How permies Captures $1.34M in Traffic Value Monthly - A Marketing Strategy Breakdown

By Team Inblog ⋅ March 19, 2025

permies is a dynamic online hub that brings together permaculture enthusiasts, homesteading experts, and sustainable living advocates to share innovative ideas and resources. Through its well-planned SEO strategies, permies has successfully generated $1.34M in traffic cost value as of February, 2025. This impressive growth is achieved by combining robust 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 permies’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 permies?”)
• 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., “permies vs. Competitors”).
• Transactional: When someone is ready to buy, use, or download something (e.g., “permies 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, permies's top 1,000 organic keywords have been categorized into these intent types.

Notably, commercial keywords—displayed using examples such as "pemmican", "black pudding", "gardening for beginners", "chip drop", "nopales", "air fryer", "perogies", "kimchi", "venison", and "land for sale"—account for the largest share and contribute $10.14K 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 permies that generate the most organic traffic through content optimized for keyword intent:

permies's SEO success is rooted in a traditional content marketing strategy, where long-form guides rank for a wide range of keywords. Each of these keywords addresses specific, actionable queries that resonate with users. For instance, "how to make pizza dough" appeals to cooking enthusiasts seeking detailed recipe instructions, while "growing zones" and "how to know when to water a plant" provide tailored advice for gardeners. Similarly, "how to unclog a toilet" and "how does a heat pump work" tackle urgent concerns related to home maintenance and energy efficiency. This targeted approach ensures that each keyword delivers content that directly answers user questions, leading to strong rankings and significant traffic generation.

Choosing the Right Keywords to Attract Quality Traffic

The greater the number of organic keywords you rank for, the better your online visibility and quality traffic become—and organic keywords are free. permies ranks for 653,240 organic keywords. One of the standout elements contributing to this success is permies’s ability to rank for high-value, non-branded keywords that exhibit strong search intent.

On-Page SEO: Keeping a Consistent URL Structure

On-page SEO is the practice of refining elements within a webpage—such as title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and especially URLs—to improve visibility and user experience on search engine results pages. A structured, keyword-rich URL not only reinforces the page’s topic but also aids in establishing a clear hierarchy that both users and search engines can easily navigate.

Permies employs a well-defined URL strategy that uses distinct subfolders to categorize its content. For instance, the “t” subfolder is typically used for threads, while other sections like “wiki” and “forums” handle specialized content types. By embedding keywords into the URL after these subfolders, the site signals clearly what each page is about, thereby aligning content topics with user queries and SEO best practices.

This systematic approach to URL construction simplifies navigation and improves crawlability, which are crucial factors for technical SEO. The clear separation between simple and nested URL structures not only organizes content in a logical manner but also enhances keyword prominence, ultimately contributing to better indexing and higher search rankings for permies.

Examples of URL Structure:

permies/[subfolder]

• https://permies.com/t
• https://permies.com/wiki
• https://permies.com/forums

permies/[subfolder]/[keyword]

• https://permies.com/t/Walipini-underground-greenhouse-actual-experience
• https://permies.com/t/making-pemmican
• https://permies.com/t/check-mark-emoji

Conclusion

This report details how permies effectively captures $1.34M in traffic value monthly through a strategic blend of SEO practices. By leveraging a deep understanding of search intent and employing a targeted keyword strategy, permies ranks for a diverse array of organic keywords. The emphasis on content optimization and the use of a uniform URL structure further enhance the site's visibility and usability. With carefully curated clusters in both general SEO and food recipe-specific keywords, permies has established itself as a leading platform that meets user needs while driving high-quality, meaningful traffic.