How a Math & Reading Program Grew Traffic by 733% in 3 Months
https://www.dreambox.com/
Stats
226.9K to 1.9M Monthly Visits
Industry
Education
Niche
Learning Platform
Reporting Date
February 2025
What if the right content could unlock a 733% surge in your website traffic?
DreamBox, an online math and reading platform, discovered theirs, and exploded monthly visits from 226.9K to 1.9 million.
This wasn't just luck; it was a deliberate SEO move driven by identifying and expanding content that resonates with their audience.
As a small business owner or DIY website builder, you likely crave real, tangible growth of the same magnitude.
This SEO case study dissects the proven tactics DreamBox used, revealing how you can apply them to your website and turn it into a traffic magnet.
Let's get started.
In This Article
The Catalyst: How DreamBox Reached 1.9M Monthly Visits
1. From Brand to Broad: The Power of Targeted Content Creation
DreamBox's traffic growth was largely fueled by strategic and aggressive content creation.
Initially, they relied heavily on branded queries, which drove 68% of organic traffic. These types of queries contain “dreambox” (or some variation of it) within the search.
Branded queries are good when you have a high brand awareness and strong online presence. However, they limit your reach to users who are already familiar with you.
This ultimately inhibits your growth potential and online visibility.
Recognizing this limitation, DreamBox tapped into a wider audience searching for math-related solutions.
This led to the introduction of a new section of the website in September titled “Math Resources.”
Under the /math subdirectory, DreamBox shares helpful skills and guides to improve students’ understanding of mathematical concepts.
This subfolder became the focus of DreamBox’ recent SEO efforts.
In just a few months, they increased the amount of content in this subfolder from around 44 to 183 URLs.
Today, the /math subdirectory represents 76.9% of all their site content and generates 78.1% of all U.S. traffic.
This concentration on a specific area of the site was highly intentional.
By identifying keywords related to math education, DreamBox created pages that directly answered their audience's questions.
This allowed them to rank for non-branded keywords and attract users who were actively seeing math-related information (aka, their target audience), even if they weren't familiar with the DreamBox brand.
And the effects on traffic were dramatic.
In November, only 32% of DreamBox's organic traffic came from non-branded searches.
By February, this figure has skyrocketed to 92%, demonstrating a complete shift in their traffic acquisition.
It also explains their rapid growth in keyword rankings, as it opened the doors to thousands of new, non-branded keywords.
By February, DreamBox ranked for over 155.9K keywords.
Ultimately, this strategy highlights the power of creating content that breaks free from brand limitations while connecting with your ideal audience.
DreamBox targeted keywords their users would look for in search engines and made content to match.
Why This Matters:
Growing your website's content, especially around a specific topic, is a powerful way to become a leader in your field.
When you create helpful content that matches what people are searching for, you attract more visitors and become a trusted source of information. This can help you establish niche authority and get a boost in rankings from search engines.
And when you rank higher, more people are likely to find your site, giving you a better a chance to turn those visitors into customers.
How to Find Non-Branded Keywords:
Identifying the right non-branded keywords is crucial for attracting a wider audience. Here's a quick overview of the process:
- Brainstorm: Start with broad topics related to your niche.
- Research: Use tools like LowFruits or Semrush to find related keywords.
- Analyze: See what keywords your competitors are targeting.
- Explore: Check out “People Also Ask” and related searches on Google.
- Understand: Ensure you know the search intent behind the keywords to tailor your content accordingly.
For a more detailed guide, check out this tutorial on how to do keyword research.
Keyword Research Tools:
Did you know you can do keyword research in WordPress?
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) makes it possible by connecting with your Semrush account.
Here’s how it works:
After entering a focus keyword into your WordPress post or page, click Get Additional Keyphrases.
AIOSEO will fetch related keywords from Semrush and present them in a pop-out window, like the one below.
From here, select any non-branded keywords and click Add Keyphrase.
Once you’ve updated your content to reflect your chosen keyword(s), the TruSEO On-Page Analysis tool will check your optimizations.
2. Beyond Position 1: The Value of Readability on SERP Features
DreamBox understands that driving traffic goes beyond securing high ranking positions in SERPs.
They also optimize for SERP features, like People Also Ask (PAA) and featured snippets, to enhance their visibility in search.
To achieve this, they focus on creating informative content with good readability scores. This approach allows them to provide a positive page experience for users while making it easy for search engines to understand their content.
Readability measures how easy it is for users to read and understand your content.
Here are some of their most effective optimizations:
- Question Subheadings: DreamBox uses question-based subheadings to address common user queries. This approach increases the likelihood of appearing in PAA boxes.
- Clear Organization: Their articles are structured with clear subheadings and a logical flow, making it easy for users and search engines to find information.
- Simple Language: DreamBox avoids jargon and complex terminology, opting for simple language that is accessible to a wide audience.
- Short Paragraphs and White Space: They break up long blocks of text with short paragraphs and ample white space, making the content visually appealing and less intimidating to read.
Let’s see how these optimizations have affected DreamBox’s SERP features, starting with People Also Ask results.
In February, DreamBox received 11.6K rankings in the PAA box.
Fun Fact: Of these 11.6K rankings, only 288 of them came from URLs outside the /math subfolder. That means Math Resources generates 97.5% of all PAA rankings.
This section of the SERP provides users with questions (and answers) related to their initial query.
And in the screenshot below, we see how DreamBox made it easy for search engines to use their content in this PAA result by:
- Writing a question-based subheading
- Using clear, simple language to answer the question
Furthermore, DreamBox received over 3K rankings in featured snippets.
This is one of the most coveted areas of the SERP due to its prominence.
Featured snippets appear above all organic listings, making them one of the first things users see.
And despite providing the answer to a user’s query directly on the SERP, SEO statistics reveal that featured snippets have the highest clickthrough rate (CTR) at 42.9%.
Why This Matters:
Making your content easy to read has a significant impact on the user experience and your website's success.
Google loves to feature clear and concise content in SERP features, so it's important to align your content with their various formats.
Including questions and FAQs is a great way to rank in People Also Ask and featured snippets, like DreamBox.
By using these elements, you can increase your likelihood of ranking in prominent SERP features and improve your organic CTR.
Additionally, readable content encourages visitors to stay on your page longer. This leads to better user engagement metrics, like reduced bounce rates, and can boost your search engine rankings.
How to Improve Your Content Readability:
Creating readable content is crucial for both user experience and SEO. Here's how to make your content more accessible and engaging:
- Use clear and concise language.
- Write short paragraphs.
- Incorporate descriptive headings and subheadings.
- Add visual elements like images and videos.
- Use bullet points and lists.
For a thorough explanation of each step, visit this article on how to improve your readability score.
Readability Tools:
Remember the TruSEO tool I briefly mentioned in our last section?
In addition to checking your keywords optimizations, it also analyzes the readability of your WordPress post or page.
You’ll get a Readability Checklist that provides real-time feedback to improve your score.
It’s very easy to use and can make the difference between ranking as a standard search listing or landing a SERP feature.
3. Visual Victories: Leveraging Image SEO for Traffic Growth
In addition to written text, DreamBox uses visual content to enhance the user experience—and their online visibility.
They include images throughout their content to illustrate math concepts and key points.
Take this multiplication chart, as an example.
This image showcases how students can use times tables to multiply numbers. It's helpful within the context of the article, which explains how to do multiplication.
A reader could view this image (and download a PDF of it) to successfully multiply numbers between 1 and 20.
This example illustrates a positive user experience.
Furthermore, DreamBox makes the image search-friendly with the following optimizations:
- Keyword-Optimized File Names: DreamBox uses relevant keywords in their image file names.
- Descriptive Alt Text: DreamBox adds descriptive alt text to images, though they could be more consistent.
- Clear Subheadings and On-Page Signals: They use clear subheadings and on-page SEO to provide context for images.
- Schema Markup: DreamBox uses ImageObject schema markup to give search engines more information about their images.
These optimizations have proved effective, with search engines featuring DreamBox’s images in search results.
Image snippets are a powerful tool for stopping users from scrolling and getting them to click.
After all, if there were a search listing with a relevant image and one without, which would you choose?
The answer is clear.
And traffic metrics support it.
In February, DreamBox had 4.3K image snippets, which generated 46.2K monthly visits.
Image SEO also helped DreamBox to rank in the Google Image Pack, which appears at the top of search results.
These results provide users with images related to their search query.
Did you know? Ranking in the Image Pack means you’re also ranking in Google Images. There are over 1 billion searches every day here, making it an extremely valuable channel for driving traffic to your site.
Ultimately, image SEO has been monumental in DreamBox’s recent organic success.
They ranked in the Image Pack for 1.4K keywords in February alone.
Why This Matters:
Optimizing images for search engines can boost your website's visibility and drive traffic.
When you use image SEO best practices, you make it easier for search engines to understand and index them. This can lead to your images appearing in search results in both traditional search and Google Images.
Additionally, image SEO enhances the user experience by making your content more engaging and accessible.
How to Optimize Images for Search Engines:
Optimizing images for search engines is a crucial aspect of SEO.
Here's how to make your images more search-friendly:
- Use descriptive file names with relevant keywords.
- Write concise and descriptive alt text.
- Choose the right file format (JPEG or PNG).
- Optimize image size by compressing them.
- Use ImageObject schema markup.
- Place images near relevant text and use captions for context.
By following these tips, you can improve your image SEO and drive more organic traffic to your website.
Image SEO Tools:
AIOSEO has several tools that can help with your image optimizations.
For starters, the image SEO feature streamlines your most critical image elements. You can use smart tags to automate writing image titles, alt text, and captions.
As for schema markup, the schema generator is as easy as selecting your desired schema type from a catalog.
Many of these options will have additional attributes that are available for you to include, such as images.
In the example below, we see how product schema has a field for uploading or selecting an image.
Once you’ve uploaded your image, the plugin will format your ImageObject (and initial) schema for search engines.
Standout SEO Wins
Before we wrap up, there's an additional SEO best practice DreamBox uses to aid in user and search engine navigation:
Mastering Sitemaps: A Two-Pronged Approach with HTML and XML
DreamBox understands the importance of sitemaps for both users and search engines. They provide two types of sitemaps: HTML and XML.
An HTML sitemap is like a table of contents for your website. It's designed for people to easily find and navigate to different pages on your site. This improves user experience and helps visitors quickly find what they're looking for.
(It’s also great for internal linking.)
An XML sitemap, on the other hand, is designed for search engines. It's a file that lists all the important pages on your website, making it easier for search engines like Google to discover and understand your site structure. It also shares when they were last updated.
Ultimately, XML sitemaps can lead to a boost in rankings because search engines have an easier time of crawling and indexing your site.
While sitemaps might not directly cause a sudden increase in traffic, they are a crucial foundation for good SEO.
Think of them as a roadmap that guides both users and search engines through your website.
Tool: AIOSEO can automatically create both HTML and XML sitemaps for your WordPress website.
For HTML, just click the HTML Sitemap tab from the Sitemap settings. Then, toggle the switch on.
For XML sitemaps, it’s a similar process, but you don’t have to navigate to a new tab after reaching the Sitemaps settings. The first screen you see, General Sitemap, is designed for XML sitemaps and the default setting is on.
Takeaways
In our analysis of DreamBox, we've uncovered the strategies that contributed to their traffic growth.
Let's recap these strategies and transform them into actionable takeaways for your website.
Top 3 Strategies to Emulate
- Become a topical expert and write in your niche. DreamBox used targeted content creation to expand their content offering and establish themselves as a trusted resource in math education. They focused their efforts on the Math Resources subdirectory, which allowed them to rank for non-branded keywords and expand their reach. You can replicate this by creating more content about specific topics relevant to your audience and niche. This will help you attract more visitors and show Google you're an expert in your field.
- Make content easy to read and understand. DreamBox prioritized readability in their content, using elements like clear language, logical subheadings, and short paragraphs to keep readers engaged. You can follow their lead by focusing on similar elements to improve your content's readability. This approach can boost user engagement metrics, like time on page and bounce rates. Furthermore, it can help you rank in SERP features like People Also Ask boxes and featured snippets.
- Don't forget about image SEO. DreamBox makes their images search-friendly by optimizing image file names, writing descriptive alt text, and using schema markup. This makes it easier for search engines to understand and index their visual content. It also helps them display DreamBox's images in search results, leading to higher clickthrough rates and more traffic. You can replicate this success by optimizing your images with similar techniques. This will not only make your content more accessible but also help you tap into the traffic potential of image search.
Bottom 3 Strategies to Reconsider
- Exceeding SEO title character limits. Some of DreamBox's SEO titles exceed 60 characters, which can lead to truncation in search results and reduce clickthrough rates. To avoid this issue, run your metadata through a SERP preview tool before publishing. The AIOSEO Headline Analyzer will also tell you if you've exceeded character limits, allowing you to fix it before a post goes live.
- Forgetting alt text on images. While DreamBox utilizes alt text for some images, they could be more consistent. Missing alt text can hinder accessibility and limit visibility in image search results. The AIOSEO Image SEO feature allows you to automate image elements, like alt text and captions. This ensures no image is overlooked and not optimized.
- Neglecting author bios. Currently, DreamBox showcases authors on each article, but they don't have bios. This is a missed opportunity to align content with Google E-E-A-T guidelines, which want to see experience and expertise. By showcasing an author's relevant background, DreamBox could establish their website as more authoritative and trustworthy, leading to better rankings. For your site, you can easily create and show author bios using the Author SEO feature. This tool allows you to create strong bios that showcase your team's expertise.
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Dominate the SERPs With All In One SEO
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Here are a few customer-favorite tools:
- Semrush Keyphrase Suggestions: Perform keyword research directly in the WordPress editor. AIOSEO connects with your Semrush account to generate and serve keyword ideas for your content.
- 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.
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- Image SEO: Turn on automatic image alt text and title attributes with a single click. You’ll save time from manual entries while helping users and search engines understand your images.
- Smart Sitemaps: Easily generate HTML, XML, and RSS sitemaps with the help of AIOSEO. These dynamic sitemaps ensure all your content is crawled and indexed efficiently for faster rankings.
- Headline Analyzer: Get more clicks with compelling and keyword-rich headlines. This innovative tool uses various factors to determine the efficacy of your headline. Plus, you'll get actionable insights to improve it.
