‍About CodeWalnut

CodeWalnut is a full-stack development agency that builds enterprise-grade web applications. This case study explores how Maitreyi Kole, marketing analyst at CodeWalnut ramped up ICP traffic by 50% over a period of 4-weeks with Storylane’s Demo-led SEO. 

Everyone wants more organic traffic so let’s skip past the usual problem, solution, and results. Instead, here’s a breakdown of CodeWalnut Demo-led SEO experience — from ideation to execution. In short, Demo-led SEO is a strategy that injects interactive demo elements into SEO pages to improve on-page experience and drive relevant traffic at scale.

1. Ideation

Prior to Demo-led SEO, CodeWalnut adopted a traditional SEO strategy involving keyword research, SME writers, and the usual best practices. While this approach continues to yield hit-or-miss results, the team was keen to experiment with Demo-led SEO when CodeWalnut’s co-founder, Natarajan Alagappan, came across a post by Storylane’s head of marketing on our results with Demo-led SEO. 

"The idea of 'demo-led' was an 'aha' moment. It looked do-able and Storylane was so easy to work with. It was a no-brainer to give this a go!"

2. Keyword research

Encouraged by the results, CodeWalnut decided to create a centralized hub for GitHub tutorials (given GitHub’s relevance to its target audience). For this, keyword research involved identifying relevant phrases that would make for helpful tutorial content. The criteria were as follows:

• Include phrases “GitHub” and “How to”
• Monthly search volume between 400 and 10,000
• Keyword difficulty between 0 and 70

3. Building the tutorial demos

Once CodeWalnut had its keywords in place, they set a target of 100 tutorial pages — from basic questions such as 'How to download GitHub courses?’ to advanced queries around “GitStash”. As you would with any authoritative blog, CodeWalnut worked with subject matter experts (in this case, their own team of developers) to address these topics. Here’s what the workflow looked like:

1. Maitreyi conducts a Storylane workshop for a team of 10 developers 
2. Maitreyi creates a demo theme (a feature supported by Storylane) to templatize design
3. The team of developers build 100 demos over a 4-day sprint, each addressing 10 keyword
4. Next, Maitreyi reviews each demo for basic hygiene (spelling, grammar, design, etc)
5. The resultant set of 100 demos are published and shared as tutorial pages

"I did a two-hour session showing the developers how to utilize Storylane. It was a cakewalk for them because the tool is so user-friendly."

4. Creating tutorial pages

Now that the demos are ready, it’s a matter of creating pages and content to house them on the website. Here’s the page structure followed by CodeWalnut’s tutorial pages:

1. Introduction
2. Interactive demo
3. Step-by-step guide
4. Conclusion

As you might notice, the page does a lot more than embedding a Storylane demo and calling it a day. Rather, it follows best practices associated with traditional SEO as well: Header hierarchies, keyword density, metadata, alt-text, etc. This is a must when it comes to successful Demo-led SEO. Think of interactive demos not as a replacement, but as a complement to your existing content strategy.

One key lesson we learned is the importance of pairing interactive demos with strong SEO practices. While demos can significantly increase engagement and dwell time on a page, they need to be supported by proper SEO structures, such as clear header hierarchies, meta titles, meta descriptions, and step-by-step text instructions. This ensures that both the demos and the written content serve their purpose for visitors and help the page rank higher in search results. Without solid SEO, the impact of demos alone might not be as effective. Together, SEO and interactive demos create a powerful combination that drives traffic and keeps users engaged.

5. Measure the results 

Within four weeks, CodeWalnut's website traffic increased by 40%, driven by organic visits to the tutorial pages.

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CodeWalnut experienced success even in terms of lead generation. The tutorial pages increase ICP leads by 50%, validated by RB2B. Overall, a tremendous growth in relevant, organic traffic over a month.

In conclusion

CodeWalnut has documented their experience with Demo-led SEO from their perspective here. In conclusion, they attribute their success to the following:

• Interactivity: interactive demos support an engaging, hands-on tutorial experience 
• Clear structure: Tutorials were easy to follow, catering to both visual and textual learners.
• SEO best practices: Keyword research and content structuring helped the pages rank well.
• Tracking insights: Tracking analytics on Storylane allowed us to monitor demo completions and time spent, providing actionable insights for improvements.