Paired Boosts Organic Traffic by More Than 2,000% in Less Than a Year With Clearscope

When Paired launched in 2020, it quickly rose in popularity and was named one of Google Play’s best apps of the year. Since then, more than 500K couples have downloaded it, and Apple named it App of the Day in January 2023. Paired is a relationship app with a simple goal: increase happiness in couples.

The app uses prompts that start meaningful conversations between the members of a couple, giving them a space to discuss topics like romance, finances, friends, and family. The Paired blog provides relationship advice that covers a wide range of topics, from conflict and communication to managing finances together and finding fun and excitement.

Dimitris Drakatos is the Head of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and App Store Optimization (ASO), who came on board to create and implement the brand’s SEO strategy. As part of that strategy, he works with freelance writers and Zoë O’Connor, the team’s dedicated SEO writer.

Building a modern SEO strategy from scratch

Dimitris joined Paired with the goal of creating an SEO and ASO strategy that would help increase organic acquisition and improve subscription renewals. It was his responsibility to build and implement an SEO strategy from scratch. As he describes it, “At the beginning, the site had very few pages for Google to crawl.”

Another primary challenge was the fact that ranking for mental health and relationship keywords was difficult because of high levels of competition. Dimitris needed solutions that could help a lean team get the most out of their time and effort if they wanted to make a name for the brand when it came to popular topics.

He explains, “I wanted to build a more modernized process that could help us keep track of our content calendar while ensuring we got the best results possible.”

His process already included several software tools like Ahrefs for keyword research, Jira for project management, and Slack for team communication. But Dimitris was still searching for a content editing tool that could give Paired that competitive edge.

A powerful and user-friendly SEO editor that boosts efficiency

While Dimitris had a strong SEO background, he knew he wanted user-friendly tools that were easy for writers to adopt and get the most out of. He explored several platforms, but Clearscope quickly became the obvious choice.

“By the time I demoed Clearscope, it was a no-brainer for me. It was by far the best when it came to user experience.” —Dimitris Drakatos, Head of Search Engine Optimization and App Store Optimization

Beyond having an excellent user experience, Dimitris found that Clearscope helped his team understand what it would take to rank highly on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).

“The tool is especially powerful when it comes to competitive analysis and understanding SERPs.”

Clearscope easily fit into Dimitri’s content workflow and helped streamline content creation while providing actionable SEO insights during the writing process. After defining the content calendar, he creates SEO briefs with keyword research and generates Clearscope reports to give to the writer.

In this way, Clearscope serves as the “middleman” that connects his keyword research process to the writer’s starting point. From there, his writer uses the Google Docs integration to access Clearscope insights when creating the draft.

Since adding Clearscope to his team’s workflow, it’s become a regular tool they depend on. “We use Clearscope daily. We have a goal of creating 60-80 new articles each quarter and re-optimizing 30-40 articles each quarter. Our writers are always logging into Clearscope or accessing it through Google Docs,” Dimitris explains.

Using technology to support a high publishing velocity has been a significant growth factor for Paired’s strategy because there wasn’t much content for Google to crawl initially.

Data-powered SEO insights that create alignment on content quality

Dimitris knew writers didn’t always see the value of keyword research and insights. Using Clearscope helped him make a business case for adhering to SEO best practices.

According to Dimitris, “Writers may sometimes be skeptical when it comes to SEO. Clearscope helps the writer understand what specific elements we want the article to have and why.”

He especially appreciated that the insights from Clearscope translate into tangible results, which help underscore the importance of SEO in generating organic traffic. “There’s a strong correlation between articles that have a high Clearscope grade and are ranking well, and normally low content grades bring in little to no traffic.”

With these insights, Paired went from having a few crawlable pages to a blog that ranks in the top ten positions for several keywords.

Dimitris also found Clearscope reports especially helpful for re-optimizing existing content pieces that weren’t getting ideal results.

He says, “I use Clearscope’s Content Inventory feature to understand what’s underperforming and why.” From there, he and his team follow Clearscope’s real-time content recommendations to edit posts and improve performance.

From 6K to 130K organic sessions in less than a year

With the help of Clearscope, Dimitris and his team published blog posts that generated significantly more organic traffic to Paired’s website. He explains, “In September 2022, we had around 6,000 organic sessions on a monthly basis, and we’re closing June 2023 with over 130,000.”

In addition to helping Paired increase its organic traffic by more than 2,000% in less than a year, Clearscope helped Dimitris organize Paired’s SEO process and save valuable time.

As the leader of a smaller team, Dimitris appreciates how quickly Clearscope generates actionable insights. He says, “In less than two minutes, I have a very detailed report which will help me create a much stronger article than if I didn't use Clearscope.”

Moreover, having all of his team’s content briefs centralized in Clearscope has improved overall organization. With one tool, he can optimize blog posts, keep track of his editorial calendar, and continue monitoring the performance of the articles on Paired’s website.

Ultimately, Clearscope helped Dimitris and his team streamline their process, optimize publishing velocity without sacrificing quality, and enabled them to create more than 2,000% growth in monthly organic traffic in under one year.