Thread by @BenGoodey

Hotjar got to $19M ARR in 5 years with ZERO venture funding.

Successful #ProductLedGrowth relies on scalable, low-acquisition-cost channels.

Want to know their secret?

Insanely good SEO.

THREAD: @hotjar's SEO strategy: +47% in traffic and +20% signups in the last 2 years.

In the last 2 years, Hotjar 5x'd from 20 monthly blog posts to 100.

Every article was carefully crafted with 5 steps:

1. In-depth customer research
2. Funnels that grab readers
3. UI that drives conversion
4. Strategic backlinking
5. Double down on successes

Let's dig in 👇

1/ In-depth customer research

Most content teams:

- Pick a relevant topic
- Find keywords with volume
- Fill their calendar
- Sends it out to customers

The problem? The customer comes last.

Hotjar flips this process on its head.

They continuously challenge their assumptions with:

- Quarterly interviews
- Customer surveys
- Close relationship with product squads
- Historical performance (content that = high LTV)

Their goal is not traffic, it's revenue.

When choosing topics to write about they:

- Ask customers if they'd find it useful
- Ask product if it aligns with jobs-to-be-done
- Dig into topics already converting, and expand them

Tip: Close alignment between your content, product value, and customer interest = conversion.

2/ Content funnels that capture attention

Hotjar builds content in groups of related content called "Guides" (topic clusters)

There's been an 84% increase in product signups thanks to Guides in the last 2 years.

They each have 5-8 articles that serve the full buyer funnel.

👇

Keywords are typically the perfect display of a buyer funnel.

For example, let's look at the parent topic:

✨ Product Experience (PX) Insights ✨

Top-of-funnel keywords look like this:

1. What are PX insights?
2. Benefits of PX

These scream "I'm so new to this!"

Middle-of-funnel looks like this:

1. How to improve PX
2. PX examples

These scream "I'm doing this but I'm struggling with this!"

Bottom-of-funnel looks like this:

1. Best tools for PX

This is your solution-aware reader, searching for a product.

(Yes...I'm simplifying this)

Hotjar ensures each guide (5-10 articles) covers the full funnel from Top → Bottom

Why?

💣 Experience: When the reader is ready to move down funnel they can.

💣 Conversion: The reader doesn't need to leave your site (to a competitor) to learn more.

IMPORTANT: Hotjar doesn't blindly follow keywords into battle.

The articles included in the cluster must make sense to the reader.

Example: Their website tracking cluster includes an article on privacy.

It's not targeted at keywords. It's for the reader.

3/ UI that drives conversion

This is Hotjar's secret sauce.

I deep dive it in the full case study at thefxck.com, so I'll keep it short.

The guide templates are CONSCIOUSLY designed to funnel the reader to the next step of their journey.

Here's a quote from Sean:

"We want that person to read that and then say, I wanna know more. Where do I go next?

So the navigation is structured to try and funnel them toward the next step of their journey, leveling up their knowledge.

Yes, it's a conscious decision.”

—Senior Content Strategist, Hotjar

This is a perfect example of web development-SEO-content working in step to drive revenue outcomes.

Hotjar's content also drives conversions through:

- Authentic product mentions throughout
- Multiple content formats that serve the reader

4/ Strategic backlink building

There's so much BS out there on backlink building. So I thought I'd ask the question: "Do you do it?"

The short answer? Yes. And it's effective.

Hotjar is one of the world's most authoritative websites (top 500 for domain rank).

Yet, they still build backlinks.

But they approach it differently. It's more strategic.

Hotjar secures link placements from niche-specific websites. Ones with authority in a particular subject.

They focus them where it matters:

“We rank in position 3 for a piece of content that’s high converting and top performing, how can we use links to get it to position 1?”

This allows Hotjar to win link juice from websites considered high-trust for that topic.

Random person talking about you: Sh*t.
Highly respected expert talking about you: COOL.

This is how Google thinks. Hotjar's aligning with that.

5/ Doubling down on successes

Hotjar's SEO team is very data-driven.

They know which topics and blog posts drive sign-ups. And which drive revenue and lifetime value.

They use it to iterate.

Do more of what works; less of what doesn't; and tweak until your content performs.

That's it for today folks!

Hear this story from the team themselves:

Sean Potter from Hotjar came on my podcast to reveal how one of tech's greatest success stories does SEO.

Grab the full teardown in my SEO case study library. 👇

thefxck.com/interviews/saa…