Taskflow HQ is a Melbourne-built project management platform aimed at creative agencies, in-house marketing teams, and boutique consultancies. The product had strong reviews from early adopters, a clean interface, and integrations with Slack, Google Workspace, and Figma. What it did not have was organic visibility in one of the most competitive software categories on the internet.
Competitors like Asana, Monday.com, and ClickUp dominate search results with domain ratings above 80 and millions of backlinks. Taskflow’s domain rating was 21. They ranked beyond page five for every non-branded keyword that mattered. Paid acquisition costs were rising, and the growth team needed a sustainable channel to hit their sign-up targets ahead of a seed extension round.
The co-founders were sceptical about SEO for SaaS. Previous attempts had produced blog traffic with a 0.2% free-trial conversion rate. They wanted proof that the right off-page strategy could move commercial intent keywords, not just inflate vanity metrics.
The Brief
Taskflow set a twelve-month goal: increase organic free-trial sign-ups from 840 per month to 2,000 per month, achieve page-one rankings for five agency-focused comparison keywords, and build a backlink profile that would withstand due diligence from investors reviewing their marketing moat.
We proposed a long-term programme combining niche digital PR, integration ecosystem link building, and targeted outreach to agency resource pages where Taskflow’s ideal customers already looked for tool recommendations.
Strategy
Competing head-on with billion-dollar brands for broad terms like “project management software” was unrealistic in twelve months. We narrowed the battlefield to agency and creative team niches where Taskflow’s feature set was genuinely differentiated.
Our approach included:
- Agency workflow research publishing original data on brief approval bottlenecks and client revision cycles
- Integration partner links from design, time tracking, and invoicing tools in the agency stack
- Guest expert content on agency operations for marketing and creative industry blogs
- Comparison page outreach targeting “best project management for agencies” listicles with trial access for reviewers
- Community and template link building through free Notion and Taskflow templates shared on agency resource hubs
We paired off-page work with on-page improvements to comparison and use-case landing pages, but kept the majority of effort on authority building.
Execution Timeline
Month 1 to 4: Niche Authority Foundation
We published the Agency Workflow Report 2024 based on a survey of 523 agency professionals across Australia and the UK. The report earned links from three marketing industry publications and two agency coaching blogs. Integration partners added Taskflow to their app marketplace pages with follow links. We launched five free workflow templates that accumulated links from agency Notion resource lists.
Month 5 to 8: Comparison and Category Push
Outreach to software review sites and agency tool roundups produced nine new editorial links. A co-marketing webinar with a time-tracking integration partner generated a recap post on both company blogs. Taskflow’s head of customer success contributed a bylined piece on client feedback loops to a mid-tier marketing operations blog with strong domain authority.
Month 9 to 12: Compounding and Investor-Ready Metrics
A second research asset on remote agency collaboration habits generated pickup ahead of a product launch. We reclaimed unlinked mentions from podcast appearances and startup award shortlists. By month twelve, Taskflow’s referring domain growth chart showed consistent month-on-month improvement, which the founders included in their investor deck.
Results
Organic free-trial sign-ups grew from 840 per month to 2,340 per month. The seed extension closed successfully, with one investor specifically noting the organic channel diversification during due diligence.
Traffic and Sign-Ups
| Metric | Before (Baseline) | After (Month 12) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly organic sessions | 12,600 | 34,800 | +176% |
| Organic free-trial sign-ups | 840 | 2,340 | +178% |
| Organic trial-to-paid conversion rate | 11.2% | 12.8% | +1.6 pts |
| Agency landing page conversion rate | 2.1% | 4.6% | +119% |
Rankings
| Keyword | Starting Position | Final Position | Monthly Volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| project management for agencies | 38 | 5 | 1,100 |
| creative team task management | 44 | 7 | 680 |
| agency project management software Australia | 29 | 3 | 390 |
| client approval workflow tool | 51 | 9 | 440 |
| marketing team project tracker | 36 | 6 | 820 |
Backlink Profile
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referring domains | 96 | 287 | +199% |
| Domain Rating (Ahrefs) | 21 | 44 | +23 |
| Marketing and agency niche links | 11 | 68 | +518% |
| Integration and partner links | 8 | 34 | +325% |
What Made the Difference
Taskflow stopped trying to out-spend category leaders and instead owned a niche where their product story was authentic. Agency workflow research gave journalists and bloggers a reason to cite them beyond feature lists.
Integration ecosystem links were underrated. Several high-converting sign-ups traced back to partner marketplace pages rather than editorial content. The combination of research-led PR and practical partner links created a backlink profile that looked natural under investor scrutiny.
Taskflow hired a full-time SEO lead and continues running the playbook internally with quarterly strategy reviews. Their next target is expanding the same niche dominance into the UK agency market with localised outreach and region-specific research cuttings.