Sidebrief Grew Organic Traffic By +1,631% Through SEO-Driven Content Strategy in Just 7 Months

Sidebrief is a RegTech startup making it easier for founders, startups, and global companies to register businesses and stay compliant across Africa.

Sidebrief offers services like business incorporation, tax registration, regulatory filings, post-incorporation updates, and ongoing compliance support, all through a fast, tech-enabled platform.

For Sidebrief, content wasn’t just an awareness play, it became their main engine for organic growth.

From February to September 2023, we worked on a focused content strategy that helped them go from near-invisible to being found by over 1,000+ people monthly, and they’re purely through organic search.

1. No paid ads.
2. No media/influencer buzz.
3. Just good SEO and content.

Here’s how we pulled it off.

The Project

When we joined the team at Sidebrief, the mission was clear:

Build visibility with SEO-focused content that solves real problems people are searching for.

But the problem was just as clear.

Sidebrief had little search presence.

Their website was brochure-style, simple, static, and not well structured for SEO.

Limited landing pages were targeting service-specific or location-based keywords.

Blog posts were targeting low-volume keywords, plus there were a couple of high-volume keyword opportunities that were untapped

Worse, we had a Domain Rating under 10, a few backlinks (while some were spammy and no-follow), and just a few ranking pages (little in the top 10).

It was like trying to launch a rocket… from a parking lot.

But…

We had one edge:

Sidebrief was solving an actual pain point.

People wanted to know how to register a business, file taxes, or stay compliant.

They were searching for help, but Sidebrief wasn’t just showing up yet.

That’s where we came in.

My Approach to the Problem

First, we did a deep dive into the customers

We researched:

1. Their location
2. What they’re searching for
3. What they talk about on social media

etc.,

Then… 

The product.

We walked through the workflows for company registration, tax filings, and document preparation on the web app.

We looked at the competitor sites to understand what they covered (and what they missed).

Then, we turned to the real gold mine: search data.

I mapped out every use case that Sidebrief covered and paired it with keywords that people were already searching for.

But we didn’t stop at keywords.

We went to Twitter, legal blogs, government portals, and help centers, and anywhere I could find how people talked about these problems.

We wanted to know:

1. What questions were people asking?
2. What confused them?
3. What steps were hardest to understand?
4. What were they Googling right before they gave up?

This helped me shape content around actual problems, not just “SEO topics.”

And then…

We scaled.

We didn’t write random blog posts.

We created:

1. Step-by-step business registration guides
2. Tax and compliance explainers
3. Document checklist pages
4. FAQs around filings, requirements, and timelines

Each page was created with search intent in mind.

Each headline, meta tag, and subheader followed a clear SEO structure.

Each guide had internal links to related content.

Over 7 months, we published 100+ pages; all built to rank, answer questions, and convert.

Highlights of Some of the Projects We Personally Worked On

How to Put in a Successful Application to Techstars Lagos

Ranks #5 for “how to apply for techstars lagos”

Also ranks #9 for “techstars lagos application”

This article is behind Techstars Lagos itself and its partner, ARM Labs. This article currently outranks media blogs like TechCrunch, Benjamindada, Techcabal, Nairametrics, theCable, Disrupt Africa, and VC4A

Benefits of Global Accelerators for African Startups

Ranks #2 for “benefits of global accelerators”

Also ranks #2 for “benefits of global accelerators for african startups”

Getting Approved for a Brex Bank Account: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ranks #4 for “how to approve a brex bank account” behind Brex

How to Ace Your 500 Startup Application

Ranks #3 for “how to apply to 500 startup” behind 500 Global

Also ranks #6 for “500 startup application”

Highlights of Some of the Projects Sidebrief’s Team Worked On

Register Business in Tanzania

Ranks #8 for “how to register a business in tanzania”

Register Business in South Africa

Ranks #7 for “how to register a business in south africa”

Register Business in DR Congo

Ranks #2 for “how to register a business in congo”

Also ranks #4 for “how to register a business in dr congo”

Register Business in Senegal

Ranks #4 for “how to register a business in senegal”

Register Business in Ethiopia

Ranks #5 for “how to register a business in ethiopia”

Register Business in Angola

Ranks #6 for “how to register a business in angola”

The Results

By September 2023, Sidebrief went from 61 organic traffic in February to pulling in 1,056 organic traffic in September.

From ~61 visits in February → 1,056 in September, 2023

That’s +1,631% Organic Traffic Growth.

1. Without any paid campaigns.
2. Without Digital PR.
3. Without fancy backlinks.

Just consistent, strategic, and intent-driven content.

Here’s the traffic breakdown by location (Ahrefs, September 2023):

1. Nigeria: 395 visitors from 668 keywords ranking
2. Tanzania: 164 visitors
3. Uganda: 21 visitors
4. Kenya: 14 visitors
5. United States: 9 visitors from 450 keywords

We had more non-branded (626 keywords, which are ~59.3%) keywords ranking than branded (430 keywords, which are ~40.7%) keywords

Branded and Non-Branded Organic Traffic Spikes between February 2023 to September 2023

We earned 108 referring domains (while 77.8% of them were followed) organically.

We had 100+ SEO pages indexed and ranking.

And… because we focused on service-specific and geo-specific topics, many of those pages reached top 3 rankings for high-intent keywords, and informational keywords are the highest with 569.

We also got 78 organic keywords in the 1-10 position on the search engine result page

Organic Keywords in the 1-10 Position

All without any link building campaign, BUT we got backlinks from other sites organically, and 66.8% of them are followed.

461 Backlinks

What does the impression look like from Google Search Console (720 to 16,500)

Impression from Google Search Console Between February and September 2023

What We Learned From This Project

You don’t need a high Domain Rating or hundreds of backlinks to win with SEO.

You need to understand your product, map it to what people are actually searching for, and then create content that meets them at that point of need.

If you can do that and do it consistently, Google will reward you.

And… traffic that contributes to your business goals will follow.

If you’re an early-stage RegTech startup thinking of how to grow without paid media, SEO might just be your answer.