The cryptocurrency exchange is one of the highly competitive niches for business promotion. At first glance, it is unrealistic to outperform competitors in the market since the companies in the TOP 10 are well recognized in the industry, enjoy the trust of the audience, and have a strong link profile (9000+ links).

In the crypto niche, it is difficult for a startup to attract visitors and increase conversion because the target audience does not trust unfamiliar companies. In addition, during the SEO process, problems often arise with selecting keywords (due to the lack of data on frequency), tracking analytics for exchanges, and planning (due to constant changes in the exchange rate). 

To become a leader in a niche, you need to create the right image and get massive traffic growth in a short time. We have seen that these tasks can be solved from our own experience. Having developed a clever SEO strategy, the Luxeo Team brought the Lets Exchange service to the TOP for popular queries in different geolocations. Below we will tell you how we did it. 

Who is our client?

Lets Exchange is a multicurrency service for exchanging cryptocurrencies with floating and fixed rates.

The exchanger works according to the scheme: the user selects coins, specifies the amount and exchange rate, enters payment data, and confirms the procedure. Lets Exchange declares itself as a service that saves the user’s time at every exchanging stage, as it works without registrations and restrictions. 

The owner of Lets Exchange contacted us in April 2021 with a specific request: to create a detailed technical specification to prepare the website for promotion. Well, we had been working with this client before: earlier, he delegated to us the execution of minor tasks. It helped us avoid uncertainties in business relationships and difficulties with setting goals. 

Metrics before promotion:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 1

What goals did the client want to achieve?

The client set several goals, the most important and relevant for the business:

  • bring priority currency pairs to the TOP;
  • make the website a leader in top queries in 3 GEO;
  • to increase exchange operations and transactions;
  • attract maximum organic traffic.

Since we had previously collaborated with Lets Exchange on other issues, it was easier for us to understand each other. We should say that we were not limited in time, as the client focused on the quality of tasks. So the execution speed was to our advantage.

What barriers have we faced?

Cryptocurrency exchange services have spread recently but quickly became popular. The market is highly competitive, and most startups lose at the first stage.

We also faced these barriers:

  • prevalence in the TOP of well-known exchangers with TA from different countries;
  • competitors with a strong link building strategy (9000+ links);
  • low recognition of the client’s service in the niche and the main GEOs.

The crypto market is rightfully considered one of the most “expensive” for promotion, and therefore a limited budget for links is one of the stumbling blocks. But it didn’t stop us from building an effective SEO strategy. And we started from preparation as usual.

How did we prepare for the promotion?

Analysis and staging 

The first thing we did was the analysis of the work of the website from a technical point of view. So we got an idea of the resource’s condition and identified several priority tasks.

3 areas to be modified:

  • Localization. The client’s business is focused on the international market. We needed to adapt the website for different countries and regions. Also, we had to make it as clear and convenient as possible for the audience in terms of both language and understanding.
  • Link building. The link amount was at zero. Its growth was a problem for 3 reasons: high competition in the niche, difficulties in finding platforms for posting content about crypto, and expensive links. We decided to create a PBN (Private Blog Network) to make publishing links easier and cheaper. We chose outreach (cooperation with third-party platforms) as an additional promotion tool.
  • Optimization of content. Sources of traffic for the website: home page; currency pairs; pages of coins and collections. To get traffic, all types of landing pages and FAQs had to be created. The solution was spinning, a method of making a template with keywords and variables. The content for each page and block is automatically generated based on them.

In addition, it was necessary to pay attention to every technical aspect to avoid problems in work and guarantee fast progress.

Organizing the workflow

After setting tasks, we formed a team that included an SEO specialist, link builder, and team lead. The project manager was responsible for delegating tasks, monitoring their implementation, and communicating.

The workflow was organized according to the Agile model. We reported to the client at the end of each sprint, which allowed us to adapt to the requirements quickly. In general, we followed the KPI, bearing financial responsibility for achieving key indicators. And we continue to do this: the project is still working. 

What work did we perform to achieve the goals?

Market and competitor analysis

The analysis is the first step to SEO promotion. And this step must be confident because the success of the entire project depends on how complete and reliable information about the competitive environment the specialists have. 

General analysis

We selected 10 competitors and compared them according to the main link parameters. The first competitor in terms of total organic traffic was https://www.coinbase.com/, with a seven-digit score of 2 671 812. Considering that the client’s domain at that time had 0, our task of driving traffic became even more serious.

Comparison by links:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 2

For a clear understanding of the situation, we performed a detailed analysis of the competitor https://coinswitch.co/ by page type.

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 3

By region

Based on the task of adapting the website for an international audience, we analyzed competitors in 15 regions. 

Detailed analysis of competitors by region (part):

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 4

Based on the results, we formed general data in the context of maximum and average organic traffic and domains for each region.

General data by region:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 5

The analysis results became the basis for creating a link building strategy and determined our path in developing several language versions of the website.

Bridging technical gaps

We created a basic technical specification, where we explained what needs to be done on the website, from eliminating duplicates to writing meta tags.

Let’s consider several tasks that we included in the basic technical specification:

  • Static weight distribution

External links:

We determined that there should be a minimum of external hyperlinks on the website. Therefore, we decided to leave links on social networks open for indexing by search engines and close links to other resources from indexing with the rel =”nofollow” tag.

Generation of “Breadcrumbs”:

Since “Breadcrumbs” are an essential navigation element of the website for users and search engines, they must be present on all pages except the main one.

“Breadcrumbs” is a strip of links describing the full path to the current page:

Site.com> Exchange> Currency pair/Currency

We decided to make “Currency pair/Currency” not a link but normal text describing the name of the current page. 

An example from a competitor we were targeting:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 6

We also defined the requirements for the breadcrumbs: placement at the top of the page, above h1; no duplicates; links are all items, except for the current (last one). 

  • Creating several language versions of the website

Localization was one of the priority areas, which set some tasks to be performed professionally:

  • Introducing hreflang. When using several language versions on the website, rel =”alternate” hreflang =”x” tags should be generated on the pages, indicating the page of the alternative language. 

Example:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 7
  • The <loc> element for sitemap.xml. There is a <loc> element in the sitemap where URLs should be specified. <Xhtml: link> contains links to the page and all of its regional and language versions.

Example:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 8
  • Content translation. All blocks should be translated automatically (menus, buttons, navigation, charts), and the content should be adapted for all languages. There must be the possibility to manually load content and change tags in the selected language version.
  • Language “switcher”. The main aspect is the ease of choosing the language of the website for users. One way to do this is creating a button to switch between languages and sort by popular languages.
  • Meta tag templates. Each type of page requires a unique meta tag regardless of the language version. Templates simplified forming Title, Description, and H1.

Example of meta tag templates for language versions:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 9
  • Relinking. All internal and end-to-end links (in the footer and header) should change, and when choosing a language, lead to the selected version until the user themselves changes the language settings.

Generating meta tags

We have developed templates for generating meta tags for all pages: first currency, currency pairs, and forecasts, including for each currency.

For the first currency pages:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 10

For a currency pair:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 11

For forecasts:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 12

For the forecast for each currency:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 13

We suggested structuring content and SEO texts using H1-H6 tags. Alt and Title for images must be generated according to the template: 

Alt: Page name; Title: Page title.

In addition to the basic technical specification, we developed individual documents for implementing typical pages. As an example, let’s consider the details of the technical specification for the Versus page (coin VS coin):

Requirements for Versus (coin VS coin):

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 14

We also specified elements to be included in pages (cards) for comparing the parameters of 2 coins, based on an example of https://currencio.co/compare/btc/miota/

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 15

For currency comparison pages, we developed templates for generating meta tags with variables for different language versions.

An example of a template for the English and German versions of the website:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 16

In addition, we modified the technical aspects related to content optimization. We decided to highlight them in another paragraph and analyze them in more detail.

The next step was to build a link building strategy. To do this, we used competitor data from the first stage. 

An example of analysis by page types for the EN version of the website:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 17

During link building, we faced the problem of overcoming the competition in terms of link amount. There were difficulties with placing links on third-party resources because some did not want to cooperate in this niche.

It determined the following steps: creating a PBN with raising drops (websites with expired registrations that collect traffic and bring it to the main website). We selected relevant drops and put redirects to the promoted resource. For example, in April, we worked with 20+ donors, and in September with 80+.

Outreach was carried out simultaneously. We offered quality content to websites and bloggers in return for getting a place to post it. Of course, there was a payment for publications. Having a limited budget for link building, we tried to select websites with a minimum commission for links.

Placing links on different websites required creating thematic content. We took care of this, having developed a technical specification for writing texts and selecting relevant topics. For the convenience of working with copywriters, we have established several general requirements for writing articles:

  • The article must be readable and helpful for users.
  • Structured text (subheadings, lists).
  • The volume of the article is 2500 to 3000 symbols.
  • Uniqueness of the text: 95%+.
  • Not less than 9 points according to Glavred.
  • Natural addition of anchor with a link to the text (without declensions).
  • In articles with 2 anchors, min distance of 200-300 characters.

Optimizing content

As promised, we devote a separate paragraph to working with content. And let’s start by providing technical recommendations for optimization.

We have thought over the requirements and structure for each type of page to exclude empty and uninformative pages.

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 18
SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 19

We proposed to structure content and SEO texts using H1-H6 tags according to the following rules: 

  • H1 is the main tag (name of the page, article, category, and product), higher than the rest of the heading tags and is used no more than 1 time on the page;
  • title tags are not included in links;
  • H1-H3 are used only in the page content.

Spinning texts

This stage was the most interesting from the technical point of view. The service had 200+ pages of coins and 40,000+ currency pairs! It was unrealistic to provide all pages with content manually: 40,000 for 6 regions is 240,000 landing pages!

We decided to provide spinning, a method of automated content generation. We set up a template for the text with the keys and variables that should change depending on the page type. Spinning for the FAQ blocks was done individually.

Author’s content in the blog

The website belongs to the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) niche. It means that the content posted here directly impacts the reader. If the website contains inaccurate, incomplete, or false information, the reader may make a wrong decision, negatively affecting their health, financial stability, and security.

It places a serious responsibility on the website owner and poses an important task: to make sure that all content is expert, authoritative, and reliable. In other words, it must comply with the EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).

Based on the requirements of the EAT, we proposed to modify the blog so that all articles have authors and links to their profiles on the website.

We compiled a list of guidelines for copyright content:

  • The conclusion of the author on the article page with a link to their profile according to the scheme (example):
SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 20
  • Creation of a separate author page with a photo, description, as well as a link to social networks, and a list of articles below.
  • Introducing “Breadcrumbs” for authors.

We followed the example: https://www.coindesk.com/author/ssinclair:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 21

Testing was the final step in the promotion. We focused on website performance, considering the requirements of Core Web Vitals, which allowed us to actively participate in the indexation.

What results have we achieved?

From March to October 2021, there were 178 positions in Google’s TOP-10 (targeting the US), which accounted for 14% of all keywords, and 75 positions entered the TOP-3 (6% of all keywords). 

The number of keywords in the TOP:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 22
SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 23

Based on analysis from Google Search Console, we tracked an impressive 130x growth in traffic (excluding branded traffic). The website had 30 to 895 sessions per day.

We recorded a total of 112K clicks and a total of 3.37M views. 

Metrics after promotion:

SEO for a Crypto Exchanger: The Lets Exchange Case. Traffic increased by 130 times and 167 keywords in the TOP 10 search results - 24

Conclusion

Luxeo Team specialists achieved the planned promotion results by studying all technical aspects, integrated link promotion, and content optimization. We managed to meet the client’s expectations, which became the basis for further fruitful cooperation.

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