The Mortgage Centres, SEO Success

A Holistic SEO Strategy Drives Growth.

Overview

The Mortgage Centres, a leading UK mortgage broker, faced dwindling website traffic even with regular content updates. Then, in 2023, interest rates skyrocketed, causing a mortgage uptake crisis nationwide.

But through a thorough SEO revamp, we defied the odds. By decluttering their website, implementing a targeted strategy and adapting quickly, we saw a stunning 200%+ increase in organic sessions, leads, and search rankings over 12 months.

The Audit

In January 2023, we responded to Google’s 2022 focus on helpful content by conducting a comprehensive content audit. This involved:

Website Crawl: Pinpointing technical issues that could impede user experience and search engine visibility.
Metrics Deep-Dive: Analysing user behaviour on each page (number of users, time on page, bounce rate, etc.) to reveal patterns and problem areas.
Prioritising Action: Flagging outdated content for removal (especially important for YMYL^[1] topics), identifying underperforming content for updates, and recognising top-performing pages for future models.

The Strategy

Targeted Content Roadmap: Built a plan focused on keywords aligned with user needs and the client’s business goals. This roadmap included flexibility for addressing ongoing technical SEO refinements.
Holistic SEO Approach:
- Focus Shift: Paused news content creation to prioritise improving the core site health and user experience.
- Content Optimisation: Improved keyword targeting, metadata, readability, internal linking, and image optimisation to boost search ranking potential.
- Authority Building: Conducted a thorough backlink audit, cleaning the link profile and building high-quality links to key pages.
- Data-Driven Decisions: Regular monitoring and analysis guided strategic adjustments.
Adapting to Market Shifts:
- Mid-Point Pivot: After a 3-month review, we collaborated with the client to streamline content production and create a more impactful information hub for their users.
- In September 2023, we overhauled the client’s informational pages for improved usability, especially on mobile devices. This led to even greater success in the months that followed.

Image of an open tarmac road inbetween fields of dry grass to illustrate a strategic seo roadmap

Develop a content calendar focused on targeted keywords, user intent, and conversion goals. Develop a roadmap that allows for flexibility when monitoring and fixing technical SEO issues.

Image of a laptop with a Looker Studio Dashboard for analysing data and making decisions

Focus Shift: Paused news content creation to prioritise improving the core site health and user experience.
Content Optimisation: Improved keyword targeting, metadata, readability, internal linking, and image optimisation to boost search ranking potential.
Authority Building: Conducted a thorough backlink audit, cleaning the link profile and building high-quality links to key pages.
Data-Driven Decisions: Regular monitoring and analysis guided strategic adjustments

Mid-Point Pivot: After a 3-month review, we collaborated with the client to streamline content production and create a more impactful information hub for their users.
In September 2023, we overhauled the client’s informational pages for improved usability, especially on mobile devices. This led to even greater success in the months that followed.