How to rank for 800+ keywords before your product is even live

dirty SEO for clean growth

Author

Junaid Khalid
April 05, 2025

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This edition is relevant for: Marketeers & Founders that are building in public, pre-launch, or validating demand while shipping.

👀 Next Edition Preview:

Coming up next week –

Deep Dive: How to write 100+ Blog Posts in 10 Days and start ranking before you launch

See the results, then we’ll discuss the method

LiGo Blog - SEO Results from Google Search Console

We started pushing out blogs for LiGo consistently about 40 days ago. Results:

  • Average rank across the board: up by about 30 positions.

  • Total impressions per month: up by about 20 times.

    (P.S: I selected 3 months comparison, but 19K out of the 26K impressions in the screenshot are from the last 28 days).

  • Total clicks per month: up 5 times.

  • CTR: down 5 times (because previously we were only ranking and not so well for “brand keywords” hence CTR was relatively higher).

  • When we started, there were about 70 keywords that we were ranking for, now the number is 1000+.

In March, we finally got serious about SEO for LiGo's blog. We published ~100 articles focusing on problems our target audience faces (not just our product features).

SEO is supposedly "slow" - but with volume and targeting, you can see real movement fast. We expect the full impact to materialize over the next 2-3 months as Google fully indexes and positions these pages.

SEO Isn't Dead. You're Just Doing It Too Clean.

Everyone says SEO takes time.

That you need backlinks. Topical authority. Domain rating. All the boring stuff that takes months (or years) to build.

But what if I told you this:

Unlike what we did with LiGo (where we waited too long), you could publish 100 blog posts for your product - before it's even live - and start ranking for 800+ keywords with 5,000+ impressions per week in less than a month.

If your product is under construction, it's exactly what you should be doing.

(And yes, we're now doing this too, just a bit late to the game!)

The Problem with "Best Practice" SEO

Most founders ignore SEO until months after launch. Why?

Because traditional SEO advice is built for:

  • Teams with writers and link-building budgets

  • Products with traction

  • Businesses optimizing a mature funnel

If you're in MVP mode, that doesn't help you.

You need eyeballs now - to test messaging, see what keywords people are clicking on, and warm up your domain before your product's ready.

The Step by Step Guide for SEO | Relevant for product/SaaS companies

Step 1: Build a Keyword Seed List

Use tools like:

  • Google Keyword Planner (free!)

  • AnswerThePublic

  • Google Autocomplete

  • ChatGPT ("What questions would a [your audience] ask about [topic]?")

Look for: 

✅ Pain-focused keywords

✅ Questions with buying intent

✅ Long-tail phrases (5+ words)

Example for a LinkedIn tool:

  • "How to post consistently on LinkedIn as a founder"

  • "Tools to build personal brand on LinkedIn"

  • "LinkedIn post generator"

Pro tip: Identify 3-4 competitors and use their websites in Google Keyword Planner to uncover keywords they're already ranking for. Look for terms with decent search volume but low competition.

Step 2: Cluster Keywords Into Topic Groups

Don't just target random keywords. Group related keywords into clusters:

  • LinkedIn Analytics cluster: "LinkedIn analytics tools," "how to measure LinkedIn post performance via LinkedIn analytics," etc.

  • LinkedIn Posting cluster: "LinkedIn post templates," "how often to post on LinkedIn," etc.

For each cluster, plan 5-10 articles that naturally incorporate these keywords.

(Initially, just ask AI to create the titles of articles + a brief description of what content could go in the article for you).

Step 3: Use AI to Write at Scale

Go with your preferred AI platform (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.) and write a really good prompt. More on that in the next edition, but if you need a starting point right now, you can check this out: https://newsletter.ertiqah.com/c/write-seo-optimized-blogs-with-claude-ai 

Step 4: Ship It Dirty

  • Set up WordPress or any basic CMS

  • Keep design minimal - just headline, body, and CTA

  • Add internal links between related articles

  • Submit sitemap to Google Search Console

Google doesn't need pretty. It needs content that matches queries.
(Note: Don’t publish 50+ articles per day even if you generate them all in one go.. schedule them. Ideally, 5-10 per day).

Step 5: Track What's Working

Use Google Search Console to track:

  • Which keywords are ranking

  • Which posts are getting impressions

  • Which articles to expand or refresh

This gives you real search data before you even launch.

(The articles or primary pages that are naturally getting a good position after about a week or two: review them, improve them, add images and references to them so their rank can go even higher - I call them low hanging fruits).

Why This Works So Well for Early-Stage Founders

We didn't do this with LiGo - and it's my biggest regret. We waited until months after launch to get serious about SEO. Don't make the same mistake.

The ideal scenario?

Start this SEO initiative before you even write a line of code. While you're building, Google is already sending you traffic.

  1. You get distribution before your product is ready

  2. You learn which messages resonate most

  3. You build SEO momentum with zero budget

  4. You control your narrative from Day 1

Common Pushback

  1. "But AI content doesn't rank anymore." 
    Unedited, generic stuff that clearly sounds AI-written garbage, doesn't. Targeted, useful, fast content still does. Google doesn't care who wrote it - it cares if it matches the query.

  2. "Isn't this spammy?" Nope. We're solving real problems and writing for humans. The only thing dirty is how fast we ship.

    (The articles will be as good as your process. If your process is “one shot” with a basic 5 line prompt, yes it is spammy. If it’s multi-step with good prompts for each.. no, it’s not spammy).

  3. "Will I get penalized?" Google's spam updates target AI garbage. If you're solving a problem, you're safe.

Action Steps to Launch Dirty SEO in 48 Hours

  • 🧠 Make a list of 25 long-tail keywords your users might search

  • 🎯 Cluster them into 3-5 groups, create 5+ article titles for each group

  • ⚡ Batch generate 25 blog drafts with ChatGPT or Claude

  • ✍️ Edit and format (if needed)

  • 🛠️ Publish on any CMS linked to your domain

  • 📈 Submit sitemap and monitor via Search Console

Dirty SEO is your early traction engine. You don't need to wait for product launch to earn attention.

March Summary: SEO wasn’t the only thing we focused on

While we've been talking about SEO in this newsletter, March wasn't just about search for LiGo. We also focused heavily on Instagram growth & testing out commenting strategies for LinkedIn.

  • Instagram: Got 1 Million+ views in the last 30 days (screenshot below).

  • LinkedIn Comments: Wrote a post about it on Medium that went semi-viral (10,000+ Claps).

But I’ll maybe talk about that in some other edition if there’s questions about it.

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Helpful Resources & Tools

tl;dr - SEO isn't slow if you play it dirty. Write fast. Ship now. Rank before you're even live.

-Junaid

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