All posts by Steve

Healing Holidays is one of the UK’s leading health and wellness retreat websites, providing a variety of luxury retreats around the World.

In 2016 they wanted to migrate to a new platform which allowed them to expand their PPC and SEO performance, through more transparent tracking, better content and an improved customer experience

Our approach

We worked with the development agency to plan the migration, inputting into the development of the CMS to ensure all SEO elements were included. We also planned the migration and optimised all content to the primary target keywords.

Additionally, we developed a long-term SEM strategy to focus on improving efficiency between SEO and PPC and drive continuous growth. This was done through the following actions:

• Improve campaign transparency with a full rebuild of the analytics profile, providing a higher level of data accuracy to help optimise all media channels
• Re-develop the onsite content to push the primary features and benefits of the resort, focusing on the customer’s needs and not the search engine
• Rebuild the Google Ads campaign to reduce wastage and re-focus budgets on the most profitable campaigns

Since 2016 we have worked very closely with the client and have a strong relationship which allows us to support them across multiple digital channels.

The results

Within the first 3 months, we reduce digital media spend by £35,000, removing channels which failed to deliver a profitable ROI.

Since then we have continually delivered a 60-70% increase in organic traffic and a 50% YoY increase in enquiries. Further improvement in PPC efficiency has allowed us to expand the campaign across USA, Dubai and Singapore while retaining the same budget as 2016.

The UK’s largest holiday comparison website required our support in developing a robust SEO strategy which would turn a YoY decline in organic traffic into continuous growth.

The approach

As with many travel sites, there was a focus on delivering a lot of text purely for SEO purposes, our approach was to completely rebuild the holiday type and destination content to focus on the customer’s needs and the search engine.

Our long-term SEO strategy incorporated the following:

• An in-depth audit highlighting all technical issues currently impeding SEO growth, project managing updates with the client’s development team
• A complete re-write of over 100 destination pages, focusing on delivering engaging content which educates the customer
• On-going outreach – utilising our journalist contacts to share informative and newsworthy content pieces to help increase brand awareness, brand citations and external links

We also support the digital marketing team on a variety of topics, helping them to stay ahead of technology changes and become an integral part of their company.

The results

Within the first 3 months, we achieved top 3 rankings for a number of competitive keywords, helping to turn around a YoY decline in generic organic traffic volumes into a 19% YoY increase.

Further optimisation has seen further increases to 39% above previous years plus a 20% increase in revenue – all across generic pages excluding the home page.

giffgaff is one of the UK’s leading mobile networks, with a truly unique offering that empowers its members more than any other.

We have been working with them since early 2016 helping to develop an SEO strategy which focuses on increasing organic traffic and awareness of the mobile handset division.

Our approach

In a highly competitive sector a traditional approach to SEO would take a number of months to come in to fruition. Therefore, we developed a strategy that utilised not only the site’s equity, but also its passionate customer base and internal resources, to deliver a more efficient campaign.

We achieved this by splitting our strategy into two stages:

• Stage one – develop a number of training and consultation sessions with multiple departments within giffgaff. We worked with the brand, development, content and creative teams to ensure they had a complete understanding of what needed to be achieved and why. We also focused on resolving some of the site’s most critical technical issues, partnering with the development team and product owners to deliver a series of recommendations prioritised by potential impact and difficulty. Additionally, we also optimised all primary organic pages to target keywords, working in tandem with the PPC and CRO teams to ensure all content focused on maximise relevancy as well as conversions. This approach led to a new template being developed, which resulted in all new handset pages being created ‘SEO first’
• Stage two – with the foundations built we then began developing the outreach campaigns, though these were primarily focused on acquiring links, we wanted to utilise giffgaff’s members to help improve responsesWe have currently developed four campaigns since the first stage was complete – all of which have been successful in acquiring external links from highly reputable news portals, blogs and commercial sites

The results

Though it’s still too early to measure the direct impact of this activity, due to the highly competitive sector, we have been successful in the following areas:

• Develop a ‘passion for SEO’ within all departments of the client, through training and an increased understanding of what is needed and why, which has helped to ensure our requests are prioritised effectively
• Reduced reliance upon other third parties, as technical SEO ability, content and creative have been brought in-house due to increased knowledge, this has resulted in a saving over £250,000 per year
• Increased organic rankings (averaging top 3 positions) across all top-tier mobile handsets like the iPhone and Galaxy variants
• YOY increases in organic traffic across the website, whilst retaining the same conversion rate levels

2017 is set to be a fantastic year for giffgaff – with a range of new products, services and technology that are set to ‘leap frog’ the competition.

TD Investing is one of the UK’s most prominent online investment providers, part of a global corporation that delivers a range of share dealing, SIPP and other investment solutions.

We were required to help the UK team improve its customers online experience as well as develop a strategy to migrate their website to a new platform, with minimal risk to their current organic performance.

The approach

Our first approach was to develop a number of internal training sessions with multiple product owners within the company, the topics included all aspects of conversion rate optimisation, the tools and strategies needed as well as a tailored review of the current website.

Once the training sessions were completed we then sat down with the develop and content teams to create a migration strategy to the new technology platform. This required us to audit the site’s current data, highlighting potential bottlenecks that should be addressed. We also worked with them to develop a CRO strategy and testing plan to improve customer experience and conversion rates.

The results

The immediate impact was the ability for the team to develop a successful CRO strategy providing a more effective website which helped improve their customer’s user experience, increasing conversion rates by 30% within two months.

The site migration project is ongoing, but the team now have core SEO requirements at the forefront of the new development and we’ll continue to work with them during this process to ensure there is minimal risk to their current organic traffic levels, post migration.

Roman Blinds is a trading name of Interior Goods Direct, a manufacture of blinds within the UK, who have multiple websites. Having previously been penalised by Google, we were required to develop a highly transparent SEO and CRO campaign with minimal risk.

The approach

Our first task was to audit their current link profile and highlight any high-risk links that may have been the reason for the penalty, which took a number of months to audit and optimise.

During this time, we worked with the development team to resolve over 4,000 critical SEO issues, as well as integrate our site analysis and analytics tracking to monitor the site’s current customer experience.

As a result of this analysis, we highlighted a number of opportunities to improve how customers purchased throughout the site as well as increased the transparency of data available within analytics.

We also worked with their content and outreach team to develop a highly engaging and low risk link acquisition campaign.

The results

Through a lot of work across multiple disciplines the website is now number one for its primary keyword resulting in a 181% increase in organic traffic levels.

With the site’s purchase funnel improved, we also delivered an 8% increase in conversion rates and a 198% increase in revenue. Additionally, we are working with the developers to further improve mobile conversions as this is now makes up the majority of site traffic.

Our work has covered all IGD websites which in turn have seen a large increase in organic traffic and conversion rates as a result of our recommendations and strategy.

VisorDown is a dedicated motorcycle portal, covering all aspects of motorcycle news, reviews and sport across the globe. Recently acquired by our client, Crash Media, we were tasked in developing an SEO strategy to help migrate the website to a new platform and to develop and implement a long-term strategy to increase organic traffic.

The approach

As with any website with a significant volume of content, our approach was to split the strategy into smaller milestones.

The first was to perform a complete audit of the site’s current content reviewing legacy pages and prioritising content which should be migrated or archived. Once this was established, we then worked with the content and development team to migrate this content across to the dev server, taking the opportunity to create and optimise new categories and sub-categories.

Once the development server was complete we then focused on site performance post migration, analysing multiple tracking tools to resolve over 45,000 critical issues.

The results

Initially, 30 days after migration, 60% of the critical issues were resolved with no impact on organic traffic levels. A further 90 days and all issues are fixed and new content was developed to help further expand the site’s reach into higher volume categories.

We are now working with the client to further improve the platform for mobile users, focusing on new technology such as accelerated mobile pages (AMP), server load times and usability analysis.

As one of the UK’s most well-known male designer brands, Ben Sherman required us to help develop and manage its SEO and CRO campaign after a move to a new e-commerce platform.

The approach

As with any SEO and CRO campaign we had to break down the strategy into three distinct stages:

• Audit the current site performance, highlighting issues which needed to be fixed, reviewing the website analytics to highlight any bottlenecks and develop a list of recommendations for the development team
• Whilst the onsite updates were being made we began optimising the customer purchase experience, resolving a number of issues which were impeding the purchase
• Continually refine and optimise the site’s content and expand upon A/B testing with a multivariate strategy to help further optimise the customer experience

Ongoing optimisation focuses on continually refining the content and user experience whilst expanding the site’s link profile with engaging outreach campaigns.

The results

We achieved a 94% increase in organic traffic within three months of working on the campaign and currently increased conversion rates by 46% within two months.

Further work on both SEO and CRO will help us to deliver further improvements as we continually optimise and refine the website.

As one of the UK’s largest car park providers, Q-Park required us to review its current platform and provide a list of recommendations to help its developers build a website which complies with the latest search engine standards.

The approach

As with any audit we utilised a number of diagnostic tools helping us to track over 7,000 data points and highlight over 14,000 opportunities to improve the website.

These opportunities were reviewed by our technical SEO team and a series of recommendations, tailored to their technology, were created and prioritised.

A full audit document was created and we reviewed all issues with the client and its team, helping to expand upon and amend recommendations.

The results

Immediately the developers had a clearer understanding of what was needed to create a more SEO friendly website, additionally, we highlight over 4,000 critical issues which have now been resolved.

The marketing team now have a strong platform to expand upon and the search engines are indexing and ranking the content more efficiently, which has directly improved keyword rankings within few weeks.

BrewDog is the UK’s fastest growing alternative beer brand; it has built a reputation for creating some of the best beers in the World. The craft beer specialists not only push boundaries but also smash people’s perceptions of what beer can be, brewing the world’s strongest ever beer, Tactical Nuclear Penguin at 32%.

We were asked to help amplify the number of investors for the brewery’s USA Equity For Punks (EFP) crowdfunding scheme throughout its closing stages in June and July.

Our Approach

Due to very tight deadlines, we wanted to utilise as much existing data and creative available to us to help get a campaign live within 72 hours.

To do this we focused on paid media through Facebook, using a number of lookalike audience targets which helped us to deliver reach, relevance, and efficiency.

With this being one of BrewDog’s first paid media campaigns, we also wanted to build as many insights as possible. Therefore, we created a number of tailored creative pieces and messaging, which was then rotated to help to optimise performance.

Improving campaign tracking was also a priority; we worked with Brew Dog’s development agency to integrate Google Analytics into the various investment payment portals.

The results

Within 60 days, the campaign had reached over 1.7million people and helped deliver a 755% ROI, as well as a 24% increase in daily investment.

The campaign also helped to deliver:

• Increased transparency in Google Analytics across all media channels, helping to provide more accurate insights
• Better understanding of which message, perks and imagery delivers the best levels of engagement
• More in-depth insights into demographics

Our approach helped us to not only increase the levels of investment but also develop a more in-depth understanding of how to target the right audience, both of which will help us to deliver better results in the next campaign.