Expert insight into how this UK-based agency won big at the European Search Awards

MRS Digital, a Digital Performance Marketing Agency based in Church Crookham, Hampshire, won the Best SEO Campaign Award last night at the European Search Awards with their work for investment, protection, retirement and in-house advice specialist, LV=. 

MRS Digital was founded in 1999 as a website development company but quickly expanded in both size and services. Now, decades later, they offer a range of services including SEO, PPC, website design, and analytics. Their passion and expertise in delivering results to clients have led them to consistently win awards, including at the European Search Awards.

MRS Digital secured the award for Best SEO Campaign for their work with LV=, one of the leading life and pensions mutual insurers in the UK. The campaign focused on LV= and was aimed at getting the huge volume term “life insurance” on page 1 of Google. 

MRS’ strategy began with a 28-point audit that spanned four SEO ‘pillars’: on-site and targeting, off-site, content, and technical SEO. The greatest opportunity was identified within content, which lacked both quantity and depth compared to competitors. Initial keyword research uncovered more than 37,000 relevant terms with strong traffic potential. Using semantic clusters, the team identified 624 potential pages to be written. From this, they prioritised 32 pages for delivery within the first nine months—focusing on those most likely to deliver results. The content included comprehensive guides and information-rich pieces designed to cover the key terms users were searching for, and which competitors were already producing.

The strategy also had a laser focus on the specific search term “life insurance”, which receives 90,500 monthly searches and is notoriously competitive. MRS employed a range of techniques to improve rankings, including use of the Google Natural Language API. Internal investigation led to an iterative process of copy refinement and performance measurement to enhance entity salience, along with highly granular analysis of ranking factors and page features compared to competitors. Ultimately, MRS’ work resulted in “life insurance” maintaining a stable position of #6 for LV= and achieving an all-time high of #4 last August. 

Marc Perry, Advice & Consumer Channel Director at LV= said: 

“Working with MRS Digital has been transformational for our D2C business, and we’re thrilled that their work has been recognised and awarded at the European Search Awards. MRS’s output has led to noticeable improvements in the quality of our lead generation, which has positively impacted our sales results and reduced our cost per lead. The benefits of working with MRS have been significant on this particular campaign, and we’re excited to continue collaborating with them on future projects.”  

The judges commented on the award. They said:

“We thought this was an outstanding campaign, showing what it takes to be successful in a competitive environment with large-scale execution. The content expansion strategy was incredibly well thought-out, and it was impressive to see the use of Google’s Natural Language API used effectively.”

Adam Blackford-Mills, Commercial Director at MRS, outlines how this award showcases just a section of the MRS team. He says: 

“We’re absolutely thrilled to have been awarded Best SEO Campaign at the European Search Awards! This recognition is a true reflection of the hard work of our incredibly talented team and their extensive expertise to deliver effective strategies in a fast-changing, competitive landscape. Thanks to their work and the strong client relationship we have with LV=, we’re empowered to keep raising the bar.”

Following the success of this campaign, MRS and LV= look forward to continuing to work together.

About MRS Digital

MRS Digital was started in 1999 by Carol Blackford-Mills. The journey began with a focus on designing websites for small companies and now provides complete digital solutions to the businesses and brands. The company has 40 in-house experts and is based in Church-Crookham.