Case Study: Scaling Free Education to Millions with WordPress, SEO & Sustainable Monetization

Shriram Lamichhane

During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Nepali students lost access to classrooms, but not to education. As an Android developer and educator, I used WordPress to build thesrzone.com, a free learning platform that now serves 1M+ monthly visitors with 300+ STEM articles (80% ranking on Google’s first page). Paired with offline Android apps, this project has helped 2M+ underprivileged students learn without barriers.

In this talk, I’ll share:
– SEO strategies that boosted organic traffic accumulating 40 million page views till now (keyword research, content structuring, and technical SEO).
– Monetization without paywalls, how we fund free education ethically either on YouTube Channel, Website and Android Apps.
– Lessons from offline-first design (critical for low-internet users) and how they apply to WordPress (caching, PWAs, lightweight themes).
– Community-powered growth: How open-source tools and student contributors scaled our impact.

Whether the audience is a developer, content creator, or NGO worker, they will leave with actionable tactics to amplify reach, optimize performance, and make knowledge accessible, using WordPress as a force for good.

Shriram Lamichhane