SEO Lessons From Building an IQ Test Website
Source: Dev.to
What Worked, What Didn’t, and What We’re Re-Evaluating
When we started building an online IQ testing platform, our assumption was simple: if we create a technically solid website, publish high‑quality content, and follow SEO best practices, organic traffic would follow. Reality turned out to be far more nuanced. This post is a critical SEO case study based on what we tried, what stalled, and what we are actively rethinking while growing a content‑heavy, test‑driven website.
Initial SEO Strategy and Assumptions
Our early SEO plan focused on three pillars:
- A strong core product (online IQ tests)
- Informational content to build topical authority
- Multilingual support to capture long‑tail traffic
From a technical standpoint, everything looked correct:
- Clean URLs
- Sitemap and indexing
- Logical site structure
- Clear navigation paths
But SEO is rarely about structure alone.
Product Pages vs Search Intent
The main challenge appeared around product‑like pages, especially test flows. These pages perform well for users who already intend to take a test, but search engines tend to favor explanatory content over interactive tools, especially in sensitive topics like intelligence and cognition.
Key lesson: Google ranks explanations first, tools second.
Content Strategy: What Helped and What Didn’t
We invested heavily in educational articles to support the platform.
What worked
- Fast indexing
- Strong time‑on‑page
- Clear topical clustering
What didn’t
- Authority growth was slower than expected
- Long articles alone did not move competitive keywords
SEO takeaway: Content without backlinks behaves like a well‑written book on an empty shelf.
Multilingual SEO: Too Early?
We rolled out multiple languages early to capture global demand. While this helped with visibility in lower‑competition regions, it also introduced:
- Authority dilution
- Crawl‑budget expansion
- More pages competing for limited trust
In hindsight, consolidating authority in one language first would likely have produced stronger results before scaling.
Backlinks: The Real Bottleneck
We deliberately avoided:
- Paid backlinks
- PBNs
- Low‑quality directories
The result was a clean link profile — but slow momentum. Individual pages performed well but did not significantly lift domain‑level authority.
Uncomfortable truth: SEO growth is capped without external trust signals, regardless of content quality.
Pages That Matter for Trust (But Not Traffic)
Some pages exist primarily for credibility, not rankings. They rarely rank, but they:
- Improve perceived legitimacy
- Support E‑E‑A‑T signals
- Reduce bounce skepticism
Invisible helpers — but essential.
What We’re Actively Changing
1. Explanation‑First Entry Points
Instead of pushing users directly into tests, we now focus on:
- How IQ tests work
- What scores mean
- Which cognitive domains are measured
This allows users to arrive at the test organically, rather than being forced into conversion.
2. Fewer Pages, Stronger Internal Links
Rather than publishing more, we are:
- Consolidating overlapping articles
- Strengthening internal linking between blog and test pages
- Reducing thin or redundant content
SEO rewards clarity more than volume.
3. Treating SEO as Reputation Building
At this stage, SEO feels less like optimization and more like reputation management. Search engines increasingly care about:
- Who references you
- Whether your content is cited
- How well you explain, not just offer tools
That’s slower — but far more durable.
Final Thoughts
SEO is often sold as a checklist. In reality, it behaves more like long‑term trust accumulation. What’s Your IQ is still evolving, and so is its SEO strategy. The site is technically sound, content‑rich, and user‑focused — but authority takes time, and shortcuts usually come with long‑term risk.
If you’re building an educational or tool‑driven platform, the biggest takeaway is simple:
Search engines don’t rank products. They rank trust.