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Project Overview
italki is an online language-learning platform that connects students with professional teachers and community tutors for one-on-one lessons. Users choose a tutor based on their language goals, schedule, and budget.
Goal
When Loopex Digital started providing SEO services to italki, it already had strong visibility established across several language-learning segments, so the challenges were narrower than on a typical project:
- Selected language pages had poor organic performance. Key language pages, particularly Korean and Chinese, were not ranking to their potential despite the site's overall authority.
- Limited presence in AI search. The platform was not consistently recommended by AI engines or cited in AI Overviews for language-learning keywords.
- Authority gaps in specific segments. Sitewide authority was strong, but individual language segments lacked the topical authority to compete for their own keywords.
Our SEO team set goals for each. First, improve rankings for the targeted language-related keywords. Second, strengthen the authority of the key language segments through relevant backlinks. Third, increase the visibility of the Korean and Chinese pages across LLMs and AI search results.
Solutions
To support these goals, the Loopex Digital SEO team focused on SEO content strategy development services and link building services. We published relevant, well-researched content to strengthen authority across key language-learning topics and secured backlinks from credible and industry-relevant websites.
Loopex Digital’s Team Strengthened the Website’s Visibility Through 3 Distinct Strategies
- Strategic guest posting on niche-relevant websites. Our link-building team published informative, SEO-optimized guest posts on websites related to language learning, education, and online tutoring. These placements earned italki relevant backlinks, strengthened topical authority, and improved rankings for selected language segments.
- AI citation building in relevant listicle articles. As part of our AI SEO services, we added italki to listicle and comparison articles for each targeted language segment. These placements highlighted the platform's advantages against competitors. This is the content LLMs pull from when someone asks which platform to use, so it built italki's presence in AI Overviews and other AI engines.
- Publishing SEO-optimized listicle content. As part of our SEO content strategy services, we created listicle-style articles for specific language segments, including Korean and Chinese. Each article was optimized around relevant search terms and positioned italki as a leading platform in both traditional and AI-powered search.
Results
From 491,135 to 649,080 Monthly Organic Visitors
When we began working on the project, italki was receiving around 491,135 organic visitors per month. Through targeted link-building strategies focused on relevant, high-quality placements, monthly organic traffic increased to approximately 649,080 visitors, a 32% growth.
From 79,058 to 162,756 Keywords in Google's Top 10
When we began working on the project, italki had approximately 79,058 keywords in Google's top 10. That number grew to 162,756, an increase of 105%. Thanks to the backlinks our team secured from language-learning, education, and tutoring websites, the platform's authority strengthened across a wider range of language-related searches.
Our targeted guest posting campaigns, listicle placements, and comparison-style content also improved rankings for the selected language segments. These efforts supported stronger organic visibility for key Korean and Chinese language pages while increasing italki’s presence across traditional search results, AI Overviews, and different LLMs.
35K Citations in Google AI Overviews and Growing Visibility Across Other LLMs
Our AI SEO services targeted listicle-style content focused on specific language segments, positioning italki alongside its main competitors. This demonstrated italki's relevance within each category and strengthened its association with language-learning searches
italki is now cited in 35,000 Google AI Overview responses, and the brand appears across the other major AI engines as well:
- Google AI Mode - 26.9K responses across 12K pages
- Perplexity - 16.4K responses across 6.7K pages
italki is cited in AI overviews and mentioned among the sources for the query “top language learning platforms.
640 High-quality Backlinks Acquired
Our link building services secured more than 640 backlinks from relevant language-learning, education, and industry-related websites, raising italki's Domain Rating from 78 to 79. At this level of authority, single-point movements represent a substantial gain in absolute link equity.
