Lembeh Resort — Expanding keyword coverage, building topical authority, and building early visibility in AI-powered search.
LembehResort.com is a dive resort in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, known for muck diving and marine biodiversity in the Lembeh Strait. As SEO Specialist at Kesato & Co., the work focused on expanding keyword coverage across seven international markets, building topical authority around marine biology content, and building early visibility in AI-powered search.
Overview
LembehResort.com is a dive resort in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, known for muck diving and marine biodiversity in the Lembeh Strait. As SEO Specialist at Kesato & Co., the work focused on expanding keyword coverage across seven international markets, building topical authority around marine biology content, and building early visibility in AI-powered search.
The resort competes in a niche travel segment where organic search is a primary booking driver. The engagement ran parallel to the VillaBaliSale.com project, also under Kesato & Co.
Role
SEO Specialist (via Kesato & Co.)
Timeline
February–August 2025
Platform
Web
The Challenge
The site had a backlink profile stronger than direct competitors but keyword tracking across seven markets was just starting, meta titles and meta descriptions were missing across key pages, and there was no content strategy connecting marine biology topics to booking intent. The site had no visibility in AI search sources.
What I Did
Technical Fixes
Fixed missing meta titles, meta descriptions, and broken pages across the site from February.
Keyword & Market Expansion
Tracked and improved keywords across 7 markets: Indonesia, Australia, US, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Germany.
Consistent Growth
Delivered consistent keyword improvements each month: 99 in March, 100 in May (combined markets), 109 in June, 139 in July, and 123 in August.
Backlink Dominance
Grew backlinks from 4.9K to 11.3K and referring domains from 532 to 797, making LembehResort.com the top site by backlinks and referring domains among all tracked competitors. The nearest competitor had 3.5K backlinks and 82 referring domains.
Content Strategy
Published SEO blog content targeting marine biology keywords including sea anemone, coconut octopus, mandarinfish, blackwater diving, and Sulawesi wildlife, which drove consistent top-page visibility and blog entries into the site's top organic pages.
AI Search Strategy
Developed an AI search strategy that produced 69 views across 22 URLs from ChatGPT and other AI sources by August 2025, with a 72.7% engagement rate.
Results
- Organic traffic reached 11,258 views and 3,909 users in August 2025, up from 3,749 users at the start of the engagement in February
- Traffic dipped 24.91% in June due to Google's AI Overview rollout, then rebounded +7.4% in July and +17.7% in August
- Backlinks grew from 4.9K to 11.3K, referring domains from 532 to 797, both the highest among all tracked competitors
- Average session duration in August: 3m 59s, engagement rate 68.37%, bounce rate 31.63%
- Keyword improvements in August across 7 markets: 15 in Indonesia, 18 in Australia, 17 in the US, 16 in France, 22 in Switzerland, 17 in the Netherlands, 18 in Germany
- AI search: 69 views across 22 URLs from ChatGPT and other AI sources, 72.7% engagement rate
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