When I joined HeyGen, the company had 15-20 million registered users and $20M ARR, and essentially zero organic search presence.
The company had been growing almost entirely through product virality and word of mouth. Great for early growth. Unsustainable as a primary growth channel at scale, and leaving enormous demand uncaptured.
I built and launched HeyGen's first SEO program. Within 12 months: 50%+ year-over-year organic traffic growth, reversing a declining baseline. Here's exactly how I did it.
Phase 1: The Audit (Weeks 1–2)
Before writing a single word of content or changing a single meta tag, I spent two weeks understanding the current state.
Technical Audit
Using Screaming Frog, Google Search Console, and Ahrefs, I audited:
- Crawlability: were all important pages being indexed? Were there crawl errors blocking search engines?
- Core Web Vitals: what were load times, CLS, and LCP scores?
- Internal linking structure: was link equity being distributed appropriately across important pages?
- Duplicate content: were there canonical issues, parameter URLs, or staging content being indexed?
- Schema markup: were pages using structured data to improve search engine understanding?
At HeyGen, we found several crawl blockers preventing important product pages from being indexed, plus performance issues hurting Core Web Vitals scores. Fixing these alone resulted in ranking improvements within the first month.
Keyword Landscape Audit
Using Ahrefs, I mapped:
- What keywords were competitors ranking for that HeyGen wasn't?
- What keywords were driving traffic to competitor sites?
- What was the search volume and competition level for target keyword categories?
- Where were the gaps between what users were searching for and what HeyGen was offering as content?
Content Audit
What content existed? What was performing? What could be improved vs. what needed to be created from scratch?
Phase 2: Keyword Strategy (Weeks 2–3)
A keyword strategy is not a list of keywords. It's a framework for understanding how buyers search at different stages of their journey, and building content to intercept them at each stage.
The Buyer Journey Keyword Framework
- Awareness keywords: Buyers are discovering they have a problem. Searches like “how to create video content for marketing” or “AI video tools.” High volume, lower commercial intent. Content: educational articles, guides, how-tos.
- Consideration keywords: Buyers are evaluating solutions. Searches like “best AI video generator” or “HeyGen vs Synthesia.” Medium volume, high commercial intent. Content: comparison pages, feature deep-dives, case studies.
- Decision keywords: Buyers are close to purchase. Searches like “[product name] pricing” or “[product name] for [specific use case].” Lower volume, highest commercial intent. Content: landing pages, pricing pages, use case pages.
The mistake most companies make: investing all content effort in awareness keywords (high volume, feels impressive) while neglecting consideration and decision keywords (lower volume, but much higher conversion).
Phase 3: Technical Foundation (Weeks 3–4)
With the keyword strategy defined, I built the technical foundation before producing any content.
- Schema markup: Person, Organization, Product, and FAQ schema on relevant pages. Schema helps search engines understand your content and enables rich results in SERPs.
- URL structure: Ensured URL hierarchy reflected the keyword strategy. Consistency and clarity in URL structure helps search engines understand site architecture.
- Internal linking plan: Built a linking framework ensuring that commercial pages received internal link equity from supporting content.
- Core Web Vitals improvements: Addressed image compression, lazy loading, and render-blocking resources hurting performance scores.
- Sitemap: Ensured the XML sitemap was complete, current, and submitted to Google Search Console.
Phase 4: Content Production System (Month 2 Onward)
This is where most SEO programs succeed or fail. Content production at scale requires a system, not a freelancer.
The content production system I built at HeyGen:
- AI-assisted keyword briefing: For each target keyword, a detailed content brief using competitive analysis and AI tools. The brief specified: target keyword, secondary keywords, search intent, recommended structure, key points to cover, internal links, and CTA.
- Writer assignment and drafting: Briefs went to writers (internal and freelance) with category expertise. The AI did the research and structuring; humans brought the expertise and perspective.
- SEO review and optimization: Before publication, every piece went through an SEO review: keyword density and placement, meta title and description, header structure, internal links, image alt text.
- Distribution: Every piece published got a distribution sequence: LinkedIn post, email to relevant segment, community post if relevant.
- Performance review: Monthly review of all published content: what's ranking, what's not, what needs updating. SEO is not set-and-forget.
Phase 5: Link Building (Ongoing)
Link building is the lever that most B2B SaaS companies underinvest in. Domain authority is critical for ranking competitive terms, and you can't build it without links.
The link acquisition strategy at HeyGen:
- Partner content: Co-authored pieces with complementary SaaS tools that linked back to HeyGen.
- Podcast appearances: Each podcast appearance generated a high-DA link from the podcast's site. I prioritized podcasts in the marketing, L&D, and AI/SaaS categories.
- Data and research content: Publishing original research or surveys generates backlinks naturally. We published an AI Video Marketing report that earned 15+ organic backlinks within 30 days.
- Journalist and media outreach: AI was a hot topic. I built relationships with journalists covering AI tools and ensured HeyGen was on their list for product coverage.
- Directory listings: G2, Capterra, Product Hunt, and similar sites. Free backlinks with high domain authority.
The Results and What They Mean
50%+ YoY organic traffic growth from a declining baseline is meaningful. But the more important metric is pipeline contribution: how much of that organic traffic turned into leads and customers?
At HeyGen, organic search became a meaningful pipeline channel within 12 months. It was not the primary channel, but a real contributor that didn't require ongoing spend to maintain.
The compounding effect of SEO means those results will keep growing. Every piece of content we published continues to generate traffic. The link authority we built continues to help new content rank faster. The technical foundation we built accommodates growth without degradation.
That's the power of building a real SEO program: it's an asset, not an expense.
The Biggest Mistakes to Avoid
- Starting with content before fixing technical issues. Technical blockers will prevent your content from ranking regardless of quality.
- Targeting keywords that are too competitive. A Series A company cannot rank for “marketing software” in year one. Start with long-tail, specific keywords where competition is lower.
- Treating SEO as a campaign. SEO requires consistent investment over 12+ months. If you stop, the results erode.
- Ignoring conversion optimization. Traffic that doesn't convert is vanity. Every important landing page needs a clear CTA tied to a lead capture mechanism.
- Not measuring pipeline attribution. Know which organic keywords are driving leads, not just traffic.