The £20,000 SEO Mistake: How We Tripled Traffic in 6 Weeks

Our client, Alotek Shelters, invested a significant amount in SEO with their previous agency over the last 12 months. For that price, you’d expect market dominance. You’d expect the phone to be ringing off the hook.

Instead, when we logged into their analytics in November, we saw a flat line.

The website was technically “there,” but it was a zombie. It wasn’t living, breathing, or growing. It was averaging position 50 (Page 5) on Google. It was invisible.

Here is the story of how we fixed the mechanical failure, fired the “vanity metrics,” and tripled their visibility in under 6 weeks.

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The Audit: Why Money Doesn’t Buy Rankings

When we took over, we didn’t just want to “do better.” We wanted to know why the previous budget had failed. We opened the hood and found three smoking guns that explained the flatline:

1. The “50% Invisible” Problem

This was the shocker. We found that 52% of the website was not indexed. Effectively, for every two pages Alotek paid for, Google only saw one. The previous agency had left 28 pages blocked by technical errors—broken redirects, 404 dead ends, and messy canonical tags. The site was trying to run a marathon with one leg tied behind its back.

2. The “Ghost Town” Keywords

They were ranking, sure—but for terms nobody used. They were ranking on Page 1 for technical jargon, but invisible for the words buyers actually type into Google.

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The Fix: Engineering the Hockey Stick

We didn’t start with a magic wand. We started with a wrench.

Phase 1 was purely mechanical. We went into the code and fixed the indexation blocks. We cleared the 404 errors, fixed the redirect loops, and submitted the sitemap.

• Result: We increased the number of indexed pages from 26 to 41.
• Impact: By simply letting Google see the rest of the website, we instantly doubled the opportunities for the site to rank.

Phase 2 was strategic. We stopped targeting “vanity” terms and went after Commercial Intent keywords—the specific phrases people search when they have a company credit card in their hand.

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The Data: Dominating the “AI Future”

We don’t do “fluff” reports. Here is the raw data from Google Search Console and Semrush, comparing November (The Old Agency) to January (Churchtown Media).

1. The Visibility Explosion

We effectively shocked the patient back to life.

• Daily Impressions: Up 86% (From 238/day to 442/day).
• Average Position: Improved from 50 (Page 5) to 37 (Page 4) across the entire site.
• Peak Visibility: On Jan 11th, the site hit nearly 600 impressions in a single day—a 3x increase from the November baseline.

2. The “New Google” Wins (AI Overviews)

This is the most exciting part. We aren’t just ranking in the traditional “blue links.” Our data shows Alotek is now triggering and owning the AI Overviews (AI Snapshots) for their biggest terms.

This means when a user asks a question, Google’s AI is recommending Alotek as the direct answer at the very top of the page.

• “Bus Shelter Manufacturers”
  • Then: Position 8 (Buried at bottom of Page 1)
  • Now: AI Overview Winner (Position 1)
  • Why it matters: We have replaced the “search result” with the “answer.” Google AI now presents Alotek as the primary manufacturer to check.
• “Outdoor Pram Storage”
  • Then: Position 11 (The “Graveyard” of Page 2)
  • Now: AI Overview Winner (Position 1)
  • Why it matters: We jumped 10 spots to become the default recommendation.
• “Bus Shelters for Parish Councils”
  • Then: Not Ranked (100+)
  • Now: Position #1
  • Why it matters: This is a specific B2B contract term. We took Alotek from “Who?” to the #1 option in the UK for local government buyers.

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What’s Next? (The “Striking Distance” Plan)

This is Phase 1. We have successfully turned the lights on and secured the top spot in Google’s AI results for key terms.

Now, we pivot to Phase 2: Traffic & Clicks.

Our data shows that a massive opportunity—“Covered Walkways for Schools”—is currently sitting at Position 11. It is knocking on the door of Page 1. The previous agency ignored it. We are now optimizing specifically to push that term from Page 2 to Page 1, which will unlock over 1,500 monthly views.

Watch this space. In our next update (Month 3), we won’t just be showing you graphs of rankings going up. We’ll be showing you the Clicks—and the leads that follow.

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Has your agency spent 12 months sending you reports that say “work done” while your traffic stays flat? Let’s check under the hood. It might be a quick fix.