coverage. As a result, non-brand performance grew 20%+ MoM consistently through Q4 and into Q1.
03
Piloted international expansion.
While scaling the US program, I ran a test pilot to produce content across the UK, Spain, Germany, France, and Italy. Each market required a production process tailored for localization beyond translation: search behavior, intent signals, and topical priorities differ meaningfully across regions.
Non-branded search performance grew from 1,217 to 3,449 in six months—a 183% increase driven entirely by content reaching maturity and compounding across a deliberately sequenced topic architecture.
what i’d do differently
The international expansion moved fast, with 22 pieces across three EU markets published within the first two months of launch. Moving that quickly is impressive on a reporting slide. In practice it compresses the time available to pressure-test localization assumptions before content is live. I’d advocate for a smaller pilot batch per market before full-scale production, even when the roadmap is pushing for volume.
The optimization work on underperforming pages is reactive by nature. Earlier integration of performance signals into the production prioritization process could have surfaced those pages sooner and allowed for proactive optimization rather than scheduled remediation.