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If you’re relying on just a handful of pillar pages to maintain visibility for key topics, you’re taking a big risk.
Constant shifts in Google’s algorithm and the increasing influence of AI-driven search mean that online real estate is more volatile than ever.
Look no further than Vanta for a masterclass in building a more durable SEO moat around key search terms. The trust management platform dominates the SERPs for hundreds of security and compliance-related keywords.
Since launching their “Collections” subfolder strategy in September 2023, Vanta has expanded it into a formidable 180+ page content engine that generates 13.9k monthly visits in the US alone — traffic valued at over $128k per month.
Below, we’ll explore how Vanta structures their compliance content strategy using three key pillars:
- Distinct subfolders dedicated to discussing major compliance frameworks and concepts
- A scalable content formula for targeting the entire constellation of keywords most relevant to each subfolder
- An internal linking system that amplifies the authority and reach of each subfolder and the posts within them
Let’s dive in.
How Vanta Uses Collection Subfolders to Create an SEO Moat Around Compliance Topics
To understand why Vanta’s Collection subfolder strategy is so impressive, you first need to understand their product portfolio.
Their Trust Management Platform provides automated compliance solutions to enhance and scale security programs at every stage of an organization’s growth. The main product offerings within the platform include:
- Automated Compliance that helps businesses meet and maintain compliance with standards like SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR
- Continuous GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) that modernizes GRC processes for ongoing risk management and compliance
- Vendor Risk Management that streamlines security reviews of third-party vendors
- Questionnaire Automation that helps businesses complete security questionnaires for different compliance frameworks
- Trust Center that demonstrates a business’s security posture to stakeholders and partners in real time.
The platform integrates with numerous tools and services, offering continuous monitoring and real-time insights to help businesses build and maintain robust security practices.
Vanta currently targets customers across different software verticals, but according to their customer page they are paying special attention to sectors like AI and Analytics, FinTech, HealthTech and Digital Infrastructure.
So, the question is, how does Vanta demonstrate their product coverage and domain expertise across all these different compliance frameworks? And how do they do it in a way that helps them generate new leads?
1. Creating Collection Subfolders as Funnels to Corresponding Vanta Products
Vanta has organized its collections content within a clear site structure that segments compliance frameworks into topic-based subfolders that align closely with particular product offerings. It’s an SEO topic cluster strategy, similar to the one used by NerdWallet.
Each subfolder is dedicated to a topic category or compliance standard — like SOC 2, GRC, or ISO 27001 — and functions as a self-contained funnel that guides visitors from basic education to high-intent conversion points.
Here’s what it looks like from a high level:
This approach helps Vanta boost topical authority across key compliance frameworks and do so in a way that walks them through the initial stages of the B2B buyer journey.
That means a visitor searching for the difference between SOC 1 and SOC 2 can quickly find information about SOC 2 reports and then find their way to a demo of Vanta’s compliance automation.
The impact of the Collection subfolder strategy is easy to see.
The SOC-2 Collection alone generates 9,597 monthly organic visits and has 29,993 backlinks, dwarfing other clusters like GRC and ISO 27001 (which still bring in thousands of additional high-value visitors each month).
While the TPRM, Trust, and HITRUST Collections are further behind across almost all performance metrics, they’re content investments that could still pay major dividends down the road.
Over 60% of Vanta’s Top 3 keyword rankings originate from these subfolders — 326 in total at the time of this writing. It’s a great example of how a well-structured, well-executed content strategy positions brands for massive traffic gains.
Now, let’s look at the structure of some of the individual posts within each Collection.
2. Formatting Pages to Maximize Relevant Keyword Placement
According to Ahrefs, 3 of Vanta’s top 5 performing pages in terms of organic traffic come from this Collections subfolder strategy.
The top page — What is SOC-2? — represents 18% of the company’s monthly organic traffic from the US (around 4,400 visits) and even out-earns the Vanta homepage by nearly 1,000 visits. A quick Control F shows that the term “SOC 2” appears on this page a whopping 149 times.
After reading that number, the term keyword stuffing is probably the first that comes to mind. But a significant number of those uses come from page elements other than the main body of the article.
Here are a few examples:
Topic Navigation Bar: Each post has a sidebar that acts as a table of contents for a specific section of each Collection subfolder. It also helps each page incorporate a number of relevant keywords and internal links to the pages dedicated to these topics.
The screenshot below is taken from Vanta’s top-ranking page. The navigation bar on the left side of the page helps users understand where this information fits within the Introduction to SOC 2 subfolder.
“Explore More” section: After the call-to-action for this post, readers will find a section prompting them to look into more articles on SOC 2. There are six content blocks with links to articles across several different subtopics.
There are more introductory topics, but also opportunities to learn about preparing for audits or how to complete reports and documents. As you can see, these widgets contain all sorts of variations of the term SOC 2.
The SOC 2 subfolder has the most extensive list of content to fill out these sections, but the same principle applies to the rest of the Collections. Even the less robust ones like Trust and HITRUST.
This means each page Vanta creates within this Collection strategy will live on a page that contains the core search term dozens, if not hundreds, of times. And then there are all the long-tail variations.
But this strategy has another benefit — it allows Vanta to share a massive amount of internal link equity.
3. Strengthening Their SEO Moat with Extensive Internal Linking
Internal links are the connective tissue of a winning enterprise SEO strategy, helping to distribute authority and relevance across pages. Vanta doesn’t leave this to chance — their internal linking strategy is literally built into their CMS.
Vanta uses multiple internal links throughout each page. Between the typical contextual links you find in body copy and those placed in site-wide elements like global navigation menus, footers, sidebars, or “related articles” widgets, there is massive internal link potential on their site.
In Vanta’s case, that potential numbers in the thousands. Just take a look at their top pages by internal links below:
This is an impressive level of internal linking that passes massive amounts of link equity around the Vanta site. It’s even more impressive, considering that the website only has around 760 distinct pages.
It’s a great reminder to pay more attention to overlooked on-page SEO features like sidebars and footers.
Taking a look at the Vanta site, the footer at the bottom of each page contains links to each of the Collections landing pages as well as some of the top articles like “What is SOC 2 compliance?” and “What is ISO 27001 certification?”
SEO-driven footer links don’t often come to mind as the top priority during strategy sessions, but they certainly should. As Vanta shows, building an SEO moat requires more than just great copy and in-text keyword placement — you need to refine all aspects of your website.
Why Vanta’s SEO Moat is Hard to Replicate
What makes Vanta’s SEO strategy so formidable is the deliberate integration of three core pillars into a cohesive system that competitors would struggle to match:
- Strategically Organized Subfolders: Their Collection subfolders mirror product offerings and compliance frameworks, creating topic-specific authority hubs that function as individual lead generation funnels.
- Content Formula Optimized for Keyword Saturation: Each page incorporates target keywords dozens or even hundreds of times through strategic page elements — navigation bars, “Explore More” sections, and related content widgets — without feeling stuffed.
- Systematic Internal Linking at Scale: Their comprehensive internal linking strategy distributes authority across their content ecosystem through contextual links, footers, and sidebars.
What’s particularly impressive is how quickly Vanta scaled this approach. In just 2.5 years — with significant acceleration since launching Collections in September 2023 — they’ve built a 180+ page content engine that dominates compliance-related SERPs, generating 13.9k monthly US visits valued at $128k+ per month. This integrated approach creates compounding returns that could take years for competitors to match.
Start Investing in Your Brand’s SEO Moat Today
Just because Vanta’s moat is difficult to replicate doesn’t mean there aren’t any lessons to be learned from them. Here are a few questions worth asking yourself:
- Are your content clusters aligned with your core products?
- Do your pages incorporate strategic elements that maximize relevant keyword placement without feeling forced?
- Have you implemented a systematic approach to internal linking that distributes authority across your entire site?
Building an SEO moat like Vanta’s requires expertise and a thoughtful strategy. At Foundation, we specialize in helping companies develop content ecosystems that drive organic traffic and generate qualified leads.
Get in touch with us today to discuss how we can help you create your own formidable SEO moat.
