How We Helped A Print-On-Demand Leader Gain +97K Monthly Visitors

The print-on-demand industry has grown rapidly, and so is competition within the industry.

Our client was one of the first companies to establish itself as a leader in the space, but competitors were sprouting up and catching up. Fast.

With their niche becoming crowded almost overnight, staying on top meant building high-quality links quicker than their competitors could.

Here’s how we built valuable links and automated the outreach process to help our client retain their market-leading position.

💡 Our Strategy

With a domain rating (DR) of 87, our client was already ahead of most of its competitors.

But, to stay ahead, they needed to speed up their link-building efforts. So, our strategic approach was centered in combining speed with quality.

By automating key parts of the link-building process–like prospecting and initial outreach–we were able to help our client get ahead faster and scale more effectively.

We achieved this by identifying more potential link partners, following up consistently, and securing high-authority backlinks at a pace that would leave competitors in the dust.

We did all this without compromising the quality of our client’s backlink profile.

⛰️ The challenges

Our client’s competitors mostly had reasonable DRs in the 60s and 70s, so they didn’t pose a threat on that front yet.

However, their competitors were aggressively building their backlink profiles and catching up.

Over the last two years, our client’s competitors experienced explosive growth in their number of referring domains:

• Printify (+233%)
• Gelato (+513%)
• Gooten (+133%)
• Merchize (+579%)

So, our challenge wasn’t just building high-quality links. It was building them faster than the competition, without compromising quality.

⭐ Our solution

To help our client maintain their position, we developed a link-building campaign targeting high-intent keywords and a mix of bottom-of-the-funnel and top-of-the-funnel content.

Here’s what we did:

✅ Targeted high-intent keywords: We focused on commercial keywords where users were ready to make purchasing decisions, like "print on demand" or "hoodie design maker." This approach helped drive qualified traffic that was more likely to convert.

✅ Built bottom-of-the-funnel links: We secured links from roundup articles aimed at buyers ready to act:

✅ Built top-of-the-funnel links: We also built links from how-to and informational articles that targeted users in the research phase:

✅ Anchor text: We built anchor text that was a combination of:

• Branded terms pointing to landing pages

• Exact match keywords, also pointing to landing pages

• Partial match keywords pointing to how-to-articles

🚀 The Results

Our efforts paid off, and our client saw increases in traffic, backlinks, and keyword rankings:

✅ +97,510 increase in organic monthly traffic, which translates into a 15% boost.

✅ This represents a +$10,264 increase in monthly organic traffic value.

✅ We helped our client build a strong backlink profile with 225,000 backlinks from 14,800 referring domains.

✅ Our client’s DR increased by +2 (a rare feat for domain ratings already in the upper 80s).

✅ We secured valuable backlinks from high-DR websites, including:

• Wix (DR 95)
• Spotify (DR 95)
• Squarespace (DR 94)
• Hubspot (DR 93)
• Canva (DR 93)

✅ Top 3 rankings for competitive, high-intent keywords like:

• Print on demand (Search Vol - 42k)
• Print-on-demand products (Search Vol - 3.4k)
• Custom products (Search Vol - 1.9k)
• Hoodie design maker (Search Vol - 1.8k)
• Print-on-demand websites (Search Vol - 1k)

🔥 Your Competitors Aren’t Waiting, and Neither Should You

No matter what industry you're in, fierce competition can spring up overnight.

When it does, you need to be ready to build links fast, without sacrificing quality. That’s exactly what we did for our client.

We helped them secure 500 high-quality backlinks, grow traffic by 97,510 visitors, and maintain their lead in a growing market.

Ready to do the same? Book a free strategy call today!