51Talk EdTech SEO Case Study:
39.7% Organic Growth in Six Months
51Talk.ph, an online English learning platform in the Philippines, grew organic traffic 39.7% in six months (April to October 2020) during my SEO consulting engagement. Top-3 rankings grew 20% and page-one rankings 17.3%.
The Challenge: Growing in a Fast-Moving Online Education Market
Online education is a crowded, competitive vertical where rankings can shift quickly. Heading into the engagement, 51Talk.ph needed a partner who could diagnose technical blockers, uncover the right keyword opportunities, and build an authority profile without relying on paid search.
Technical & UX gaps
Website structure, performance, and user-experience issues needed a full audit to identify what was holding rankings and usability back.
Unclear keyword priorities
The site needed a clear, research-backed view of which keywords carried the best mix of relevance, intent, and ranking potential.
Fragmented site architecture
Internal linking and URL structure were not yet optimised to guide both users and search engines through the site efficiently.
Thin authority profile
A natural, white-hat backlink strategy was needed to build domain authority without risking penalties from low-quality links.
Limited competitive visibility
The team lacked a structured view of competitor strategies and where 51Talk could realistically win ranking share.
SEO/CRO working in silos
SEO recommendations weren’t yet connected to conversion-rate optimisation, leaving traffic gains under-monetized.
The Strategy: A Six-Month, Full-Funnel SEO Program
The engagement was structured around six connected work streams, each feeding the next – from technical fixes, to content, to authority building, to ongoing enablement.
Technical SEO foundation
Audited site structure, performance, and UX; advised on URL structure, redirects, schema markup, and XML sitemaps to keep the site crawlable, fast, and search-friendly.
Keyword research & content strategy
Conducted thorough keyword research to surface relevant, high-potential terms, then built content strategies aligned to those keywords and genuine user needs.
Site architecture & internal linking
Recommended improvements to internal linking and overall site architecture so authority and relevance flowed to the pages that mattered most.
Authority & link building
Developed natural, white-hat link-building strategies to strengthen the site’s backlink profile and long-term domain authority.
Competitive intelligence
Analysed competitor strategies on an ongoing basis, translating findings into concrete recommendations and continuously adapting to algorithm changes.
CRO alignment & enablement
Connected SEO recommendations to CRO opportunities, and ran workshops and training sessions so the internal team could sustain best practices.
The Results: Organic Traffic Climbed 39.7%
Estimated monthly organic search traffic, tracked month over month across the engagement window. Source: Semrush Domain Overview (Historical Data).
Estimated Organic Traffic – Apr–Oct 2020
Keyword Position Distribution – April vs. October 2020
| Position bucket | April 2020 | October 2020 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top 3 | 509 | 611 | +20.0% |
| Positions 4–10 | 206 | 228 | +10.7% |
| Positions 11–20 | 108 | 121 | +12.0% |
| Positions 21–50 | 343 | 293 | -14.6% |
| Positions 51–100 | 1,124 | 1,181 | +5.1% |
| Total tracked keywords | 2,290 | 2,434 | +6.3% |
What 51Talk’s Brand Manager Had to Say
As our SEO consultant, Hubert brought a genuinely data-driven approach and sharp attention to detail – every strategic decision was backed by concrete numbers, which helped grow our organic traffic by 39.7% over six months. He was transparent throughout, providing real-time reports that made it easy to track our account’s progress, and he consistently went beyond the brief, spotting opportunities to improve our process and proposing smarter approaches. I’d recommend Hubert to any brand looking for an SEO consultant who combines analytical thinking with real initiative.
What This EdTech SEO Case Study Shows
Online tutoring is a crowded, high-intent market in the Philippines. Six months was enough to show real movement.
- Organic traffic grew 39.7% between April and October 2020.
- A technical audit and clear keyword priorities came before any new content was written.
- Site architecture and internal links were reworked so key course pages got more authority.
- SEO and CRO recommendations were shared with the team so fixes actually got shipped.
Google’s SEO Starter Guide covers the fundamentals this EdTech SEO case study was built on. Looking for an SEO consultant in the Philippines? Get in touch.
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