Reed Group Case Study
Case Studies
Managing SEO Across a Complex, Multi-Stakeholder Organisation
SEOMG! co-founder Luke Smith has driven Reed’s SEO strategy for over 7 years, transforming them from neck-and-neck with competitors into clear market leaders across multiple business units, millions of pages, and complex stakeholder environments.
Services Provided:
Headline Results
+43%
visibility growth in 6 months to become market leader
4x
visibility increase for Reed Learning, overtaking FutureLearn
14x
growth in non-brand clicks for tax calculator
The Client
Reed is one of the world’s largest family-run recruitment businesses, founded by Sir Alec Reed in London in 1960.
Industry: Recruitment
The Challenge
What We Did
7-Year Strategic Partnership
Luke became Reed’s embedded SEO consultant in 2018, working directly with the MD and business unit leaders across the organisation.
Team Building & Training
– Built and trained a dedicated SEO development team in 2018
– Delivered training to 50+ members of the Product team
– Created internal SEO capabilities that compound results over time
Multi-Unit SEO Strategy
Rather than one-size-fits-all, we developed tailored strategies for each business unit while maintaining cohesive technical foundations across millions of pages.
The Results
+43%
visibility growth in 6 months to become market leader
4x
visibility increase for Reed Learning, overtaking FutureLearn
14x
growth in non-brand clicks for tax calculator
Standout Wins
Overtaking Totaljobs Following a comprehensive SEO restructure:
– +43% visibility growth in just 6 months
– +30% increase in non-brand clicks YoY
– Established a significant and sustained lead over Totaljobs
– Reed became the undisputed market leader in UK job search
2. Dominating the Online Courses Market In 2019, FutureLearn held a 29% lead over Reed Learning.
Through strategic internal linking and metadata improvements:
– Visibility quadrupled in 6 months
– +50% increase in transactions YoY
– Reed Learning overtook FutureLearn to become market leader
3. Optimising Tax & Salary Tools Reed’s tax calculator and salary tool were underperforming despite high search volumes.
Following our optimisations:
– 14x growth in non-brand clicks for tax calculator
– 5x growth in non-brand clicks for salary tool
– Ranking #1 for ‘25000 after tax’ (12k monthly searches)
– Ranking #1 for ‘accountant salary’ (8.1k monthly searches)
– Tools now drive significant qualified traffic and user engagement
4. Growing Local Search Performance Audited 80+ Google Business Profiles and branch pages experiencing YoY decline.
Results in just 3 months:
– +12% traffic to Google Business Profiles
– +11% traffic to branch pages
– Reversed declining trend across all local assets
Why It Worked
Reed is a complex, multi-business-unit organisation with millions of pages and competing priorities. Most agencies would struggle to even understand the structure, let alone drive results across every vertical.
We didn’t just execute tactics. We built internal capability, trained teams, and delivered sustained growth across every business unit—from job search to learning to local branches.
What the client said
“SEOMG! have done a fantastic job on the Talent Solutions and Learning project. Site migrations are always a nervy period so the fact that the team not only successfully migrated the sites—but also delivered a swift improvement in rankings and doubled organic enquiries—is exceptional. We’ve been really impressed with the work with the SEOMG! team and look forward to more successes in the future!”
– James Adams, Reed Marketing Director
