HubSpot’s 3,400% Increase in Organic Traffic in Just Six Years

HubSpot was founded in 2006 with the intention of helping businesses grow by using inbound marketing strategies. As a small startup HubSpot faced well established competitors and struggled to drive traffic to their website. Knowing they needed to make a change, the HubSpot team decided not to rely on traditional marketing and instead decided to lean heavily into SEO. They did this through content creation. They created lots of quality, educational, and actionable content for their target audience; small businesses hoping to market and sell.

One key strategy they utilized was focusing on long-tail keywords that were highly relevant to their target audience, rather than competing for shorter more competitive key-words. HubSpot continued to produce valuable and relevant content and eventually managed to become a leading authority figure in the world of inbound marketing. Their strategy was a wise one, and by 2013, about 6 years after launching this new SEO strategy the small company had managed a staggering 3,400% increase in organic traffic to their website and blog. This benefited them beyond just high traffic to their site, HubSpot managed to convert this high traffic into leads and eventually paying customers. SEO remains a core revenue driver for HubSpot as they continue to use it as a part of their growth strategy.

This success story is a tangible reminder as to why SEO is so important, and especially with a focus on creating quality content. HubSpot didn’t just get lucky, and they didn’t just implement SEO into their strategy willy nilly, they implemented a well thought out SEO strategy with a focus on long-tail keywords, creating content that was educational and actionable, and ensuring that their target audience was gaining something of value, and ultimately this created value for HubSpot. HubSpot remains a successful company to this day, but they couldn’t have gotten to where they are now without realizing and acting on the importance of SEO.