Beyond Backlinks: How We Scaled a Major Site to 640k+ Traffic Using AI & Entity-First SEO

We took on a major and already successful website in one of the "hottest" and most competitive niches – academic writing/essay services. The project had substantial organic traffic, but its growth was unstable, and the domain's potential was not fully utilized.

Core Challenges:

• Extremely High Competition: Dense SERPs with industry giants, aggressive pricing, and a constant battle for top positions.
• Pressure from Google Algorithms: The niche is under close scrutiny by search engines, with high risks of penalties for aggressive or low-quality SEO.
• The Challenge of Scaling Risk-Free: It was necessary to increase traffic and visibility while avoiding any signs of unnatural growth.
• Weak AI and Entity Signals: The site was not fully established as an authoritative source for next-generation search engines.

The client's goal was not merely to increase traffic but to scale organic dominance in the key market (USA) and solidify the site's status as an authoritative source in the niche.

Strategy

We implemented a combined SEO strategy, where each tool played a strictly defined role in creating a natural and powerful profile. It included:

• Outreach – Thematic articles, expert guest posts and link inserts on authoritative educational and media platforms.
• PBN (Private Blog Network) – A controlled network of sites for targeted and rapid transfer of link equity to key commercial and informational pages.
• Crowd Marketing and Submissions – Engagement on forums, discussions, and quality directories to form a natural link background and healthily diversify the anchor profile.
• PR Services – Publications and mentions on news and media platforms to enhance domain authority and E-E-A-T in the eyes of search engines.
• Reddit – Active engagement with live discussions in subreddits related to education. The goal was to generate brand mentions and user-generated content as a powerful source of entity and AI signals.

How We Built Links

We developed a month-by-month strategy, consciously avoiding patterns and shifting focus depending on the phase.

Month 1: Controlled Relaunch

The first month was entirely dedicated to deep analysis and preparation, with no active external actions. We conducted:

• A comprehensive technical and content audit of the site.
• Analysis of current link equity distribution and identification of "donors."
• Development of a detailed step-by-step scaling strategy.
• Preparation of the infrastructure for launch.

During this period, organic traffic temporarily decreased, which is a normal stage of deep restructuring and preparation for a leap.

Months 2–4: Phase of Active Growth and Reach Expansion

Tools: Outreach + PBN + Crowd + Reddit

Objective: Quickly strengthen key traffic-driving pages. Then, increase visibility for related topics and enhance the naturalness of the profile.

Upon completing the preparation, we launched the planned scaling:

• Strengthening key money and informational pages via PBN and outreach.
• Stable growth in the number of keywords ranking in the TOP-3 and TOP-10.
• Active targeting of high-volume commercial queries.
• Systematic building of link and entity profiles through Reddit and crowd channels.

Growth became smooth, stable, and predictable, without dangerous spikes.

Months 5–6: Authority Strengthening Phase

Tools: PR + Outreach + PBN + Reddit

Objective: Cement the status as an expert source and enhance E-E-A-T signals.

In the final phase, the project reached a leader's level:

• Mass growth in TOP-3 visibility in the USA for key categories.
• Significant increase in AI citations and brand mentions.
• Growth in non-branded traffic, confirming expert status.
• Consolidation and protection of positions for the most competitive queries in the niche.

Final Results

In 6 months, we were able to achieve the promotion goals:

• 🚀 Organic traffic increased by 42% – from 453,000 to 644,000+ visits per month.
• 🔗 Significant strengthening of link and domain authority: DR 75, over 7.6K referring domains.
• 🤖 Large-scale recognition as an AI source. Thousands of mentions in AI Overview and leading LLM platforms.
• 🏆 Securing leading positions in the academic writing niche in the USA. The project transitioned into the category of authoritative players, resilient to algorithm fluctuations.

More on Key Metrics:

Growth in AI Visibility

The site became actively cited by AI systems, which is a key indicator of trust in modern SEO:

• AI Overview (Google SGE): 2.9K mentions
• ChatGPT: 603
• Perplexity: 175
• Gemini: 279
• Copilot: 43

This data confirmed that the site is now perceived as a reliable and authoritative source of information.

Link Profile and Domain Authority

• DR (Ahrefs): 75
• Referring Domains: 7,500+
• Backlinks: 1.1M (increase of +662K over the period)

Profile growth was steady and natural, with no signs of over-optimization or risks to the domain.

Key Takeaways

This case clearly demonstrates that even for large and successful projects in highly competitive niches, a phase of preparation and strategic planning is essential before scaling.

The correct, dynamically changing mix of channels (outreach, PBN, crowd, PR, Reddit), combined with a focus on strengthening AI and entity signals, allowed us to fundamentally strengthen the site's positions while minimizing all risks. We continue to lead this project to new heights.