Programmatic SEO: How Textshuttle doubled organic traffic despite fierce competition
If you ever had to translate a text into another language, you’ve probably come across solutions like DeepL or Google Translator.
And that’s precisely who I was up against, when creating an SEO strategy for the Swiss SaaS startup, Textshuttle.
Since 2017, Textshuttle has provided AI-translation technology to major Swiss and international companies.
In 2023, they decided to move downmarket to also serve small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and made their translation tool available to the public.
The result was an instant surge in organic visibility. However, without a proper SEO strategy behind the launch, organic traffic numbers remained low—leaving significant potential untapped.
The issue: Banking everything on the homepage
After a short analysis, I had the problem identified: Textshuttle tried to rank with their homepage for practically everything.
And while the homepage is almost always the strongest page from an SEO perspective, there are limitations to what can be achieved by optimizing it.
Although the Textshuttle tool on the homepage translates between dozens of languages, Google wasn't ranking the homepage for these combinations because it lacked individual, indexable URLs with matching content.
The solution: Creating fragmented programmatic pages
So instead of trying to optimize the homepage to target a number of different queries, I fragmented everything into specific subtopics and clusters by following this process:
I gathered all search console data and doubled down on competitor research
Receiving a lot of impressions and just a few clicks might be an indicator that the targeting or the content on a specific page might need to be adapted. I took this as a basis and completed further research by looking at competitors and related search queries to find attractive niche topics that either had high traffic and/or conversion potential.
I clustered everything
What I suspected seemed to be true: After clustering hundreds of long tail keywords in German and English, I found high impressions but low clicks for language pairings such as “deutsch zu englisch”, “english to german” etc.
Even though Textshuttle offers these language pairings on their homepage, the content covering these was sparse, and the website just didn’t have enough relevancy to rank for these terms.
I created a new page for each language pairing
Each language pairing then received its own page, which was a slight variation of the homepage. At the core of the new template was again the translation tool, but already configured for the respective language pairing and enhanced with content blocks that could be easily adapted to a programmatic approach.
After launching these pages, most of them immediately started ranking in search results, and traffic gradually shifted from the homepage to the new programmatic pages. While the initial results were promising, I didn’t just want to sit around and wait to see what our programmatic pages could achieve.
Using local relevance to gather high-authority backlinks
With DeepL as one of their main competitors, Textshuttle faced a David vs. Goliath situation. I needed to find new ways to catch up quickly, if wanted to be able to compete.
My secret weapon wasn’t a slingshot, but rather a link building tactic that both built on DeepL's success and used their size to their advantage.
The tactic is simple: I identified which Swiss websites linked to DeepL but not to Textshuttle.
Since Textshuttle is a Swiss startup, spun out off of a Swiss university and covering uniquely Swiss languages such as Swiss German and Romansh, Textshuttle had immediate success contacting Swiss universities and media outlets. All they had to do, was point out the local relevance and uniquely Swiss languages they cover - and they received many backlinks, free of charge.
The result
The joint initiatives of new pages and new links got real traction and the organic traffic doubled in a short period of time! Traffic numbers have stayed up ever since, with the most performant language pairings being Swiss languages, followed by the German - English language pairing.
How I’d replicate this
Look for topic opportunities with existing content
Let’s say you’ve got a page covering “accounting software” and then realize you also receive impressions for subtopics such as “accounting software for smes”, “accounting software for freelancers” etc. If you don’t rank well for these subtopics, it might be because your current page doesn’t fully match the search intent. The solution: Create specific pages covering these edge cases in a holistic way.
Use your competitive advantage to build links and authority
Links still matter. Having only a few high quality backlinks to your website might hurt you, if you’re up against strong competitors. That’s why I make link building and digital PR a stable in many startup and scaleup projects.
Interested in more link building tactics? Check out our other examples using stock photos or unanswered demand to attract high quality links through passive link building.