KingCompare
KingCompare had been providing insurance for more than 10 years. Reliable. Trusted by their clients. One you could feel safe with. But when it came to the online world, they were starting to fall behind.
Agile new competition was emerging left, right and center, leapfrogging them in the rankings. Organic traffic had plateaued, and for all their years of experience in the insurance industry, KingCompare was losing online visibility. It’s one of those stealthy things; one month you’re top dog, the next you’re just white noise.
The team were well aware of the trends; more and more people were researching, comparing and purchasing insurance online, and if KingCompare didn’t feature in those search results when they did, they were missing out on potential business. Enter EcoSEO.
Lead Time: 6 - 9 Months
Sector: Insurance
Target Type: B2C and B2B customers seeking insurance services
Demographic: Men and Women (20s to mid-60s)
Website Goal: Increase Organic Traffic, Enhance Search Engine Visibility and Drive Qualified Leads and Conversions
Services: SEO strategy, On-Page SEO, Technical SEO, Content Optimization, and Link Building
Technologies: SEO tools (Ahrefs, SEMrush), Google Analytics, and CMS
Location: South Africa
3x Growth
Organic visits For Insurance Site
The Challenge
On the surface, even with a sterling reputation offline, their website just wasn’t cutting it online. It’s almost like their site was ticking all the boxes, but they just weren’t the right boxes.
Let’s take a look at what we discovered.
- Technical SEO issues - The on-page elements were stale, content was thin and in some cases, unhelpful or didn’t directly match what people were typing into Google, page speed was lethargic, and the site structure was… well, not the most logical for either visitors or search engines.
- Low Domain Authority - But it wasn’t just rankings that were missing. They were missing leads. Hidden in plain sight were ways that the website had failed to appear online in the past, and with it, potentially lost business.
It was clear: while the foundations were strong, their digital strategy needed an overhaul.
EcoSEO’s Approach
The first step was a comprehensive SEO audit and not the “kind of” audit where you skim through the results and go “Yep, I’ve seen this one before.”
We needed to know what factors were impacting the website, at all levels. We went through and tried to capture all possible items that we thought could have an impact on KingCompare’s performance.
From on-page SEO with meta titles and schema not resonating well with the searcher’s intent to technical challenges, the overall structure was affecting how visitors and search engines processed the information on the site.
Some of the product pages that we would have identified as lead magnets were embarrassingly thin. Pages ranking for high converting keywords were simply not telling the full story, and they were leaving money on the table.
After getting a holistic understanding, we built out a phased strategy. The objective here was not to rush into some of the glamorous SEO initiatives like building links to the homepage. At the outset, the aim was to ensure everything on the technical, on-page, and content front was spot on first.
This was to avoid building something on top of a shaky foundation where future optimizations didn’t stick. This foundation building would also include building a system that the website could actually utilize to grow. With everything in place, we could then move forward with the link-building program, targeting the homepage as well as key service pages.
This is a lesson in the obvious, I know, but it’s the kind of thing that seems like a no-brainer in hindsight. When you’re knee-deep in traffic goals and targets, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that it all matters. We like to build a house of cards that are strong and solid first.
On-Page SEO Optimization | Phase 1
As with any SEO strategy, phase 1 of our optimization began by first getting all of the on-page basics right. This included the things search engines really appreciate but that aren’t too obvious for the end-user to see.
- Step 1: Comprehensive on-page audit - KingCompare’s pages were set up for success by completely overhauling the on-page SEO. New meta titles and descriptions were written, headings were optimized and added, and schema was implemented across all key pages.
- Step 2: Technical audit and optimization - Crawl errors were addressed, page speed was improved, and the website structure was optimized so that the Google bot can crawl and index it properly. Small stuff, but small stuff that can break or make your rankings.
- Step 3: Content Optimization - We created a couple of value-driven landing pages. Their services pages were also tweaked so they better target relevant buyer-intent keywords. In other words, not just any traffic, but traffic that can lead to sales.
- Step 4: E-E-A-T - Experience. Expertise. Authority. Trust (aka E-E-A-T) – We improved all of this by adding a new About Us page, fleshing out the contact information across relevant pages, and creating staff bio pages. At the end of the day, people and search engines like to know that there are real people running the show. They can offer solutions. And they are reachable if needed.
- Step 5: Internal linking - Internal linking architecture was also optimized. Better defined content pathways for site visitors were set up. Keywords could also be more efficiently distributed by defining clear anchor texts.
- Step 6: Local - KingCompare was also optimized for local. We improved the content on their Google My Business profile so that when searches for SEO services in Cape Town (local and relevant to KingCompare) came through, their profile would stand out.
- Step 7: Backlinks - Backlinks were deliberately saved for last because we didn’t want to build the castle before ensuring the foundation was solid. So before we started our link acquisition phase, we made sure their website was 100% optimized. It can take some time to get enough new links but once you do and they are of the right kind (relevant, high authority, and earned) it’s the icing on the cake.
Turning Optimisation into Authority | Phase 2
All right, EcoSEO had completed the on-page optimisations and content improvements, and now it was time to change focus. The site was now looking pretty good – the shopfront was clean – but to this point the focus had not been the actual roads that lead to it.
It meant one thing: A strong-enough backlink profile that Google could not possibly just ignore.
But it was no spam-fest of links either. It would have been unprofessional, would have stood out like a sore thumb and would have been a complete waste of time. Instead, the efforts were focused on finding the right kind of links.
With over 50,000 industry relevant domains in our network, the focus was on high-authority finance sites that would actually move the needle. At EcoSEO, this was something we referred to as sniper precision targeting, and if you don’t believe us, you should probably check our targets at all angles.
Authority was key. For us, Domain Authority in the 40s and 50s isn’t just a nice statistic. It’s the line between speaking to Google in a whisper or in a language it actually understands and being front and center on search results. Every link from these domains made the backlink profile, and every link made the other links that much more valuable.
Content still played a role in the game, it just played a different role. We hired native-English writers, and each one knew their role – create articles that were not just “SEO-friendly” in a box-ticking sense, but that were clear, concise and enjoyable to read, and fit in a natural manner on the desired authority finance sites. Each one of these went through a sign-off process with the client, before being published on the sites, and fit the voice of KingCompare whilst linking back to high-value services and blog pages, based on the keywords and backlinking strategy.
We also uncovered weak points our competitors surely didn’t want us to know about. A competitor link-gap analysis was done and it pointed out high-value backlinks our competitor had in their backlink profiles that KingCompare didn’t. These backlinks became targets, and were taken one by one, slowly making what they thought were their wins turn into our wins as well.
Anchor text also played a role, in that we wanted the profile to look as organic as possible. Blended branded, exact match and partial-match anchors filled the profile, so that when the crawlers came it would look natural to Google and be rewarded for it.
The outcome? Rankings for high-value keywords were improving slowly but surely, and we managed to do it without setting off any of the “over-optimisation” alarm bells. The site was not just there anymore – it was starting to get noticed.
Scaling the Backlink Engine | Phase 3
EcoSEO didn’t hit the brakes with a well-oiled on-page optimisation and first-wave content in place. We accelerated.
In Phase 3 we set about compounding a good backlink profile into an excellent one, stacking high-authority links until KingCompare’s domain authority could only be described as, in all modesty, insurmountable.
We revisited our repository of 50,000+ relevant domains, armed with an eagle eye for quality. Finance sites that didn’t have a shred of credibility and reader / search engine authority? Scratched.
Quantity was a by-product of superior quality. Domain authority was the name of the game. Anything with less than a DA 40 was swiftly binned. We looked for sites Google already trusted – every link from one of these was more of a crown seal of approval than a vote.
The same forensic research and analysis was applied to guest posts. Our native English writers generated engaging, contextually-rich articles that passed muster in any part of KingCompare – including subsections with abnormally high commercial intent.
These articles were written in a readable way and structured to a client-approved template. They weren’t just “SEO fodder” for links – it was crucial that our guest posts were easy to read for those, perhaps, not searching for a mortgage calculator in the early hours of the morning. Every submission was client approved before publication.
Where once our competitors’ backlink profiles became a means to an end for competition analysis, they became an actionable treasure map. We expanded our long-tail competitor search to find more high-value links they didn’t have but should. Overlooked, undiscovered value? We’ll take it. The bigger names were slowly transferring authority to KingCompare – not a whisper of it, but quietly effective.
Anchor text was mixed and managed with a deft hand. We spliced branded, exact-match, partial-match, and related terms so KingCompare’s backlink profile read natural – without missing the targets it needed to hit. It was precise, and Google didn’t bat an eye – but the rankings definitely did.
The result? Target keywords continued to track upwards at a healthy rate while we deliberately avoided tripping the over-optimisation alarm. The site wasn’t just playing catch-up – it was about to start to pull away.
The Results
The result after the initial edits to their site, a custom SEO strategy began to take hold. It started almost immediately. The following month we started to see some early wins, but it wasn’t until the following 4 months that the real change became apparent:
- 3x Organic Growth: Not only did the Organic growth to their site take off, it tripled in size. To be frank, we were shocked too. As of November it has grown consistently month over month, with reach expanding to far more people than before.
- Search Rankings Exploded: The visibility for KingCompare just skyrocketed. Targeted insurance keywords shot to the top of the search rankings to finally put them in front of the right people.
- Leads & Conversions Increased: The more traffic, the more leads, the more calls, the more sales. KingCompare experienced an influx of users and real revenue growth due to the added organic growth.
- Fixing technical issues, publishing quality content and earning a solid backlink profile, KingCompare was back on top. Their online competition was no match, their site ranking first across the board.
EcoSEO is all about providing results that can be sustained. We don’t fix your site for temporary success. If this sounds like a result you want to see for your own site, this is how it’s done.
Technical Tools:
Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Yoast SEO, Ahrefs Site Audit, Google Search Console, TinyPNG, Semrush Site Audit, Google PageSpeed Insights, Figma, Contentsquare, Hotjar, Semrush Content Marketing Toolkit, Grammarly, Google Data Studio, SEMrush Position Tracking
SEO Services
Technical SEO, Conversion Optimisation, Press Release, Link Building, Conversation Rate Optimisation, Mobile Optimisation, Website Speed Optimisation
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