Introduction
Our client is a well-known management consultant recruitment firm operating in London. They’re an award-winning company that specialises in successfully filling even the most difficult of senior-level management consultant roles. They have a highly experienced team of recruiters who have built an impressive reputation that has cemented their company as one of the best in the business.
Although our client is well-established, there are a number of other well-known companies that make for fierce competition in their industry. Our client asked us to help them build an online presence that could overcome the threat posed by their competitors, some of whom are known on a national level.
While this would be no easy task, it was one we were eager to take on.
Keyword & competitor research
Keyword and competitor research is always one of the most important steps to a successful digital marketing campaign and is what lays the groundwork for everything that follows. It goes without saying that with this particular client, this stage of the process was of paramount importance.
We began keyword research that was even more extensive than usual, looking at as many variations of keywords as possible. It was crucial to find the golden middle ground between keywords which were attracting a lot of search traffic but which weren’t too popular or difficult to realistically try and rank for. Furthermore, locations were crucial given our client helps to fill roles across the UK and internationally.
When it came to competitor research, there was no shortage of contenders for us to look into. Management consultancy recruitment firms in London are crucial to placing worthy candidates in important positions, often holding significant responsibility within their organisation.
We took a long list of competitors and performed extensive competitor research, looking at everything from the layout of their websites to which of their pages and keywords bought in the most traffic. Any advantage we could gain might have resulted in us pushing our client above a competitor, so we explored every possible option.
Strategy
As we were aware that we were taking on a monumental task, our strategy had to be expansive enough to match the scale of the operation. We decided to focus on the following things:
Brand refresh
What our client wanted was a brand-new and refined look that would outshine those of their competitors. We produced a number of highly visual and contemporary designs which we supplemented with a new logo and vibrant colours. They also wanted more flexibility, which we were able to implement for them through our customised flexible content blocks.
Internal Linking
Our client is experienced and long-standing, so their website has been growing for quite some time. We wanted to make sure that all of their existing content was well-structured and easy for visitors to navigate, so we regularly update their content with internal links.
Removing toxic backlinks
As our client operates within a competitive sector, unfortunately they have been subject to negative SEO attacks, likely from a rival firm. A negative SEO attack can take different forms but the most common is where a website is added to a number of directories with low trust scores (or worse!), creating toxic backlinks. Google sees these and will penalise a website for having the backlinks, meaning rankings can dip. We regularly run technical site audits which allow us to locate and remove these toxic backlinks, thus improving the health of their website.
Improving site speed
One of the many things Google checks for when it decides how to rank a website is how quickly it loads. This is because Google values the user experience, which means a website which runs smoothly and seamlessly will be more likely to rank higher. We worked on increasing our client’s overall site speed by removing any unnecessary attachments and compressing large images.
Content
Producing content is always an effective way to boost a website’s rankings and show Google that you’re keeping your site up to date with the latest news. With our client, it was important to show that they are active and current. We regularly advise on changes, review and update content to reflect any relevant changes such as the economy or pandemic.
Ongoing support
With large clients who have large websites, it’s important that we’re on hand to help if any issues suddenly arise. Bugs are likely to occur anyway, but both their frequency and difficulty tend to scale with the size of the website that they appear on.
As well as providing ongoing support, we also frequently liaise with our client to discuss any new opportunities or ideas. These might come from our client as they dictate what they want us to focus on, but it might come from us if we notice that a competitor has just started using a new strategy or if we have new ideas. We are constantly reading and experimenting with SEO to discover new strategies and tactics to boost rankings.
By forming a close working relationship with our client, we are able to freely share ideas and come up with new ways to boost their growth. They provide the industry expertise and we know how to use that information on a digital platform, which is what ultimately allows our campaign to succeed.
Results
The results from our time spent with this client are clear to see. Their new branding makes their website stand out, even amongst the fray of fierce competitors. Their website is much more flexible and customisable, meaning they now have the control to make things exactly how they want them to be.
The performance of their website has improved, with pages loading faster and images showing in a clearer quality. We have implemented site structure through internal linking and removed toxic backlinks that were damaging their website’s authority and ranking. Our client is now performing well for a number of high-difficulty keywords, and once consumers reach their website through those keywords, they experience a much crisper, smoother and more visually appealing website.
What next?
This work never stops, especially with a client like this one. Their competitors will always be thinking of the next new strategy, so that means we’ve got to stay on our toes too. And the more established our client becomes, the more domain authority they gain, which means it becomes more and more realistic to target the most popular keyword terms. As their visibility grows, so does the awareness of their agency among potential clients.