From 300 to 5,000 clicks a month: how SEO turned an academy's website into an organic acquisition channel
Next Talent Academy
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The challenge
The website brought in around 300 organic clicks a month, with an average position of about 28. Lead acquisition relied entirely on paid advertising.
The goal was to build a credible organic channel on the academy's two pillars, HR and Agri-Food / Food Safety, and show that SEO could complement advertising and, over time, reduce the dependence on it.
The solution
The work started from the structure of the blog rather than from individual articles: thematic pillars, keyword mapping by search intent, semantic coherence and on-page technical optimisation.
The project launched in February 2025. After a settling-in period and the usual summer dip, the results became clear from September 2025.
Testimonial
"With Ekaterina we started a collaboration focused on SEO and on the organic growth of the Next Talent Academy blog. From the very beginning I appreciated her methodical approach and her ability to see the project as a whole without losing sight of operational details. She brought order, structure and continuity to an area that requires precision and a medium-term vision. Her work helped consolidate our organic traffic and strengthen our rankings on topics that are strategic for us, in HR and Agri-Food. Ekaterina is a reliable, analytical and consistent professional. She works with rigour and a clear focus on results."— Andrea Minervino - CEO, Next Talent Academy
Strategy
The project developed in two distinct phases.
Phase 1 - Foundations (February - August 2025)
We started from zero, and the goal of this phase was to lay the foundations, not to chase volume.
- Content architecture: two thematic pillars instead of isolated articles.
- Keyword mapping by intent: keywords chosen for their relevance to HR managers, quality staff and food companies, not for raw search volume.
- Technical and semantic setup: on-page structure, heading hierarchy and coherence within each pillar.
- First content and settling-in: the first articles, close observation of the SERPs and the summer slowdown typical of B2B training.
In this phase traffic stayed at a few hundred visits a month, but the structure we built made it possible to scale quickly afterwards.
Phase 2 - Acceleration (September 2025 - February 2026)
From September the focus shifted to scale and continuity.
- Consistent publishing schedule: regular articles on both pillars.
- Fast indexing: made possible by the internal links and crawl structure built in Phase 1.
- Consolidating rankings: Phase 1 content climbed thanks to semantic coherence and the hub structure, a typical effect that matures over time.
- Continuous monitoring and refinement: clicks, impressions and positions tracked to spot content worth optimising and new keywords.
In five months traffic went from 300 to almost 5,000 clicks a month, and the average position went from 28 to 5.
The key point: the growth in Phase 2 was not luck, but the direct consequence of the structural work done in Phase 1.
The results
In the six months of Phase 2 (Google Search Console data):
- Organic clicks: 18,300 in total, with the monthly peak rising from about 300 to almost 5,000
- Average position: from 28 to 5
- Impressions: 1.46 million
- Average CTR: 1.3%
User behaviour (Google Analytics, the six months of the project compared with the previous six):
- Total users: +179%
- New users: +214%
- Returning users: +224% – an audience that comes back to read, not just occasional traffic
Organic enquiries coming from the blog grew significantly, confirming the blog as a genuine acquisition channel alongside advertising.
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