How Telnyx Grew Traffic by 36% in 1 Month by Building for AI Search, Not Just Google

Key Numbers At a Glance

• Campaign period: 1 month
• Unique backlinks built: 80
• Average monthly traffic of referring domains: 33,636
• Average referring domain DR delivered: 69

The Situation

Telnyx already had a strong website. However, a lot has changed regarding how people search for their industry. Now, most of the questions are answered by AI tools before anyone scrolls to the search results.

When looking at their target keywords, we realized that most of them appeared in AI answers, but they were citing other companies. Telnyx had the authority to show up in these answers and was not.

So, this campaign was not built around improving Google rankings alone, but getting Telnyx into AI search.

What We Did

Here’s what strategies we used to help the client get trusted by traditional search engines and LLMs.

• We delivered both backlinks and listicles: Alongside links, we also got Telnyx featured in articles like “Top AI Voice Agents” that potential buyers read when they’re comparing options, helping Telnyx improve both Google rankings and AI visibility. 
• Most of the backlinks pointed to informative pages, not products: Even though a typical backlink campaign does quite the opposite, we did this on purpose so Telnyx becomes the complete answer for each topic, which is something AI systems reward the most.
• We concentrated on two topic clusters: One around voice technology, one around inference. This allowed us to build subject authority on topics that mattered the most for Telnyx.
• We helped their competitor comparison pages rank: When users are dissatisfied with X tool, they start searching for alternatives. Telnyx had a page for each of its main competitors, and we built backlinks for all of them. So, if someone searches for a different solution, Telnyx is there as an option. 

Of course, Telnyx had its own contribution too. They handled the website content and technical SEO optimization on their side, which are equally important to results like these.

Results

AI Visibility Boost

Search is not about Google’s blue links anymore. Users actively ask AI before making a buying decision, so getting cited by AI systems is a conversion channel that businesses should not miss.

Over the 1-month campaign, Telnyx’s AI citations improved across all major AI engines.

• Google AI Overviews: up 1,779 citations, to 7,442. The single biggest source of AI visibility, and it grew about 31%.
• ChatGPT: up 148, to 209. 
• Copilot: up 197, to 215. Grew from almost nothing to one of the top sources.
• Gemini: up 72, to 97.
• Perplexity: up 88, to 143. 

Only Google’s AI mode and Grok dropped during that period, which is fine, as AI answers get regenerated and reranked. Overall, the direction is right, and Telnyx is showing up in far more AI answers than it was a month ago.

Growth in Google Rankings & SEO Metrics

Here’s how the core keywords performed during one month. 

SEO metrics like organic traffic grew from 69,819 to 95,087, which is +36%, and DR went from 76 to 77 in one month.

The Takeaway

Search now happens in two places. There are Google search results, and there are AI answers. 

Achieving higher search engine rankings does not guarantee the second, though. 

Telnyx’s case study shows what it takes to win both. The right backlinks pointing to the right pages and targeted, niche-relevant listicles not only improve SEO but also help to get into AI answers.

Want to boost SEO and AI visibility at the same time? Book a free consultation, and we’ll map out how.