The challenge
Verdant sold carbon accounting software to mid-market manufacturers. Growth was entirely paid — $84k a month across Google and LinkedIn with a 14-month CAC payback that made their board nervous. They had a blog publishing twice a week, but it targeted broad awareness topics like 'what is net zero' that attracted students and consultants, not buyers.
What we did
Rebuilt keyword strategy around buying intent
We scrapped the awareness-topic calendar and mapped the questions buyers ask in the last 30 days before purchase — compliance deadlines, competitor comparisons, integration questions, and regulation-specific guidance.
Fixed a serious technical foundation problem
Their JavaScript-rendered site was leaving 60% of pages effectively uncrawled. Migrating to server-rendered Next.js got indexation from 38% to 96% within six weeks — before a single new article was published.
Built three topic clusters properly
Pillar pages on regulatory compliance, emissions methodology, and supply chain reporting, each supported by 15–22 pieces with a deliberate internal linking matrix rather than ad-hoc links.
Earned authority with original data
A quarterly manufacturing emissions benchmark, built on anonymized platform data, has earned 340 referring domains and is now cited by trade press and, increasingly, by AI search engines.
The result
Organic now drives 68% of qualified pipeline. Verdant cut paid spend by 55% while total pipeline grew, bringing blended CAC down 44% and payback to under six months. They rank on page one for 214 commercial keywords.
“Our board's biggest concern was that growth stopped the moment we stopped spending. Eighteen months later most of our pipeline comes from an asset we own. That changed our fundraising conversation entirely.”