Zapier SEO Strategy to Reach $5B Valuation

• Valuation: $5 billion (recently)
• Type: B2B2C marketplace for no-code App integration
• Overall traffic: 12M visits/mon
• Organic traffic: 5.5M ( accounts for 45.7%)

We all need different software to run our startups smoothly. The average small business uses 102 different apps, while each mid-market business uses an average of 137 apps based on this 2020 research.

And when you need to integrate one software with another software, the thing you do is probably Googling “integrate A software with B software.” At least that was exactly I found Zapier.

According to SEMrush’s data, Zapier ranks for 3.6M keywords and gets 12M visits/mon. 45.70% of its traffic is from search engines.

And yeah, it’s valued at $5 billion recently.

I run a marketplace startup. So as a no-code integration marketplace, Zapier’s road to network effect intrigues me. I had to reverse engineer their SEO strategy. Here’s my attempt to break it down for you.

SEO hack-1: SEO-driven content marketing

Targeting the “top of funnel” traffic, Zapier’s SEO-driven content marketing has two formats: “Blog” and “Learn”.

“Blog”:

In Zapier’s blog, they often post feature/partnership/press updates which isn’t bringing much traffic. Honestly, I don’t think these posts should be listed on Zapier’s “About us” section.

But the ones that are actually working the best for Zapier are “The Listicles”—-a piece of writing or other content presented wholly or partly in the form of a list.

Examples:

• To target keywords like “note-taking apps” and “top apps for writing”, https://zapier.com/blog/best-note-taking-apps/
• To target keywords like “best url shorteners” and “top url shorteners”, https://zapier.com/blog/best-url-shorteners/

“Learn”: Tutorials & how-to guides

In Zapier’s “Learn,” they mainly publish tutorials and how-to guides filled with screenshots.

Example:

• To target keywords like “google sheets tutorial” and “google sheets beginner guide”: https://zapier.com/learn/google-sheets/google-sheets-tutorial/
• To target keywords like “google form tutorial” and “google form beginner guide”: https://zapier.com/learn/google-sheets/how-to-use-google-forms/

Takeaways of SEO-driven content marketing

Don’t write 500-1000 words of “snackable content.” If you’re blogging to grow traffic, then write long-form content, because people prefer visual content on social media, so it typically won’t work (unless you write something outstanding).

And yes, people read long-form content if they find you on Google.

Remember, people use Google to solve problems and use social media to relax.

SEO hack-2: Structural SEO to target long-tail keywords at scale

Using structural SEO to target long-tail keywords at scale is at the heart of its strategy, which makes it possible to rank for 3.6M keywords.

Here are 4 types structural SEO pages:

1. A category page of similar apps:
   eg. https://zapier.com/apps/categories/human-resources
   Ranking for keywords like “top HR apps & software”
2. A dedicated landing page for the app itself:
   eg. https://zapier.com/apps/shopify/integrations
   Ranking for keywords like “top apps integration with Shopify”
3. A dedicated landing page for each app to app integration:
   eg. https://zapier.com/apps/shopify/integrations/google-sheets
   Ranking for keywords like “Google Sheet integration with Shopify” or “Shopify Google Sheet integration”
4. A dedicated landing page for each “trigger–> action” of each app to app integration: 
   eg. https://zapier.com/apps/google-sheets/integrations/shopify/2758/add-new-paid-shopify-orders-to-a-google-sheets-spreadsheet
   Ranking for keywords like “how to add new paid Shopify orders google sheets automatically”

By leveraging Structural SEO, Zapier has 235,000 app-related pages!!!

Everyone of them is targeting unique key phrases.

SEO friendly on-page structure

1. A static URL that contains main keywords (eg. app name)
2. Main keywords in the page title and main headings
3. Informative copywriting: A lot of text content, especially hidden in “collapsible” elements
4. Internal links
5. Engaging design with call-to-action buttons to decrease bounce rate (and increase conversion rate)
6. Sitemaps to submit these pages to Google Search Console.

By structuring the site this way, app-related pages gain massive success. Think about it, top 5 performing pages are app-related pages. One of them is getting 683K visits per month, FOR FREE!

SEO hack-3: Killer backlink strategy

Backlinks from partners

They partner with apps and get a landing page from them.
Examples:

1. Asana: https://asana.com/apps/zapier
2. HubSpot: https://ecosystem.hubspot.com/marketplace/apps/productivity/connector/zapier

Backlinks from the press

Examples:

1. https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/09/zapier-ceo-wade-foster-on-scaling-a-remote-team-up-to-300-employees/

Further reading

1. https://www.drift.com/blog/how-zapier-grew/
2. https://www.groovehq.com/blog/zapier-interview-with-wade-foster
3. https://ryanberg.co/how-zapier-reached-35m-arr-with-this-saas-seo-strategy
4. https://www.getcredo.com/zapier-seo-teardown/

Conclusion

Zapier ranks for 3.6M keywords and gets 12M visits a month with 45.7% of its traffic coming from search engines. 

These are the effective SEO strategies that Zapier implements: 

• SEO-driven content marketing: Much of their content is on their “blog” and “learn” (tutorials and how-to guides) sections of their site. They write long-form content which ranks better with Google.
• Structural SEO to target long-tail keywords at scale: They use 4 types of structural SEO pages:
  • A category page of similar apps
  • Dedicated landing page for the app itself
  • Dedicated landing page for each app to app integration
  • Dedicated landing page for each “trigger–>action” of each app to app integration
• SEO-friendly on-page structure: 1) Main keywords on static URLs, page titles, and headings 2) Informative copywriting 3) Internal links 4) Engaging design with call-to-action buttons 5) Sitemaps to submit pages to Google Search Console
• Backlink strategy: Getting links back to the Zapier page on the websites of other well-known apps and the press.