How many backlinks did Petcan need to rank for 12,000 keywords?

NUOPTIMA placed 25 backlinks. Because the campaign targeted low-competition keywords across 6 languages, a small initial link base was enough to establish domain authority. Petcan later grew to 82 referring domains as publishers linked to it organically.

How long did the content production phase last?

Four months, from September 2021 to January 2022. NUOPTIMA published around 45,000 words per month across 6 languages, then paused to allow Google to index the site fully.

Why did NUOPTIMA target 6 languages from the start?

The insect pet food niche is very small, so reaching a critical audience level quickly meant expanding across multiple low-competition language markets simultaneously rather than dominating one language first.

Petcan: 12,000 Keywords Across 6 Languages in 7 Months

Q: What happened after NUOPTIMA stopped publishing content?

In the three months after the content pause, Petcan's traffic grew 1,700% without a single additional piece of content, confirming that the accumulated topical authority continued compounding.

TLDR

Who: Petcan, an insect-based pet food startup using SEO as its primary growth channel.
What changed: NUOPTIMA built topical authority across 6 languages in 4 months of content production, then paused publishing to let Google index at full velocity.
The number: 17x traffic growth and 12,000 organic keywords ranked within 7 months (September 2021 to April 2022).

Unique languages

12,000

Organic keywords

5,300

Unique visitors

Ahrefs keyword growth chart showing Petcan reaching 12,000 organic keywords within 7 months — Petcan ranked for 12,000 keywords in under 7 months with NUOPTIMA's multilingual launch strategy.

About Petcan

Petcan is a pet food startup built around insect-based nutrition. The insect pet food category is extremely small, which made rapid, low-competition keyword capture possible if executed across multiple markets at once. Petcan chose organic search as its primary growth channel from day one, and needed an agency that could move at startup speed across several languages simultaneously.

Petcan blog optimized for SEO across multiple language versions — Petcan's blog was optimized for SEO across all six language versions.

What we did

The goal was to build topical authority in the pet space as fast as possible by targeting low-competition keywords across 6 languages. NUOPTIMA's in-house international writing team produced SEO-optimized content at high volume, then paused to let Google process the accumulated signals before moving to more competitive terms.

Content production

Months of writing

45,000

Monthly words written

17x

Traffic growth

The project started in September 2021. NUOPTIMA published 45,000 words per month across six languages before pausing content production in January 2022. In the three months after the pause, traffic grew 1,700% without a single additional piece of content, confirming that the content quality had satisfied Google's indexing threshold.

Petcan traffic chart showing 17x growth after NUOPTIMA stopped writing content

Setting up a site for multilingual search correctly requires more than translation. The technical SEO foundation included:

Hreflang tags for every language variant
Localized meta tags per market
Zero duplicate content from the primary language version
Google Search Console configuration for each language
Localized keyword and content research per geography

Below are examples of content pieces produced across the pet niche during the campaign.

25/01/2022

Benefits of CBD for Horses

Fever in Dogs article published on Petcan blog

25/01/2022

Fever in Dogs: Causes and Treatments

Link building

Backlinks placed

Because the keyword targets were low competition, only a small number of backlinks were needed to get the domain moving. NUOPTIMA placed 25 backlinks and then paused to let Google index the site. Since the content quality was high, publishers began linking to Petcan organically. The site now has 82 referring domains, meaning 57 of those links came in without any outreach spend.

When Petcan moves into more competitive keywords, building localized backlinks in relevant geographic markets will be the next lever. That groundwork is already in place through the multilingual site architecture.

Ahrefs referring domains report showing Petcan grew to 82 domains after NUOPTIMA placed 25 backlinks — Petcan grew to 82 referring domains after NUOPTIMA placed 25 backlinks: 57 came in organically because of content quality.

Results

Between September 2021 and April 2022, Petcan went from a standing start to 12,000 organic keywords ranked across 6 languages, 5,300 unique monthly visitors, and 82 referring domains. The 17x traffic increase happened entirely after NUOPTIMA stopped publishing new content, which shows the compounding effect of building real topical authority rather than chasing individual keyword placements.

Key takeaways

In narrow, low-competition niches, multilingual SEO at launch multiplies keyword surface area without multiplying link-building cost: 6 languages, 25 backlinks, 12,000 keywords.
Publishing velocity followed by a deliberate indexing pause outperformed a steady drip: 4 months of 45,000 words per month, then a stop, produced 17x traffic growth in the 3 months after the pause.
High content quality earns passive links: NUOPTIMA placed 25 backlinks, and 57 more came in organically as publishers treated Petcan as a category authority.

If you want to build topical authority quickly in a niche market, book a call with NUOPTIMA to see what a multilingual SEO launch could look like for your brand.