If you’ve been in the digital marketing game for any length of time, you know that SEO can be as unpredictable as it is rewarding. One moment you’re riding high with organic traffic pouring in, and the next, your rankings are tanking without a clear reason why. But among all the challenges I’ve faced over the years as an SEO expert , there was one particular issue that stood out—not just for its complexity, but for how much it taught me about the true nature of search engine optimization.
It wasn’t just a matter of keyword stuffing or poor meta descriptions. It wasn’t even a typical on-page SEO fix. This challenge came from deep within the technical infrastructure of a website, combined with external factors that were nearly impossible to control. In this article, I’ll walk you through the most difficult SEO problem I ever encountered, how I solved it step by step, and what lessons I learned along the way that could help fellow marketers facing similar hurdles.
Whether you’re a freelance digital marketer , a seasoned B2B SEO strategist, or someone trying to crack the code of organic visibility, this story might just resonate—and more importantly, offer real solutions.
The Challenge – Ranking a Highly Competitive B2B SaaS Website
The project that tested my limits the most was for a B2B SaaS client in a saturated niche—project management tools. If you’ve ever worked with SaaS SEO , you know how brutal the competition is. Everyone and their cousin has a tool claiming to “revolutionize productivity” or “streamline your workflow.” But this particular client wasn’t just another startup; they had real value, a solid product-market fit, and an established user base. Yet, despite all that, their organic traffic was stagnant.
Their website was technically sound—at least on the surface. They had clean code, fast load times, and a decent backlink profile. But when we dug deeper, the issues were far more nuanced than what a typical SEO audit would catch.
The biggest problem? They were stuck behind industry giants like Asana, Trello (now ClickUp), and Monday.com. These companies weren’t just outranking them—they were dominating the SERPs with content that had been refined over years, authoritative domain ratings, and massive brand recognition. Our client’s content was good, but not good enough to break through that wall.
To make matters worse, Google’s algorithm updates were punishing thin content, duplicate content, and even well-written but generic guides. And since this was a B2B SEO challenge, the audience was highly informed, which meant our content needed to be insightful, data-driven, and tailored—not just keyword-optimized fluff.
Diagnosing the Core SEO Issues
The first step was to conduct a comprehensive technical SEO audit , but this time, we went beyond the usual checklist. We used tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Google Search Console not just to find crawl errors or broken links, but to understand how our content was performing in context.
What we discovered was alarming:
- Content Cannibalization : Multiple pages were targeting the same keywords, confusing both users and search engines.
- Thin Content : Many of their top-ranking pages had less than 500 words—barely enough to satisfy Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness) standards.
- Lack of Internal Linking Strategy : Their content wasn’t interlinked effectively, which meant that authority wasn’t being passed around the site efficiently.
- Low Domain Rating Compared to Competitors : While their backlink profile wasn’t bad, it paled in comparison to the giants they were competing against.
But there was another issue that wasn’t as easy to measure—intent mismatch . The keywords they were ranking for weren’t always aligned with what users were actually searching for. They were getting traffic, but not the right kind of traffic.
This wasn’t going to be fixed with a few meta description tweaks or some internal linking adjustments. It required a full-scale content overhaul and strategic repositioning.
The Strategy – Content Overhaul and Semantic SEO
Once we had a clear diagnosis, it was time to build a strategy that wasn’t just about beating the algorithm but serving the user better than anyone else.
We started by doing semantic keyword research . Instead of focusing solely on high-volume keywords, we dug into search intent, related queries, and long-tail variations using tools like AnswerThePublic, AlsoAsked, and Google’s “People Also Ask” section. This helped us understand not just what people were searching for—but why they were searching for it.
We then implemented a content refresh strategy , where we:
- Expanded thin content to over 1,500 words
- Added data points, screenshots, and case studies
- Rewrote meta titles and descriptions to match search intent
- Internally linked between relevant pages to boost topical authority
But we didn’t stop there. We also introduced topic clusters around core themes like “project management software for remote teams” and “agile project tracking tools.” This helped us establish semantic relevance across the site and signal to Google that we were an authoritative source in this niche.
Technical Tweaks and On-Page Optimization
While the content overhaul was underway, we simultaneously worked on technical SEO fixes that were critical to improving our client’s visibility.
One of the biggest technical hurdles was duplicate content across multiple landing pages . The client had separate pages targeting similar audiences—like “project management tools for startups” and “project management tools for agencies”—which led to internal competition and diluted ranking power.
To fix this, we:
- Conducted a content consolidation audit
- Merged overlapping pages using 301 redirects
- Updated canonical tags to avoid duplication issues
- Improved URL structures to reflect clear topic hierarchies
We also optimized schema markup , particularly focusing on Article schema for blog posts and FAQ schema for how-to guides. This helped improve CTR from search results and even earned us a few featured snippets.
Another major improvement came from enhancing page experience signals . We collaborated with the development team to:
- Reduce server response time by switching hosting providers
- Optimize images and implement lazy loading
- Fix mobile usability issues flagged in Google Search Console
- Improve Core Web Vitals scores from red to green across the board
These changes might seem minor in isolation, but collectively, they sent strong signals to Google that our site was fast, clean, and user-friendly—key factors in ranking improvements.
Building Authority Through Strategic Link Building
Even with improved content and technical SEO, we still had one major hurdle to overcome—domain authority . Our client was up against SaaS giants who had built their backlink profiles over a decade or more.
We knew that traditional link-building tactics like guest posting and broken link building wouldn’t be enough. So, we adopted a strategic, outreach-driven approach focused on earning high-quality, relevant backlinks.
Here’s how we did it:
1. Competitor Backlink Gap Analysis
Using Ahrefs and SEMrush, we analyzed the backlink profiles of our top-ranking competitors. We identified referring domains that were linking to multiple competitors but not to us—these became our priority targets.
2. Skyscraper Technique with a Twist
Instead of just creating better content than our competitors, we created actionable, data-rich resources —like “The State of Remote Project Management in 2024” and “Top 10 Agile Tools for Distributed Teams.” These reports included original research and surveys, making them highly shareable.
Once published, we reached out to websites linking to older, outdated guides and pitched our updated version as a superior alternative.
3. Strategic Partnerships and Co-Marketing
We partnered with complementary tools (like time-tracking and communication apps) to co-create content and cross-promote. This not only helped with backlinks but also introduced our brand to new audiences.
4. PR and Thought Leadership
We positioned the CEO and lead product manager as industry experts by contributing to publications like TechCrunch, Forbes, and Search Engine Journal. These authoritative mentions often came with do-follow links that significantly boosted our domain rating.
Within six months, our backlink profile grew from 18K referring domains to over 35K, and our Domain Rating jumped from 42 to 57—a massive leap in the competitive B2B SaaS space.
