MoonbAgency case study
From no SEO strategy to 2,213 AI citations
Moonb had paid an SEO agency and still had no keyword strategy, no backlink pipeline and no content engine. With Outrank running the content and link building, Domain Rating went from 22 to 43 on Ahrefs and assistants like Perplexity and Copilot now cite the site.
moonb.io“Our traffic doubled, people started reaching out to do backlink collaborations too.”
Lorenzo Nicolini
Founder, Moonb
22 → 43
Domain Rating
Ahrefs, June 2025 → September 2026
3.5×
Monthly clicks at peak
1,409 in July 2025 → 4,980 in January 2026
2,213
AI citations
Across 165 pages, per Ahrefs
336
Verified backlinks
Placed and checked through the exchange
The challenge
An agency retainer and nothing to show for it
Moonb gives companies a dedicated creative team for visuals, motion and product creative. They knew search mattered and had already paid an SEO agency. They still had no keyword strategy, no backlink pipeline and no content engine.
What the AI agent did
Content and authority at the same time
Outrank generated 367 articles for Moonb’s blog, pushed them to the site through a webhook, and ran the backlink exchange in the background. 336 contextual backlinks were verified live.
Authority is the part most AI writers skip. Ahrefs shows Moonb’s Domain Rating moving from 22 in June 2025 to 32 by August and 43 by September 2026.
- 367 articles generated
- 336 verified backlinks
- DR 22 → 43 on Ahrefs
The results
Clicks up 3.5×, then cited by AI assistants
Monthly clicks went from 1,409 in July 2025 to 4,980 in January 2026, with impressions passing 2.2 million that month.
The authority and content also show up where buyers now ask questions. Ahrefs counts 2,213 AI citations of moonb.io across 165 pages, led by Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Copilot.
Google Search Console, one month against another
Google Search Console, monthly
Line marks the month they joined Outrank
Best month: Jan 2026, 4,980 clicks
| Month | Clicks | Impressions | Days of data |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2025 | 535 | 285300 | 17 |
| Jun 2025 | 1431 | 729323 | 30 |
| Jul 2025 | 1409 | 846984 | 31 |
| Aug 2025 | 1619 | 1062498 | 31 |
| Sep 2025 | 2349 | 944601 | 30 |
| Oct 2025 | 3288 | 810474 | 31 |
| Nov 2025 | 3100 | 954144 | 30 |
| Dec 2025 | 2949 | 1218578 | 31 |
| Jan 2026 | 4980 | 2214042 | 31 |
| Feb 2026 | 1268 | 886002 | 28 |
| Mar 2026 | 831 | 1381608 | 31 |
| Apr 2026 | 741 | 958236 | 30 |
| May 2026 | 962 | 718907 | 31 |
| Jun 2026 | 1137 | 516758 | 30 |
| Jul 2026 | 1325 | 745717 | 31 |
| Aug 2026 | 1521 | 664431 | 31 |
| Sep 2026 | 3571 | 776097 | 15 |
Source: Google Search Console, via Outrank, data through September 15, 2026. First full month after joining against later months.
Domain Rating, monthly
Line marks the month they joined Outrank
Source: Ahrefs, September 2026. Monthly Domain Rating from Ahrefs, an independent third party. Outrank has no control over it.
2,213
Times AI assistants cite the site
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode
165
Pages cited by AI
Source: Ahrefs, September 2026
AI citations by assistant
1,709 of 2,213 shown · Ahrefs, September 2026
Perplexity cites the site 529 times, 24% of all AI citations Ahrefs tracked.
The screenshot
Straight from Lorenzo’s dashboard
In their words
What Lorenzo told us
Quotes are taken word for word from the case study form the customer filled in and agreed to publish.
On the situation before Outrank
“We had no strategy to find keywords, get backlinks or write useful articles or tools. We had hired an agency but struggled to see results.”
Lorenzo Nicolini
Founder, Moonb
On whether he would recommend Outrank
“Absolutely, it has worked for us, every feature is value packed and support is top notch, very responsive.”
Lorenzo Nicolini
Founder, Moonb
The honest reading
What this data does not show
- This is not a straight line. Clicks fell from 4,980 in January 2026 to 741 in April while impressions stayed above 700,000 a month, so the pages kept showing up but earned fewer clicks.
- The site recovered through the summer: 1,521 clicks in August and 3,571 in just the first 15 days of September 2026. Its Domain Rating kept rising the whole time.
- We are showing the dip because a case study that hides one is not worth reading.
Data and method
Where every number comes from
- Clicks and impressions: Google Search Console, via Outrank. Full months unless marked partial, through September 15, 2026.
- Domain Rating: Ahrefs, September 2026, monthly values.
- AI citations: Ahrefs, September 2026, all subdomains.
- Articles and backlinks: Outrank platform data. Backlinks count only links our crawler verified live on the host page.
- Quotes and screenshots: submitted by Lorenzo Nicolini, who agreed to their use in this case study.
Want the bigger picture? Our study of 2,119 sites shows how typical this result is, including the sites that did not grow.
