The story of backl.io & SEO Kickstarter

Hi, my name is Philipp and I'm a solopreneur from Switzerland.

2022 I launched my first startup weegee.ch - a shared flat search for Switzerland.

After 5 months of developing I finally launched - but I got zero traffic. I somehow had the idea that the traffic would come by itself 😅

Following intensive SEO research I started building backlinks by cold email outreach. Over the course of the next months weegee.ch ranked on the first 5 positions on Google for its main keywords.

© Philipp KellerPhilipp Keller

Backlink builder

I realized that other builders have that same problem. They wrote great content but still got zero SEO traffic - because they were lacking backlinks.

I built a little MVP - which automates the manual cold email outreach I did for weegee a year earlier. The MVP was scratching my own itch because I wanted to continue the cold email outreach myself. I posted this picture on Twitter to see the initial reactions:

© Philipp KellerPhilipp Keller

There were lots of interest - which I initially dismissed. But people kept insisting I should build it for real. So I dropped my first startup and focussed on building an MVP - which I had two months later. I limited the number of seats to 10 and launched. The 10 seats were filled within 3 days. I started a waiting list which was building up as well.

I onboarded new customers via calls and learned a lot. I iterated for a few months until I realized: Such an outreach tool is too hard for SEO beginners. It works for SEO agencies but solopreneurs need something a lot simpler.

SEO Kickstarter

I then spent two months analyzing backlink data thinking about a way I can package it into a product which was much easier to use.

I chose 200 successful startups and reverse engineered where they had their backlinks from. I used the best SEO tools for that:

• ahrefs
• semrush
• MOZ
• majestic

I curated the research into a Notion page and structured it as a workbook which can be used for multiple domains.

Initially thought as a sidekick for the Backlink builder the launch on Twitter got viral and since then I focus working on the SEO Kickstarter. I constantly research new backlink possibilities and also interact a lot with customers of my product to help them on their quest to rank well.

Where to find me:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/philkellr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/backl.io
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/backl-io
• Bio.site: https://bio.site/philkellr
• Microsoft AppSource