Beverage destruction · United States · name withheld
9 keywords in Google's top 10 within a month of launch, without a single backlink.
Where they started
A US company that destroys and recycles alcoholic beverages was launching a new website. Specialist B2B services like this are hard to find online, and new sites usually wait months before search sends anyone.
In the month before launch the site had 12 visitors, and every search I went on to track was unranked on 1 December 2022. A narrow niche is also the fastest road to the top, if you plan for it before the first page is written.
What I did, station by station
- Station 1 · MeasureGoogle Analytics, conversion tracking and Search Console live from launch day, so the first weeks were measured, not guessed.
- Station 2 · DiagnoseKeyword research across the niche: beverage destruction, alcohol disposal, ethanol recycling. Every page mapped to one primary search before design and copy started: commercial pages for buyers, blog posts for people still researching.
- Station 3 · BuildComplete on-page optimisation at launch (titles, headings, structure) and a technical setup so new pages were found and indexed quickly. Desktop Lighthouse 98 performance, 95 accessibility, 100 best practices; first content in 0.7s, largest content in 0.9s, 0ms blocking time.
- Station 4 · DistributeContent written for the questions buyers ask, such as a guide on how to dispose of alcohol. No link building at all: 0 backlinks built.
- Station 5 · Inspect9 keywords in Google's top 10 in the first month, and 4 pages in the top 10 by 18 January. In about six weeks, 4,260 impressions and 78 clicks from zero, and ranking keywords grew from 3 to about 50.
The first month after launch
Google Analytics, the month after launch against the month before
Month before launchFirst month after launch
Visitors
Sessions
Pages per session
Average session length
Bounce rate, lower is better
Source: Google Analytics, first month after launch against the month before
A brand new site reached Google's first page within weeks, because every page was planned around one real search before a word was written.
One search for each page
Google position on 18 Jan 2023 · every keyword was unranked on 1 Dec 2022
| Search | Mapped page | Position |
|---|---|---|
| beverage destruction company | Beverage destruction page | 5 |
| how to dispose of alcohol | Alcohol disposal blog post | 5 |
| beverage destruction | Beverage destruction page | 7 |
| beverage destruction companies | Companies blog post | 8 |
| ethanol recycling | Alcohol page | 10 |
Source: Semrush position tracking, December 2022 to January 2023
Tracked keywords by position
Semrush position tracking, December 2022 · number of keywords
In the top 31
In the top 109
In the top 2014
In the top 10022
Source: Semrush position tracking, December 2022
4,260
search impressions from zero, in about six weeks after launch
Google Search Console, 1 Dec 2022 to 16 Jan 2023
78
clicks from Google, at a 1.8% click-through rate
Google Search Console, 1 Dec 2022 to 16 Jan 2023
~50
ranking keywords by 16 Jan 2023, up from 3, with no link building
Semrush organic keywords, 19 Dec 2022 to 16 Jan 2023
Desktop Lighthouse at launch
Score out of 100
Performance98
Accessibility95
Best practices100
Source: Google Lighthouse, desktop, at launch
Book it
Want numbers like these? Thirty minutes.
I look at your website, your competitors and what your buyers search, then tell you the number I think I can hit and what it costs. You keep the plan either way.