Case study: how an SEO + AEO blog builds B2B sales (a 6-month walkthrough)

Before we start, an honest note: this is a model case study. It shows exactly the process we use to run client blogs, applied to a typical B2B company, but the numbers are conservative assumptions for you to verify yourself, not results from a specific contract. We would rather show the mechanics and the math than an anonymous chart with no context.

Starting point

Picture a company you probably know too well: a transport management software (TMS) vendor, 15 people, clients from referrals and paid campaigns. The website has a “Blog” tab with three posts from 2024. Customer acquisition cost grows every quarter, and when the ad budget runs out, the pipeline freezes.

When a potential client types “TMS system for mid-size fleet cost” into Google, they find comparison sites and competitors. When they ask ChatGPT “which TMS should I choose for 40 vehicles”, the company doesn’t appear in the answer at all. For the search engine and for AI, the company doesn’t exist beyond its own name.

Month 0: a content plan instead of a brainstorm

We start with an interview with the sales team, not with a keyword tool. We write down the questions that come up in sales meetings and check each one in Google, ChatGPT and Perplexity: who answers, who gets cited by the answer engines.

That produces the first month’s plan: 10 topics, including 5 bottom-of-funnel (“How much does a TMS implementation cost”, “TMS vs Excel: when the spreadsheet stops being enough”, “How to compare TMS offers: 12 questions for the vendor”), 3 mid-funnel, and 2 authority pieces built on unique implementation knowledge.

Months 1-2: publishing and structure for two engines

Every article gets a structure built for SEO and AEO at once: headings phrased as questions, a direct-answer paragraph at the top of each section, structured data, internal links across the cluster.

This is the least spectacular part of the work: Google indexes, the first long-tail phrases reach positions 20-40. The client’s team spends one 20-minute recording a month on all of it.

Months 3-4: first rankings and first citations

Bottom-of-funnel texts start entering the top 10 for phrases nobody covered properly. These are phrases with dozens, maybe hundreds of searches a month, but they are typed by people with a budget and a deadline.

In parallel, something shows up in AEO monitoring: Perplexity starts citing the comparison article as a source for TMS selection questions. That is the structure paying off: an answer engine needs content it can lift a specific, complete answer from.

Months 5-6: the cluster works as a whole

Ten, then twenty texts around one topic signal topical authority: the domain stops being a random blog and becomes a source in its niche. Rankings grow as a cluster, not one by one.

And then the thing all this work is for: sales inquiries that come from content. The form gets filled in by someone who has read the comparison, knows the price range, and asks the fifth question of the funnel, not the first.

The math worth running for your own company

Let’s assume conservatively: after half a year the blog brings 4 sales inquiries a month and the company closes 1 in 4. At a client value of $5,000, one closed client a month means the $749 subscription pays back several times over. Even at one inquiry every two months, the investment still comes out ahead.

That is the fundamental difference versus ads: an article that has earned its ranking works for years with no extra budget. An ad stops existing the day you stop paying.

What this model does not promise

Honesty requires three caveats. First, the pace depends on how competitive the niche is: in narrow B2B six months is a realistic horizon, in a broad industry it can take longer. Second, a site with serious technical problems needs those fixed first. Third, content will not replace your offer: the blog delivers conversations, the company closes them.

That is exactly why we offer a guarantee: if after 6 months there is no clear growth in visibility, we keep working for free.

Test this model on your own company

The simplest first step: a free one-month content plan. We will prepare 8-10 topics matched to your clients’ questions and check who ChatGPT and Perplexity cite in your industry. You will see your gap and the path to closing it before you spend anything.