Thunphel Tours partnered with CausalFunnel to strengthen their website’s authority and create a solid SEO foundation for long-term organic growth. With a very low starting Domain Rating, their website needed a careful, structured approach that focused on relevance, clean execution, and gradual authority building.

Rather than chasing fast results, the objective was to increase domain authority in Ahrefs in a sustainable way by combining community-driven backlinks, on-page improvements, and technical SEO fixes that support future scalability.

Background & Problem

When Thunphel Tours came to CausalFunnel, their Ahrefs Domain Rating was 1.5. This made it difficult for the site to gain visibility, even for niche and location-specific travel queries.

Key challenges included:

• Almost no authoritative referring domains
  
  
• A backlink profile that lacked diversity
  
  
• Weak on-page SEO foundations
  
  
• Technical issues limiting crawlability and equity flow
  
  

With such a low DR, the priority was not aggressive link building, but building trust signals gradually and correctly, especially in a competitive travel and tourism niche.

Case Study

Authority & Gap Analysis

CausalFunnel began by assessing the site’s backlink profile and comparing it against similar travel and tour websites. This helped identify:

• The types of early-stage links competitors relied on
  
  
• Gaps in community, forum, and niche-based referrals
  
  
• Opportunities to build authority without risking over-optimization
  
  

This analysis shaped a phased strategy focused on safe, relevant growth.

Community & Forum-Based Backlink Building

To establish early authority, we focused on natural and diversified community-driven links.

Backlinks were built from:

• Community and discussion platforms
  
  
• Forum-based websites
  
  
• Medium and other content-publishing platforms
  
  
• Business listing and profile websites
  
  
• Niche-relevant travel and tourism platforms
  
  

Throughout this process, we:

• Maintained a healthy mix of dofollow and nofollow links
  
  
• Prioritized unique referring domains over sheer link volume
  
  

This helped create a natural-looking backlink profile suitable for a low-DR website.

Content-Led Link Placements

All backlinks were supported by original, useful content. Links were placed contextually within articles and discussions rather than in footers or low-visibility areas.

This approach ensured:

• Higher relevance for each backlink
  
  
• Alignment with travel, tours, and tourism topics
  
  
• Avoidance of spammy tactics, automation tools, or low-quality networks
  
  

Content quality played a key role in building authority backlinks and authority signals.

Domain Rating Progress

Before CausalFunnel

• Domain Rating: 1.5

After CausalFunnel (Within a Few Months)

• Domain Rating: 9
  
  
• Growth: +7.5 DR points
  
  

For a site starting at a very low DR, this represented strong, healthy progress built on clean fundamentals.

How CausalFunnel AI Fixed the Problem

On-Page SEO Improvements

Once backlinks were in place, we focused on strengthening page-level SEO to support authority flow. This included:

• Optimizing meta titles and descriptions
  
  
• Improving page structure and heading hierarchy (H1–H3)
  
  
• Strengthening internal linking between service and destination pages
  
  
• Fixing thin content and closing SEO gaps
  
  

These improvements helped reinforce topical relevance across the site.

Technical SEO Foundation

CausalFunnel AI also identified and resolved key technical issues that were holding the site back:

• Crawlability and indexing problems
  
  
• Basic technical errors affecting site health
  
  
• URL structure and internal flow issues
  
  

These fixes ensured the website could properly benefit from new backlinks and distribute authority across important pages.

Clear Tracking & Visibility

Using CausalFunnel’s dashboard, the Thunphel Tours team could track:

• Backlinks built
  
  
• Pages optimized
  
  
• Changes in Domain Rating over time
  
  

This made it easier to understand which actions contributed to DR growth and maintain steady progress.

Key Takeaway

Thunphel Tours increased their Domain Rating from 1.5 to 9 by focusing on relevance, consistency, and foundational SEO best practices. Community-driven backlinks, content-led placements, and strong on-page and technical foundations worked together to drive sustainable authority growth.

This case highlights that early-stage DR growth depends on patience, quality links, and clean execution rather than shortcuts.

Conclusion

This Domain Rating improvement was the result of a focused, AI-guided strategy designed specifically for low-authority websites. By using CausalFunnel AI to build relevant community backlinks, strengthen on-page SEO, and fix technical foundations, Thunphel Tours now has a reliable framework for continued growth.

As they expand their content and target new travel-related keywords, this foundation will continue supporting stronger visibility and authority in search.

Looking to improve your Domain Rating the right way? Get started with CausalFunnel today.