Velvetgrain Roasters · Specialty coffee subscription · Plovdiv
How a Plovdiv micro-roastery became the answer to every Bulgarian brewing question
- Topic clusters
- AI Overviews
- Brew guides
- Internal linking
- Phase
- Drop
- BT
- 228°C
- Sessions
- 5,204
- AI citations
- 27
48 guides live, 27 AI citations · RoR 5 guides/mo
Temperature scale 80 to 240 °C; sessions scale 0 to 6,000.
Scroll to roast — the page darkens through each phase of the engagement.
Phase 01 · Yellow · Ag 95
The challenge: great coffee, no answers
Subscriptions depended on Instagram, and the blog had six thin posts. Informational searches about brewing methods went to foreign sites and AI answers cited nobody local.
Velvetgrain Roasters roasts small batches in Plovdiv and ships whole-bean subscriptions across Bulgaria. Almost every new subscriber arrived through Instagram — a channel that rewarded posting, not knowledge, and dipped every time the algorithm shifted.
Meanwhile, thousands of Bulgarians searched every month for how to brew a V60, what grind a French press needs or how much coffee goes in a cup. They found translated foreign blogs. When Google answered with an AI Overview, it cited nobody local — the roaster who actually knew the answer was invisible.
- Organic sessions / month
- 1,180
- Blog posts (avg. 310 words)
- 6
- Subscriptions via Instagram
- 74%
- AI Overview citations
- 0
Cupping notes — the audit
- #01 · ContentCritical
Six thin posts, average 310 words
No post answered a full brewing question; two targeted the same 'how to store beans' query and split its signals.
- #02 · ContentCritical
Zero Bulgarian-language brew guides
All 1,140 mapped brewing queries were answered by English or Russian sites, or by AI answers citing them.
- #03 · AI visibilityHigh
No extractable answers
Ratios and grind sizes were buried in prose. AI Overviews need a clean, quotable fact near the top of the page.
- #04 · ArchitectureHigh
Blog orphaned from the shop
0 internal links from posts to subscription pages; 81% of shop pages reachable only through the menu.
- #05 · TechnicalMedium
LCP 4.8 s on mobile
Three embedded Instagram feeds loaded third-party scripts on every post template.
- #06 · E-E-A-TMedium
No roaster behind the words
No author pages, no roast dates, no origin sheets — nothing that showed real people roasting real coffee in Plovdiv.
Phase 02 · Cinnamon · Ag 75
The strategy: a guide for every brew
Built on our Content Engine plan: map the questions, own each method with a pillar, write answers machines can quote, and wire every answer back to a bag of beans.
Topic clusters
1,140 Bulgarian brewing queries clustered into six pillars. Each pillar owns a method; each spoke owns one question. No two pages chase the same intent.
AI Overviews
Every guide opens with a 40–60 word answer block, a ratio table and HowTo markup — the format AI answers lift and cite. Roast dates and origin data sit in structured fields.
Brew guides
A reusable template: dose, water, grind (with a photo-free CSS grind chart), time, temperature, and the three mistakes we see at the roastery bar. 48 shipped, written by the roasters.
Internal linking
Up to the pillar, across to two sibling guides, down to the bean that suits the method. The subscription is now one contextual click from every answer.
Six clusters, 48 guides — explore the map
Pillar · кафе на V60 · /naruchnik/filtarno-kafe
Pour-over & V60
Head query: как се прави кафе на V60 (how to make V60 coffee)
- V60 recipe for one cup
- Chemex vs V60
- Bloom time explained
- Kalita Wave ratios
- Pour-over for beginners
Every spoke links up to the pillar, across to two siblings, and down to the matching subscription bean.
Phase 03 · City · Ag 55
9 months, charge to drop
Month 1
ChargeAudit & query map
Crawl, Search Console and AI-answer sampling. 1,140 brewing queries mapped to six clusters; Instagram embeds stripped (LCP 4.8 s → 2.1 s).
1,240 sess.
+2 guidesMonth 2
Turning pointMerge the thin posts
Six posts consolidated into two pillars with 301s. Author pages for the two head roasters, roast-date fields on every bean.
1,390 sess.
+4 guidesMonth 3
DryingGuide template
Answer block, ratio table, grind chart, HowTo schema. First six guides published and linked into the shop.
1,660 sess.
+6 guidesMonth 4
MaillardOrigins cluster
Seven origin & roast-level guides. First AI Overview citations appear on 'light or dark roast' queries.
2,120 sess.
+7 guidesMonth 5
First crackPour-over & V60 launch
Eleven-guide cluster goes live in one push. 'как се прави кафе на V60' reaches position 1 within five weeks.
2,760 sess.
+7 guidesMonth 6
DevelopmentGrind & water
Ratio calculator table and a Plovdiv water-hardness guide earn local press links.
3,430 sess.
+6 guidesMonth 7
DevelopmentCold brew & moka
Seasonal cluster timed for summer demand; cold-brew queries cite Velvetgrain in AI answers.
4,120 sess.
+6 guidesMonth 8
Second crackEspresso at home
Ten-guide cluster for the highest-volume intent. Internal links route every shot-fixing guide to espresso subscription beans.
4,700 sess.
+5 guidesMonth 9
Drop & coolConsolidate
Refresh pass on the first 20 guides, subscription & gifting pillar, and a quarterly content calendar handed over.
5,204 sess.
+5 guides
Phase 04 · Full city · Ag 45
Results, out of the roaster
+341%
Organic sessions
1,180 → 5,204 sessions / month
+212/quarter
New subscriptions from organic
18 → 230 organic sign-ups per quarter
27 queries
AI Overview citations
of 40 tracked brewing queries
48
Guides published
plus 2 rebuilt pillars
Modelled scenario for a fictional business — not a client result. Rankings and traffic are never guaranteed; see our Terms.
Rankings: before → after
| Query | Vol./mo | Before | After | AI Overview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| как се прави кафе на V60how to make V60 coffee | 1,900 | — | #1 | ● Cited |
| студено кафе рецептаcold brew recipe | 2,400 | 64 | #2 | ● Cited |
| кафе за еспресо машинаcoffee for an espresso machine | 3,600 | 41 | #4 | ● Cited |
| смилане на кафе за френска пресаgrind for French press | 880 | — | #1 | ● Cited |
| мока кана как се ползваhow to use a moka pot | 1,300 | — | #3 | ● Cited |
| колко кафе на чаша водаcoffee per cup of water | 2,900 | 88 | #2 | ● Cited |
| аеропрес рецептаAeroPress recipe | 720 | — | #2 | ○ — |
| абонамент за кафеcoffee subscription | 1,100 | 14 | #2 | ○ — |
| прясно изпечено кафе Пловдивfreshly roasted coffee Plovdiv | 390 | 6 | #1 | ○ — |
| specialty кафе зърнаspecialty coffee beans | 1,600 | 37 | #5 | ○ — |
“—” = not ranking in the top 100. Modelled positions, Google.bg, mobile.
Phase 05 · Vienna · Ag 35
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Questions your customers already ask, answered on your site — and cited by the machines answering them.