We built and populated a supersite that brought 17 local client agencies into a single National Fostering Group domain. The aim was to improve the SEO for the national parent company and ultimately use its increased performance to acquire more leads.
It was a huge job with a lot at stake – website development, platform integrations, speed and SEO considerations. The results show that our strategy is a model for maximising the potential of domain visibility, authority and performance.
National Fostering Group is the UK’s largest fostering agency which, at that point, had 17 local agency teams covering different regions of the country (it now has 20). Each local agency had its own website and was, in effect, competing against itself for traffic and leads (enquiries from potential new foster carers).
The idea was to create a supersite that would become the single authority for National Fostering Group as a whole. As a people-focused organisation with plenty of personality, it also had to reflect the unique identities of each agency in the group.
Our client was keen to use this web project as a foundation for ongoing SEO, Paid Media and CRO marketing. It was also essential to integrate it with an incumbent CRM and case management software.
With any new website launch, even if the content migration is well-planned and executed, domain authority takes a hit – usually around 15-20%. It was going to take time and a diligent, active strategy to turn this around as quickly as possible.
We spent weeks deep-diving into the brand. We collaborated with the client to determine their requirements. Working together, our web developers and performance team made design and technical recommendations that would breathe fire into their performance strategy after go-live.
In September 2019, the new site was launched, incorporating all its local agencies under a strong and recognisable brand, and the performance team’s work really started. Paid Search, CRO marketing and both Technical SEO and Content SEO kicked off (both Content Marketing and Brand Storytelling).
18 months ago, we’d forecast that:
In fact, thanks to a website that was built well, structured flawlessly, had an efficient content migration and investment into its ongoing refinement:
In addition:
A quick word about Conversion Rate Optimisation, though we’ll cover this more thoroughly in another case study… CRO Marketing worked alongside Content SEO to bring some big wins, allowing us to optimise page design and contact form design for maximum impact and maximum conversions.
The SEO strategy has included a lot of copy optimisation and the addition of E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) elements that didn’t previously exist.
With this in mind, we’d paid close attention to creating an intuitive, methodical structure for the site. It’s so well-organised now (including Schema) that users (and Google) can find the information they need quickly, and can delve into topics in as much detail as they like.
And the quality of the information on the site is excellent. National Fostering Group wants to give potential foster carers all the important information they need. Not only are they providing a depth of information that outstrips competitors on the main site, their bespoke content hub (which we launched six months later) provides a structured platform for campaign information, advice and case studies, some of it user-generated.
18 months on, it’s going from strength to strength as we continue to build out the structured sections with even more depth, while keeping it easy for users to find what they’re looking for.
