The Advocate Group is a UK FMCG and consumer goods recruitment specialist working across drinks, beverage supply chain, and category management. After a disastrous move to a well-known recruitment website vendor, they lost 11 years of SEO rankings in just 7 months. RecruiterWEB stepped in and built them a new website, and we took on the SEO recovery.
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 has been 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 onwards.
The Starting Point
The Advocate Group is one of the UK's longer-established FMCG and consumer goods recruitment specialists, working across drinks, food and beverage supply chain, category management, and senior commercial appointments. Brand recognition was strong. Organic visibility on commercial sector queries was uneven.
Baseline metrics in November 2025, the first month of consistent reporting under the documented tracking framework:
- Organic sessions: 828
- Engaged sessions: 565
- New users from organic: 531
- Top 10 keyword rankings: 15
- Top 20 keyword rankings: 67
- Top 30 keyword rankings: 107
- SERP snippet ownership: 10 tracked queries
- Page speed (load time): 1.7 seconds
Brand queries (advocate group, the advocate group) were already at position 1, drawing the bulk of branded traffic. Commercial sector queries (fmcg recruitment agencies, beverage supply chain recruitment, category manager recruitment) sat in mixed positions across the top 30, with most outside the top 10. The visibility was there but not converting at the top end of the SERP where commercial intent traffic clusters.
What We Did
The engagement followed the Core SEO Retainer pattern: stabilise, build, expand.
Phase 1: Technical and indexation cleanup (July to October 2025)
The early engagement focused on technical baseline work, schema implementation, and content architecture. Indexation was stabilised. Page speed held inside 1.6 to 1.9 seconds throughout the engagement, well within Core Web Vitals thresholds.
Phase 2: Sector content velocity (November 2025 onward)
Content velocity targeted The Advocate Group's specialisms: FMCG, drinks and beverage, supply chain, category management, and senior commercial recruitment. Each cluster received pillar pages and longtail spokes with commercial-intent structure. Sector glossary content captured top-of-funnel candidate traffic and fed it into the conversion structure.
Phase 3: AI surfacing and snippet capture (January 2026 onward)
FAQPage schema, AnswerBlocks, and structured H3 questions were added across high-priority commercial pages. SERP snippet ownership grew from 10 in November to 18 in April, an 80% increase across tracked queries. AI-cited pages now include the beverage-supply-chain-recruitment cluster, which holds position 1 with AI Overview surfacing on commercial-intent queries.
The Results
The numbers below come from The Advocate Group's tracked KPI dashboard, populated from Semrush, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics 4.
| Metric | November 2025 | April 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top 10 keyword rankings | 15 | 61 | +307% |
| Top 20 keyword rankings | 67 | 105 | +57% |
| Top 30 keyword rankings | 107 | 151 | +41% |
| Organic sessions per month | 828 | 1,153 | +39% |
| Engaged sessions per month | 565 | 777 | +38% |
| New users from organic | 531 | 699 | +32% |
| SERP snippet ownership | 10 | 18 | +80% |
The headline number is the Top 10 ranking growth. Quadrupling the count of keywords ranking in the top 10 search results, from 15 to 61, is the visibility tier where commercial-intent traffic actually converts. Top 11 to 30 holds search volume but minimal click-through. Top 10 is where ranking translates to sessions, and the data shows the lift in sessions and new users tracking the lift in Top 10 positions.
The ratio matters too. Organic traffic growth (+39%) tracked Top 10 ranking growth (+307%) at a healthy conversion rate, indicating the new rankings sit on commercial-intent queries that drive clicks.
What This Means for Similar Agencies
The Advocate Group's results are achievable for any UK sector recruitment specialist with established brand authority and uneven commercial query visibility. The pattern is repeatable. The variables that affect timeline are starting Domain Authority, sector competitiveness, and the depth of the content programme.
If your agency has 10+ years of trading reputation, ranks well for brand queries but inconsistently across commercial sector terms, and has visibility scattered across positions 11 to 30 without a clear top 10 presence, this case study describes the engagement that fixes it. The Core SEO Retainer at £1,495 per month covers the technical work, content velocity, and AI visibility activity that drove this outcome.
Sector specialists with defined niches typically see faster Top 10 movement than generalists, because the commercial query universe is smaller and easier to dominate cluster by cluster.
FAQs
How long did the Advocate Group engagement take to show ranking results?
The Core SEO Retainer went live in July 2025. Documented KPI tracking commenced November 2025. Top 10 keyword rankings grew from 15 in November to 61 in April 2026, a 307% lift across the six-month documented window. Earlier ranking gains during the July-to-October period sit outside the documented dashboard.
Can my recruitment agency expect similar Top 10 keyword growth?
If your agency operates in a comparable defined sector niche with established brand authority and rankings scattered across positions 11 to 30, the methodology applies directly. Outcomes vary by sector competitiveness, in-house resource, and content cadence. A 15-min triage call clarifies whether your situation matches.
What retainer tier does this case study reflect?
The Advocate Group engaged in the Core SEO Retainer, priced at £1,495 per month.
The tier covers strategy, technical SEO, content velocity, off-page authority work at the Starter Linkbuilding tier, and AI visibility work.
Compare retainer tiers on the retainer pricing page.
Is The Advocate Group available for a reference call?
Yes, by prior arrangement. Serious prospects can request a reference call with Chris Dickeson, Co-founder, during a triage call. We confirm with the client and arrange where appropriate. Reference calls are not available to general inbound enquiries.
