Brief

SALT.agency was approached by JetBrains after the developer-founded software company reached a fork in the road: while its product offerings were strong, its digital marketing and SEO strategy was limiting growth. With minimal SEO investment, JetBrains’ content was primarily product-focused and relied heavily on branded search, meaning it failed to attract new audiences and created a bottleneck in customer acquisition.

JetBrains partnered with SALT to rethink its approach to SEO and content, shifting from product-led material to content that spoke to the real-world challenges and needs of modern developers.

Working alongside JetBrains’ newly formed internal SEO team, SALT provided technical SEO consultancy, audience-centric content strategy, and guidance on how to structure products and content so they could reach new developers without competing against each other.

Achievements

SALT helped JetBrains pivot from a product-led SEO and content model to an audience-led approach focused on the real-world challenges developers face. By analysing how developers search and what problems they are trying to solve, SALT enabled JetBrains to address the full developer journey instead of only product features.

The team carried out product cannibalization analysis to ensure individual products were positioned around specific solutions and did not compete with one another in search. SALT also provided guidance on the technical implementation of SEO and helped JetBrains understand what changes were needed and why.

Through close collaboration, SALT contributed content marketing expertise while JetBrains’ internal teams ensured technical accuracy, creating content that resonated with developers and aligned with search demand. This strategic shift removed bottlenecks in the acquisition funnel and allowed JetBrains to reach new audiences more efficiently.

Expertise

  • Audience-centric content strategy
  • Technical SEO consultancy
  • Product cannibalisation analysis
  • Search behaviour and audience research
  • SEO technical implementation guidance
  • Cross-team collaboration with internal SEO teams

Results

  • Up to 40% increase in non-branded organic traffic for in-scope products
  • Growth in new-user trials, particularly for PyCharm
  • Decreased cost per click for content-led projects
  • A stronger, more scalable foundation for JetBrains’ content and SEO strategy
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