Orbit Developments

SEO Drives 63% Increase In Organic Leads

Orbit Developments is one of the largest providers of commercial property in the UK with over 200 properties across the North West and South of England.

For over 50 years they have been providing a combination of office space, retail space and industrial/warehousing space to businesses of various sizes, across a wide range of sectors.

Digitally savvy business.

Background & Brief

On first speaking with Orbit in late 2024, it quickly became apparent that the business was already a digitally savvy business; using a variety of backend systems, processes and automations to ensure their business operations were efficient and accurate.

Furthermore, their in-house marketing team and senior personnel clearly understood the value of high-quality picture and video content to showcase their properties on their website and social media.

While their two main websites certainly looked the part, it was in the technical SEO department where they felt they needed to make improvements.

The business relied heavily on third-party sites such as Rightmove to advertise their vacant commercial property (who, along with Zoopla, consistently occupy the top two organic positions in this market).

While this was effective in generating leads, they wanted to ensure that their own websites were maximising their search presence and generating more of their own enquiries.

The Process

Working closely with senior personnel at Orbit, we determined what the priority geographical areas were, and the key search terms and volumes.

As well as documenting the current rankings, the initial benchmarking audits identified a range of technical issues which were then resolved. Working with their existing website agency we also recommended some changes to the overall structure and user-experience of the websites.

Once this was completed, we implemented an exhaustive SEO overhaul on the front and back end of the two websites.

The was followed by 12 months of ongoing monitoring, reporting and consistent implementation of technical improvements, optimisation of new and existing content, and ensuring that best practice SEO was adhered to as their business operations and websites naturally evolved over the course of the year.

Consistent implementation of best practice SEO.

Key Contributors

Increasing the number of URLS

Orbit previously only listed their commercial space that was currently available to let – we recommended that the business list all properties that they owned on the websites, regardless of their let status.

This resulted in the creation of a further 100+ content-relevant permanent pages across two websites. However, from a user experience perspective, Orbit ensured that fully let and unavailable properties were clearly identifiable and would not show up in the on-site search function when users were searching for available office space to let.

Redirecting broken & outdated links to more relevant content

There were a significant number of links to outdated content. These were redirected to fresher content where appropriate or removed from the SERPs via Google Search Console.

Heavy focus on image SEO

The two websites have a large number of images – all of which are highly relevant and high quality too. However, almost all images were not optimised for the page they were on or the content they portrayed. We optimised all images with descriptive alt text and keyword-rich filenames.

Regular publishing of fresh, relevant content

We regularly produce long form blog content, specifically around focus service and geographical areas, or around search terms for which the site is underperforming. This often includes answers to question-based searches.

Implementation of local SEO strategies to optimise for specific geographic searches

Location searches play a huge role in how Orbit’s visitors arrive on their websites. Typically, potential tenants have already identified where they would like to rent office space or commercial space when searching; such as: ‘office space to let Manchester’ or ‘office space Ascot’.

We optimised against these target geographical locations through a combination of clean, SEO-friendly URL structures, H1 tags, strategic internal linking, and optimisation of location content on the individual office space landing pages.

Regular analysis & refinement of target keywords

We periodically analyse the search terms and number of searches and use this information to refine the keywords we are optimising for.

Increased organic leads & traffic.

The Results

Following the initial SEO overhaul where we were able to make substantial changes, there was a significant positive impact on SEO with both websites seeing an immediate improvement in their rankings which we have then been able to preserve and improve upon.

Though there has naturally been some fluctuation from week to week, the rankings have continued to gradually improve on average over the course of a 12-month period.

As well as improving SEO rankings and organic traffic, organic lead generation via their own websites was also up on their previous year by 63 %.

Over the course of the initial twelve-month period we have been able to consistently outrank the likes of national operators like Regus and Bruntwood, and for several keywords we have even managed to outrank property listing websites such as Zoopla and Rightmove.

Organic Leads

Organic Traffic

Case Study