1D-1/A-02
Topic clusters
Four hubs — Closeout, Field reporting, Submittals and RFIs, Safety — each with a pillar guide and 8–14 supporting articles linked in a strict hub-and-spoke pattern.
4 hubs · 46 spokes
Case study · Sheet A-00CordilloConstruction project-management SaaS · AustinTechnology & SaaS
Cordillo — North America
How a construction software firm became the go-to source for every job-site template
General contractors searched for punch lists and RFI templates daily, but Cordillo ranked for none and relied on expensive trade-show leads.
Result · headline
+235%
organic demo requests
Project
Cordillo
Sector
Construction project-management SaaS
Site
Austin, United States
Plan
Content Engine
Duration
15 months
Sheet
A-00 of A-05
01A-01
The challenge
General contractors searched for punch lists and RFI templates daily, but Cordillo ranked for none and relied on expensive trade-show leads.
Cordillo’s buyers are superintendents and project managers. Before they ever evaluate software, they go looking for the paperwork: a punch list for Friday’s walkthrough, an RFI form to send an architect, a daily report their owner will accept. Those searches happen every working day — and every one of them landed on a competitor’s PDF.
Meanwhile, pipeline depended on three trade shows a year at roughly $1,400 a lead. The brief: make Cordillo the place contractors get their job-site documents, and build a measurable path from that template to a demo.
Plan view · month 0
punch list template
- AIAI Overview — cites Competitor A, Competitor B
- 01Punch list template PDF — Competitor A
- 02Construction punch list forms — Directory site
- 03Free punch list (sign-up required) — Competitor B
Plan view · month 15
punch list template
- AIAI Overview — cites cordillo.example
- 01Free punch list template (XLSX, PDF) — Competitor A
- 02Punch list template: free download + guide — Cordillo
- 03Electrical punch list by trade — Cordillo
General notes · audit findings
Survey: crawl, SERP sample, analytics · month 1N-01 · Content
No page answered the job-site query
“Punch list template”, “RFI form” and “daily construction report” drew steady contractor demand. Cordillo had zero indexable pages targeting any of them; competitors’ PDFs owned the SERP.
N-02 · Technical
Templates locked behind a form
Eleven useful templates existed, but as gated PDFs behind a HubSpot form. Crawlers saw an empty landing page with a single email field.
N-03 · Architecture
Orphaned blog, flat structure
64 blog posts sat three clicks deep with no hub pages and an average of 0.4 internal links in. Topical authority was spread too thin to register.
N-04 · Scale
Trade × document gap
Contractors search by trade (“electrical punch list”, “HVAC submittal log”). 19 trades × 12 document types meant 228 intents with no matching URL.
N-05 · AI search
Absent from AI Overviews
In a 120-query sample, AI Overviews appeared on 46% of template queries and cited Cordillo on none. No structured how-to steps, no HowTo/FAQ schema.
N-06 · Conversion
No path from template to trial
Even branded visitors reached a pricing page with no demo route from content. Assisted demo attribution from organic was under 3%.
02A-02
The strategy
Built on our Content Engine plan: a content system where every template is a load-bearing member — it earns the ranking, answers the AI Overview, and carries the visitor to a demo. Four details make up the structure.
2D-2/A-02
Downloadable templates
Every template ungated as an HTML preview plus free XLSX, PDF and Cordillo-import versions. Email is optional and offered only after the download.
32 templates · 3 formats
3D-3/A-02
Programmatic pages
A trade × document matrix generated from one reviewed data model: trade-specific line items, code references and checklists, with thin combinations held back by a quality threshold.
228 intents · 164 published
4D-4/A-02
AI Overviews
Answer-first summaries, numbered steps, HowTo and FAQ schema, and original field data (average punch items per trade) that AI answers can cite.
120-query tracking set
03A-03
Construction sequence
M01–M03
Survey
Audit, keyword universe, template inventory and hub map
M04–M07
Foundations
Ungate templates, launch first two hubs, schema rollout
M08–M11
Framing
Programmatic trade pages in waves, AI Overview formatting
M12–M15
Fit-out
Remaining hubs, demo paths from templates, refresh cycle
- M01430 kw
Crawl audit, analytics and demo attribution baseline
- M02470 kw
Keyword universe: 3,900 template and how-to queries
- M03560 kw
Hub architecture and template backlog signed off
- M04690 kw
11 templates ungated as HTML + XLSX + PDF
- M05840 kw
Closeout hub live: punch list pillar + 12 spokes
- M06990 kw
HowTo and FAQ schema across template pages
- M071,150 kw
Field reporting hub live; 9 new templates
- M081,310 kw
Programmatic wave 1: 48 trade × document pages
- M091,470 kw
Answer-first rewrites on 60 pages for AI Overviews
- M101,620 kw
Programmatic wave 2: 62 pages, quality gate tuned
- M111,780 kw
In-template ‘Run this in Cordillo’ demo path
- M121,920 kw
Submittals & RFIs hub; original field-data study
- M132,050 kw
Programmatic wave 3: 54 pages; thin pages pruned
- M142,160 kw
Safety hub live; internal links rebalanced
- M152,260 kw
Refresh cycle on top 80 pages; reporting handover
04A-04
Measured results
Modelled scenario for a fictional business — not a client result. Rankings and traffic are never guaranteed; see our Terms.
+235%
38,000
+189%
410 → 2,260
Section through the engagement
Bars: top-10 keywords · dashed line: organic sessions
- Top-10 keywords
- 2,260
- from 410
- Organic sessions
- 53,180
- +189%
- Organic demo requests
- 134
- +235%
- Template downloads
- 38,000
- cumulative
Keyword schedule
Google position before and after; “—” means not in the top 100. “Cited” marks a Cordillo source link in the AI Overview.
| Keyword | Cluster | Vol / mo | Before | After | AI Overview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| punch list template | Closeout | 14,800 | — | 2 | Cited |
| rfi template construction | Submittals | 5,400 | 48 | 1 | Cited |
| daily construction report template | Field | 6,600 | — | 3 | Cited |
| submittal log template | Submittals | 2,900 | 61 | 2 | — |
| electrical punch list | Closeout | 1,300 | — | 1 | Cited |
| construction change order form | Field | 4,400 | 37 | 4 | — |
| toolbox talk template | Safety | 3,600 | — | 5 | Cited |
| what is an rfi in construction | Submittals | 2,400 | 22 | 1 | Cited |
| hvac closeout checklist | Closeout | 880 | — | 2 | — |
| construction project management software | Commercial | 9,900 | 74 | 9 | — |
Sheet A-05 · Issued for construction
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Templates, topic clusters and programmatic pages, drafted around the documents your buyers already search for.