From Job Board Dependency to SERP Dominance
This specialist finance recruitment agency had a strong offline brand but was digitally invisible. Operating across London and Manchester, their expert consultants were trapped in a cycle of expensive job board advertising and rising PPC costs just to get a static flow of candidates.
Their website wasn't generating inbound clients and failed to rank for its most valuable, high intent commercial keywords. It was a digital brochure, not an acquisition asset.
The Challenge: Zero ROI and Wasted Spend
The client's core problem was a complete dependency on paid channels. Their digital presence was actively costing them money without delivering a return.
- No Organic Visibility: Key service pages for transactional and qualified finance roles were buried deep in Google's results, invisible to potential clients.
- Costly Candidate Flow: Nearly 100% of candidates came from high cost job boards, destroying profit margins.
- Flawed Site Architecture: The site structure was confusing. Google couldn't understand their core specialisms, and key landing pages simply didn't exist, making it impossible to rank.
- Missing Technical Signals: The site lacked all essential schema markup, failing to signal its expertise or service offerings to search engines and new AI models.
Our Solution: An Integrated SEO & AEO Roadmap
We didn't just 'optimise' their site. We executed a complete technical and strategic overhaul focused on building topical authority and capturing high intent traffic from both traditional SERPs and AI powered answer engines.
The strategy was simple:
- Fix the Foundation: Make the site technically flawless so Google and AI models could crawl and understand it.
- Align with Search Intent: Rebuild the architecture around what clients and candidates are actually searching for.
- Dominate All Search Forms: Implement a forward thinking AEO strategy to ensure visibility in Google SGE, PAA boxes, and rich snippets, not just blue links.
Implementation: From Technical Mess to Topical Authority
Our execution was precise, targeting the fastest path to results.
Full Technical Audit & Crawl Optimisation
We first ran a full audit using Screaming Frog to identify and fix all indexation errors and crawl budget waste. This ensured Google could find and rank their most valuable pages.
Search Intent Driven Site Architecture
We completely restructured the site. We built out new, dedicated service and role specific landing pages (e.g., "Qualified Finance Recruitment London," "Transactional Finance Jobs Manchester") designed to capture users at every stage of the funnel.
Strategic Schema & AEO Deployment
This was critical. We deployed a full stack of structured data to signal expertise and improve SERP appearance:
- Organization Schema: Established brand and entity recognition.
- Service Schema: Clearly defined their core recruitment services for Google.
- FAQPage Schema: Implemented on key pages to immediately capture People Also Ask (PAA) boxes and associated rich snippets.
Expertise Led Content Optimisation
We overhauled all key service pages. We infused the content with finance specific E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) markers, optimised for high value keywords, and ensured every page answered user intent. We also started tracking their visibility in SGE and other AI models from day one.
The Results: Market Leader Status in 6 Months
The data shows a complete transformation from digital anonymity to market leadership. By focusing on high intent keywords and technical excellence, we delivered tangible business outcomes.
- +38% Increase in Inbound Client Enquiries (The primary business goal)
- +74% Growth in Total Organic Traffic
- Top 3 Rankings for multiple high competition finance and accounting keywords
- 2x Increase in Featured Snippet & PAA Appearances (Directly from our AEO work)
What The Client Says
"Our digital presence was a black hole for money. We were 100% reliant on job boards and our website generated zero inbound client leads. The Kaizen team didn't just 'tweak' things; they rebuilt our strategy around the specific terms our clients are actually searching for. Within six months, we were ranking for our most competitive finance keywords, and our inbound client enquiries are up 38%. We’ve finally broken the job board dependency."
- Marketing Director, Specialist Finance Recruiter
The Outcome: Job Board Dependency Broken
The results are backed by a fundamental shift in their business model.
We drastically reduced their dependency on expensive job boards. Their website is now their primary asset for client and candidate acquisition, delivering a predictable, high quality pipeline for both. They have established a strong, defensible position as a leading authority in UK finance recruitment across both Google's traditional SERPs and its new AI driven search.
Ready to Build Your Acquisition Engine?
Stop burning cash on ads and job boards. It's time to turn your website into a predictable source of clients and candidates.
Book your no-obligation SEO & AEO strategy call today.
