How Ghost Captures $786.81K in Traffic Value Monthly - A Marketing Strategy Breakdown

By Team Inblog ⋅ April 2, 2025

Ghost, an innovative open source publishing platform for independent journalists and content creators, empowers users with powerful tools to manage websites, engage audiences, and monetize their work. Ghost has successfully generated $786.81K in traffic cost value through its SEO strategies as of March, 2025. This growth is driven by a combination of keyword targeting, content optimization, and on-page SEO improvements.

In this article, we’ll dive into the key marketing strategies that contributed to their success.

Keyword Strategies

A well-planned keyword strategy helps connect your content with the right audience by aligning it with their searches.

Boost SERP Rankings by Understanding Search Intent

The key to this strategy’s success is Ghost's deep understanding of search intent. Search intent isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the reason people type queries into search engines and a major driver of search traffic.

There are four main types of search intent:

• Informational: When someone is looking to learn more (e.g., “What is ghost?”)
• Navigational: When someone is trying to find a specific page or site (e.g., “Personal CRM Template”).
• Commercial: When someone is comparing options (e.g., “ghost vs. Competitors”).
• Transactional: When someone is ready to buy, use, or download something (e.g., “ghost Pricing”).

As search intent moves from Informational to Navigational, Commercial, and Transactional, users become more specific and action-driven. Initially, users seek general information, but as they move down the funnel, they get closer to making a decision or purchase.

Considering various keyword variations that users might search for in areas like UX or template solutions, Ghost's top 1,000 organic keywords have been categorized into these intent types.

Notably, commercial keywords are displayed using examples such as "ghost", "ghost cms", "freshcut", "ghost newsletter", "ghost api", "ghost blogging platform", "ghost plugins", "mailgun pricing", "your connection is not private", "ghost hosting", and they account for the largest share, contributing $131.63K in traffic cost.

Optimizing Content for Search Intent

To rank well on Google, it's important to create content that aligns with what users are actually searching for. Google aims to provide answers by using advanced algorithms to understand the intent behind each query. Understanding search intent helps ensure your content meets users’ needs.

Below are the top five pages on Ghost that generate the most organic traffic through content optimized for keyword intent:

Ghost's SEO success is rooted in a traditional content marketing strategy, where long-form guides rank for a wide range of keywords. The selected keywords are non-branded and long-tailed queries that resonate with niche audiences. This structured approach to content not only boosts rankings but also ensures that searchers find exactly what they're looking for.

Choosing the Right Keywords to Attract Quality Traffic

The more organic keywords you rank for—that is, words and phrases that draw people to your site from a search engine results page (SERP)—the better. Organic keywords are free, help improve online visibility, and attract quality traffic.

On-Page SEO: Keeping a Consistent URL Structure

On-page SEO involves a variety of internal optimizations, including refined title tags, carefully crafted meta descriptions, and, notably, a clean and user-friendly URL structure. These elements work together to enhance both user experience and search engine visibility, ensuring that content is accessible and easily understood at first glance.

Ghost employs a logical and structured URL format that leverages clear subfolders to separate main topics and nested paths to dive deeper into specific subjects. By organizing content into a simple structure like ghost.org/[subfolder]—for example, in pages such as themes, integrations, or pricing—the site immediately signals its content focus. For more detailed or comparative pieces, the nested structure ghost.org/[subfolder]/[keyword] is used, such as in comparisons or individual integration articles.

This deliberate hierarchical URL architecture not only simplifies site navigation but also improves crawlability for search engines by clearly demarcating content categories and keywords. The consistent and descriptive URL framework helps reinforce thematic relevance, enhance user trust, and ultimately play a crucial role in Ghost’s overall technical SEO strategy, contributing to improved rankings and more organic traffic.

Examples of URL Structure:

ghost.org/[subfolder]

• https://ghost.org/themes
• https://ghost.org/integrations
• https://ghost.org/pricing

ghost.org/[subfolder]/[keyword]

• https://ghost.org/vs/substack
• https://ghost.org/integrations/disqus
• https://ghost.org/help/google-domain-setup

Conclusion

This report provides a comprehensive breakdown of Ghost’s innovative marketing and SEO strategies that have enabled it to capture $786.81K in monthly traffic value. It details the importance of understanding search intent through targeted keyword strategies, the power of content optimization by meeting user queries, and the focus on high-value long-tail and integration-focused keywords to attract quality traffic. Additionally, Ghost’s uniform URL structure, aimed at enhancing on-page SEO, reinforces the overall technical framework that supports its impressive organic performance.