Topic clusters
Six clusters built from real enquiry questions — tides, boards, seasons, first lessons, local breaks, fitness — each a pillar plus 8–14 answers, internally linked to the matching camp package.
Shipped: 6 pillars · 74 answer pages
A fictional business. The figures are a modelled scenario, not a client result.
Surf camp & coaching · Canggu, Bali
Headline swell · 12 months
+262%
organic camp bookings
Travel & Leisure · Asia-Pacific · Content Engine plan
Flat spell
Surf camp searches were crowded with listicles and booking sites. Beginners' questions about tides, board sizes and seasons were answered by everyone except actual surf coaches.
Ombak's coaches answer the same questions every day on the sand: which tide suits a first lesson at Batu Bolong, whether an 8'0" foamie is too big, why March is choppy and July is glassy. None of that knowledge reached search. Bookings came almost entirely through aggregators in peak season, then went flat for the wet months.
The goal was not more traffic for its own sake. It was to be the source that beginners and answer engines trust at the moment they are deciding where to learn, and to make that trust convert into direct bookings all year.
Reading the conditions
Two weeks of crawling, SERP sampling across 340 beginner queries, answer-engine probes and a read of 1,400 enquiry emails. Six findings set the plan.
Of the 60 beginner questions sent most often in enquiry emails, the site answered 4 — all buried in a single FAQ page with no headings.
For “surf camp canggu” 8 of 10 results were roundups or booking platforms charging 15–20% commission.
Answer engines quoted forums and generic travel blogs for tide and board-size questions; nothing on the site was answer-first or attributable.
212 coaching clips lived on Instagram only: no transcripts, no video sitemap, no key moments, no VideoObject markup.
A third-party booking iframe loaded above the fold on every page, pushing LCP to 4.8s on mobile in Canggu's patchy 4G.
No FAQPage, Course or LocalBusiness markup; coach expertise (ISA levels, years in the water) was nowhere machine-readable.
Paddle out
Built on our Content Engine plan: a steady cadence of coach-written answers, published in sets, so every cluster arrives with enough depth to break cleanly rather than trickle in.
Six clusters built from real enquiry questions — tides, boards, seasons, first lessons, local breaks, fitness — each a pillar plus 8–14 answers, internally linked to the matching camp package.
Shipped: 6 pillars · 74 answer pages
Every answer leads with a two-sentence verdict, then the coach's reasoning, a named author and a dated tide or swell table — the shape answer engines quote and attribute.
Shipped: Answer-first rewrites on 112 pages
Coaches filmed short beach explainers for each cluster. Each got its own page, a transcript, chapter markers and VideoObject markup, plus a video sitemap.
Shipped: 48 videos with key moments
FAQPage markup on coaching and package pages, written from what students actually ask at check-in, plus Course and LocalBusiness markup for the camp itself.
Shipped: 31 pages with valid FAQ markup
AI Overview
Cites a forum thread and two travel blogs
10 best surf camps in Bali (2025)
listicle · roundup
Surf lessons Canggu — book now
aggregator · 18% commission
Beginner board guide
US retailer
AI Overview
Cites Ombak Surf Camp — board volume by weight
What size surfboard for a beginner? A coach's answer
ombak · FAQ rich result
Video: picking your first board (key moments)
ombak · video rich result
10 best surf camps in Bali
listicle · Ombak listed #1
Tide table
Audit, question mining from 1,400 booking-enquiry emails and the coaches' WhatsApp threads.
Cluster map signed off; first pillar on Canggu tides published with a live tide-reading guide.
Tides cluster complete. FAQ schema shipped on every coaching page.
▲ Tides & timing breaks into the top 10
Coaches filmed 14 short explainers on the beach; first video key moments indexed.
Board-size calculator and volume guide launched; answer-first rewrites of top 30 pages.
▲ Board sizes breaks into the top 10
Dry-season swell guide and month-by-month Bali calendar; booking CTA moved into answers.
▲ Seasons & swell breaks into the top 10
Video sitemap and transcripts; coach author pages with credentials and ISA levels.
First-lesson cluster: fear, fitness, what to wear, how long until you stand up.
▲ First lesson breaks into the top 10
Internal-link pass from every answer to the matching camp package.
Break guides for Batu Bolong, Old Man's, Echo Beach and Berawa with crowd and hazard notes.
▲ Canggu breaks breaks into the top 10
Refresh cycle: updated tide tables, re-cut videos, pruned 11 thin posts.
Surf-fitness cluster and wet-season guide so January books as well as July.
▲ Surf fitness breaks into the top 10
The surf report
+262%
Organic camp bookings
187
Informational keywords top 10
37
AI answer citations
24
Video rich results
Modelled scenario for a fictional business — not a client result. Rankings and traffic are never guaranteed; see our Terms.
12-month forecast board · Canggu
Use ← → to move between months
Month 12 of 12 · Oct
Surf-fitness cluster and wet-season guide so January books as well as July.
Set caught: Surf fitness cluster enters the top 10
A sample of the 187 informational keywords now in the top 10, by cluster.
| Query | Cluster | Searches / mo | Before | After | SERP feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| best tide to surf canggu | Tides & timing | 1,900 | — | #1 | AI Overview |
| how to read a tide chart for surfing | Tides & timing | 2,400 | 64 | #3 | Video |
| what size surfboard for a beginner | Board sizes | 8,100 | — | #4 | AI Overview |
| soft top vs hard board beginner | Board sizes | 1,300 | 48 | #2 | FAQ |
| best month to learn to surf in bali | Seasons & swell | 3,600 | 37 | #1 | Snippet |
| bali wet season surfing | Seasons & swell | 1,600 | — | #2 | AI Overview |
| how long to learn to surf | First lesson | 6,600 | 81 | #5 | Video |
| first surf lesson what to expect | First lesson | 2,900 | — | #3 | FAQ |
| batu bolong beginner surf | Canggu breaks | 1,000 | 22 | #1 | Video |
| surf camp canggu | Canggu breaks | 4,400 | 19 | #4 | Snippet |
| exercises to prepare for surfing | Surf fitness | 5,400 | — | #6 | Video |
| pop up drill at home | Surf fitness | 1,300 | — | #2 | Video |
“—” means not in the top 100 at the start. Volumes are modelled monthly averages. Accent: ■ top 10 · ■ top 3.
Your forecast
Turn the questions your customers already ask into content that ranks, gets cited and books — on the Content Engine plan.