Case study · March 2021 – October 2023
Online sales from the public liability page more than doubled in five months
66 → 150 sales, 20 September 2022 to 19 February 2023 against the five months before. Consecutive periods, not year on year (Trade Direct's Google Analytics, public liability landing page, all channels).
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Trade Direct Insurance sells public liability, tools, van and trade cover online to sole traders and small firms. When Crescat took on its SEO in March 2021, organic search had roughly halved since 2018 and the biggest money term, 'public liability insurance', sat on page four. Crescat rebuilt the site's answers around how tradespeople search, with an FAQ hub, videos and infographics, and by spring 2023 the main public liability searches were on page one.
Where Trade Direct Insurance started
Trade Direct Insurance is a UK broker brand selling cover to tradespeople and small businesses online: public liability, employers' liability, tools, van and more than 70 trade-specific policies. Crescat had run its Google Ads since 2019, and took on its SEO from March 2021.
The aim, in the client's words, was to build the SEO strategy and deliver incremental improvement: to sell more policies from search without paying for every click.
The starting point
- Organic search had roughly halved since 2018: 30,583 organic sessions in 2020 against 57,184 in 2018 (Google Analytics).
- 'public liability insurance', the most valuable search in the market, ranked 38th: page four (Semrush, March 2021).
- Public liability questions sat on one long accordion page, against competitors with a page for every question.
- A legacy of paid links from a previous supplier, with a spike to about 24,000 backlinks in 2020 (Semrush estimate).
- Trade terms were already strong (86 tracked searches in the top three), so the gap was the big money terms.
The work behind the numbers
Crescat built the strategy in January 2021 around the searches that sell policies, then worked through it month by month with the client's developers and compliance team.
A dated baseline for every money term (March 2021)
Set up rank tracking for 362 product and trade searches and their landing pages, so every gain could be measured from a fixed start.
An FAQ hub built around real questions (2021–2023)
Wrote 64 FAQ answers on public liability, employers' liability and professional indemnity in 2021, each through Trade Direct's compliance review, with structured data and internal links back to the product pages.
Video and visual answers (2021–2023)
Filmed 32 FAQ videos, produced an animated explainer for the public liability page (approved July 2022) and designed 40 infographics answering the most-asked cost and cover questions.
Ending the paid-link legacy (2021–2022)
Stopped the inherited paid link-building. By March 2022 the backlink count had fallen from the 2020 spike of about 24,000 to 2,700 (Semrush estimate).
Striking distance and technical clean-up (2023)
Found 506 searches ranking 5th to 15th to push onto page one, rewrote 66 page titles and 224 meta descriptions, and mapped more than 100 broken URLs to redirects.
New trade pages, internal links and digital PR (2023)
Specified eight new trade pages, linked 46 pages that mentioned public liability to the product page, and built data-led PR on the construction trades shortage and material costs.
The results: Trade Direct's own Analytics, and Semrush estimates
Sales, revenue and conversion rate are from Trade Direct's Google Analytics landing-page report for the public liability page, all channels (Crescat also ran the paid search), comparing the five months after 20 September 2022 with the five months before. Rankings and traffic estimates are Semrush's (UK database, third-party estimates): rank tracking on 26 March 2021 (Semrush's organic report for the head term) against a Semrush export from March 2023, and Semrush's monthly history for March 2021 to October 2023, the first and last months of the engagement. The two sources are never combined in one figure.
- +127.27%online sales from the public liability page66 → 15020 Sept 2022–19 Feb 2023 vs 20 Apr–19 Sept 2022 · Trade Direct's Google Analytics, public liability landing page, all channels
- +111.65%revenue from the public liability page£23,078.48 → £48,845.8620 Sept 2022–19 Feb 2023 vs 20 Apr–19 Sept 2022 · Trade Direct's Google Analytics, public liability landing page, all channels
- 4.45% → 5.56%e-commerce conversion rate, public liability pageUsers 1,403 → 2,55220 Sept 2022–19 Feb 2023 vs 20 Apr–19 Sept 2022 · Trade Direct's Google Analytics, public liability landing page, all channels
- 3,055 → 13,636estimated monthly visits from Google organic searchOver the same months Semrush's estimates fell 44.8% for Simply Business and 10.0% for Hiscox. Estimated visits from searches for 'trade direct insurance' stayed flat at 800 a month, so the growth came from non-brand searches.March 2021 vs October 2023 · Semrush estimates, UK database
- 3,055 → 5,413estimated monthly organic visits after the first year+77.2%, the same calendar month a year apart, so not a seasonal swing.March 2021 vs March 2022 · Semrush estimates, UK database
- 38th → 10th'public liability insurance' (49,500 searches a month)Still 10th in October 2023, when the engagement ended.March 2021 vs March 2023 · Semrush estimates
Performance peaked in spring and summer 2023, then fell back from August 2023, a period that included Google algorithm updates and a rebuild of the site on a new platform. By October 2023, clicks to the commercial pages (5,292 against 6,042), new users and organic revenue were all below October 2022 (Google Search Console and Analytics). Semrush's traffic estimate fell 42.2% from its April 2023 peak of 23,577 to October 2023, more than its estimates for Simply Business and Hiscox (15.7% and 19.4%). Not every ranking rose: of 84 searches Semrush reported at both dates, 50 improved and 25 fell, including 'tradesman insurance' (9th → 11th) and 'business van insurance' (10th → 29th).
These are one client's results between March 2021 and October 2023. Every insurer starts from a different place, so they are not a forecast for yours.
How the numbers moved
Public liability searches: Google position (Semrush estimates)
- An FAQ page ranks in 2023
Questions answered by the FAQ hub: Google position (Semrush estimates)
- 880 searches a month
- 880 searches a month
- 480 searches a month
- 1,000 searches a month
- 390 searches a month
Public liability page: five months either side of 20 September 2022
What Trade Direct Insurance said
SEO KPIs (technical and commercial) were all met - every month since April 2021
Head of Marketing & E-Commerce Verified Clutch review (anonymous), Trade Direct Insurance
On the group's SEO and paid search with Crescat, June 2023
Working with Crescat is like having another department of colleagues at the end of the email/text/project boards/phone.
Head of Marketing & E-Commerce Verified Clutch review (anonymous), Trade Direct Insurance
On working with Crescat, June 2023
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