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groundup.org.za

12 technologies
VerifiedGrowingVisit553.5K/mo$8M4012 Tech
Deep Dive

GroundUp: The Public Interest News Engine

How a 40-person team built a 553k monthly visit news powerhouse

In an era of media consolidation and clickbait, GroundUp is building something counterintuitive: a sustainable, high-traffic news service focused entirely on public interest stories. With 553,000 monthly visits and a lean team of 40, they're proving that specialized journalism scales.

553K
monthly visits
55%
organic search traffic
40
employees
$7.8M
annual revenue

"They're not chasing virality—they're building authority around specific, underserved beats: education, health, sanitation, immigration, and human rights."

The Niche Advantage

GroundUp's strategy is counterintuitive: instead of broad coverage, they dominate specific verticals. Their top keywords reveal this focus—'thabo bester' (3,060 monthly searches) and 'south africa palestin' (190 monthly searches) aren't mainstream topics, but they command dedicated, high-intent audiences. This creates a defensible moat: mainstream outlets ignore these beats, but GroundUp becomes the authoritative source.

Traffic Architecture

Their traffic split is telling: 55% organic search vs. 33% direct. For a news site, this is unusual—most news relies heavily on social and direct traffic. GroundUp's SEO dominance (215,401 backlinks) suggests they're optimizing for evergreen public interest content, not just breaking news. Their top keywords—'south africa' (418K volume) and 'cape town' (164K volume)—show they're capturing broad geographic interest, then funneling it into specialized verticals.

The tech stack reveals a pragmatic approach: jQuery, Tailwind CSS, Bootstrap, and Google Analytics. They're not reinventing the wheel—they're building on proven, cost-effective technologies. The presence of Matomo alongside Google Analytics shows a commitment to privacy-conscious analytics, fitting for a public interest outlet. Cloudflare and HSTS indicate serious attention to security and performance, critical for a site handling sensitive human rights stories.

  • Revenue model: Likely mix of grants, donations, and sponsored content (common for public interest news)
  • Distribution: Multi-platform presence (TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram) suggests they're meeting audiences where they are
  • Geographic focus: 82.9% traffic from 'undefined' (likely South Africa), showing domestic dominance with minimal international reach
  • Growth signal: 215K backlinks from a 40-person team indicates aggressive content marketing and PR
Don't chase breaking news cycles
Focus on evergreen public interest stories
Don't rely on viral social content
Build deep SEO moats around specialized topics
Don't cover celebrity or entertainment beats
Create multi-platform content for different audience segments

The Public Interest Playbook

GroundUp proves that sustainable journalism isn't about scale—it's about depth. Their 553K monthly visits from a 40-person team outperforms many newsrooms 10x their size, because they own specific verticals that mainstream media ignores. For founders: the lesson is clear—find the underserved beat, build SEO authority, and monetize through mission-aligned revenue. For investors: this is a model that scales impact, not just clicks.

What tech stack does Groundup use?

17 detected
Security1
Programming Languages1
Cloud & Hosting1
Email Marketing1
Analytics & Marketing2
Web Standards1
JavaScript Libraries1
Tracking & Analytics5
G
Google Analytics
G
Google Tag Manager
C
Cloudflare Insights
G
Google Analytics
G
Google DoubleClick

How much traffic does Groundup get?

Traffic & Engagement

389.9K
Monthly Visits
+104.7%
1.7
Pages/Visit
7:43
Avg. Duration
77%
Bounce Rate
Monthly Traffic Trend+41%
276.3K
Oct 2025
Oct
190.5K
Nov 2025
Nov
389.9K
Dec 2025
Dec

Rankings

#106,277
Global Rank
#633
South Africa Rank

Backlinks & Authority

215.4K
Backlinks
8.2K
Ref. Domains
48
Authority Score
Low
Penalty Risk
Backlinks Trend+16%
185.0K
Jul 2025
Jul
186.0K
Aug 2025
Aug
186.1K
Sep 2025
Sep
188.8K
Oct 2025
Oct
216.7K
Nov 2025
Nov
215.4K
Dec 2025
Dec

Search Traffic

Organic
93.7K

Top Organic Keywords

#12sassa
1,220,000 vol6.8%
#1ground up
4,400 vol3.9%
#6350
49,500 vol2.8%
#1groundup news
1,900 vol1.7%
#10sassa status check for r350 payment dates for 2023
49,500 vol1.7%

Where is Groundup's audience located?

🇿🇦South Africa97.6%
🇹🇼Tw0.7%
🇺🇸United States0.5%
🇷🇪Re0.5%
🇬🇧United Kingdom0.2%

Device Distribution

Desktop6.3%
Mobile93.7%

What keywords does Groundup rank for?

5 keywords
1south africa418.9K vol$1.01
2cape town163.9K vol$0.77
3south africa palestin190 vol
4thabo bester3.1K vol$1.53
5ground up1.5K vol$1.41

How is Groundup's SEO?

Meta Tags

title41 chars

GroundUp: South African news that matters

description134 chars

GroundUp publishes original public interest news. We mainly cover education, health, sanitation, immigration and human rights stories.

languageEN

Who works at Groundup?

Loading leads...

What do customers think of Groundup?

No Trustpilot reviews available for this company.

Frequently Asked Questions about Groundup

What is Groundup's Revenue?
Groundup generates approximately $8M in annual revenue. With 40 employees, that's $194,400 per employee.
What does Groundup do?
GroundUp publishes original public interest news. We mainly cover education, health, sanitation, immigration and human rights stories.
How fast is Groundup growing?
Groundup has grown by 104.7% in the last 6 months according to traffic data. employee count has changed by 33% year over year.
How do people interact with Groundup?
When visiting Groundup, visitors view an average of 1.7 pages per visit, and spend around 7:43 on the site, and the bounce rate is 77.4%.
How do people find Groundup?
296.2K people (76%) visit Groundup directly. 93.7K (24%) find them through organic search.
Who uses Groundup?
Groundup's top market is South Africa with 380.5K visitors (97.6%). Taiwan is 2nd with 2.7K (0.7%). United States is 3rd with 1.9K (0.5%).
What technologies does Groundup use?
Groundup uses 12 technologies across their website including Fonts, Security, Programming Languages. Key technologies include Font Awesome, Google Fonts, HSTS, PHP.
Who are Groundup's competitors?
Groundup's main competitors include Little Bee Books, Universi, Ave Maria Press, North Coast Media, EmeraldPublishing. These companies operate in similar markets and compete for the same customer base.

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About groundup.org.za

GroundUp publishes original public interest news. We mainly cover education, health, sanitation, immigration and human rights stories.

Company Overview

groundup.org.za
Website
news_and_media
Industry
#115,579
Global Rank
553.5K
Monthly Visitors
12
Technologies

groundup.org.za Key Pages

Contact groundup.org.za

Technology Stack

groundup.org.za uses 12 technologies across their website including Font Awesome, Google Fonts, HSTS, PHP, and more.

Fonts

Font Awesome, Google Fonts

Security

HSTS

Programming Languages

PHP

Cloud & Hosting

Cloudflare

Email Marketing

Mailchimp

Analytics & Marketing

Matomo, Google Analytics

Traffic & Audience

553.5K
Monthly Visits
52%
Bounce Rate
1.5
Pages/Visit
0:40
Avg. Duration

groundup.org.za receives approximately 553.5K monthly visitors and ranks #115,579 globally. The website has a bounce rate of 52% with visitors viewing an average of 1.5 pages per visit. Users spend an average of 0:40 on the site.

The majority of groundup.org.za's traffic comes from undefined, undefined, .

Frequently Asked Questions

What is groundup.org.za?
GroundUp publishes original public interest news. We mainly cover education, health, sanitation, immigration and human rights stories.
What technologies does groundup.org.za use?
groundup.org.za uses 12 technologies including Font Awesome, Google Fonts, HSTS, and 6 more. View the full tech stack analysis above.
How do I contact groundup.org.za?
You can contact groundup.org.za via email at [email protected].
What are groundup.org.za's social media accounts?
groundup.org.za is active on tiktok, youtube, facebook, instagram. You can find links to all their social media profiles in the social section above.
How popular is groundup.org.za?
groundup.org.za receives approximately 553.5K monthly visitors and ranks #115,579 globally. Traffic is growing by 69.0% month-over-month.

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This page provides publicly available information about groundup.org.za. Data is collected from various public sources and may not always be up to date. For the most accurate information, please visit groundup.org.za directly at https://groundup.org.za.