Vadim Kravcenko didn’t set out to build a startup. Like many side projects, SEOJuice began as a personal workaround—a tool built to save time fixing technical SEO issues on his own blog. Tired of repetitive tasks like adding internal links and updating image metadata, Vadim created a small backend that could handle those chores automatically. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.
Today, SEOJuice brings in around $8,000 in monthly recurring revenue. It remains a bootstrapped and profitable SaaS company with a small team: Vadim leads the product and development, and Lida Stepul, his co-founder, drives growth, branding, and customer success.
Instead of “learning SEO” most people wanted a reliable sidekick that quietly fixed what mattered.
From Developer Tool to Small Business SaaS
The first version of SEOJuice was barebones—Python backend, basic HTML frontend, zero onboarding. Vadim initially built it for one user: himself. But after setting up user management and Stripe payments, he shared the tool publicly with a simple landing page. Feedback was modest until a launch on Product Hunt, where it reached the #2 spot for the day. That initial visibility brought in their first wave of customers.
Vadim then reached out to almost every upvoter and early user. Their feedback shaped everything from the onboarding flow to the positioning: people didn’t want to “learn SEO”; they just wanted something to quietly handle it for them. The value wasn’t just in automation, but in peace of mind.
SEOJuice’s retention strategy is rooted in transparency. The product delivers two types of reports.
The first report details what the tool has already done—such as internal links added, on-page optimizations performed, metadata fixes, and accessibility improvements. This not only builds trust but shows that the system is active and making a measurable difference. The team converts this work into concrete numbers: estimated hours saved, and the corresponding cost savings if that work had been done manually. This framing helps users understand the tool’s value in practical terms, rather than vague SEO promises.
The second report is a forward-looking SEO audit. Rather than overwhelming users with raw data, SEOJuice presents a prioritized list of tasks: what matters most, what’s likely to have an impact, and what’s worth addressing later. It includes technical recommendations, content gap analyses, and internal link suggestions—structured to help users incrementally improve their site over time. The report is designed to feel manageable, even for users without technical SEO backgrounds. It emphasizes action over information overload, helping users make steady, meaningful progress.
Seven months after launch, Lida Stepul joined as co-founder. With no SEO background, she brought a user-first perspective and a clearer sense of what the product should be: a straightforward, hands-off tool for business owners who didn’t want to become SEO experts. She refined the messaging, focused marketing on the right audience, and turned the project into a more customer-facing product.
Vadim admits he underestimated the importance of marketing. “Having a good product isn’t enough if no one knows about it,” he reflects.
Growing the Product and Learning Along the Way
The team experimented with various marketing strategies: Google Ads, newsletters, affiliate programs, Reddit, and Twitter. Not all of it worked. Some ad spend was wasted early on, and social media took more energy than anticipated. But over time, word of mouth became their best acquisition channel. Referred users stuck around longer and were more likely to choose higher-priced plans.
SEOJuice’s retention strategy is rooted in transparency. The product delivers two types of reports: one showing what optimizations have already been completed (like internal linking and accessibility improvements), and another that outlines broader SEO opportunities, prioritizing tasks by impact.
This approach gives users a clear sense of progress without overwhelming them with data. They also frame results in terms of hours and money saved—a practical way to highlight value.
Understanding the Real Challenges
Like many early-stage products, churn is still a concern. Smaller sites often come in, get their optimizations, and leave. Larger clients (those with 50,000+ pages) are more likely to stay and grow with the product. Identifying and serving the right customer profile has become a priority.
The team is now focused on surfacing value sooner, reducing onboarding friction, and ensuring the tool feels indispensable from the start. They continue to message churned users directly, asking what didn’t work. These conversations, while sometimes uncomfortable, have led to the most meaningful product improvements.
Another key lesson: avoid copying competitors blindly. Some technically impressive features were scrapped when they didn’t offer real value to users.
SEOJuice hasn’t grown overnight. It’s a slow and steady effort to build something useful, sustainable, and profitable. For others looking to build a SaaS, Vadim and Lida’s journey shows what’s possible when you start with a personal itch, build something functional, and stay relentlessly focused on listening to users.
There’s no dramatic pivot or billion-dollar idea. Just a pragmatic team solving a real problem for a niche audience—and doing it on their own terms.
Useful Tools
For user engagement and lifecycle messaging, SEOJuice uses Customer.io. This platform enables automated email workflows, onboarding sequences, and retention campaigns, helping the team maintain a connection with users without constant manual outreach.
Paddle handles payments and subscription management. It’s particularly well-suited for SaaS companies selling internationally, thanks to its built-in support for handling taxes, invoices, and compliance in multiple currencies and regions.
On the analytics side, they use ProfitWell to track revenue metrics like churn, monthly recurring revenue (MRR), and customer lifetime value. This helps them understand the business’s financial health and where improvements can be made.
