Article's Content
Article's Content
In April 2023, Rippling was getting an average of 2,380 monthly visitors to its blog.
By April 2024, that number had risen to almost 30,000.
They did this with a serious investment in hundreds of blog posts and a focus on geo-specific keywords. We’ll break down what that means, how they did it, and what that could mean for your SEO strategy.
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Let’s go.
What Rippling Does
Rippling is a platform that combines your HR and finance functions into one system. Their software automates tasks such as payroll, benefits, employee onboarding, and device management, which can take a lot of admin work off your hands.
Because of that convenience, Rippling’s growth has been impressive. From its inception, the company has expanded rapidly, culminating in a significant milestone with a $200 million funding round that valued the company at $13.5 billion.
One of the most notable stories showcasing Rippling’s capabilities occurred during the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). SVB was Rippling’s banking partner, and there were concerns that Rippling’s clients wouldn’t be able to pay their employees on time. Despite the crisis, Rippling managed to pay 50,000 people on time, demonstrating the robustness and reliability of their system, as well as their commitment to serving their customers.
But just providing great service isn’t enough to grow a company. Let’s take a look at the role Rippling’s blog played in rapidly expanding the amount of attention they got in the last year.
How Fast Rippling’s Blog Grew
Rippling’s blog has experienced remarkable growth over the past year, primarily driven by strategic SEO investments and the creation of a significant volume of high-quality content. The majority of the keywords that Rippling ranks for are attributed to their blog, which has become a central pillar of their SEO strategy.
In January 2023, Rippling’s blog was attracting a modest 2,242 monthly organic visitors. However, by May 2024, this number had skyrocketed to an impressive 31,295 monthly visitors.
This phenomenal growth represents a more than 10x increase in just over a year. The rapid rise in traffic can be attributed to a targeted focus on SEO — specifically the creation of geo-specific and highly relevant content.
Rippling’s approach to SEO involved a thorough keyword research process to identify terms and phrases that potential customers were searching for. They then created hundreds of blog posts optimized for these keywords, which helped them climb the search engine rankings. This strategy not only increased their visibility but also drove a substantial amount of organic traffic to their site.
Analyzing the monthly organic traffic data provides a clear picture of this growth trajectory. In the first few months of 2023, traffic remained relatively stable, with slight increases each month. For example, in February 2023, they had 2,210 visitors, and by March 2023, this number rose to 2,377.
The significant surge began around the fall of 2023, showing the fruits of the intense SEO investments they’d made that summer. By October 2023, they were seeing 12,541 visitors per month, and by the end of the year, in December, this number had nearly doubled to 21,830.
The correlation between the number of organic pages and the increase in traffic is particularly striking. In January 2023, Rippling had 110 organic pages. By May 2024, this number had grown to 847 pages. This aggressive content expansion played a crucial role in their traffic growth. Each new blog post provided an additional entry point for potential visitors, covering a wide array of topics relevant to Rippling’s target audience.
The strategy was not just about quantity but also about quality.
Rippling ensured that their content was well-researched, informative, and engaging, addressing the pain points and needs of their audience. This approach helped attract visitors, retain them, and encourage them to explore more of what Rippling had to offer.
Overall, Rippling’s blog growth is a textbook example of how a focused and well-executed SEO strategy can drive significant traffic increases.
By investing heavily in content creation and optimizing for relevant keywords, Rippling successfully transformed their blog into a powerful tool for attracting and engaging potential customers. This strategy has increased their visibility and positioned them as a thought leader in their industry.
How Rippling Used Geo-Specific Keywords for Growth
One of the key strategies that propelled Rippling’s blog traffic was the use of geo-specific keywords. This approach, commonly known as local SEO, involves targeting keywords that include geographic locations, such as cities, states, or regions.
By focusing on geo-specific keywords, Rippling was able to attract a more targeted audience and improve their search engine rankings in specific areas, ultimately driving significant growth in organic traffic.
What is Local SEO, and Why Does It Matter?
Local SEO is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on optimizing a website to be found in local search results. This is particularly important for businesses that operate in specific geographic locations or serve customers in particular areas. For Rippling, leveraging local SEO meant creating content that included location-based keywords, helping them reach potential clients who were searching for HR, IT, and finance solutions in their area.
Advantages of Targeting Geographically Specific Keywords
Increased Relevance
By using geo-specific keywords, businesses can ensure that their content is highly relevant to the search queries of users in specific locations. This relevance increases the likelihood of higher rankings in local search results.
Reduced Competition
General keywords can be highly competitive, making it difficult for new or smaller businesses to rank. Geo-specific keywords often have lower competition, giving businesses a better chance to appear on the first page of search results.
Higher Conversion Rates
Users searching for location-based terms often have a higher intent to purchase or engage, as they are typically looking for nearby solutions. This leads to higher conversion rates compared to more general searches.
Better User Experience
Providing locally relevant content improves the user experience by delivering precise information that meets the needs of the audience in a particular area. This can increase user engagement and satisfaction.
Disadvantages of Targeting Geographically Specific Keywords
Limited Reach
Focusing on specific geographic areas can limit the overall reach of your content. This strategy may not be suitable for businesses looking to target a global audience.
Resource Intensive
Creating high-quality, geo-specific content can be resource-intensive, requiring significant time and effort to research and write. Just look at all the pages Rippling had to make in a year!
Frequent Updates Required
Local SEO requires regular updates to maintain relevance and accuracy, especially if targeting rapidly changing markets or locations with dynamic business environments.
How Rippling Targets Geo-Specific Articles
Rippling’s strategy for targeting geo-specific articles is a sophisticated blend of staying true to their core expertise while leveraging programmatic SEO. Programmatic SEO is where you automatically create pages targeted at certain keywords. This approach allows them to efficiently create and manage a large volume of content tailored to specific geographic locations.
But Rippling doesn’t just create random, locally targeted content. Instead, they make it part of a bigger structure. Just look at the hub-and-spoke model they built around their Pay Transparency Laws: State-by-State Guide. The central article offers a broad overview of pay transparency laws across the United States, providing valuable information that is highly relevant to their audience. It also lets Rippling show how similar laws compare across state lines, such as the section on salary history bans.
But those laws vary so much that they need a separate article for different states. So, they build “spoke” articles that each focus on pay transparency laws in individual states like Iowa and Montana. These articles not only delve deeper into state-specific regulations but also link back to the main guide. This internal linking structure improves the SEO value of the hub article, boosting its search engine ranking.
A Local SEO Case Study
Another excellent example of Rippling’s effective local SEO strategy is its article on the state of Georgia’s labour laws. This piece ranks highly due to several simple but well-executed SEO practices.
Firstly, the article provides specific, detailed information on Georgia’s employment and labour laws, making it a valuable resource for businesses and HR professionals operating in the state. The depth and accuracy of the content ensure it meets the precise needs of users searching for this information, thus satisfying search intent and boosting its ranking. Remember, one of the best ways to rank well is to deliver quality content.
Secondly, the article is well-optimized for local SEO. It includes relevant keywords such as “Georgia employment law” and “labor regulations in Georgia”, which help it rank for these terms, and it includes them early in the article. It uses keywords in its headers, and the article is broken into many smaller subsections to give as many opportunities for SEO-focused headers as possible.
Rippling’s internal linking strategy also plays a significant role in the article’s success. It’s part of a broader network of state-specific guides on employment laws, all of which link to and from each other, enhancing the overall SEO value of the group. This interconnected structure helps boost the visibility and authority of each individual article.
While Rippling has plenty of other informative articles for different states, the Georgia article performs better due to its more comprehensive keyword optimization and stronger internal linking within Rippling’s content network. This case study demonstrates the importance of localized, detailed content and strategic internal linking in achieving high search engine rankings.
How to Grow Like Rippling
Fantastic news: Rippling isn’t the only company to grow their SEO profile like this.
In fact, major tech companies do it all the time. We should know — we break down their marketing strategies right here every week.
Companies like Dialpad take strategies like Rippling’s, investing in blog content to drive organic growth. Others, like Attentive, use expertise in distribution channels to draw attention to their brand and content. Some make their content soar in the SERPs with innovative interlinking strategies, like Red Hat’s.
The point is that there are all kinds of lessons out there, so go ahead and check them out in the Foundation Lab!
