The Client
NLB Predictions is a football betting-tips service that uses its website as a funnel to convert search visitors into Telegram group members. The site itself wasn’t the end product, it was built to capture people searching for football predictions and move them into the Telegram community, where the tips are shared. The focus was football, the most popular sport across the target European markets.
The Challenge
We started in March 2024 with a brand-new website, no history, no authority, no existing rankings, in one of the most competitive niches in SEO. At the outset we were working on 25 target keywords, and almost all of them were either unranked or sitting at positions 90 to 100. Building search visibility from zero in a space this competitive was the core challenge.
What We Did
Since the site’s job was lead generation into Telegram, we built it around that goal from the ground up:
- Lead-focused site structure. We built the website specifically as a lead-generation funnel, with single post pages optimised to move readers toward joining the Telegram group, rather than just informational pages that go nowhere.
- Content clusters on popular topics. We created content around the football prediction and betting topics the target audience actively searches, organised into clusters that built topical authority for a brand-new site.
- Proper internal linking. We interlinked the content around the target keywords, so authority built up and flowed to the priority pages, important when starting with zero domain authority.
- Schema across all pages. We implemented schema markup site-wide, helping search engines understand the content and the frequently updated prediction pages.
The Results
Starting from a brand-new site with almost nothing ranking, the keyword positions moved sharply within the engagement. Of the 25 target keywords, 4 reached the top 3 and 12 more reached page one.
| Keyword | Mar 2024 | Jan 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| accurate 1x2 football prediction today | Not in top 100 | 2 |
| Bundesliga Accumulator tips | Not in top 100 | 3 |
| Accurate Football Prediction Site | Not in top 100 | 3 |
| Soccer Betting Tips Today | Not in top 100 | 3 |
| 1X2 Betting Tips | Not in top 100 | 7 |
Why It Worked
Ranking a brand-new site in a niche this competitive comes down to building authority the right way from the start. By structuring the site for lead generation, creating genuinely relevant content in proper clusters, linking it well internally, and giving search engines clean schema to work with, we took keywords from unranked to the top three, on a domain that started with no history at all.
These are the actual keyword positions tracked during the engagement, not rounded up to look impressive.