Industry
Fintech / B2B SaaS
Location
Paris, Île-de-France
Duration
12 months
Challenge
The client migrated from a legacy .fr blog to a consolidated .com architecture without full redirect mapping. French organic traffic dropped 38% within eight weeks. Referring domains were skewed toward outdated directory links from 2019 outreach. Sales pipeline from organic in France stalled while paid search costs rose.
Strategy
We ran a three-track program: technical recovery support (redirect audit coordination), unlinked mention reclamation in French business press, and a quarterly payments regulation research series pitched to fintech journalists. Executive commentary targeted Les Echos and Maddyness beats covering open banking and PSD2 implementation.
Research asset: French SME payment behavior
We surveyed 1,240 French SME finance managers on payment tool adoption, invoice automation, and bank API usage. The report included regional splits for Île-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Maddyness ran a feature with followed link. Two trade newsletters cited the data with links to the methodology page.
The methodology page became an internal link hub connecting to product and integration content, distributing authority without over-optimized anchors.
Trade press quote velocity
The CFO joined six journalist roundups on B2B payment fraud and instant transfer adoption. Four placements included followed links to the team insights index. Response SLA was under three hours for French-language requests during business days.
We declined low-fit podcast appearances that offered no editorial link path, keeping spokesperson bandwidth focused on high-equity opportunities.
Before and after metrics
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| organic Sessions | 4,180 / mo | 10,120 / mo |
| referring Domains | 94 | 178 |
| avg Position | 24.6 | 11.2 |
| ctr | 1.8% | 3.4% |
Performance data
Campaign timeline
Month 1
Audit and redirect fixes
Completed backlink and redirect audit with dev agency. Submitted updated sitemap.
Month 3
First research launch
SME payments survey published. First Maddyness placement indexed.
Month 6
Referring domain inflection
Crossed 130 referring domains with 78% editorial classification.
Month 12
Target keyword page 1
Primary French commercial term reached position 8 on mobile.
Outcome analysis
Organic sessions from France more than doubled. Referring domain count rose 89% with improved editorial ratio. Average position on a 42-keyword French set improved from 24.6 to 11.2. CTR gains followed title tag tests aligned with trade press language buyers already recognized.