Traffic is a vanity metric. Why we stopped chasing 1M visitors and focused on Intent. 🎯

Hey PH! Chloe here. 👋

While building TodayCodes, we completely changed our SEO strategy. A lot of makers ask: "How do I get to 1 million monthly visitors?"

But here is the harsh reality we learned: Traffic is a vanity metric. If you have 10 million visitors looking for "how to repair an iPhone" (DIY intent) but you sell iPhone repair services, your conversion will be near zero.

We pivoted to exclusively target low-volume, extremely high-intent keywords (like "Cheaper alternative to X" or "Brand A vs Brand B pricing"). The search volume is 10x smaller, but the conversion rate is 100x higher.

To rank these pages without building a ton of backlinks, we focused entirely on User Signals (CTR & Dwell Time). By writing comparison pages that are actually better and more detailed than the competitor's own websites, users stay on our site longer. According to recent API leaks, Google loves this.

I'm super curious about the indie hackers and marketers here:
Do you still chase high-volume "top of funnel" keywords, or do you strictly target "bottom of funnel" buyers? And how much do you believe User Signals (CTR) actually impact your rankings?

Let's discuss! 🚀🇬🇧