PayEasy
Back in 2020, HR pros Lindiwe Khumalo and Mark de Villiers kicked off PayEasy — a Johannesburg-based platform built just for South African small and medium businesses. Their goal? Make payroll, compliance, onboarding, and talent management less of a headache, so businesses could actually focus on growing.
Fast forward to 2025, and PayEasy is supporting a dozen industries, hooking up with over 20 third-party tools, and racking up 123 glowing client reviews. Not bad at all.
The HR software market in South Africa hit a cool $2.57 billion in 2025, thanks to SMBs scrambling for smarter, compliant solutions in a post-COVID world. That’s where PayEasy came in.
They teamed up with us at EcoSEO to get more eyes on their platform and, more importantly, to turn those eyeballs into real leads. The result? A solid 200% jump in new organic leads.
Lead Time: 8 Months
Sector: Software as a Service (SaaS)
Target Type: B2B
Demographic: Small and medium-sized business owners and HR managers, aged 30–55
Website Goal:Increase organic traffic and generate high-quality leads for HR software
Services: Technical SEO, Content Strategy, On-Page SEO, Internal Linking Optimization, Local SEO (Localized Content Creation)
2X
Organic Leads in 8 Months
The Challenge
PayEasy had a good thing going — a solid client base — but their website was barely pulling its weight in organic traffic. According to Semrush, only about 3,000 visitors dropped by each month without signing in. That’s like having a party where most guests don’t bother saying hello.
We found that they weren’t showing up for the big searches either. A big keyword like - “South Africa payroll software” or “HR compliance solutions” just weren’t hitting the mark as it should.
Here’s the lowdown on what was holding them back:
- Their current marketing team was tiny and spread a bit thin. They were squeezing SEO work into about 15 hours a week — we knew that was not enough to move the needle. (at-least not in their niche)
- Recent site migrations messed things up — broken links and indexing problems were tripping Google up.
- They weren’t talking about the hot HR topics everyone’s buzzing about — remote work policies, flexible schedules, stuff that matters now.
- Internal links were a mess, making the site tough to navigate — not great for visitors or search engines.
- And finally, we also notice that they weren’t really speaking the local language. Without the localized content that connected with South African SMBs, regional searches were just going to pass them by.
So, in April 2024, Lindiwe and Mark called us in to shake things up — to boost organic reach and bring in leads that actually convert in a competitive SaaS landscape.
Our SEO Strategy
As the saying goes - We didn’t just throw spaghetti at the wall. EcoSEO built a tailored SEO game plan for PayEasy, digging deep into what South African and global HR software competitors were up to. Then we mapped out six smart moves to boost visibility and reel in solid leads.
Cleaning Up the Mess: Site Migrations Done Right
Site moves can be a nightmare for SEO — broken links, lost pages, Google going “Wait, what?” We ran Screaming Frog over PayEasy’s recent migrations, hunting down those broken links and spotting which old pages still had juice.
Instead of letting 60 outdated pages hang around like bad leftovers, we trimmed and merged them into 40 lean, mean, optimized pages. Redirects got fixed up tight using Google’s URL Inspection Tool.
Semrush’s Site Audit gave us the all-clear, cutting crawl errors by 25%. Google Analytics showed the domain authority jump from a sleepy 20 up to 26. Not bad for cleaning house.
Crafting Targeted Content with Data-Driven Insights
Content That Speaks Human — And Search Engines. Next, we grabbed Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool to find the real questions people were typing — stuff like “South Africa remote work compliance” and “payroll tax solutions.”
Then, with Yoast SEO in our corner, we pumped out 30 fresh blog posts and guides tackling the hot topics post-COVID: think “B-BBEE compliance for SMBs” and “how to manage hybrid teams without losing your mind.”
We didn’t stop there — sharing the content on LinkedIn and Twitter helped it get in front of the right eyeballs. Google Analytics was smiling, showing a 20% jump in engagement on these pages. That’s what we call momentum.
Optimizing Internal Linking & Localized Content
Optimizing Internal Linking for Better Navigation
Fixing the Link Maze. We dove into PayEasy’s internal links with Screaming Frog, and honestly, it was like finding spaghetti tangled in a bowl. Some key pages barely connected to others, which made both users and Google’s bots scratch their heads.
So, we built a neat linking map. We hooked up important pages — like “Payroll Solutions” — to related guides, making sure anchor texts weren’t just random words but actually made sense. Yoast SEO helped us keep those links tight and relevant.
The result? Google’s crawl bots started breezing through the site 15% faster, and visitors found what they needed without the digital equivalent of wandering in circles.
Creating Localized Content for South African SMBs
Getting Local: Content That Talks South African. Here’s the thing — generic content only gets you so far, especially in a market as local and specific as South Africa’s SMB scene. We pulled out Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool to sniff out what people in Jo’burg or Cape Town were really searching for — think “Johannesburg payroll software” or “Cape Town HR compliance.”
Then we cooked up 15 tailored guides and case studies that spoke directly to South African rules, like the ever-important B-BBEE.
Traffic from local searches jumped 22%. Not just clicks, but the right clicks — leads who actually wanted what PayEasy offers.
Enhancing On-Page SEO with Meta Tags
A quick look at their meta titles and descriptions showed they were kinda bland — generic stuff that didn’t do the brand justice.
We rewrote those with keywords that matter, like “HR software for South African SMBs,” making sure they’d catch eyes and clicks.
Google Search Console tracked the impact, and click-through rates went up 12%. That’s more eyeballs and more action. Win-win.
Simplifying Reporting with Automated Dashboards:
Saving Time with Smarter Reporting. Nobody wants to spend hours digging through spreadsheets. So, we set up Google Data Studio dashboards that pull all the key organic traffic and lead data automatically.
These reports land in PayEasy’s inbox every week, saving the team about 8 hours — time better spent cooking up fresh content and sealing deals.
The Results
Eight months later? The numbers speak loud and clear:
- Organic traffic (non sign-in) doubled — 3K to 6K monthly visitors.
- Net new organic leads tripled — 50 to 150 monthly.
- Keyword rankings shot up - to 3,200, with 200 in those golden top 3 spots.
- Lead-to-demo conversion jumped 10% - meaning leads weren’t just rolling in — they were actually interested.
- Domain authority rose from 20 to 26 - thanks to solid tech fixes and eight fresh backlinks.
- Bounce rate dropped 12% - showing visitors stuck around longer.
Their standout star? The guide on “B-BBEE Compliance for Small Businesses.” It pulls in 600 visits a month all by itself, thanks to its local flavor and slick meta tags.
EcoSEO’s recipe here mixed sharp tech fixes with a genuine nod to what PayEasy stands for — helping South African SMBs thrive. By juggling tools like Screaming Frog, Semrush, Yoast SEO, and Google Data Studio, we polished content, straightened out the tech side, and made sure PayEasy’s voice landed where it counts.
So what the bottom line? More visitors, better leads, and a stronger spot in a crowded HR software market. That’s what we call a win.
Technical Tools:
Semrush, Yoast SEO, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, Google Data Studio and Google Analytics
SEO Services
Technical SEO, Conversion Optimisation, Press Release, Link Building, Conversation Rate Optimisation, Mobile Optimisation, Website Speed Optimisation
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