Intelligent People is a boutique recruitment agency specialising in product management, product design and UX, marketing, eCommerce, and commercial leadership roles. With over 20 years of industry expertise, they offer a deep specialist knowledge about the market.
When we started doing recruitment agency SEO for them, the agency was already in a reasonably positive space, with 71 of their target keywords ranking within the top 10 search results organically.
During the next 12 months, with a careful blend of content and technical SEO we achieved dramatic Google rank increases: the total keywords on page 1 of the Google Search results grew from 71 in May 2022 to 223 in May 2023.
By May 2024 page 1 keywords reached 300, out of 400 keywords being tracked.
By May 2025, the total keywords showing up on page 1 of the Google Search results went from 300 to 314.
A Recruitment Agency Specific Approach To Search Engine Optimisation
Using years of experience in SEO for recruitment agencies, we were able to deliver the following bespoke strategy, which was effective in delivering multiple high-value new clients for Intelligent People:
- Our analysis of various data sources revealed that about 80% of traffic was driven by job seekers, with the remaining 20% coming from employers.
- While it may seem logical to focus on the 20% of traffic coming from paying clients, we understand from experience with high-end recruitment agencies that a steady flow of top candidates is essential in securing great placements and maintaining strong client relationships.
- We also understand that website traffic is a key ranking factor. Finding ways to maximise traffic from job seekers pushes the rankings of the targeted employer-specific keywords higher.
- Many keywords within the recruitment space have dual search intent. For example, when someone searches “Head of marketing in London”, it’s unclear whether they’re an employer looking to hire for that role or a candidate researching it. That’s why it’s important to optimise for keywords that may initially seem candidate-focused but actually serve both audiences.
- Most people are interested in money. In other industries, we address this by optimising for price-related keywords, but in the recruitment space, salary-focused content performs best. It appeals to both employers and candidates and has proven to be a strong driver of relevant search traffic.
Effective Organic Traffic Growth - Search Console Data
While paid software platforms can disguise data trends, and Google Analytics can show errors if not set up correctly, Google Search Console (GSC) data is often regarded as the gold standard of quality data you can rely on. So let’s take a look at how our recruitment SEO services impacted the Search Console data for Intelligent People.
Within GSC, the average ranking position of Intelligent People in Google Search results went from position 30.7 to position 26.3, from May 2024 to May 2025, demonstrating substantial further improvements on top of the past 2 years of rapid SEO progress.
Throughout this period the URL impressions in Google Search Console went from a total of 737K per month to 1.97 million per month.
URL clicks increased from 13.8K to 14.3K per month, despite the growing impact of Generative AI in search results, a trend that has generally reduced click volumes across most SEO campaigns, as users now often get information directly from search rather than clicking through to websites.
Total URL clicks and Total URL Impressions for the Month of May 2024 Compared with May 2025
