> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.highcommand.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Anatomy of a $100k Per Month SEO Campaign - URL: https://www.highcommand.com/the-anatomy-of-a-100k-per-month-seo-campaign/ - Published: 2023-10-06T16:27:20.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-06T20:11:13.000Z - Author: Josh Piepmeier Aka How to Drive SALES from SEO, Not Just Traffic I talk to a lot of ecom founders and VPs who want to get started with SEO, but don’t know where to begin. Most want to go from zero organic presence to “SEO is providing a return that’s comparable to/better than our other acquisition channels” In this post I’ll show you the “how”/process I use to get great returns for my clients. Specifically, I’ll show you the principles and process I used to help a client go from no organic presence to consistently hitting $100k per month from SEO in under 10 months. Let’s jump in!👇 ⁠—⁠— PART 1: TARGET BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL SEARCH TERMS FROM DAY 1 ⁠—⁠— The best case scenario for any e-commerce business is to jump straight to ranking for high intent keywords. Classic examples are “best \[product\]” or “best \[product\] for \[use case\]” E.g. - Best fishing rod - Equipment for bass fishing - Best fly fishing rod Etc. A lot of people think these terms are too competitive to rank for, but, but there’s often way more opportunity than you’d think, especially for long-tail variations. Plus, I’ll share some tricks and non-obvious keywords that bring in high intent traffic later on. Sometimes just ranking for a handful of these terms is enough to get your SEO paying for itself. For example, ranking for a handful of key terms was enough to take my client from zero to $15k/mo from SEO by month 3\. At that point it was a lot easier to scale to $100k and beyond. Picking and prioritizing keywords is a whole post alone, so I won’t go deep into that here. If you want more resources on that specifically, comment below and I’ll send you a cheatsheet of keywords that I use for all my SEO campaigns with a quick explanation. ⁠—⁠— PART 2: THE THREE MOST PROFITABLE TYPES OF SEO CONTENT ⁠—⁠— If you want to bring in BOFU conversions, there are basically three kinds of content you should focus on: 1\. List posts 2\. Store category pages 3\. Comparison posts // LISTS I’ll get to comparison and category pages in a sec, but first let’s talk about the importance of lists. (diving into the weeds for a sec because this is important) Most people want their product pages to rank on the first page for their category. E.g. rank their “Puppy Pain Releaf 1000” product page for “CBD for dogs” But it’s pretty rare that this actually works. In fact, I’ve watched product pages that were ranking #1 for months get phased out in favor of category and list posts. And this will only happen more as time goes on. Why? Because lists do a better job of meeting most searchers’ needs. Think about how people research products. They don't want to be pitched a single product right off the bat (unless they get a rec from a trusted resource, in which case they'll just search for that resource, e.g. "Best \[product\] Wirecutter"). Instead, they want to: \--> see a variety of options \--> make their own decision, often with expert guidance List posts effectively meet both needs. Single product pages don’t. (Category pages are solid too, but more on that later). Also, Google's algorithm is increasingly using UX factors like time-on-page and CTR to decide which pages should rank. Lists offer more material for readers to engage with, which boosts those UX indicators. It’s important to realize that lists and category pages aren’t just “in'' for SEO right now. They’re what people want, and are only going to become more popular. (EDIT: This is still true. One of my clients got 300+ customers last month from these types of posts alone.) That’s why writing great list posts and getting them to rank is like an SEO super-power. I have literally been the weakest domain/website in an industry, and catapulted to the first position for THE category keyword simply because I wrote a list when no one else did. EDIT: PDPs DO still rank for niche keywords, especially in huge industries. But it is more rare than it used to be. // THE PROBLEM WITH LIST POSTS The only problem with lists is you have to write about competitors to make ‘em rank. Google will know if you only include your own products. (I’ve tried it multiple times and it never works) Even with competitor mentions, these pages still convert really well. You just have to write in a way that doesn’t promote OR bash your competitors, while still guiding readers to buy your product. // CATEGORY PAGES As mentioned earlier, category pages also meet the needs of people who are researching new products. One category page essentially gives a user the same selection as 2-3 pages of Google results. Typically these work a bit better for high-level terms. E.g. “hiking boots,” rather than “best hiking boots” If you don’t know if you should use a category or list post just look at the top search results for your target term. If there’s a mix of page types, default to whatever is ranking higher. The only problem with category pages is you can only optimize each category page for one or two keywords, while you can write almost endless variations of a list post. // COMPARISON POSTS Finally, you can write comparisons. Think “danner vs redwing.” You don’t even have to be one of the brands mentioned to rank and bring in sales. A startup boot brand could write “danner vs redwing vs mybootbrand” and crush it, for example. I’ve written three-way comparisons like this that convert at 8% (“good” for a blog is somewhere around 0.5%). These are even better than list posts at converting customers, but typically have low search volume and fewer variations you can rank for. ⁠—⁠— PART 3: HOW TO CREATE CONTENT THAT RANKS AND MAKES SALES ⁠—⁠— \[AKA The “Sales Letters at Scale” Approach to SEO Content\] Once you know what keywords to target and what KIND of content to create, you have to do the work of writing content that ranks and converts. The MOST important part of writing at this point is optimizing each piece for SALES. Remember that we’re targeting BOFU traffic here, so readers are ready to buy if you can make a case for your product. In this instance, writing SEO content is like writing SEO-optimized sales letters, because you have to make the sale IN the content. A good rule of thumb is to have some sort of pitch for your product in the first third of the post. That means if you’re writing for “best fishing rods,” you don’t start the post with “what is a fishing rod?” or “best materials for fishing rods.” Instead, you write a pitch for your product,THEN include whatever else is required to rank, educate the reader, etc. EDIT: More on AI and content below ⁠—⁠— PART 4: TECHNICAL SEO AND PR/LINK-BUILDING ⁠—⁠— The two supporting characters that make your content rank are technical SEO and link-building. // TECHNICAL SEO Technical SEO is massively overrated for most ecom stores, especially in the DTC space. You only need to focus on technical SEO on an ongoing basis if you have a massive product catalog or hundreds of posts. For most stores, technical SEO should be a one-time investment that’s part of your site build, and relatively easy to maintain. EDIT: For the love of all that’s good please don’t touch your robots.txt file unless you know what you’re doing. I had a client adjust this on their Shopify store and we’ve been working on repairing the damage for months. // LINK-BUILDING/PR Link-building essentially tells Google your site is legit/an authority on a set of topics. Each link from an outside site to yours acts as a “vote” that says “Hey, this site is helpful and legit” Basically, think of links as a turbocharger for your existing efforts. They make everything work WAY faster, which is important if you want to see real revenue right away. This IS something you’ll need to invest in on an ongoing basis, though it’s usually pretty passive. You can basically just hire an agency to build links, meet with them once a month to decide where to point the links, then they go away and get the link placements and meet a month later to review. // PR and ECOM Many ecom stores actually have a huge leg up with SEO because they do PR independent of their SEO efforts. Just last week I talked to an ecom owner who wasn’t sure if SEO was even an option for him, until I showed him that he basically had the strongest backlink profile in his industry. He’s getting started now and I have no doubt he’ll crush it. If you’ve done PR or received solid media coverage, you’re probably in a great place to kickstart an SEO campaign. ⁠—⁠— PART 5: AI & SEO ⁠—⁠— AI is changing SEO on two fronts: How content is created, and how it’s consumed. // HOW CONTENT IS CONSUMED - SEARCH RESULTS Google now has AI in the search results. Now you need to rank higher to win. Follow the steps above and you give yourself a great shot at doing so. This topic deserves its own full post, but the short version is Google’s AI doesn’t change HOW you do SEO that much. You just have to be better at it. //CREATING CONTENT Unfortunately, AI doesn’t work great for the types of content listed above. A lot of these posts require bringing in specs and facts about competitors so you can compare and contrast (e.g. in list posts). These aren’t AI’s strong points. Chat GPT-4 now CAN bring in info about competitors or summarize pages, but it still misses on positioning, which is critical. Organic search visitors are usually more informed than average because they’re doing research (on Google) so you really need to have your USP etc down pat. Of course, some very advanced operators may be able to prompt AI with their USP, data about competitors that was pulled manually, and an outline for the piece. And I’m playing with this idea in my own agency. HOWEVER, practically if you’ve never written good SEO content before, you shouldn’t be focused on speeding up the process. First, figure out how to write well, then figure out how to write well, faster. Finally, with AI at the front of everyone’s minds, unique insights are becoming more important. If you’ve visited every manufacturer in your space you definitely have some unique insights on what makes a great product. Include that in your content. Chat GPT can’t. ⁠—⁠— PART 6: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER ⁠—⁠— Let’s talk about logistics. Here’s what I typically shoot for when starting up SEO with a new client: - Write less content, at a higher quality: 4 posts per month is a solid starting point (shoot for one per week) - Create in-depth content: My average word count per post is 2250, but trending towards 2500 (EDIT: Still at 2250). - Send a few links to each piece of content you create, plus a few to the homepage. I typically shoot for 6-8 links per month This is the exact process I followed to help my client go from zero to profitable by month 3, and from zero to $100k in ten months. Hit me up in the comments with any questions! Also, let me know if you’d like me to dive deep in one area in another post.