WaytoStay | Affiliate Travel Blog SEO Growth Study
Campaign Overview
WaytoStay is an affiliate travel blog focused on destination guides, trip planning tips, and accommodation insights for travellers exploring different destinations around the world. The site launched in early 2023 and started an aggressive SEO content campaign to boost organic traffic and drive affiliate conversions.
While the broader strategy and editorial planning were led by the client’s in-house team, our agency founder was brought on to support the content creation process in a dedicated SEO travel writing role. Over the course of the campaign, we wrote 136 blog posts—contributing more than one-third of the site’s total content.
That work played a big role in helping the site grow into new travel niches and build out structured topical silos across multiple regions.
The Goal
WaytoStay was the latest project from CI Media LTD, a family of content brands focused on publishing helpful, affiliate-driven content at scale. Their strategy was simple but effective: produce high-quality, informative blog posts that connected readers with products and services from affiliate partners.
Our founder had previously worked with CI Media LTD on three of their earlier websites and was brought on from the start to support the content creation process for WaytoStay. With a strong understanding of the company’s content strategy, the focus was clear: deliver a high volume of helpful, search-optimized travel content that aligned with both reader intent and affiliate conversion goals.
The goals of the campaign were to:
- Turn keyword briefs into high-ranking blog content
- Support internal topical silos with semantically linked posts
- Help the site rank for a wide range of location-based queries
- Create engaging content that boosted affiliate clicks and time on site
By the end of the campaign, content written by Kurt’sCopy accounted for over one-third of all published posts. That work played a major role in helping WaytoStay grow into one of the most trusted travel resources online.
Here’s how we did it.
The SEO Writing Approach
Unlike a lot of our other projects, WaytoStay didn’t need any content marketing or strategy work. That was all handled in-house. What they needed was content creation support from someone with a track record of writing blog posts that actually rank on Google.
WaytoStay needed content produced at scale—but not just for the sake of volume. Publishing hundreds of thin posts wasn’t going to do the job. As an experienced travel and SEO writer, we were able to create high-quality content in bulk that attracted relevant traffic, kept readers engaged, and drove affiliate conversions with strong, well-placed CTAs.
Here’s the process we used to get it done right, every time.
1. Human-Centric, SEO-Informed Travel Writing
We took a reader-first approach with every blog post we wrote. The goal wasn’t to throw out generic suggestions—it was to actually be helpful. That was a lot easier thanks to the fact that we had first-hand experience in the destinations we were writing about. We were able to include real, practical tips that you don’t get from scraping the top five search results.
With a solid background in travel writing, our founder leaned into imagery and storytelling to bring each place to life and inspire readers to take action.
Once the writing was in place, we needed to make sure it got in front of the right people. Since we were brought on specifically as content writers, our role focused on the on-page side of SEO.
Here’s what we focused on for each post:
- Naturally working keywords into headings, subheadings, and body content
- Structuring posts for snippets, with clear H2s, lists, and FAQs
- Keeping everything easy to skim with short paragraphs and bullet points
- Linking internally to related posts, guides, and destination hubs
- Matching the tone and voice of the blog to keep everything consistent
That two-step process—writing content that actually helps people and making sure it ranks—let us create posts that pulled in the right traffic and kept readers engaged once they landed.
2. Building Topical Authority Through Silos
One of the most strategic parts of the campaign was how the content was organized. Instead of publishing standalone blog posts, the site was built around topical silos—clusters of related content grouped by destination or travel theme.
To help build out these silos, our founder was assigned to specific regions. One of the most developed was the Bali cluster, where we created a full content ecosystem that included:
- A detailed Bali Travel Guide as the central hub
- Supporting posts like itineraries, seasonal tips, city-specific highlights, and where-to-stay breakdowns
- Interlinked content covering places like Seminyak, Canggu, Ubud, and more
This approach helped WaytoStay gain traction across full regions—not just for individual posts. Similar silos were later developed for Italy, Spain, Greece, and Canada, each one reinforcing the site’s authority on those destinations.
By structuring content this way, we helped Google understand how everything fit together—and gave readers a more connected, useful experience across the site.
Content Writing and Cluster Samples
3. High-Volume, High-Quality Output
Writing 136 blog posts in under a year meant we had to move fast. But that didn’t mean rushing it or cutting corners.
We put together a workflow that helped us stay consistent without getting stuck in a rigid process:
- We adjusted to different content formats as needed—things like “Where to Stay” guides, “Best Time to Visit,” local tips, and seasonal lists
- We made sure every post was optimized before it was submitted, both for SEO and the client’s editorial checklist
- We focused on evergreen topics that could keep performing months after publishing
It wasn’t just about hitting a quota. Each post was built to be useful, searchable, and aligned with what travellers were actually looking for—while also supporting the site’s affiliate goals.
The Results
By April 2024, WaytoStay had gone from a brand-new site with barely any organic traction to one of the fastest-growing affiliate travel blogs online. And while this was a team effort, the content we produced played a major role in that growth.
Here’s what the numbers looked like:
| Metric | May 1, 2023 | April 3, 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Organic Traffic | 232 | 136,145 |
| Ranking Keywords | 11 | 51,271 |
| Top 3 Rankings | 11 | 2,235 |
| SERP Feature Wins | 0 | 4,845 |
Where It Came From
Our founder wrote 136 of the 363 total blog posts published during that time—more than a third of the entire site. These posts helped the site:
- Rank for high-volume and long-tail keywords across dozens of destinations
- Win thousands of SERP features, including lists, FAQs, and featured snippets
- Support internal linking across destination hubs and affiliate conversion paths
WaytoStay’s growth didn’t come from gimmicks or hacks—it came from publishing useful content at scale and doing it well. Our role was to make sure every post pulled its weight, and the results speak for themselves.