What We Were Solving
How We Built It
We started with a full technical audit. Site health was already reasonable at 92% but we found indexing issues, missing schema markup, and thin content on key service pages. We fixed the technical foundations first. Then we ran keyword research specific to their market, identifying commercial intent terms across their service lines. We restructured existing pages around target keywords, expanded thin content, built internal linking between related services, and implemented structured data for AI search visibility. We set up position tracking on 91 target keywords so we could measure movement monthly. The strategy was phased across six months: fix foundations in weeks 1 to 2, optimise existing pages in months 1 to 2, begin content expansion from month 3 onwards, and build topical authority through months 4 to 6. SEO compounds — the early months are foundation work, the results come in the second half.Where They Started
When this client came to us, their organic presence was essentially zero. Single-digit monthly traffic. No keywords in the top 100 for any of the terms their customers search for. An authority score of 17. They had 203 referring domains and 621 backlinks, which gave us something to work with, but the on-page SEO was not converting that authority into rankings.
Their paid campaigns were doing the heavy lifting. 70% of their traffic was paid. That works until your ad budget gets cut, and then you have nothing. The goal was to build an organic foundation that would reduce dependence on paid spend over time.
The Technical Foundation
Site health started at 92%, which is decent. But the audit revealed 7 errors and 459 warnings across 507 crawled pages. The errors were the priority: broken canonical tags, orphaned pages, and missing hreflang implementations. We fixed all critical errors in the first week, bringing site health to 95%.
We also implemented structured data markup across the site. Organisation schema, service schema, FAQ schema on key pages, and breadcrumb markup. This serves two purposes: it helps Google understand page content better, and it prepares the site for AI search citation. The client now has 14 AI mentions across platforms including Google AI Overviews and Gemini.
Keyword Strategy
We mapped 91 keywords across the client's service lines. Every keyword was chosen for commercial intent. We were not chasing informational traffic or vanity rankings. These are terms that people search when they are ready to buy or enquire.
The results after six months of active work:
- 21 keywords at position 1 including "a+ content services", "AI amazon advertising", and several service-specific terms
- 31 keywords in the top 10 with 13 new entries and only 15 that were already there
- 47 keywords in the top 20
- 91 keywords in the top 100 from effectively zero
- Visibility score jumped from 0.28% to 5.07%
Organic traffic increased by 300% in the same period. The absolute number is still small (growing from a very low base), but the trajectory is what matters. Every week shows compounding improvement as the optimised pages gain authority.
AI Search Visibility
This is the part most SEO agencies do not track. We set up AI visibility monitoring from the start. By month four, the client had 14 mentions across AI search platforms, with 1 cited page appearing in results. They now show up in Google AI Overviews (10 mentions), AI Mode (10 mentions), and Gemini (4 mentions).
AI search visibility builds alongside domain authority. The first few months produced nothing there. By month four, the structured data and improving authority started converting into citations. This is typical — AI search results are not instant, and any agency that promises immediate AI visibility is not being straight with you.
Where It Is Now
At six months, the foundation is solid. The next phase focuses on content expansion: targeting the keywords we have identified but not yet created dedicated pages for. We are also building out blog content to capture informational searches that feed into the commercial pages.
The client's authority score has moved from 17 to 22 over the campaign period. Organic traffic is up 300% from a low base, and the trajectory is consistent. Month-on-month compounding is how SEO actually works — not a spike from a single change, but steady accumulation from a hundred small improvements running in parallel.
The 12-month mark will show a materially different picture from the 6-month results. That is the nature of the channel. If your business needs traffic next week, SEO is not the answer. If your business needs traffic next year and the year after, this is exactly what the investment looks like.
If your business has a website but no organic visibility, this is what a structured SEO approach looks like. Not promises. Numbers. If you want to know what is possible for your specific market, start with a conversation.
