How Coinbase Became a Crypto Powerhouse: A Complete SEO Analysis of Coinbase Growth Strategy

Since its founding in 2012, Coinbase has grown from a startup to one of the largest exchanges in the crypto space. With thousands of employees and a valuation of billions of dollars, Coinbase has certainly made a name for itself in the world of cryptocurrency.

In this article, we’ll examine Coinbase from a marketing perspective to understand what it did right. We’ll analyze and map its traffic, explore the purpose of different sections on its site, and examine its overall marketing efforts. By diving deep into its growth strategy, we hope to uncover what makes Coinbase a crypto powerhouse and provide insights that can benefit other businesses in the industry.

Let’s begin!

Coinbase Traffic Overview

According to Semrush, Coinbase has 59.9 million visitors per month.

Using Ahrefs, we discovered that Coinbase currently receives a staggering 26.9 million visitors per month through organic search (as of March 5, 2023), which accounts for 44.9% of its total traffic.

These numbers are undoubtedly impressive, but to better understand how Coinbase manages to generate such a significant amount of organic traffic, we need to zoom in and segment each of the different sections on its site. By doing so, we can gain insights into its main traffic generators and uncover the strategies it used to achieve its success.

 

Coinbase gets more of its traffic from its different dedicated sections such as pricing pages (when people search for COIN-NAME+PRICE), converter, how to buy, and more.

Our traffic mapping revealed some interesting findings:

• Coinbase largest traffic generators are its Converter, Price, and How to Buy sections, accounting together for 21.4 million organic visitors per month, which accounts for 79.5% of its entire organic search traffic.
• Coinbase Blog and Learn sections bring altogether 815,000 monthly organic visitors.
• Coinbase multi-language feature seems to be an effective way of getting traffic since it makes the site accessible to non-English speakers. The multi-language pages are driving 646,000 organic visitors per month.

Let’s go over one specific section to understand the idea behind the way Coinbase structured its different sections.

Coinbase’s Coin Price Section: How It Works and Why It Matters

For more than 65,000 different search terms, Coinbase ranks in the first page of Google (top 10 results) in its coins’ price section!

The URL structure of this section is:

https://www.coinbase.com/price/

For example:

https://www.coinbase.com/price/ethereum

The Ethereum Price page is a prime example of Coinbase’s careful attention to both user experience and SEO, with every element serving a purpose. The Table of Contents allows enhanced navigation for both users and search engines by providing a clear overview of the page structure.

Coinbase has demonstrated a strong understanding of search engine optimization by adding content to its pages to improve its SEO. The About section is a good example of this approach, featuring 670 SEO-optimized words that provide valuable information for beginners, keep readers engaged for a longer period, and add depth to the page. In addition, the section’s strategic linking to other relevant pages further strengthens the page’s overall SEO.

Coinbase Related Assets section serves two key purposes. It reduces bounce rates and improves search engine optimization through increased user engagement and smart internal linking. This feature is a smart move that could positively impact its online visibility and search rankings.

Coinbase has linked related articles, guides, and newsletters on Ethereum, reducing bounce rates and increasing time spent on the page. These links establish Coinbase as an authoritative company on the topic and provide continuous value to users, which is beneficial for the E-A-T algorithm update.

To enhance its page’s SEO, Coinbase deliberately added frequently asked questions (FAQs) that provide search engines with relevant and structured content.

This structure helps Coinbase to rank for thousands of different search terms and drive millions of people to its site.

Inside Coinbase’s Keyword Strategy: Leveraging User Intent for Success

Coinbase’s marketing strategy is particularly noteworthy for its focus on keywords with high transactional intent rather than simply those with high search volumes. By understanding the intent behind users’ searches, Coinbase is able to tailor its approach to target those who are most likely to convert.

We have highlighted in yellow the sections with the strongest transactional intent, which not only generate a tremendous amount of traffic to the Coinbase site but also serve as some of its primary drivers of growth.After conducting thorough research, we have discovered that several sections on Coinbase’s website, such as the Converter, Coin Price, and How to Buy, not only attract millions of monthly visitors but also exhibit a higher transactional intent compared to other sections like Blog and Learn.

https://www.coinbase.com/how-to-buy/[COIN-NAME]
https://www.coinbase.com/converter/[COIN-NAME]/[CURRENCY-NAME]
https://www.coinbase.com/price/[COIN-NAME]

It’s interesting to note that the crypto space has a higher potential for transactional traffic compared to many non-blockchain industries.

Coinbase has acknowledged this trend and focused the majority of its on-page SEO efforts on creating well-designed sections, optimizing them, and creating advanced internal links to improve crawlability, rankings, and reduce bounce rates. These sections serve as a growth engine for Coinbase, as they are more likely to attract new users than informational articles on its Blog.

In essence, Coinbase’s strategic approach toward creating and optimizing these sections has been proven to be successful in driving traffic and achieving its growth goals. As such, it’s safe to say that Coinbase’s understanding of its user’s intent has been a key factor in its success within the cryptocurrency space.

The Power of Acquisition: How Coinbase Strategic Approach Fuels Its Market Dominance

Coinbase’s growth has been driven by a key factor: its strategic acquisitions. With 23 acquisitions to date, it’s clear that Coinbase is making smart moves to strengthen and expand its offerings. Most of these acquisitions have been seamlessly integrated into Coinbase, either as new sections or strengtheners of the existing ones.

This approach has been a game changer for Coinbase, allowing it to rapidly expand its user base, backlinks, and traffic. When a company is merged with Coinbase, all of its existing resources and assets become part of the Coinbase ecosystem. This has helped Coinbase become a giant in the industry, continuously growing and gaining more control over the market.

However, it’s important to note that not all of these acquisitions contribute to Coinbase’s overall SEO efforts in a clear way, at least not yet. While some have bolstered Coinbase’s search rankings and authority, others may require more time and investment before they have a significant impact. Nonetheless, Coinbase’s strategic acquisition approach has been a key factor in its rise to dominance in the crypto market.

Let’s examine one of Coinbase acquisitions, the acquisition of Earn.com. Coinbase announced it on Twitter on April 2018:

We’re excited to welcome the @earndotcom team and @balajis to Coinbase! https://t.co/9JB8LENVf9

— Coinbase (@coinbase) April 16, 2018

Below is a screenshot with Earn.com Backlink profile. By using redirects 301, Coinbase kept the SEO link power, which helped it to grow the new /earn section extremely fast.

The illustration below highlights the moment when Coinbase acquired Earn.com and migrated it to the Coinbase domain. This move was a game changer for Coinbase, as it helped the company rapidly rank for new high-ranking search results, contributing to its growth and increased visibility in the cryptocurrency industry.

 

Conclusion