Case study — SEO strategy, content and authority
Roomio
Five articles took a site with no authority into the top three for searches about its two best-known competitors.
Roomio turns an iPhone scan into a professional floor plan for real estate agents and photographers, and sells in Australia and the United States. When the work started the domain had effectively no authority, while Polycam and CubiCasa each have well over a thousand referring domains. I researched the category and its competitors, built the content plan, wrote and published the first five articles, and supervised the outreach campaign that built the domain's authority alongside them.
- Industry
- Real estate technology and SaaS
- Project type
- SEO strategy, content and authority
- Site
- Existing domain with no authority, entering a category led by far better-linked products
- Platform
- WordPress
- Focus
- SEO strategy, Content, AI search
- Google positions on the three comparison searches, United States1 · 2 · 2 in Australia
- 1 · 2 · 3
- Target searches citing roomio.io in Google's AI OverviewIn both markets
- 4 of 5
- AI assistants citing roomio.io in most answers that searched the webGemini 13 of 15 · Perplexity 12 of 15 · Claude 8 of 13
- 3 of 4
- Ahrefs Domain Rating over the engagementClient-reported
- 0 → 37
Results
What changed.
| Search | United States | Australia |
|---|---|---|
| polycam alternative for floor plan | 1 | 1 |
| polycam alternative | 2 | 2 |
| cubicasa alternative | 3 | 2 |
| Search | United States | Australia |
|---|---|---|
| polycam alternative for floor plan | Cited | Not cited |
| polycam alternative | Cited | Cited |
| cubicasa alternative | Cited | Cited |
| create floor plan with phone camera | Cited | Cited |
| floor plan app for real estate | Not cited | Cited |
In short
- All three comparison searches rank in Google's top three in both markets. On "polycam alternative for floor plan" Roomio ranks first in both markets, above Polycam's own site, with 52 referring domains to Polycam's 3,234.
- Four of the five target searches cite roomio.io inside Google's AI Overview, in the United States and in Australia. Google's recorded AI Overviews have cited the Polycam comparison for "polycam alternatives" since January 2026, naming Roomio best for real estate.
- In live answers that searched the web, roomio.io was cited by Gemini in 13 of 15, Perplexity in 12 of 15 and Claude in 8 of 13.
- ChatGPT is the gap still to close. Current ChatGPT models searched the web in 16 of 20 answers and cited Polycam, RoomSketcher and Magicplan instead. In a recorded chatgpt.com answer to "what do realtors use for floor plans?", ChatGPT did name Roomio and cite the round-up article.
- The domain's authority grew alongside the content: Ahrefs Domain Rating from 0 to 37, and referring domains more than doubled in an independent index.
- The content plan is still being published, with the category mapped and each future page's target decided before it is written.
Rankings and AI citations were measured against live Google results and live assistant answers on the dates shown, not supplied by the client, so they can be re-checked. Recorded answers come from DataForSEO's database of real ChatGPT and AI Overview responses. Domain Rating is Ahrefs' figure as reported by the client; referring-domain figures are from DataForSEO. These are small, decision-stage searches, tens a month rather than thousands, made by people choosing a product. Search results move, and a position may differ by the time you read this.
The challenge
What was wrong.
- A domain with effectively no authority: an Ahrefs Domain Rating of 0 at the start and 22 referring domains in October 2025, against the 3,234 and 1,508 that Polycam and CubiCasa have today.
- The obvious category searches were out of reach from that position. Any plan that started by competing for head terms would have spent quarters showing nothing.
- Demand in the category is small and scattered. The searches that matter most commercially see tens of searches a month, not thousands, so every page had to earn its place.
- The results pages are shared with Reddit threads, app store listings and review directories, sources a product site does not displace, so not every plausible search was worth a page.
- A growing share of comparison questions is now answered by an AI summary before anyone clicks, so a page had to be quotable as well as rankable.
Approach
How I worked it out.
- Started from where the category is weakest rather than where it is biggest. Comparison and alternative searches carry buying intent, and an incumbent structurally cannot answer them, because nobody publishes the page explaining when you should choose someone else.
- Researched the competitors and the pages ranking for each candidate search before committing to it, to separate the searches a product site can win from the ones owned by forums, app stores and directories.
- Built each page to be lifted from. The comparison pages put a head-to-head table near the top rather than behind an introduction, and every article closes on the questions buyers actually ask.
- Ran authority and content together rather than in sequence, so the domain's standing was being built in the same months the articles went live rather than after them.
The work
What was done.
- 01Keyword and competitor research
- Mapped the category's demand into product comparisons, professional workflows and generic how-to searches, and worked out what Polycam, CubiCasa and the wider tool set actually rank for. Their comparison coverage was the gap: an incumbent does not write the page that tells you when to leave.
- 02Content strategy and plan
- Built a publication plan for the category, with each piece assigned a target search and a reason to exist. The plan is still being published; the results on this page come from the first five articles.
- 03Writing and on-page optimisation
- Wrote, optimised, uploaded and published the first five articles between 12 November and 8 December 2025, roughly 11,100 words in total. Two are head-to-head comparisons, one is a category round-up of the ten leading apps, and two cover the agent's workflow. Four carry a comparison or summary table, two walk through the process step by step, and all five close with an FAQ section.
- 04Backlink outreach
- Supervised the outreach campaign that built the domain's authority while the articles went live. Ahrefs Domain Rating moved from 0 to 37. An independent index, DataForSEO, shows referring domains growing from 22 in October 2025 to 52 by September 2026.
Client feedback
In the client’s words.
Ivan has done an excellent job on our SEO strategy and research and execution. He was extremely thorough and brought a high level of care and professionalism to the work. The output was clear, well considered, and genuinely useful, not just surface level SEO research. He helped give us confidence in the direction and next steps. I would gladly work with him again and would recommend him to anyone needing strong SEO support. He's also a great guy - hire him! You won't regret it.
Key takeaways
What this project demonstrates.
- 01For a site without authority the question is not what to rank for but what is winnable first. Comparison searches are small, but they are made by people choosing a product, and they are the part of a category an incumbent cannot defend.
- 02AI citation does not follow organic position. Google's AI Overview cites roomio.io on searches where it is not on the first page, and skips it on one where it ranks first. Being retrieved and being ranked have to be measured separately.
- 03Being cited is not being recommended. Perplexity cited roomio.io in 12 of 15 answers but named Roomio in the text in only 7. Closing that gap is a different job from earning the citation.
- 04Content and authority were built in parallel. Referring domains grew fastest from November 2025 to January 2026, 25 new domains in three months: the two months the articles went live and the month straight after.
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