Customer story
How The B2B Playbook hit #1 on Google in 67 days and closed 8 deals from organic search
B2B Marketing Education A DR 8 site outranked DR 75 and DR 85 incumbents for a high-intent money keyword, and turned ~120 sessions into 8 qualified deals.
We said let's hope this works out nicely, and it absolutely has. I've been blown away. I really saw the difference when we made it to the top 3 positions, and then even more so when we hit that first #1. I'm absolutely stoked at the outcome. I knew you were good, and you gave me a terrific process to follow. It was really, really actionable.
The challenge
The B2B Playbook sells a 12-week demand generation course (the B2B Incubator). George wanted to rank for the high-intent money keywords tied directly to that offer.
The existing landing page was built around the language of dream customers, not search. Traffic to it came from LinkedIn, the podcast, and direct referrals. There was no organic search pipeline for the course itself.
The competitive picture made it look unwinnable on paper.
| Site | Domain rating | Backlinks | Monthly organic visits | Rank for “demand generation course” |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cognism | 75 | 30,000 | 157,000 | #1 |
| CXL | 85 | 125,000 | 57,000 | #2 |
| The B2B Playbook | 8 | 83 | ~105 | Not ranking |
Two well-resourced legacy players held the top two positions. George was starting roughly a tenth of the way up.
The other obvious move, chasing broader terms like “B2B marketing course,” would have been even more competitive and pulled in lower-intent traffic that didn’t match the niche.
What we changed
We picked the niche-fit money keywords and went hard at them, instead of chasing higher-volume broader terms.
Keyword targeting
- “Demand generation course” and “demand generation training” as the two priority terms.
- Lower search volume than “B2B marketing course,” but the intent is dead-on for The B2B Playbook’s offer.
New dedicated landing page
Built at /demand-generation-course/, separate from the existing B2B Incubator page (which kept doing its job for LinkedIn and podcast traffic).
- Target keyword placed in URL, H1, meta title, meta description, and woven naturally through H2s, H3s, FAQs, and body copy.
- Meta title used a hook (“Demand Generation Course [Crush 2024 Revenue Goals]”) to lift CTR.
- Reworked the existing page structure rather than starting blank. Kept the proven framework (problem agitation, bridge to solution, program breakdown, social proof, FAQs, money-back guarantee), refreshed the copy, and scaled word count past CXL’s 3,000-word page.
- YouTube video embedded in the hero for ranking and CTR benefits.
- FAQs reworked to weave the target keyword in naturally (“Who is our demand generation course for,” “Who is a demand generation course not for”).
Internal linking
The existing 11-part demand-gen miniseries (what is demand gen, when to start, building a business case, transitioning from lead gen, framework, budgeting, and more) got internal links into the new landing page with varied anchor text.
Backlinks, in two phases
- Low-friction first. Reached out to podcast hosts George had guested on (sourced via Listen Notes) and asked them to update episode pages to link to the new course page. This got the page to the bottom of page one.
- Authority second. Pivoted to higher-authority partner links. A guest article on Factors weaving in how their software supports demand gen, and a reciprocal piece with Impactable / Justin Rowe on LinkedIn ads for demand gen.
Every placement tracked in a spreadsheet: target page, anchor text variation, link position.
Strategy approach
Publish fast, give Google time to crawl, then optimize and add links. No waiting for a perfect launch.
The outcome
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Rank for “demand generation course” (Google) | #1 in 67 days (page live 2 June, ranked #1 by 8 August) |
| Outranked | Cognism (DR 75), CXL (DR 85), the Online Marketing Institute, Pavilion |
| Qualified deals from the page | 8 from ~120 sessions in the first 60-something days |
| Already closed-won | 1 |
| Year-on-year search volume for the target keyword | +90% |
The conversion rate is the story. 8 deals from ~120 sessions is the kind of yield only possible when the keyword captures bottom-of-funnel intent. The volume is lower than informational terms like “what is demand generation,” but every session is a buyer in-market for the offer.
There were two visible step-changes in pipeline: once the page hit the top 3, and another lift on reaching #1. The SERP layout helps. Course carousels and “People Also Ask” push position 2 well down the page, so #1 captures a disproportionate share of clicks.
George’s takeaway for other founders: chase the niche-fit money keywords first, even with lower search volume. They convert faster, and the budget and momentum let you chip away at broader terms later.
