Tutorial: How Wise Scaled SEO to 160+ Markets

The Organic Growth Playbook Behind a $9B+ Fintech: How Wise Scaled to Millions of Monthly Visits

Fabrizio Ballarini has spent a decade building the organic growth engine at Wise — a content and SEO operation that now spans 160+ markets, generates millions of monthly visits, and survived every algorithm shift along the way. After completing this tutorial, you’ll understand the phased strategy Wise used to build, mature, and future-proof one of fintech’s most formidable content estates. These are not beginner tactics; they’re hard-won decisions made at scale, with full-cycle data behind them.

1. Launch with maximum breadth in the first one to two quarters. Wise shipped roughly 60% of its eventual content footprint in the first quarter or two — across topic clusters, landing page types, and corridors — before knowing which would convert. Internal pressure pushed toward narrowing focus early; Ballarini held the line on breadth and credits that decision as foundational.

2. Use keyword and search volume tools to map where traffic exists before validating conversion potential. The team identified distribution opportunities through search data first, then let performance data answer the conversion question. Confirmation of viability came from the content itself, not from assumptions made before publishing.

3. Iterate by doubling down on clusters and page types showing early conversion signal. Once specific content areas demonstrated that traffic was turning into customers, Wise reinvested aggressively in those areas — expanding coverage, improving pages, and compounding the head start.

4. Build dedicated sub-teams around each content area as it matures. Over time, Wise’s highest-performing clusters evolved from individual bets into fully staffed teams with depth in analysis, technical SEO, and editorial. This structure is what separates a content program that scales from one that plateaus.

5. Build acquisition pages for new markets, corridors, and product lines before the product is live there. Wise created pages targeting countries and money transfer corridors it hadn’t yet launched in — so that when the product went live, organic acquisition was already primed.

Warning: this step may differ from current official documentation — see the verified version below.

6. Continuously evaluate the build-new vs. improve-existing tradeoff as your content estate grows. As pages and traffic accumulate, the default temptation is to optimize what exists. Ballarini argues that deliberately continuing to build new experiences — even adjacent to current product lines — is not the norm at most companies, and that gap is where Wise has repeatedly found an edge.

7. When maximum click share is reached in a cluster, expand via new topic clusters, affiliate sites, or owned secondary domains. There is a ceiling on how much of a query set any single domain can capture. Growth beyond that ceiling requires either new clusters or additional web properties competing in the same space.

8. Shift team focus toward CRO and owned-audience capture as LLM-driven search erodes top-of-funnel traffic in specific query pockets. Wise’s overall traffic continues to grow, but Ballarini identifies pockets where user behavior is migrating toward LLM-sourced recommendations. In those areas, converting and retaining the visits that do arrive matters more than volume.

9. Use organic growth payback data to secure internal budget flexibility for higher-risk, longer-horizon content investments. A decade of performance data gives Wise’s growth team the organizational credibility to argue for speculative bets — pre-launch market pages, secondary domains, adjacent topic clusters — without having to justify every line item from scratch.

How does this compare to the official docs?

The strategy Ballarini describes is built on Wise’s internal playbook, not a published framework — which means some of the most actionable moves here need cross-referencing against documented best practices in technical SEO, content architecture, and CRO to separate replicable principles from company-specific advantages.

Here’s What the Official Docs Show

Ballarini’s playbook is detailed in Act 1 — this section layers in the documented best practices that give each strategic move a verifiable foundation. Because Wise’s internal framework doesn’t map to a single published guide, every step below draws from the closest available authoritative sources in SEO, content architecture, and conversion strategy.

Step 1 — Launch with maximum content breadth early

No official documentation was found for this step —
proceed using the video’s approach and verify independently.

Step 2 — Use keyword and search volume tools to map traffic before validating conversion

No official documentation was found for this step —
proceed using the video’s approach and verify independently.

Step 3 — Iterate by doubling down on clusters showing early conversion signal

No official documentation was found for this step —
proceed using the video’s approach and verify independently.

Step 4 — Build dedicated sub-teams around maturing content areas

No official documentation was found for this step —
proceed using the video’s approach and verify independently.

Step 5 — Build acquisition pages for markets and corridors before product launch

No official documentation was found for this step —
proceed using the video’s approach and verify independently.

Step 6 — Continuously evaluate build-new vs. improve-existing as your content estate grows

No official documentation was found for this step —
proceed using the video’s approach and verify independently.

Step 7 — Expand via new clusters, affiliate sites, or secondary domains when click share ceilings are reached

No official documentation was found for this step —
proceed using the video’s approach and verify independently.

Step 8 — Shift team focus toward CRO and owned-audience capture as LLM-driven search erodes top-of-funnel traffic

No official documentation was found for this step —
proceed using the video’s approach and verify independently.

Step 9 — Use organic growth payback data to secure internal budget flexibility

No official documentation was found for this step —
proceed using the video’s approach and verify independently.

Useful Links

No official documentation sources were captured during the screenshot analysis for this post. The steps above represent strategic decisions built on Wise’s proprietary internal playbook rather than any single published framework. Cross-reference the following canonical resources independently to verify the principles described in each step:

1. Google Search Central Documentation — Authoritative reference for indexing, crawling, structured data, and Core Web Vitals as they relate to Steps 2, 5, and 7.
2. Google Search Central Blog — Official announcements on algorithm updates relevant to the long-horizon content strategy discussed in Steps 1, 3, and 8.