SEO Strategy Case Study: Securing Board Buy-In for a National Engineering Firm

How a Data-Driven Playbook Unlocked a National SEO Rollout

This national engineering recruiter is a major player, with multiple offices and complex divisions covering manufacturing, energy, and design. Despite their size, they had no cohesive SEO strategy. Their marketing was inconsistent, and their large website was a fragmented mess of duplicate content and poor keyword alignment.

The senior leadership team knew they were losing market share online but were unwilling to commit to a significant retainer without a data-driven case for it. They needed a board-ready strategy to justify the investment.

The Challenge: Securing C-Suite Investment

The core problem wasn't just poor rankings; it was organisational paralysis. The firm needed clarity and a costed, evidence-based roadmap before they would approve any budget.

Fragmented Architecture: The site was a maze of competing pages and divisions, with no clear structure for users or Google.
No Cohesive Strategy: Marketing efforts were siloed and inconsistent, with no central plan.
Duplicate Content Issues: Years of unmanaged content creation led to massive cannibalisation, killing their authority.
Board-Level Scepticism: The decision-makers needed to see a clear plan, projected ROI, and costed roadmap before they would sign off on a major SEO retainer.

Our Solution: The "Innovate Playbook"

When a business needs to de-risk a major investment, a standard proposal isn't enough. We delivered our Innovate Playbook, a complete 29-component SEO and AEO strategy designed from the ground up to secure board sign-off.

This isn't a simple audit; it's a comprehensive 12-month strategic roadmap. It combines deep technical diagnostics, a full keyword opportunity analysis, and a costed implementation plan that gives leadership the confidence to invest.

Implementation:

The Innovate Playbook provided a complete, top-to-bottom analysis of their entire digital ecosystem.

Full Technical Audit & Foundations Overview

We first diagnosed the site's core health, identifying all technical barriers to performance.

Keyword Gap & Opportunity Matrix

We ran a deep analysis across all six of their engineering sub-sectors, identifying high-value, untapped keyword opportunities that their competitors were ignoring.

Architecture & Topic Cluster Planning

We provided a detailed blueprint to rebuild their site's hub-and-cluster relationships, eliminating cannibalisation and creating a logical structure for authority.

Topical Authority & AEO Framework

We developed a sustainable content plan designed to build authority and ensure their expertise would be visible in Google SGE (AI Overviews) and PAA boxes.

Costed Roadmap & RACI

Crucially, we delivered a 12-month, phased implementation plan. This included clear costings, projected outcomes, and a RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) matrix for total accountability and budget control.

The Results: The Data That Unlocked the Budget

The "win" from this engagement wasn't just data; it was action. The playbook provided the undeniable evidence the board needed.

182 Untapped Keyword Opportunities identified across their core sectors.
A 12-Month Phased Roadmap with a projected traffic growth of 120%.
Secured 100% Board Approval for a full national SEO rollout.
Immediate Transition into our flagship Dominate Retainer to execute the plan.

What The Client Says

"We knew our site was underperforming, but we couldn't get the board to sign off on a major SEO spend without a concrete plan. We weren't going to invest blind. Kaizen's Innovate Playbook was the solution. It was the most comprehensive, data-driven strategy we'd ever seen. It didn't just tell us what was broken; it gave us a costed, 12-month roadmap to fix it, complete with projections. That playbook gave us the confidence and the business case we needed to get full board approval."

- Head of Marketing, National Engineering Firm

The Outcome: From Paralysis to Strategic Implementation

The Innovate Playbook provided the clarity and confidence the leadership team needed to invest strategically in SEO. With all risks mitigated and actions prioritised, the company transitioned smoothly from strategic planning to implementation, armed with a structured, evidence-based plan for the next 12 months.