DesignRush - Case Study
DesignRush is a B2B marketplace that connects businesses with top professional agencies in fields such as web design, digital marketing, branding, and technology. The platform offers comprehensive agency listings, reviews, and expert advice, helping companies find the right partners for their projects. Competing directly with Clutch.co, DesignRush aimed to establish a strong presence in search results despite being a younger website with fewer listed agencies.
Objective
The primary goal was to build high-quality backlinks to improve SEO and compete effectively with Clutch.co, particularly in the categories of Web Design Companies and Digital Marketing Agencies.
Challenges
Initial SEO Status
DesignRush had a strong in-house SEO team covering strategy, content, and development but relied heavily on PRs and reciprocal backlinks, which were of lower quality and less effective.
Key Obstacles
Reciprocal links, often from lower-quality sites, had limited SEO impact. The competition, particularly Clutch.co, had a significantly larger volume of high-quality backlinks.
Budget Constraints
Initial link-building efforts by external agencies couldn't scale due to high costs and inconsistent quality.
Strategy
To overcome these challenges, the following strategies were implemented:
1. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Quality Guidelines
Established clear SOPs and quality guidelines for link building.
2. Recruitment Support
Assisted in the recruitment and hiring process for new link builders.
3. Interdepartmental Sync
Aligned work, goals, and KPIs with the SEO and content departments.
4. Reporting
Developed reporting structures for shareholders, the head of marketing, and finance departments.
5. Key Link Building Postulates
Publish only on topically relevant websites with a contextual fit focused on web design, web development, marketing, business, and finance.
Publish only on websites that meet at least two of three criteria: Domain Rating (DR) 50+, Organic Traffic 1000+ with US traffic in the top three, and gTLDs or ccTLDs of English-speaking countries.
Daisy chain external links to boost indexation time and match link velocity percentage growth rather than exact link numbers.
Ensure all external links remain live for at least 11 months after publication.
Execution
With the founders initially employed at DesignRush, the execution involved:
Results
Despite competitors' higher link output, the combined efforts led to significant improvements:
DR and Traffic Growth
Increased Domain Rating from 70 to 90, organic traffic from 90,000 to 1,000,000, and traffic value from ~$30,000 to ~$3,200,000 (Ahrefs metrics).
Keyword Rankings
Achieved top positions for key categories, outranking Clutch.co for "Web Design Company" and "Digital Marketing Agency" keywords, holding positions 1 and 2 on Google.
Link velocity and average domain rating
Despite having far fewer referring domains, we successfully matched and maintained their link velocity and have continued to sustain this pace.
Conclusion
All external links built by our team remain active, ensuring that our clients continue to benefit from their investments.
This project exemplifies how precise, strategic actions and full collaboration between the client’s team and our in-house experts can achieve outstanding results, even without the initially anticipated budget, by adhering to best practices rather than outspending the competition.
By following this structured approach, DesignRush successfully enhanced their backlink profile and achieved top rankings in key categories, demonstrating the effectiveness of strategic link-building and SEO optimization.