How MasterClass Used SEO To Build A $2.7B Empire (Unopened Send)

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I always got hit by MasterClass ads and wondered how much they spent on ads. Then I started digging. Going through their growth pillars. Funnels. All of it. And learned that they’re crushing with SEO. So, imma break it down.

And a big thank you to North Star Inbound for partnering with us and letting us create media for a livin’.

Get your brand in front of 200,000+ marketers & founders.

In partnership with North Star Inbound

New Backlinks = New Leads

If you’re not satisfied with your brand’s search traffic, this one's for you.

It might not sound like the sexiest strategy to drive growth, but securing high-quality backlinks is one of the best ways to boost your brand's search traffic.

These backlinks help your site rank higher on Google—where 80% of searches happen—making your brand easier to find.

To fast-track your backlink strategy, North Star is the ideal partner.

Their leading Digital PR agency creates headline-worthy content that earns valuable backlinks from trusted publications.

How do they do it? They’re experts at securing premium placements.

So if your brand could benefit from new backlinks and new leads, connect with the North Star Inbound team today.

If you’ve spent a minute on social, you’ve probably seen a MasterClass ad that hooked you and made you consider taking a cooking class with Gordon Ramsey.

I know I have.

But MasterClass is valued at $2.7B while dominating SEO:

• 11.2M monthly visits

• $4.4M in monthly organic traffic value

• 601K backlinks

• 49.3K referring domains

This makes search their number one source of traffic.

And they optimize this traffic by understanding search intent and linking to specific products that match the top-of-funnel (TOF) problem.

There’s 5 nuggets you can apply to your brand.

And if you’d rather hire experts to crank this strategy for you, check out our friends at North Star Inbound.

Let’s run through this in 3 minutes.

How To Understand Search Intent

Search intent is the “why” behind any search query.

Every person who performs a search on Google is searching for one of four things:

1. Information - Here people are searching for specific questions or want to dive into a certain topic.

2. Navigation - Here people are searching for a specific website.

3. Transaction - Here people are searching for a specific product and already know what they're looking for.

4. Comparison - Here these people need more information or convincing but are looking to buy a product.

By understanding the “why” you can map out “how” to drive action.

The Keywords To Help You Understand Search Intent

Behind the “why” there are specific keywords.

Use this table to understand which keywords fuel the individual’s intent:

Informational Intent Fuels Masterclasses’ Top Of Funnel Marketing

A look at their top pages on Ahrefs shows that outside of their Home Page every top page meets the informational intent of the user:

How Masterclass Bridges Its TOF Efforts To Its Products

Masterclass bridges each article to a specific course, taught by a specific instructor, centered around the topic that relates to the information they were looking for.

Because the extension of the right information is the right product.

So, every information-dense article is linked to a scaled version of information — a Masterclass Course.

(By the way: this is where North Star Inbound kicks ass)

Visual Example:

What They Click, They’ll See Again

They searched for specific information.

They clicked a specific course because of it.

This journey just took a consumer from problem-aware to product-aware.

But they didn’t buy…

And here is where MasterClass retargets each individual across YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram with specific creative related to the course they showed initial interest in.

Here’s what it looks like:

• You searched “Difference Between Egg Yolks and Egg Whites?”

• You clicked the MasterClass article

• You clicked through to the Gordon Ramsey Cooking Course

• You didn’t buy

• You get retargeted on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram with different video ads specific to the Gordon Ramsey course

Putting It All Together

Here's a quick recap:

• Search intent is the "why" behind every search.

• Each search satisfies one of four search intents.

• MasterClass creates thousands of articles centered around informational intent.

• These informational articles act as the bridge to the right product.

• This click-through is retargeted on other platforms with specific creative.

Capturing intent is everything.

And if you don’t live and breathe SEO, then you need to bring in the right partner to earn that #1 spot on Google.

So if you want to build a library of information to act as the bridge to your product, give North Star Inbound a shout, and let em’ know I sent you.

In partnership with North Star Inbound

Convert Traffic Into Customers Like Masterclass

MasterClass mastered search intent.

And creating such a content program ain’t easy, but, that’s where North Star Inbound shines.

Their team handles all the heavy lifting to create a winning content program that captures, and converts searches into customers:

• Decoding your ICPs search intent

• Strategically linking content to products

• Creating high-quality, SEO-optimized content

• Building high-quality backlinks from trusted publications

AKA the best option to build a successful content program to turn search traffic into customers.