White Label SEO / Digital Strategy / Ecommerce & Lead Generation Consultancy Case Studies (updated 2024)

   

   Here are some recent (white label) SEO, Digital Strategy, Lead Generation & Ecommerce case studies from my freelance consultancy work.

    Note that some of the case studies below are based on the Semrush.com google.co.uk ranking database. Please note that you may need to create a free Semrush account to view the data on the Semrush site. 

I've broken some URLs below:


Name Redacted (2022-23)

   In late 2022 I was engaged to work on SEO for 11 websites for a major international (now mainly online) education provider (they had recently acquired one of my clients) who have been established for well over a hundred years. I don’t have an NDA but I won’t name them here for the sake of discretion. I focused my work on the main websites of their 3 brands . I was not given any KPIs as such and it was general SEO consultancy. See following blog post:

https://www.seolondonsurrey.co.uk/blog/what-is-the-value-of-17-years-experience-in-seo

Royal Museums Greenwich - Online Marketing research report 2019

   I was engaged in mid-2019 to do a one-off Online Marketing research report for the Event Venue Hire and Online Shop business areas of RMG .co.uk. As part of my work I noted an incomplete (and partial) website consolidation project merging nmm .ac.uk with rmg .co.uk - in which the 'old' homepage URL of http://www.nmm .ac.uk/ (which had around 1.4K backlinks) had not been redirected to the corresponding page on rmg .co.uk . 

   My work contributed to a rise in the number of phrases they were ranking for globally in the top 100 results on Google going up from 175K in June 2019 to 317K one year later (a rise of around 80%) - this included an approximate doubling of the phrases the site ranked for in the top 10 results on GOOG. See Semrush data below:

  Reactive Graphics SEO 2014 - 2019 (case study update 2023)

    In late 2014 Reactive Graphics contacted me to help restore their top 10 rankings for their core key phrase "web design london". At this point they were 239th on Google UK  after a major drop in rankings.


    I did an initial 4 days work including strategic advice, link building and attempted to address any possible legacy negative effects of previous SEO work by 3rd parties on Google, Bing & Yahoo. I then did 3 more days ad-hoc link building and strategic advice (which they informed they have been implementing in-house) over the following years including a new focus on Google Map rankings. Top 10 'ten blue link' rankings were eventually re-established for this phrase around 2018 (as I was not working on this on an ongoing basis I was not monitoring the rankings).


   At time of writing (4.2023) they currently rank 1st on the Google Map and 4th in the 'normal' results on the first page of Google.co.uk for this very competitive phrase (for which exact phrase there are 2900 searches monthly on Google in the UK) from the search location of London, United Kingdom from a check in my browser. I've removed some of the ads from the screenshot below (ad blockers only block so much...) .


This is in the face of huge competition from much larger (international) businesses! 

Name redacted due to Non-Disclosure Agreement - White Label SEO & PPC - 2021 - 2022

   In early 2021 I was engaged by a marketing agency to provide expert white label digital marketing (SEO and PPC) consultancy services for a distillery / tourist attraction (can't say the name as I've a non-disclosure agreement). They also had social media (advertising) and influencer marketing input from the agency I worked for too. I did around 10 days work in total including work on a partner business.

   My work contributed to a rise in total annual sales (pre-pandemic in 2019 of c.€2.6M - they were acquired in early 2019) to c. €5M for 2021 which according to their annual report was due to a significant rise in alcohol sales.

   For the period since my ongoing work started (May 1, 2021-Jul 22, 2022) compared to the pre-covid period: (May 1, 2018-Jul 22, 2019):

    There were multiple issues and challenges in the project e.g. the (configuration of the?) website CMS not allowing 'easy' amendment of certain key pages, the attraction being shut for around 1/3 of the year in 2021 (due to Covid restrictions) and issues with delivery to the European Union post-Brexit that meant that the spirits sold on their online shop were only available for shipping to the following countries for over three-quarters of the year in 2021: Bosnia, Iceland, Norway, Serbia, Ukraine, the UK and Channel Islands. Issues with delivery to the EU post-Brexit as well as other issues had contributed to a drop in around 2/3 in the total value of UK whisky exports to the EU in January 2021 compared to the previous year. 

  It also appears that the result of our marketing and advertising activity contributed to a dramatic rise in brand related searches too according to Google Keyword Planner data. My involvement ended when the agency was acquired in early 2022. 

See semrush.com data on the number of phrases the site is ranking for in the top 100 results on Google UK below: 

National Caravan Council - SEO / PPC Consultancy - 2020 to date

   One of the “low hanging fruit” goals of my ongoing work I set was working to obtain first places Google rankings for the singular version of core key phrases e.g. ‘caravan show’ & ‘motorhome show’ (they have 2 shows with separate websites - I have been working across their portfolio of around 30 websites).

     In Sept 2020 https://mcshow.co.uk was ranking 2nd for core key phrase ‘motorhome show’ (1.9K  searches per month on google in the UK– was 2.4K in Sept 2020 - both numbers include the plural variant ) . It is now ranking first for this phrase at time of writing (August 2022). This contributed to advance ticket sales of over 100K for the 2022 Show which took place at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. 

    In addition https://ccmshow.co.uk/ was ranking 3rd for core key phrase ‘caravan show’ (for which there are 1.6K searches per month on google in the UK – 1.9K in Sept 2020 both including the plural variant ) . It is now ranking first for this phrase.


https://www.daytona .co.uk/ SEO Consultancy - 2020

 I did a one off SEO / online marketing strategy review for this leisure brand with racetracks in Surrey, Milton Keynes and Tamworth. My work has contributed to obtaining top 5 results on Google UK for the core key phrases "go karting birmingham" and "go karting london" for which phrases there 10K and 27K monthly searches respectively (the baseline rankings were 13th and 31st).

Smartdebit .co.uk SEO & PPC Consultancy 2017 - 2022

   I was assisting this financial services company with their SEO & PPC (I didn't manage their PPC campaigns but assisted the Marketing Manager with monitoring etc) efforts including link building and strategic advice. They were acquired in 2021 and my work was taken in house soon after. This work contributed to the following results: 

At time of writing (8.2022) here are their rankings for core key phrases:

   This is in the face of stiff competition from huge international entities like Go Cardless and Bottomline - an indicator of the competitiveness is that a Google Ads click can cost up to £29 for the phrase "direct debit services"  and there are 7 ads displayed for this phrase on Google today  . This area is highly competitive and rankings had fluctuated. We have also had to deal with various issues like suspected "negative SEO" by a competitor. Success might be characterised in a market like this as "maintaining your position".

 In Feb 2020 they recorded the highest number of inbound leads they had received since having a CRM at 152 (the second-highest was July 2020 at 149 and the third-highest September 2020 at 144). This was in the context of reduced marketing staffing in the last few years (toward the end of the project there were 0 marketing staff in post and I was feeding back to the sales director) & in the Covid era dramatically reduced PPC budgets (up to a 40% reduction but actual spend had been recorded at an even lower level).

www.acacialearning .co.uk / .com SEO - 2019 - date

    My ongoing work for this further & higher education provider started in Sept 2019 and I did 10 days work to date of the ranking report below (Feb 2021) which had included work on another of their websites. This work included strategic advice, on-page optimisation, inbound link building & content syndication. 

   Here were their organic Google.co.uk rankings for their core key phrases from a test location of Birmingham, UK in Feb 2021:

   They were London-based (now Glasgow) and these results varied slightly around the UK from my in-depth testing, but from a test from the search locations of the major UK cities they ranked 3rd or higher for the example query ‘cipd level 3' nationwide. They ranked first for this phrase in London, Manchester, Southampton, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Belfast, Plymouth, Hull & Aberdeen! In the locations they ranked first at this time they even outranked cipd.co.uk (the site of Chartered Institute of Personnel Development) for these searches too .

    These exact rankings only lasted for a period of time from early to mid 2020 - Cipd.co.uk has regained it's first position for many of these phrases & Google has since started incorporating more locally relevant (non-Map) results into SERPs .

   For example here's the current results from Birmingham with results from  https://www.coventrycollege.ac.uk/ &  https://www.bmet.ac.uk/ in the first page search results for "cipd level 3" (this is the Google Ad Preview tool which we can use to see SERPs from a named location):

https://ads.google.com/anon/AdPreview?activeTab=1&lang=en&loc=1006524&device=30000&st=cipd+level+3

    We can see in the Google Analytics data below how we have seen a sustained boost in their organic traffic since June 2020 (for some reason I can only find data going back to Feb 2020) - they changed domain in 2021.

    It does not appear the rise in traffic was due to a rise in demand. Even though Cedefop analysis of online learning-related queries on Google Trends in 2020 showed a sudden surge in interest in online learning in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe: we have not seen a significant rise for CIPD course related searches in the UK according to Google Keyword Planner data. See below. 

uploadagency .com SEO - 2020 

    I did 1.5 days one-off SEO consultancy for this UK-based global social media influencer management and merchandising company focused on optimisation of meta titles and descriptions on this site . 

    This has contributed to them establishing top 10 rankings on Google in various locations including the  UK /USA for multiple core key phrases e.g. "youtuber management company" (for which phrase there are 110 monthly searches in the USA on Google).

tmwillsandprobate .co.uk/  SEO Consultancy 2019-date

   I helped launch this Private Client Solicitor website in May 2019 and according to whatsmyserp.com the rankings have been in flux with rankings in the top 10 on Google UK for the general term 'wills and probate solicitors' ( for which there 480 searches per month on GOOG in UK) as well as 'wills solicitors london' (170 searches per month) which were established but have slipped at time of writing.

   This site is currently (November 2020) ranking in the top 10 on Google UK for 'probate solicitors london' (90 searches per month). This data does not include Google Map rankings.

   My work has included SEO strategy definition, creation of Google Map listings and manual inbound link building.

     I have only done around 2 days work on this site thus far (I have also been working on their 2 sister sites). My work is ongoing and includes on-page optimisation in the plan of work (this has been implemented thus far along similar lines to the sister sites).

I have worked alongside the web designers https://www.webworksuk .com/ on this.


Citibase .com SEO Consultancy 2016

    In early 2016 I assisted their web design agency with a redesign of Citibase .com (launched on 22/03/2016), the main website of one of the UK's largest providers of serviced office space to SME firms.

    This alongside strategic advice including highlighting major issues with their Google Map listings which they began to resolve internally contributed to Citibase's best ever sales quarter with revenue from new contracts surging more than three-fold in the three months to the 31st of July 2016 (click to view story on the Evening Standard website).

    This also has resulted in the number of phrases they are ranking for in the top 100 results on google.co.uk increasing from 577 in Feb 2016 to 744 in Sept 2016 (an increase of around 1/3) according to Semrush data:

     This work did not include inbound link building and was 2 days in total.

 Name redacted due to Non-Disclosure Agreement - White Label SEO & PPC - 2021 - 2022

  In early 2021 I was engaged by a marketing agency to work on white label digital marketing for a large housebuilder in the North and Midlands

 I did a total of 8 days work on SEO / PPC and digital marketing strategy . There were various issues with this project inc. online reputation management & project management internally at the agency.

  For the period Jan 1-Dec 31, 2021 compared to previous period (Jan 2-Dec 31, 2020) SEO work contributed to a 6% rise in Organic Traffic (77,307 vs 73,178) and Direct Traffic was up 20% (39,639 vs 32,961) - the latter may relate to Google My Business optimisation (https://searchengineland.com/seeing-organic-visits-gmb-290186).

   R.e. rankings core key phrases in "organic" Google search. In this work I established first position for "new builds chesterfield" ( 720 searches per month on Google in the UK) which the site was not ranking for when ongoing SEO work commenced (July 2021)

    I established number 1 rankings for "new builds derby" (720 searches) & "new builds droitwich"  (140 searches) and top 10 rankings for "new builds matlock" (50 searches) & "new builds radcliffe-on-trent" (20 searches).


Londoncallingarts .com & Culturecalling .co.uk / culturecalling .com SEO Consultancy 2015 - 2019

   Here were the results of my first 8 days work (4 days on each - this included PPC set up / enhancement and the first day for each was a site / strategy review) in total for Londoncallingarts .com & Culturecalling .co.uk:  

    At time of writing (6.11.16) londoncallingarts .com is ranking 'organically' in the top 10 on google .co.uk for the general term “arts marketing” (with the search location set as the UK). 

    At time of writing (6.11.16) culturecalling .co.uk & londoncallingarts .com are both in the top 5 on google .co.uk for “arts marketing agency” (with the search location set as UK). 

   R.e. Baseline Search Engine Rankings – the only significant rankings I could find for both sites were (after link building work had begun on the sites on 23.7.15) were 36th for 'arts marketing' and 33rd for 'arts marketing agency' for londoncallingarts .com on google .co.uk. 

    All search rankings may be personalised to some degree but I tested rankings on 11.11.16 with http://google.com/AdPreview to depersonalise them. 

 I also worked on their magazine website culturecalling .com - launched in 2016 the results of my work contributed to the following result: when they brought the SEO function in-house in Feb 2019  the site was ranking for 5,559 phrases in the top 100 results on Google UK (semrush .com data):

   I also worked on their magazine website londoncalling.com - the results of my work including strategic review contributed to the following results. The number of phrases the site was ranking for in the top 100 results on Google UK (semrush .com data) went up from 178 in Jan 2016 to 7,605 in Feb 2016 - it was merged with culturecalling.com in 2019 . There were some legacy issues with this domain which may have worked to minimise it's search visibility for a period of time. See below:


www.voyages-sncf .com SEO Consultancy 2017

   I was approached by a digital marketing in France to assist with the keyword research & SEO strategy review for the train ticket sales and travel agency services of what was at that time France's largest e-commerce site (voyages-sncf.com) for the UK market (it was also one of the largest e-commerce sites in Europe at that time) based in Scotland. This was part of a project for 15 countries in total, with the UK version as the model to follow for other languages. This research was in part to guide the writing the Titles, H1s and Meta Descriptions of c.300 key pages on the site.

  This work contributed to the following results: when the work started in December 2016 the site was ranking for around 21K key phrases in top 100 results of Google UK according to semrush.com . In November 2017 this number was 26K (an increase of around 25% in around a year) . November 2017 was the time the site was migrated to a new domain: oui. sncf .

https://www.semrush. com/analytics/organic/overview/?db=uk&searchType=domain&q=voyages-sncf.com 

https://www.semrush. com/analytics/organic/overview/?db=uk&searchType=domain&q=oui.sncf 


Thomasmansfield.com / Tmfamilylaw.co.uk SEO & PPC Consultancy (Local) SEO 2017 - ongoing


1. Since my work commenced approximately 1 year ago from my tests in April 2018 there has been a marked improvement in Google organic visibility for the family and employment law websites of this firm of solicitors. Top 10 rankings (Google Map rankings detailed separately below) have been established for the following phrases since my work began (this does not include Google Map rankings as my tool does not report them):

'employment solicitors london city'

'employment solicitors sussex'

'employment solicitors kent'

'employment solicitors surrey'

'family solicitors hammersmith'

'family solicitors west end'

'family solicitors dartford'

'family solicitors sevenoaks'

'family solicitors tonbridge'

'family solicitors tunbridge wells'


    Note the above is not a list of all the phrases they are ranking for - just the one I've helped obtain.

   First place on the Google Map (on the first page of 'normal' search results) has been established (from baseline of no first page visibility) for following key phrases locally (note the baseline was measured in November 2017 - these local Google Map visibility tests using https://adwords.google.com/apt/anon/AdPreview?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000 are not perfect– e.g. Kingston, Surrey isn’t available as a search location so I used Greater London):

‘family solicitors sevenoaks’

‘employment solicitors heathrow’

‘employment solicitors liverpool st’


    First page Map visibility has been established (from baseline of no first page visibility) for following key phrases:


‘family solicitors tunbridge wells’

‘employment solicitors canary wharf’

‘employment solicitors hammersmith’


First Map place / page visibility has been established (from baseline of no First page visibility) for following key phrases:


‘employment solicitors bromley’


The combination of SEO (normal results & map listings) & PPC is giving total domination of all first 3 paid and unpaid results for certain key phrases (e.g. ‘employment solicitors dartford’) in certain location(s) at time of writing.


2. From a test in multiple locations in / beyond central London (an area of 10 square miles approximately), UK on 6.7.20 using the local SEO ranking tool https://app.persuaded.io/ , my client Thomas Mansfield's ( www.thomasmansfield .com ) business Google Map location at Artillery Lane, Spitalfields is ranking first to third in Google My Business aka Map listings for their core key phrase ‘employment solicitors’ . There are around 16 competitors in the area  marked with white pins (this may not be a complete list as competitors may be obscured by the green pins / not be listed under the correct categories / listed on the GOOG Map at all).

   These search results are often displayed with the first three listings at the very top of organic results! See a sample search result from the E1 area below using Google Ad Preview tool here: https://lnkd.in/grvphyQ .

    The test locations are marked below with green pins with the ranking on top (& the Artillery Lane business location is marked in the centre of the map below with a blue pin):