Description
We were introduced to Garic as experts in the field of SEO and digital consultancy with a view to undertaking digital due diligence on several other business assets that Garic were looking to acquire, each of which was struggling to survive as a result of the recession and the downturn in the construction sector. Backed by Bibby Distribution PLC, a distribution PLC, a strong parent company with a good cash position this was an ideal opportunity to expand the equipment hire business via the acquisition of several digital lead generating assets. However, on closer inspection it became obvious that the businesses up for sale were struggling due to poor digital management and penalties applied by Google to the respective website.On further analysis it appeared that whilst the Garic website itself was not penalised due to having a strong brand name it was however at severe risk of being penalised due to a very poor back-link strategy implemented by a previous creative agency. The brief was therefore straight forward; stabilise the situation and avoid the scenario that the other companies had found themselves in.
150%
Increase in traffic
Solution
A Google penalty recovery plan implemented by stealth i.e. with only the worst offending links disavowed by Google Webmaster Tools. The rest were manually removed where possible and/or contact made with the offending directory or other advertiser. In addition we advised and project managed the brand agency, PR agency and client marketing team to develop new high quality content and other forms of advertising content to fill the gaps left by the disavow process. We also re-built the website using the old design and existing content as a stop gap project to increase website download.
Result
Whilst the results were difficult to view to the causal observer including the client, the long term impact was significant with website downloads speeds increased by over 150% and web traffic increased by 100% over an 18 month period.
