684% Organic Traffic Growth for a Privacy & VPN Brand Across 5 Markets
VPN / Cybersecurity & Online Privacy · United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia: monthly organic visits grew from 21,800 to 171,000 (+684%) in 22 months, with 463 links built and Domain Rating up from 42 to 69.
The client
Our client is a consumer VPN and online privacy company that offers encrypted internet connections on desktop, mobile and other devices. The product is for everyday users who want more privacy and security online, including travelers, remote workers and people who often use public networks. The company had built a large library of content on cybersecurity, privacy, VPN technology and safer internet use, but competition for the most valuable organic searches was extremely strong.
The challenge
The VPN market is dominated by established cybersecurity companies, technology publications, comparison websites and affiliate publishers with very strong backlink profiles. The client’s content was useful, but many pages ranked between positions 5 and 30. Competition was especially intense for searches about:
- Online privacy
- Public Wi-Fi security
- Secure browsing
- Remote working
- Travel security
- IP address protection
- Device security
- VPN comparisons
- VPN software for different devices
The client also wanted more visibility in several high-value English-speaking markets and a stronger presence in Germany. That required a campaign that could work across languages and countries without creating an unnatural international backlink profile.
What we did
We ran a multilingual, multi-market campaign focused on cybersecurity, privacy and technology:
- Country-level competitor research: We analyzed competing VPN and cybersecurity brands separately in the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Australia.
- Cybersecurity and technology outreach: We secured editorial opportunities on sites covering technology, cybersecurity, software, privacy and digital trends.
- Privacy-focused content: Articles covered practical online privacy, protecting personal information and safer internet use, not overly promotional VPN content.
- Remote work and business publications: We targeted publishers covering remote work, digital businesses and distributed teams, where secure connections are naturally relevant.
- Travel content: VPN resources on protecting personal data while traveling and using hotel, airport and café Wi-Fi opened opportunities with travel and digital-nomad publishers.
- German-language outreach: We ran Germany as its own localized campaign, with German publishers and German-language content, instead of relying on English backlinks.
- Linkable resource promotion: We promoted cybersecurity guides, privacy statistics, research and educational content as citation-worthy resources.
- Contextual link insertions: We found existing articles on privacy, online security, travel and remote work that suited relevant additions.
- Commercial page support: We distributed authority strategically across informational resources, product pages and comparison content.
- Anchor diversification: We kept a balance of branded, URL, topical and naturally occurring anchors.
The results
After 22 months, organic visibility had grown substantially in all five priority markets.
- Monthly organic traffic grew from about 21,800 to 171,000, a 684% increase.
- Domain Rating rose from 42 to 69.
- Ranking keywords grew from about 27,000 to 134,000.
- More than 240 priority keywords entered the top 10.
- 73 high-value keywords reached positions 1–3.
- Germany became one of the client’s strongest non-English organic markets.
- Privacy, cybersecurity and travel resources began attracting extra backlinks naturally once they gained visibility.
- Organic traffic became much more diversified across countries and content categories.
The campaign showed the advantage of positioning a VPN company as part of the wider privacy and cybersecurity ecosystem, rather than limiting link prospecting to VPN websites.
By combining technology, cybersecurity, business, remote-work and travel publishers, we built a much broader and more natural backlink profile across five competitive markets.
Related: International link building · Multilingual link building · Link building in Germany · Link building in Canada · Link building in Australia
Traffic depends on many things besides links, so results vary from site to site. If you want to talk about a campaign like this, see our link building services or get a shortlist.
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