Xponent21 gets daily leads from a single tool with SE Ranking
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100% MRR increase in 2025
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Near-daily qualified leads from On-Page SEO Checker widget
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Higher conversion rate vs. traditional contact forms
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Faster onboarding with centralized tools
Meet Xponent21: Full-service SEO and content agency
Xponent21 is an AI SEO & Digital Marketing agency with a 17-person team covering SEO strategy, technical execution, content, video production, and client services. Their sweet spot? Helping businesses turn SEO into a real growth channel, not just another line item in the marketing budget.
The agency works with clients across manufacturing, SaaS, consumer goods, professional services, and local businesses. Plus, they offer full-service video and podcast production. It’s integrated directly into their SEO strategies to maximize discoverability in both traditional and AI search environments.
The Challenge: Lead generation that couldn’t scale
The team had a problem familiar to many agencies: traffic was coming in, but turning those visitors into qualified leads took too much work.
There was no system in place to capture and qualify prospects at scale. Every sales conversation started from scratch. The team had to manually pull together diagnostics before they could talk strategy. It worked, but it didn’t scale.
🛑 No automated lead capture: Website visitors browsed content but had no easy way to self-qualify or engage beyond a standard contact form.
🛑 Manual prep slowed everything down: Each prospect needed custom diagnostics before the first call, which stretched out sales cycles.
🛑 Tools that didn’t quite fit: The team started with spreadsheets and manual reporting, then moved to Semrush, which helped centralize things. But it didn’t have agency-focused features like embedded lead generation.
These bottlenecks were holding back growth. The team needed a way to capture leads automatically and give sales instant context.
The Solution: SE Ranking’s SEO Checker as a lead generation tool
Xponent21 chose SE Ranking over Semrush because it checked all the boxes. They got audits, rank tracking, AI visibility tracking, lead generation, white-labeling, reporting, all paired with accurate data and transparent pricing.
The team appreciated faster product updates with features built for how agencies actually work and lead generation tools that Semrush simply didn’t offer in the same way.
How the SEO Checker changed everything
Xponent21 embedded SE Ranking’s white-labeled SEO Checker directly on their website. The tool became the centerpiece of their inbound strategy, turning passive visitors into qualified prospects.
Here’s how it works:
- Visitors find Xponent21 through traditional or AI-driven search.
Note: AI search traffic isn’t accidental. Xponent21 used SE Ranking to optimize its own visibility and now ranks near the top of most AI searches related to AI SEO.
- They spot the SEO Checker and run a quick audit on their own site.
- The tool quickly delivers a branded SEO report, giving instant value to the visitor.
- That completed report becomes a qualified lead with real data attached.
- The team reviews the findings, spots the biggest opportunities, and sends a personalized Loom video highlighting quick wins the prospect can fix on their own. It’s a trust-builder that often leads straight to a discovery call.
The Impact: Daily leads, lower costs, faster growth
This workflow changed everything:
- Prospects now self-qualify before the first call.
- The sales team gets immediate context without manual preparation.
- Conversations focus on strategy and prioritization rather than explaining basic SEO concepts.
The result: shorter sales cycles and higher conversion rates.
On top of that, in 2025, Xponent21 doubled its monthly recurring revenue.
Before SE Ranking, lead qualification and reporting were manual. After: leads arrive pre-qualified, onboarding moves faster, and the team scaled without adding complexity.
Beyond lead generation, Xponent21 uses SE Ranking across the board:
- Website Audit for technical fixes.
- Rank Tracking for traditional visibility.
- AI tracking to show clients how they’re performing in AI search systems.
- Automated reporting to show client progress at scale.
- White-label to present insights as part of the agency’s platform.
For agencies looking to get the most out of SE Ranking, the team has a clear recommendation:
Want to generate leads like Xponent21? Start a 14-day free trial with SE Ranking and see the difference.
