How an Online Notary Service Grew Traffic by 407% in 3 Months
https://bluenotary.us/
Stats
187.8K to 952.4K Monthly Visits
Industry
SaaS
Niche
Notary
Reporting Date
November 2024
BlueNotary is a remote online notarization (RON) platform. It provides solutions for individuals and businesses, including eSignatures and notarization software integration.
For SEO, the fall of 2024 marked a period of dramatic growth for BlueNotary's organic traffic.
Monthly visits grew to 952.4K by November, a remarkable 407% increase over 3 months prior.
In this SEO case study, we'll explore the strategies that contributed to this growth.
You'll get an insider's look into the techniques that made the needle move and get WordPress tools and tutorials for replicating these wins on your website.
In This Article
The Catalyst: How BlueNotary Reached 952.4K Monthly Visits
1. Triple the Content: 4x Boost to Keyword Rankings
Between August and November 2024, BlueNotary focused on amplifying its content strategy.
They produced over triple the content they had on the website in just a few months.
Here’s a quick breakdown of this content creation and its effect on organic traffic:
| Month | August | September | October | November |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pages | 2,678 | 4,258 | 6,329 | 8,067 |
| Organic Traffic | 187,782 | 365,554 | 564,109 | 952,422 |
Most notably, blog posts were the focus of BlueNotary’s content creation efforts.
The BlueNotary blog covers a range of topics, but you’ll find that all keep their target audience in mind.
Legal professionals are a standout segment, capturing a significant amount of post topics.
In these posts, BlueNotary uses on-page SEO to target the appropriate keywords and, thus, audience.
On-page SEO refers to the process of optimizing your web pages for specific keywords.
It involves utilizing your focus keyword in specific areas, such as:
- H1
- SEO title
- Meta description
- URL slug
- Introduction
- Body copy
BlueNotary upholds these content optimization best practices, and their keyword rankings show for it.
Search engines rewarded BlueNotary with 293.7K rankings by November.
This was a nearly 4X increase over May.
Why this matters:
Content creation and keyword optimizations are the backbone of SEO.
By consistently producing high-quality content that interests your audience and optimizing it for specific keywords, you can significantly improve your website's visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
How to improve your content strategy:
This tutorial shows you how to create a WordPress content strategy that ranks.
Here’s a brief overview of the process:
- Define your business objectives.
- Determine your target audience.
- Sketch your desired outcome.
The above tutorial will also help you plan your content creation and match content types to the best distribution channels.
Tools for SEO-friendly content creation:
There’s a lot that goes into creating a winning content strategy, but it’s much more manageable with SEO plugins.
Take All in One SEO (AIOSEO), for example.
Its Writing Assistant tool streamlines the content creation for stronger writing and improved SEO.
Writing Assistant connects to your SEOBoost account to produce helpful content reports (shown below) and competitor insights.
Its Optimization Wizard also provides keyword suggestions to help you maximize your content’s visibility in search results.
2. Climbing the PAA Ladder: 27.1K Rankings and Counting
In addition to keyword optimizations, BlueNotary uses strategic formatting in its blog posts.
One standout example is its use of question-based subheadings.
Question subheadings are a great way to break up sections of your page and pique user interest.
This approach also performs particularly well in Google People Also Ask (PAA).
The PAA section of the SERP provides users with questions related to their search query.
Users can expand these questions to view the answer and source.
PAA rankings are a great way to improve your visibility in search results and boost brand awareness.
FAQs also align seamlessly with them, making FAQs a smart addition to content.
BlueNotary appears aware of this fact and includes FAQs in many blog posts.
Notice how FAQs follow the same format as PAA results, which is why they work so well for them.
Why this matters:
BlueNotary's use of question-based subheadings and FAQs has paid off significantly.
By aligning their content with Google's PAA format, they've achieved the following:
- Enhanced visibility
- Stronger brand awareness
- Increased organic traffic
How to optimize for Google People Also Ask:
You can use the following optimizations to rank in Google PAA:
- Perform keyword research.
- Create user-centric content.
- Include FAQs and use FAQ schema markup.
- Check out competitor PAA rankings.
Visit the linked article above to learn the details behind each step. It also provides a video tutorial of the process.
Tools for PAA rankings:
FAQs are one of the most effective ways to rank in People Also Ask.
And with AIOSEO, you can add them easily to any WordPress post or page.
To get started, locate the AIOSEO – FAQ block and add it to your content.
You can then write your question (subheading) and answer.
AIOSEO will implement FAQ schema markup for you, making it easy for search engines to understand your FAQs and potentially use them in SERP features like People Also Ask.
3. Writing for Humans, Ranking for Google: Featured Snippet Success
Thus far, we’ve discussed content optimizations that helped BlueNotary stand out in organic search.
However, it's important to highlight why these optimizations work:
BlueNotary prioritizes the user above all else.
Search engines reward high-quality content that provides genuine value to users.
To earn this recognition, BlueNotary:
- Writes clear and comprehensive content: They cover all facets of a topic and communicate in a way that's easy to understand.
- Optimizes for readability: They use simple language, short paragraphs, and images to improve readability. They also organize the content structure using subheadings to facilitate user navigation.
- Answers specific questions: They address user queries directly, providing clear and concise answers.
These people-first optimizations go a long way with users—and search engines.
Search engines awarded BlueNotary with several SERP features, like the aforementioned PAA results and featured snippets.
Featured snippets are among the most coveted SERP features due to their prominence in search results.
They appear near the top of results and take up more space than standard listings.
In November, BlueNotary ranked for 2.6K featured snippets.
Why this matters:
The top SEO statistics show that featured snippets have the highest clickthrough rate (CTR) at 42.9%.
By prioritizing user experience and creating informative content, BlueNotary has secured valuable featured snippets, boosting their clicks and organic traffic.
How to optimize for featured snippets:
This tutorial shows you how to get featured snippets.
Some of the most important steps include:
- Optimizing your content structure with clear subheadings
- Including a table of contents
- Creating people-first content
- Using schema markup
Tools for featured snippets:
While featured snippets may sound more abstract to obtain, certain tools can help you optimize for them.
The AIOSEO TruSEO tool is a great example of this.
TruSEO analyzes your content optimizations for users and search engines.
You’ll get handy checklists that quickly catch any optimization opportunities or mistakes.
For example, the Focus Keyphrase Checklist shows when you’ve forgotten your target keyword in critical areas.
There’s also a Readability Checklist that helps you ensure your content is easy for users to read and understand.
These checklists work together to make your content user- and search-friendly.
Standout SEO Wins
Before we conclude, there’s a final SEO technique I’d like to highlight at BlueNotary:
Author SEO Builds Trust and Supports Internal Linking
BlueNotary showcases authors on each of its blog posts. This simple strategy is a great way to build trust with users and search engines, especially in the age of AI-generated content.
It shows the human element behind your content, setting you apart from the competition.
BlueNotary users can also click the author's name to reach an author's content portfolio.
This page shows all the articles written by the author.
This approach creates a prime opportunity for internal linking.
Internal links connect various pages of your website. They support search engines’ understanding of your site structure and hierarchy, as well as helping users to navigate your site.
Ultimately, a strong internal linking strategy can improve your SEO and support a positive user experience.
My one feedback for BlueNotary? (And website owners reading this case study)
Add an author bio to these content portfolio pages.
Author bios are an excellent way to highlight your team’s experience and expertise. They provide context and support Google E-E-A-T, which can influence rankings.
You don’t have to make them long, either.
Keep it short and simple, but cover the most important reasons a user should trust that author (i.e., highlighting their education, professional background, etc.).
Tool: With AIOSEO, it’s easy to create and show author bios on your WordPress website. The Author SEO addon prompts you to include key points like educational institutions and employers. You can also upload a photo for a more personal touch.
Takeaways
In our analysis of BlueNotary, we’ve discovered the growth strategies that contributed to their recent success.
Now, let’s recap which strategies to use on your website and others to reconsider.
Top 3 Strategies to Emulate
- Ramp up your content production. Want to see a significant boost in your organic traffic? Increase your content output. Consistently publish high-quality blog posts or articles that provide value to your audience. You should also have a keyword strategy in mind for your content optimizations. This approach ensures you're focusing efforts on ranking opportunities that get results. It will also help you rank higher in organic search when you target specific keywords.
- Master the art of question-based optimizations. BlueNotary uses question-based subheadings and FAQs to stand out in Google People Also Ask. Ranking in this area of the SERP provides greater visibility for your content and builds user trust. To rank here, you need to first understand the questions your audience is asking. Keyword research will reveal this information. Then, incorporate these questions into your content's subheadings and answer them in the body copy below. You should also include FAQs and schema markup to make it easy for search engines to identify your FAQs and use them in search results.
- Create people-first content. To truly succeed in organic search, you need to create content that people love. Focus on writing clear and comprehensive content that addresses your audience's needs and interests. You should also optimize for readability by using simple language, short paragraphs, and bullet points. Try to avoid large blocks of text and technical jargon. A good readability score can play an important role in improving time on page and bounce rates. This approach supports a positive user experience and ensures you create content that users enjoy.
Bottom 3 Strategies to Reconsider
- Don’t forget to include canonical tags. While many of BlueNotary's web pages have canonical URLs, some do not. Canonical tags tell which page is your preferred version of a URL. They're important for indexing and ensuring the URL you want to rank is the one search engines serve in SERPs. Every indexable page of your website should have a canonical tag, even if they're self-referencing. You can easily customize and manage canonical URLs in AIOSEO.
- Don’t over- or under-optimize SEO titles. Some of BlueNotary's SEO titles (the blue hyperlinks that appear in search results) don't have optimal character counts. They're either too short or too long, leading to a less-than-ideal user experience. (Too short doesn't provide enough information, and too long leads to truncation.) To avoid this issue, keep your SEO titles between 50 and 60 characters. You can use a SERP snippet tool to preview your titles before publishing.
- Don’t duplicate meta descriptions. I noticed that all BlueNotary online notary landing pages by state (e.g., /idaho-online-notary) use the same meta description. This is a missed opportunity for keyword optimizations targeting online notaries in each U.S. state. For your website, it's important to avoid using duplicate meta descriptions. Unique meta descriptions help users and search engines differentiate your content. Keyword-rich and compelling meta descriptions can also improve rankings and clickthrough rates (CTRs). You can even use an AI meta description generator to write them for you.
Steal Our Winning SEO Strategy: A Checklist for Your Website
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Streamline Your Content Creation & Rank Higher With AIOSEO
What if you could achieve results similar to those of BlueNotary?
It's possible, and All in One SEO can help you get there.
AIOSEO is the best SEO plugin for WordPress. It makes content optimizations and technical SEO easy, regardless of your level of SEO experience.
You’ll get a suite of powerful tools that are user-friendly and results-oriented.
Here are a few customer favorites:
- Writing Assistant: Connect AIOSEO to your SEOBoost account and get content optimization suggestions directly in the WordPress editor. You’ll get real-time feedback to improve your content’s visibility in search engines.
- FAQ Blocks: Add FAQs to your content to increase the likelihood of appearing in Google’s People Also Ask box. These results help boost brand awareness and increase clickthrough rates.
- TruSEO Score: Level up your content and go beyond a simple pass or fail. TruSEO analyzes your on-page SEO, giving you actionable insights to maximize your content's reach.
- Author SEO: Create powerful author bios that showcase your experience and expertise. This addon aligns your content with Google E-E-A-T guidelines and builds trust with readers.
- Rich Snippets Schema: Win more rich results with AIOSEO’s user-friendly schema generator. Just pick the schema type you want, and we’ll format the structured data properly for Google.
- AI Title & Description Generator: Save time writing SEO titles and meta descriptions with the help of AI. With just a click of a button, you can generate unique metadata for any page on your website.
