Situation
A regulated financial services firm with real expertise and an established client base, but almost no presence in search. In the three months before the programme began, the website produced no enquiries at all.
There was no authority, no rankings on core commercial terms and no content strategy. The firm was competing against larger, better funded rivals and couldn’t be found alongside any of them.
Response
We ran one continuous programme across Google and AI search, with technical SEO, content, Digital PR and paid search working as a single engine rather than as separate campaigns.
Digital PR did the heavy lifting. Earned placements built the referring domains, the referring domains built the authority, and that authority is why the firm now outranks larger competitors and why AI systems cite it.
Content did the other half. We wrote guides answering the questions prospects research before they speak to an adviser, gated them to capture contact details, and structured them for AEO and GEO citation before AI search became a channel. Paid search was rebuilt around the same guides, so it captured contacts instead of chasing cold forms.
Key strategic elements included:
- Digital PR and expert commentary tied to regulatory change, so the firm was the voice explaining the rules when they moved
- Gated guides that rank organically and capture contact data at the same time
- Content structured for citation in AI search
- Technical SEO and on-page optimisation
- Paid search campaigns built to capture contacts through gated guides
- Monthly reporting on booked consultations and direct enquiries, not traffic
The Results
Loan applications from organic search increased by 214% over seven months, rising from 5,490 to 17,242 a month and 79,838 across the engagement. Organic became the site’s largest traffic channel, increasing its share of engaged sessions from 21% to 45% and driving 96% of the site’s overall growth.
- Loan applications from organic search up 214% – to +17k month.
- Organic engaged sessions up 183%, to 38k month.
- Monthly clicks from Google up from 18,000 to 45,700, with impressions up from 1.5 million to 3.2 million.
- Click through rate improved from 1.17% to 1.43%, as rankings moved into positions that attract attention.
- Keywords at position one grew from 22 to 59, and keywords in the top ten from 53 to 124.
- Organic visibility more than tripled from 3.41 to 10.39, overtaking the leading competitor in the tracked set, which also grew during the period.
- Referral traffic from AI assistants rose from 429 to 1,096 engaged sessions, with ChatGPT accounting for 99%.
// Testimonial
What the
client says
“Organic search went from producing nothing to being our biggest source of new clients. The authority Woya built is why we now show up in Google and in AI search, ahead of firms far bigger than us.”
