A Minimum Viable SEO Strategy for 2025 According to 37 Experts
Table of Contents
I recently joined an online community for content marketers and noticed a thread about how many articles per month you should create to move the needle in SEO. Maeva Cifuentes, CEO of Flying Cat Marketing, replied “I'd say 8 is the minimum to see good growth per month, but 20 is much better.”
As someone who has worked with a dozen small businesses on SEO and content marketing, my gut reaction to those numbers was…
…Yikes.
I’ve seen great SEO results from way fewer than eight articles per month.
For this article, I asked 37 SEO experts to weigh in on their definition of a minimum viable SEO strategy and how to execute it to maximize your investment.
Most small businesses don’t have the bandwidth for eight articles per month. Even if they were to outsource the writing and strategy, a lot of small businesses would struggle to even review and approve eight in-depth articles (1,500 to 2,000 words). Plus, there’s the time that goes into lining up interviews with internal subject matter experts, and the time those experts spend speaking with writers. If your entire marketing team is less than four people, I doubt you could keep up with the supportive functions required to supervise an agency or freelancer producing eight articles a month.
While I agree with Maeva that producing eight articles per month will definitely get you faster results than, say, two — assuming you can maintain the same level of quality (which may be a big assumption…) — I disagree that eight is the minimum number of articles you need to produce to be successful with SEO.
But I didn’t want to just publish a rant expressing my own viewpoint (although I have multiple case studies available to back up my experiences, showing that you can improve your rankings and conversions with just one to three articles per month). I wanted to get a sense from other SEO experts of what a minimum viable SEO strategy would look like, and how much it should cost.
I used a service called Help a B2B Writer to request answers from SEO experts around the world on three questions:
If you have a domain rating of 25-50, where should you put your focus: content, links, or both?
What is the lowest number of articles per month / links per month that you would recommend trying to produce?
What's the minimum you should expect to spend on SEO each month if you're outsourcing it?
I got 37 insightful replies from SEO consultants, startup founders, and marketing managers at SaaS companies. Many people shared success stories based on one or two articles per month, which confirmed my own experience.
In this article, I’ll dig into the summary of their answers and share some of the best success stories and insights from contributors about how to execute a budget SEO plan in 2025.
A Minimum Viable SEO Strategy, According to SEO Experts
The unanimous answer to my first question (content, links, or both?) was both content and links. Everyone agrees that you should focus on both content and links, but if you can’t afford to do both, then producing new content will still move the needle because it may attract links organically. It’s also fully within your control, whereas the outcome of backlink outreach efforts is less predictable.
“If you could only choose one then it will always be content,” says Claire Taylor, an agency owner since 2007 and founder of TU Marketing, which specializes in SEO and PPC. “You can have a site that ranks well with few links, but it's very rare to find a website that ranks well with lots of links but crappy content.”
The emphasis on content aligns with the latest research from Ahrefs on the overall importance of links, which found that links matter the most for informational content and local queries, but overall matter less than they used to.
The average response for the number of articles and links a minimum viable SEO plan should include was 3-4 articles, and 4-5 links.
“In terms of minimum viable I wouldn't necessarily count the ‘number’ of links but rather look at the quality of links that you are attracting to the website,” says Amanda Walls, director of Cedarwood Digital. “One or two high quality, relevant links from the right publications are far more valuable than 10 or 20 irrelevant links.”
The average response for the minimum you should expect to spend if you outsource all three elements of an SEO strategy (strategy and technical optimization, content creation by professional writers, and links) is 2,800 USD. Writing content in-house, or working with writers in countries with a low cost of living, can bring the costs below $2,000 a month, but those options aren’t always available and often present logistical struggles.
Budget SEO Success Stories
While the average recommendation for content production was three or four articles per month, many of the experts shared anecdotes that prove that you don’t even have to maintain that cadence to see results.
Five of the experts who responded shared real-life examples of SEO success that came from publishing only a few articles per month.
E-Commerce Site Publishes 2-3 Articles Per Month
Nadia Mojahed, an SEO Consultant at SEO Transformer with 10 years experience, shares the following anecdote:
“Not too long ago, I worked with a small e-commerce site that sold sustainable home goods. They didn’t have the resources to crank out a ton of content, so we decided to go for quality over quantity. The plan? Publish just 2-3 really solid articles a month. Instead of chasing broad, high-competition keywords like 'sustainable furniture,' we focused on super-specific, low-competition phrases like 'how to choose eco-friendly dining tables.' It was niche, relevant to their audience, and way easier to rank for.
We stuck with this strategy for about six months. Every article was carefully optimized: clear, compelling headlines, internal links that tied everything together, visuals that actually added value, and a strong call to action to drive engagement. Plus, we made sure the content was evergreen, so it stayed useful long after it was published.
The Results:
Organic Traffic: Went up by 32%, which was a huge win for their small budget.
Rankings: 10+ keywords made it into the top 3 on Google, and several more landed on the first page.
Conversions: Blog-driven sales increased by 22%, all thanks to those niche, intent-driven keywords.
This experience was a great reminder: you don’t need to churn out tons of content to see results. If you focus on creating valuable, well-optimized content that speaks directly to your audience, even a lean content plan can deliver big wins.”
50 B2B Websites See Growth with 4 Posts Per Month
Sheraz Ali, founder of HARO Agency, a link building agency, says four posts per month is the magic number:
“Minimum content production is achieved by publishing four high-quality, research-backed articles every month, focusing on purchase-intent keywords. At my agency, we tracked over 50 B2B websites that implemented this minimum viable approach. Those who maintained this consistent output for 12 months saw their organic traffic grow by 150-200% on average.”
SaaS Microsite Grows Leads with 1 Article Per Month
Khan Muhammad Imran, CEO of digital marketing agency Brand Ignite, realized an ROI with just one post per month:
“We created a content-focused microsite, on behalf of a SaaS client with a DR of 35, so as to target highly targeted keywords, e.g., "cloud storage for small law offices.” Instead of aggregate traffic, this microsite gave highly segmented leads ready to buy. We did not publish more than 1 article per month and we gained backlinks by collaborating with legal tech blogs. The result: a 120% increase in qualified leads in six months, all at a minimal monthly spend of $2,500.”
B2B SaaS Firm Boosts Leads with 3 Posts Per Month
Jason Hennessey, CEO of Hennessey Digital, a digital marketing agency, found that three articles per month was enough to drive results: “I once worked with a B2B SaaS firm that committed to just three well-researched blog posts per month, each targeting bottom-funnel queries. Within six months, they saw a 40% increase in organic leads.”
B2B Website Targets 3 Long-Tail Keywords Per Month
Sai Deshmukh, Miss. Sai Deshmukh, SEO Director at Amber, says a long-tail keyword strategy can be successful with just two or three articles per month.
“I’ve worked with a B2B company that produced just 2-3 articles per month for a 7-month stretch, focusing on long-tail keywords with low competition. Despite producing fewer articles, we followed a strategic repurposing and optimization process. Over the next 7 months, we saw a 25% increase in organic traffic and 15% more conversions.”
Professional Services Firm Boosts Rankings with 1 Post Per Month
I have also seen strong results from a minimalist approach to SEO. By publishing just 1-2 articles per month and optimizing/updating a few existing articles, my former client vChief grew Top 3 Rankings by more than 275% and organic traffic by more than 68% over a 10-month period.
These articles weren’t just 101-level explainers either. These SEO-optimized articles did double duty as sales enablement pieces because they presented real-life examples, insightful and bold opinions, and thoroughly addressed their audience’s pain points.
If you have the budget to create any content for your website, then you have the budget to do SEO. Aligning your existing content marketing efforts with SEO best practices can help you reach a wider audience by ranking for keywords that your best customers are searching.
How to Execute a Minimum Viable SEO Strategy
The experts I talked with agree that an SEO strategy for a small business should combine three primary tactics:
Sitewide technical optimization
New content creation
Backlink outreach efforts
Let’s dig into some tips for executing each aspect.
Sitewide Technical Optimization
If you built your website using a modern platform like Squarespace or WordPress, and you’ve already completed the basic SEO setup for a new website, then you shouldn’t have any glaring technical SEO areas. But there are still lots of places where you could improve the overall user experience of your website and satisfy Google’s quality guidelines. This could include things like adding a table of contents to each blog post or improving text contrast for better readability. You might also work on boosting page speed by compressing images, eliminating unnecessary code, and streamlining your website's performance. Depending on your industry niche, you may need to strengthen your E-E-A-T signals—Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. This can be done by prominently displaying the author’s name and photo, adding bios that highlight their expertise in the subject matter, and incorporating photos or videos that showcase their hands-on experience in the field.
New content creation
The creation of new, in-depth articles addressing all of the use cases and differentiators of your product or service is the cornerstone of b2b SEO. It’s also the most expensive aspect of outsourcing SEO, because professional writers based in the U.S. charge an average of $500 per article (and if you need writers with expertise in a highly specialized niche, like construction, manufacturing, insurance, etc., they will charge closer to $1,000 or more per article). And as SEO and digital marketing consultant Chad Lewine points out, trying to cut costs on content creation is risky. “You can use link building to raise your rankings but if the content stinks, it won’t convert,” he says.
The quality of content creation is also the biggest differentiator between SEO providers. SEO agencies tend to work with a large team of freelance writers or they outsource to content mills. From my own experience, the amount of support and direction agencies give to their writers varies widely. Some hand the writers a two-word content brief, which is literally just the target keyword, and provide no additional information about the pain points of the target audience or why ranking for that keyword would be valuable for the client. I’ve gotten briefs like that from marketing agencies, and it’s the main reason why I don’t work with other marketing agencies anymore. It was impossible to create high-quality content when given no access to a subject matter expert to add original insights and no details on the mindset of the target audience. If you publish content like this, you probably won't see a boost in your rankings, and you risk eroding your brand’s reputation.
High-quality articles are typically 1,500 words at a minimum, and they include research to back up their claims (ideally, original research, not just linking to other brand’s studies). They take time to create, but when you do it right, you can repurpose them into social media posts, email newsletters, and even YouTube videos, all of which will be much more successful because of the extra care that went into creating the original article.
Abhishek Shah, founder and CEO of Testlify, described the content creation strategy he used to scale his website up to more than 1.5 million visitors in 18 months:
Identify high-intent, transactional keywords with a global search volume of 5,000+.
Create pillar pages to address broad topics and support them with cluster pages targeting long-tail keywords. This structure builds topical authority.
Optimize internal linking to guide search engines and users through your content network
To get the highest quality writing support for your SEO strategy, it’s best to work directly with SEO content writers that you’ve personally vetted, or empower your in-house content writers to incorporate SEO best practices into the content they’re already creating.
Backlink outreach efforts
Backlinks remain a necessity for SEO success in 2025.
“‘Getting Links’ really is digital PR,” says Adrienne Kmetz, an organic growth advisor with 20 years of experience. “Mentions are great too, and if the coverage that surrounds the link is quoting one of your experts or describing your product – well, that's brand building gold.”
Backlinks need to come from industry-relevant websites, ideally with a domain rating (DR) of 55 or higher.
Khan Muhammad Imran of Brand Ignite made a great point about not taking a purely transactional approach to your link building efforts. “Build relationships, not just links,” he says. “Work in conjunction with industry blogs and forums or co-create content with clients and vendors.”
In my personal experience, I’ve found that many website owners who are hesitant to accept guest blogs will be open to co-writing a piece with you, which helps them make sure the piece is tailored to their audience and still represents their internal expertise.
As much of a pain as it can be to acquire backlinks, it’s still essential for SEO. “Great articles draw people in, but links are what help Google take you seriously,” says Debbie Moran, marketing manager at Recur Post. “The two work best together, so don’t skip either.”
Need Help Implementing SEO on a Budget?
I partner with in-house marketing teams to improve search engine rankings and organic leads through top-notch content. As both an SEO strategist and content writer with more than 10 years of experience, I know how to create content that both wows your audience and ranks in search engines. I can take the lead on your entire SEO strategy and execution, I can partner with your in-house team to fill gaps, or I can write top-notch, best-in-the-industry content that aligns with your existing SEO strategy. If any of that lines up with your needs, let’s talk.
