Recruitment SEO Case Studies: Real Results, Real UK Agencies

After a bad move to a well-known recruitment website vendor, they lost 11 years of SEO rankings in just 7 months. RecuriterWEB stepped in and built them a new website, and we were selected to work on recovering the SEO.

We recovered the SEO rankings in 3 months and then improved them by month 6. Regularly cited by AI, they can now directly track sales made from being ranked and cited.

The Advocate Group is a UK FMCG and consumer goods recruitment specialist working across drinks, beverage supply chain, and category management. Six months of Kaizen SEO retainer work lifted Top 10 keyword rankings from 15 to 61, a 307% increase, with organic sessions and snippet ownership growing in step. Engagement live since July 2025.

Key Takeaways

• Top 10 keyword rankings increased from 15 to 61 between November 2025 and April 2026, a 307% uplift verified through Semrush and Google Search Console reporting.
• Top 30 keyword rankings grew from 107 to 151 over the same period, indicating sustained growth across the visibility curve, not just at the top end.
• Organic sessions grew from 828 in November 2025 to 1,153 in April 2026, with engaged sessions up 38% and new users up 32% across the same window.
• SERP snippet ownership increased from 10 to 18 across tracked queries, capturing featured snippets and AI-extractable answer blocks on commercial sector terms.
• Engagement: Core SEO Retainer at £1,495 per month. Engagement live since July 2025, with full reporting cadence documented from November 2025 onward.

Morgan Spencer is a specialist London recruitment agency founded over 25 years ago. After six months of Kaizen SEO retainer work, organic sessions lifted 752%, and a single long-tail spoke page generated three placements worth £45,000 in agency fees. It was the first inbound revenue attributed to organic search in the agency's history.

Key Takeaways

• Organic sessions lifted from 280 per month average across November and December 2025 to 2,385 per month average across March and April 2026, a 752% uplift verified through Google Analytics 4 reporting.
• A single long-tail spoke page targeting hire-an-executive-assistant intent generated three direct enquiries that converted to three placements, returning £45,000 in agency fees during Q1 and Q2 2026.
• It was Morgan Spencer's first inbound attributed revenue from organic search in 25 years of trading. Every previous client win came from outbound, referral, or paid channels.
• Top commercial keywords (morgan spencer, morgan spencer recruitment agency, morgan spencer london, admin recruitment agencies, recruitment agencies london admin jobs) all hold position 1 to 4 across April 2026 SERPs.
• Engagement: Core SEO Retainer at £1,495 per month. Margaret George, Managing Director, on the impact: "the work you have put in has made a real difference."

Acceler8 Talent is a specialist AI, machine learning, and semiconductor recruitment firm. The case study they wanted is the case study they earned: the agency placing AI engineers now ranks position 1 for the queries those engineers' employers ask. Elite SEO Retainer at £3,495 per month, including the Vanguard Protocol.

Key Takeaways

• Acceler8 Talent ranks position 1 across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews for queries including "hire ai experts" and "agencies that recruit for ai engineers and data scientists."
• AI Overview Features increased from 39 in September 2025 to 145 in April 2026, a 272% lift driven directly by the Vanguard Protocol included on Elite tier.
• Top 10 keyword rankings grew from 16 in September 2025 to 37 in April 2026, a 131% lift, with steady month-on-month progression and no plateau or decline.
• Average engagement time per session more than doubled, from 21 seconds in September to 44 seconds in April. Traffic quality grew alongside ranking quality.
• Engagement: Elite SEO Retainer at £3,495 per month. Elite is the only retainer that includes the Vanguard Protocol, the predictive AI visibility methodology that surfaces clients in AI-generated answers ahead of competitors.

3 Search are a UK marketing recruitment specialist covering digital, content, sales, and ecommerce. The agency relaunched on a new domain in July 2025 with 4 keywords ranking and zero SERP snippet ownership. Ten months of Pro SEO Retainer work later, 3 Search holds 359 Top 10 positions and 540 AI Overview features across the marketing recruitment category.

Key Takeaways

• 3 Search relaunched on a new domain in July 2025 with 4 Top 10 keywords and zero SERP snippet ownership. By April 2026, the agency held 359 Top 10 positions and 84 SERP snippets across tracked queries.
• AI Overview Features grew from 17 in July 2025 to 540 in April 2026, a 3,076% lift. The agency ranks position 1 across Google AI Overviews for queries including "best marketing recruitment agencies uk" and "content marketing recruitment."
• Organic sessions grew 139% from 888 in July 2025 (new domain launch) to 2,123 in April 2026, with engagement time per session holding steady at 65 to 73 seconds throughout.
• The Pro SEO Retainer covered the full migration recovery, content velocity build, authority cluster development, and AI visibility methodology behind these outcomes.
• Engagement: Pro SEO Retainer at £2,195 per month. Pro covers higher content velocity, deeper off-page authority, and AI visibility work for mid-competitive sector specialists.