Case study: SoftServe Business Systems — copy (EN)

B2B services · US market

SoftServe Business Systems: 18× traffic, 92% of it non-branded

Lead: The client closed the engagement in September 2024, when the agreed scope ran out. They reopened it on the first of January 2025 — three and a half months later.

• Traffic from ~50 to ~900 visits a month
• 92% of traffic non-branded — the highest share in our portfolio
• Contacts from Tier 1 FMCG producers; a third reached Opportunity

Small print under the bar:

Ahrefs data, March 2024 to September 2026. Ahrefs estimates traffic from its own index, so traffic figures are an estimate rather than a counter reading; positions are measured directly.

March 2024. The site had roughly 50 visits a month by Ahrefs’ estimate. Effectively no visibility, behind a large company with real expertise.

The brief was narrow and specific: make the service offerings findable in search.

The brief was narrow: make the service offerings findable in search. But even a narrow brief starts with the question of which offerings to promote — and that’s what our WEDGE framework answers.

W — Where the client can win

A competence map for a product company in FMCG looks nothing like one for an agency: instead of languages and frameworks, the directions inside the product.

At SoftServe Business Systems those are Image Recognition, Trade Promotion Management, Distributor Management, B2B eCommerce Platform.

E — Evaluate whether we can get in

The second screen decided where to start. The site had around 50 visits a month — there was nothing to go head-on with on broad queries.

So the bet went on narrow, high-intent directions where the competition is visible: not “software for retail” but shelf-level Image Recognition and Trade Promotion Management.

What came of it shows in who writes in. Inquiries arrive from Tier 1 FMCG producers: wine and spirits from the US, Spain, Czechia and Bulgaria; beverages from Vietnam and the UAE; cigarettes from the UK and Portugal; a 200-site fuel retailer in New Zealand.

That isn’t accidental traffic. Those are the people the direction was built for.

D — Decode who signs the contract

The job titles are in the data: Development Director, Category Co-Ordinator, Project Manager, Commercial Systems, Customer and Insights Manager, Founder & MD.

Different roles, different fears. A Category Co-Ordinator at a fuel retailer writes about automating a promotional programme across 200 stores; Commercial Systems at a tobacco company writes about planogram software for 100+ planograms a month.

⭐ G — Guide. And what we learned about gated content

Here the project produced a finding that changes how you build a funnel.

We split the inquiries by source:

80% of inquiries from gated PDFs never got past marketing qualified. Every inquiry from a site page was sales-qualified.

The explanation is visible in the message text. Someone downloading a guide is researching a subject. Someone writing in from a service page already has a problem.

The gate came off several pages after that — the data records it with the note “before we optimized the page and got rid of PDF.”

E — Expand the coverage

786 referring domains, +553 in the past year — the profile grew faster than the traffic.

What’s interesting here isn’t the speed. It’s the shape of the curve.

The site sat on a plateau for almost a year. Growth arrived in year two — a normal timeline for B2B services, however awkward that is to say at the start of an engagement.

The engagement ended in September 2024 with unremarkable wording: “the agreed scope of work has been completed.” No conflict, no complaints. What had been agreed was simply finished.

The client’s message survives verbatim:

“I think this year we most likely won’t have the capacity to work together. Early next year, possibly two things: 1. Something similar on service offers… 2. Possibly a larger engagement around content and site development… As soon as I have something, I’ll come straight to you)”

On 1 January 2025 the project reopened.

Three and a half months — exactly what they said.

92% non-branded is the highest share across all our projects. Almost all of this traffic was earned rather than arriving on the parent company’s name.

Inquiries: a third reached Opportunity

What matters more than the shares is who gets in touch. Almost every inquiry came from a Tier 1 FMCG producer: wine and spirits from the US, Spain, Czechia and Bulgaria; beverages from Vietnam and the UAE; cigarettes from the UK and Portugal; snacks; confectionery; a 200-site fuel retailer in New Zealand.

Job titles: Development Director, Category Co-Ordinator, Project Manager, Commercial Systems, Founder & MD.

Link profile: 786 referring domains, +553 in the past year, 1.5K backlinks.

Market: 69% of traffic from the US.

A steady pace with no bursts. Around 28 hours a month. Not every project needs 150 — this one produced 18× on an even rhythm.

Almost all the traffic is earned. 92% non-branded means the channel doesn’t lean on the parent brand’s recognition.

The client came back on their own. The engagement ended without conflict and reopened three and a half months later, exactly as they’d said it would.

A plateau in year one isn’t failure. This site held at 150–250 visits for almost a year before growth started. In B2B that’s an ordinary timeline.

Non-branded share matters more than absolute traffic. 900 visits at 92% non-branded are worth more than 5,000 mostly branded ones.

A small budget works if it’s consistent. 28 hours a month, and 18× across two and a half years.

Gating content behind a PDF degrades lead quality. Here 80% of inquiries from guide downloads stayed marketing-qualified, while every inquiry from an ordinary site page turned out to be sales-qualified. If you gate content, count deals reached rather than forms completed.

The project has been paused since June 2026. Arrangements for the next stage are with the client.

Sound familiar?

B2B services, a US market, a need to climb out of zero visibility. Without inflating the budget.

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