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Fresh off the back of a win at the European Content Awards, Smart Monkey is back with two nominations at the European Search Awards.
The Sussex-based specialist B2B agency that works with brands who want to drive demand, is nominated for Best Local SEO Campaign (Small) and Best Low Budget SEO Campaign (Small) for its work with an accounting firm and a national franchise.
After being incredibly successful in the local area, the accountancy firm wanted to spread its wings into the capital. After redoing their website and speaking to their web agency about their plans, they were told ‘not to bother’ optimising for London as it was too competitive. But we knew it was possible. And so we started working from the ground up.
We worked on building solid SEO foundations to create a technically clean website with updates and changes, while optimising for location-specific keywords. We conducted a full content audit with on-site SEO strategy for new content, alongside improvements and optimisation of existing content for quick wins on improved rankings to drive demand and leads from the capital.
From there, we improved CRO and UX, and implemented a new user-friendly meganav to make it easier for people to make an enquiry.
The results? From zero visibility in the capital, the site now ranks for 20 London-based keywords in positions 1-3, including their holy grail keywords, ‘accountants london’, ‘accountant in london’ and ‘accountants in london’, while the number of keywords in the top 100 increased 800%.
The London landing page also experienced a huge increase in impressions, while organic traffic grew more than 50,000% – yep, 50,000.
As for leads, they grew 23% year on year and calls to the business more than doubled year on year.
Smart Monkey’s work with the franchise was a tale of two halves. As a national franchise, the business had two priorities; attract new franchises to the business and keep the existing franchises busy enough.
After looking at the site from a standalone perspective, as well as benchmarking it against competitors’, we identified a number of improvements that needed to be made on-site first, to ensure it could convert for both the business and consumer side of the business.
By going back to basics and analysing keyword for volume, intent and difficulty, we built out an on and off-site content plan which would help assert the business as an authority in the sectors and help potential customers and franchise owners find them.
We also noticed that a couple of their existing channels weren’t working for them, so moved away from some – paid ads for example – and made improvements to channels that had previously worked well for them, to see if we could get them performing again – which they did.
Through case studies, expert commentary and actionable advice, we were able to build topic authority across business press, giving advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and showcasing the benefits of franchises for individuals and the business landscape in the UK, as well as amongst consumers who wanted advice and guidance, we were able to tell stories through PR and on-site, reaffirming their authority in their industry. And the results speak for themselves.
We increased organic traffic by almost 400%, organic keywords by almost 300%, grew clicks by almost 200% – and much more. All of this helped them to onboard new franchises and drive demand for their existing franchises, resulting in them being the busiest they have ever been.
Speaking about the nominations, Beth Nash, Smart Monkey founder, said, “The team has delivered some incredible results of the last 18 months – and none more so than for these two clients. We’ve had a really successful awards season so far with multiple wins and shortlists, and we’re looking forward to hopefully adding another trophy to the cabinet at the European Search Awards.”
As for the business, in between delivering for their clients, the team is also working on a rebrand, which will better reflect its expertise in B2B, while continuing to grow its organic and paid offering.
For more information about Smart Monkey, visit: www.smartmonkeymarketing.com
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