Case 44. Special equipment parts store: from zero to 268 visits/month; 9 months of pause — 2.2 times growth by inertia (Tier1.shop)

Владислав Бобров (Mdevostator)Article updated: 3 September 2026

Founder of tier1.shop · PBN Specialist, in SEO since 2009

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Case from the Tier1.shop collection · 2026 · ← all cases

Continuing the series of cases on special equipment: in case #43 there was a dealer of Chinese machines, now — an online store for spare parts for the same equipment (both projects are managed by one agency, which makes the comparison particularly revealing).

Result in brief: 📈 the online store for Chinese special equipment spare parts started from absolute zero — for 10 consecutive months, both analytics services showed 0 organic visits. 44 eternal links over three years (1–2 per month) raised the site to 268 visits/month and 95 keywords in the top-10. The most valuable part of the case is the "natural experiment": the client completely stopped placements for 9 months, and during this pause, traffic did not drop, but grew 2.2 times — moreover, the pause coincided with two consecutive Google core updates.

Starting point

The site is a store for Chinese special equipment and truck spare parts: categories by machine type (loaders, dump trucks, excavators) and thousands of cards for specific parts. The niche specificity is a huge long tail: buyers search not for "spare parts in general," but for a specific part for a specific model.

At the time of the first link (March 2023), there was no organic traffic at all: zero visits and zero keywords in the top-10 — and it had been so for all previous months of observation. This zero start is confirmed by both independent sources: Semrush (Russia) and Ahrefs (world). For the purity of conclusions, this is an ideal situation: all subsequent growth is visible without impurities.

What was done

From March 15, 2023 — placement of eternal links from PBN home pages, 1–2 per month (one batch of 4 — in May 2024). This is the same drip-feed mode, as in case #43: several links month after month, for years, without large one-time batches. Target pages — catalog categories (36 links), home page (6), and two product cards. Anchor texts — commercial with purchase intent ("spare parts for Chinese front-end loaders", "[brand] spare parts"); 31 unique formulations for 44 links.

Two circumstances make this case particularly informative. First: from October 24, 2024, to July 31, 2025, the client placed nothing — a 9-month complete pause, a rare chance to honestly show what happens to already purchased eternal links. Second: unlike case #43, some anchor texts here had clustered repetitions (one formulation 3–4 times over 2–7 months) — and for one of the pages, this seems to have left a mark; analysis below, in the page breakdown.

Dynamics by Semrush (monthly data, Russia)

Reading the graph by phases:

• Lag at the start. First link — March 2023, first non-zero figures — July 2023 (2 visits), steady breakout — November 2023 (15). Four months until the first signs of life and eight until confident growth: the same lag as in case #43.
• Acceleration of 2024. From 21 visits in March to 88 in May and 151 in December — on 1–2 links per month.
• Grey streak — 9 months of pause. Entry: 88 visits/mo (November 2024). Exit: 190 (June 2025). During the time when NOT A SINGLE new link appeared, — and despite the fact that two consecutive Google core updates hit right at the start of the pause (November and December 2024, red streak inside the grey), — traffic grew 2.2 times. The accumulated link profile continued to push positions on its own.
• March 2026 Core update (second red streak): drop from 257 to 179 (−30%) — and already in July a new historical maximum of 268. Recovery took three months.

Growth is not explained by seasonality: July 2024 — 81, July 2025 — 111, July 2026 — 268; December 2023 — 20, December 2024 — 151, December 2025 — 245. Year over year — manifold higher.

Keywords in the tops — the same phases: growth from zero to 6 (top-3) and 22 (top-4–10) by the start of the pause, during the pause — up to 10 and 29 respectively, by July 2026 — 27 and 68. In total, there are now 95 keywords in the top-10 — for a site that had not a single one three years ago.

Ahrefs dynamics (daily data, world)

Ahrefs independently confirms all phases: zero pre-history (until July 2023 — zero), growth in the placement window, inertial growth during the pause (171 → 385, ×2.25 — practically the same multiple as Semrush), a crash during the March 2026 core update and a new maximum after it (peak 571, currently 553 estimated visits/mo). When two services with different databases and methodologies show the same curve shape — it is strong confirmation that the shape reflects reality, not a measurement artifact.

Breakdown by target pages

We ran all 19 acceptor pages through Semrush (Russia, monthly series): traffic for each before its first link and after, plus all anchor texts with dates and repetitions. A yellow mark like ×3 for 2 mo — anchor duplicate: the same wording used 3 times within 2 months. Result — honest, without selecting convenient parts:

Yellow mark ×N for M mo — anchor duplicate: one phrasing N times over M months. In this case, unlike case 43, there are also "clustered" duplicates: ×3 over 2 months to the home page, ×4 over 7 months to two categories — see the analysis below regarding their fate.

At first glance, the picture is discouraging: almost all acceptor categories are near zero. But the site has grown from zero to 268 visits/month. Where did the traffic come from? Into the long tail: according to the latest slice, almost all organic traffic is collected by cards of specific parts and blog articles — pages to which no links were placed at all. Dozens of such pages are in the top 1–3 for exact queries such as "part name + machine model". This is the same effect as in case #43, but in a chemically pure form: links to categories and the home page increased trust in the entire site, and the pages that had the best chance for their queries — cards for low-frequency demand — rose to the top. Our working observation (see case #43) is confirmed here for a second time: the more pages that secure a spot in the top 1–3, even for micro-frequency queries, the more confidently the entire site grows.

The category of wheel loaders is a separate story, the only table row that 'grew and faded.' It is analyzed in the next section — about anchor text.

The role of anchor text: where repetitions were overlooked, and where they seemingly were not

The case anchors are commercial, with clear buyer intent. There are two types of repetitions here. Rare — as in case #43: 'spare parts for mini loader' ×2 over 25 months, 'spare parts for Chinese dump trucks' ×2 over 9 months — such pages behaved calmly, with no signs of sanctions. And "clustered": 'spare parts for Chinese wheel loader' ×4 over 7 months (intervals 1.8–3.2 months), 'spare parts [brand]' ×4 over 7 months, 'spare parts for Chinese special equipment' ×3 over 2 months to the homepage.

And here is what the history of the wheel loader category showed — the pages with the densest series. From February to October 2024, 6 links were placed on it, 3 of which had the same anchor text within six months. Meanwhile, the page was growing: by August 2024 — 9 visits/month and 4 keywords in top 4–10 (the best result among all categories in the case). And in September 2024 — exactly during the window of the August Google core update (15.08–03.09) — the page's traffic and rankings dropped to zero, and it lay dead for 15 months, even though the site as a whole continued to grow. The fourth anchor repetition (October 2024) hit the already fallen page and did not revive it.

It is impossible to prove causality for a single episode — the crash coincided with a core update, which reshuffles the search results on its own. But the combination of facts forms a consistent picture with case #43 and with our practice on other projects: rare anchor repetitions (once every few months or less) created no problems in any of the analyzed cases; dense series of identical anchors create a risk, and the August episode of this case is the most vivid candidate. Practical conclusion: you can repeat an anchor, but with an interval of months; a series of identical formulations over a short period looks like a template purchase to the algorithm.

Conclusions from the case

• Lifetime links are not 'switched off' along with payments. The main fact of the case: 9 months without a single new placement, two core updates during the pause — and a growth of ×2.2 over the same period (confirmed by two independent services). A lifetime link has no 'subscription' that expires; a purchased profile continues to work and accumulate effect.
• From scratch — it is possible. A domain without a single keyword in the top 100 reached 268 visits/month and 95 keywords in the top 10 over three years using drip-feed lifetime links (there were content edits on the site — recorded by Ahrefs — but the starting zero and the effect lag clearly link the acceleration to the link window).
• Pages in top 1–3 pull the entire site — even if these are micro-frequency product cards. Links went to categories and the homepage, but dozens of part cards without a single link reached the tops — and the site grew along with them. The second case in a row with this mechanic.
• Effect lag — 4–8 months, and this is normal. Two cases from one client (#43 and this one) showed the same lag on different sites. When planning your link budget, expect the effect no sooner than in six months.
• The pace of anchor text repetition is more important than the repetition itself. Rare duplicates (interval 9–25 months) passed unnoticed; the densest series (3 identical ones in six months) coincided with the zeroing out of the only growing category in a core update. When repeating an anchor text — stretch the repetitions over time.
• Core updates roll back, but do not zero out the domain. −30% in March 2026 → new maximum in July. This is already the fifth case we have analyzed in 2026 with the same pattern (#40, #41, #42, #43 — and this one); the common denominator is a live link profile.
• Budget — 176 000 ₽ over three years, averaging about 4 400 ₽/month. This case is not about "pouring in money," but about the discipline of small regular steps.

Verifiability

The client's domain is hidden due to the privacy policy, so instead of a link to the site — screenshots from analytics services (traffic estimates in interfaces and on our graphs may differ: different keyword databases and regions; the shape of the curve matches).

Semrush Domain Overview (2-year window, world): an ascending "staircase" of traffic, the April 2026 dip and a new peak in July — as on our graphs.

Ahrefs, organic traffic for all time: zero until 2023, growth in the placement window, a crash and recovery in 2026. White badges Ⓖ — Google algorithm updates, green marks — site content edits (recorded by Ahrefs).

Ahrefs, keywords by position (buckets 1–3, 4–10 and 11–20): all baskets are growing from absolute zero.

How we measured

Number of links, dates (including pause boundaries — 24.10.2024 and 31.07.2025), anchor texts and their repetitions — from the Tier1.shop order database (only completed placements). Traffic and positions — Semrush (Russia, monthly points) and Ahrefs (world, daily points); graphs are built from raw exports without smoothing. Inertial growth during the pause was calculated using both sources independently: Semrush 88 → 190 (×2.2), Ahrefs 171 → 385 (×2.25). Page-by-page slice — across all 19 acceptors without exception; the history of the front-end loaders category was verified across three slices (page traffic, page tops, domain row).

*Costs are calculated at current Tier1.shop prices; the client was placed at the prices of their time — the order of magnitude is the same.