What was the challenge?
A mental wellness SaaS was starting from nothing: a new domain with no traffic, no backlinks, a Domain Rating of 0 and no sign-ups from search. Healthcare is a "Your Money or Your Life" topic, so Google holds it to its strictest standard. A new site can't rank here by publishing more; it first has to prove it's an expert, trustworthy source.
What was the strategy?
- 01
Build trust and authority: software directories first, then links from real healthcare websites
- 02
Publish expert content: articles by certified mental health specialists, plus listicles that capture buyers comparing apps
- 03
Fix the foundation and convert: fast, technically clean pages, with the sign-up pages optimised hardest
What exactly did I do?
6 moves, each with what I did and why it mattered.
- 01Trust & authority
Got listed where buyers compare software
Started with the big generic SaaS directories, G2 and Capterra, then moved on to directories built specifically for healthcare software.
Why it mattered: A brand-new domain needs its first trusted mentions. Directory profiles give Google proof that the product is real, send referral traffic from people already comparing tools, and lay the base for Domain Rating.
- 02Trust & authority
Earned links from healthcare websites
Acquired backlinks from healthcare websites and health blogs, not from generic sites that happen to sell links.
Why it mattered: In healthcare, who links to you matters more than how many link to you. Relevant links from the same field tell Google the site belongs in health search. Together with the directory listings, they took the domain from DR 0 to 25.
- 03Expert content
Had certified specialists write the blog
Published SEO-friendly blog posts written by certified mental health specialists. I handled the keyword research, structure and on-page optimisation; the experts brought the clinical knowledge.
Why it mattered: Google wants health advice to come from people qualified to give it (E-E-A-T). Expert authorship is what lets a new mental health site compete with established publishers, and it's what earns the reader's trust too.
- 04Expert content
Wrote listicles for buyers comparing apps
Created listicle content around the searches people make right before choosing a product, such as "Top 10 mental wellness apps".
Why it mattered: Someone searching for the best apps is ready to pick one. Ranking for those searches puts the product in front of people at the moment they decide.
- 05Foundation & conversion
Fixed site speed and technical SEO
Made the site fast, then fixed every other technical SEO issue so that Google could crawl and index each page properly.
Why it mattered: Content and links can't do their job on a slow or broken site. A clean technical base means every new article and link counts in full.
- 06Foundation & conversion
Optimised the pages that turn visitors into sign-ups
Ran full on-page SEO, then advanced optimisation, on the commercial-intent pages: the ones visitors land on just before they sign up.
Why it mattered: Traffic is only useful if it converts. Focusing hardest on the pages closest to a sign-up is how 10K+ visitors became 150+ new sign-ups every month.
What do I stand for?
Trust comes before traffic
In healthcare, Google ranks the sources it trusts. Every tactic in this project was picked to prove trust first: real directory listings, real healthcare links, real experts.
Qualified experts write health content
Health advice should come from people qualified to give it. I pair certified practitioners with SEO, rather than publishing generic content and hoping it ranks.
Relevance beats volume in link building
A handful of links from respected healthcare sites does more than hundreds of unrelated ones, and none of it puts your domain at risk.
Sign-ups are the goal, not traffic
I judge SEO by what it adds to the business. That's why the commercial pages got as much attention as the blog, and why I report on sign-ups, not just visits.
How the results were verified
- Organic traffic and Domain Rating verified via Ahrefs.
- The client stays anonymous to protect confidentiality; the numbers are real.
AI Chatbot SaaS
DR 0 → 38 in 4 months, and 0 → 1K+ monthly organic visitors
