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 attributed revenue from organic search in the agency's history.
Key Takeaways
- Organic sessions lifted from a 280 per month average across November and December 2025 to a 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, which converted into three placements and returned £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, and recruitment agencies london admin jobs) all hold positions 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."
The Starting Point
Morgan Spencer arrived with 25 years of brand equity, an established London client base, and almost no organic visibility on commercial sector queries. The agency had built revenue through outbound, referrals, and reputation.
Baseline metrics for November and December 2025, the first two months of consistent tracking, were as follows:
- Organic sessions: 235 in November, 325 in December (average 280 per month)
- Engaged sessions: 147 in November, 216 in December
- Indexed pages with technical issues flagged: 1,032 (canonical, indexation, schema warnings on the highest-traffic templates)
- Inbound revenue from organic search: zero historically
The technical SEO audit identified canonical structure problems, missing JobPosting schema, and thin sector and location pages that were ranking but not converting. Morgan Spencer's brand queries (morgan spencer, morgan spencer recruitment) were already at positions 1 to 2 because of brand authority, but commercial sector queries (admin recruitment agencies, recruitment agencies london admin jobs, executive assistant recruitment agency) ranked outside the top 10 or not at all.
What We Did
The engagement followed the Core SEO Retainer pattern: technical baseline first, content velocity second, commercial conversion focus third.
Phase 1: Technical baseline (November to December 2025)
The technical fix created internal linking and addressed Core Web Vitals on the highest-traffic templates. Crawl warnings dropped from 1,032 to a manageable maintenance load by month two.
Phase 2: Content velocity and long-tail spoke deployment (January to March 2026)
The content programme deployed sector-authority clusters covering Morgan Spencer's six specialisms (Executive Assistant to CFO, CEO, Financial Services, Professional Services, Law Firms, and Asset Manager Finance). Each cluster had a pillar page and longtail spokes targeting commercial-intent queries.
The page that drove the £45,000 outcome was one such spoke: 'hire-an-executive-assistant-london', sitting under the 'executive-assistants-pa-recruitment' sector parent. The page was structured for commercial intent, AI extraction, and snippet eligibility from publication.
Phase 3: AI surfacing (March to April 2026)
Striking-distance pages received H2 blocks targeting position 6-15 keywords. FAQPage schema and AnswerBlocks structured for AI Overview placements and Perplexity citations were added to high-priority commercial pages.
The Results
The numbers below are pulled from Morgan Spencer's Google Analytics 4 property and Google Search Console reporting, exported monthly.
| Metric | Nov-Dec 2025 baseline | Mar-Apr 2026 | Lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average monthly organic sessions | 280 | 2,385 | +752% |
| Engaged sessions per month | 182 | 1,637 | +800% |
| Total tracked queries with clicks | ~1,400 | ~2,500+ | growing monthly |
| Top 5 commercial keywords | mostly position 8 to 30 | positions 1 to 4 | top of SERP |
The commercial outcome that defines this case study: the hire-an-executive-assistant-london spoke page generated three direct inbound leads in Q1 and Q2 2026. Each lead converted. Each placement was billed. Total agency fees from those three placements reached £45,000.
Margaret George, Managing Director of Morgan Spencer, commented on the impact:
"The work you have put in has made a real difference. The new business coming through because of your SEO work has been brilliant, just what we needed in a tough market, and we are genuinely feeling the impact. I massively appreciate your support, your expertise, and the way you just steadily get things done without any fuss."
What This Means for Similar Agencies
Morgan Spencer's results are achievable for any recruitment agency in London that specialises in a specific sector and has established brand equity and weak organic conversion. The pattern is repeatable. The variables that affect the timeline are starting Domain Authority, sector competitiveness, and how quickly commercial-intent spoke pages can be deployed.
If your agency has 10+ years of trading reputation, ranks for brand queries but nowhere on commercial sector queries, and has never attributed inbound revenue to organic search, this case study describes the exact engagement that fixes it. The Core SEO Retainer at £1,495 per month covers the technical fix, content velocity, and long-tail spoke deployment that drove this outcome.
Specialist sector firms with established reputations typically convert faster than generalists who are still building category authority. The brand trust signal already exists.
FAQs
How long did the Morgan Spencer engagement take to show commercial results?
Three placements worth £45,000 in fees were attributed to the hire-an-executive-assistant-london spoke in Q1 and Q2 2026, five to six months after engagement start. Traffic gains appeared faster, with sessions up 752% over the same window.
Can my agency expect similar results?
If your agency operates in a comparable competitive London specialist market with established brand equity and a similar starting position on commercial sector queries, the methodology applies directly. Outcomes vary by sector competitiveness, in-house resource, and the cadence of content deployment. A 15-min triage call clarifies whether your situation matches.
What retainer tier does this case study reflect?
Morgan Spencer engaged 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 Morgan Spencer available for a reference call?
Yes, by prior arrangement. Serious prospects can request a reference call with Margaret George, Managing Director, during a triage call. We confirm with the client and arrange where appropriate. Reference calls are not available to general inbound enquiries.
