From 1.09K Monthly Clicks at the Start to 1.41K at the End
The Work Crowd is a specialist platform connecting businesses with freelance and fractional marketing, PR, communications, and executive talent. Operating in a highly competitive search environment, the challenge wasn’t building a platform people trusted; it was building a stronger organic search presence capable of reaching businesses and talent through relevant, high-intent searches.
Over 15 months, from May 2025 to July 2026, we built a structured organic growth program across:
- Technical SEO
- Content strategy
- Local SEO and Google Business Profile
- Keyword visibility and performance tracking
- Authority building and backlinks
- Ongoing website optimization
The strategy focused on moving The Work Crowd beyond branded search recognition and into high-intent, non-branded queries used by businesses and professionals searching for freelance, fractional and specialist talent.
This approach formed part of a broader SEO and organic growth strategy focused on sustainable, search-driven acquisition.
The Challenge
The Work Crowd was operating in a competitive freelance and fractional talent market, with an opportunity to increase its visibility beyond searches from users who already knew the brand.
The scope required:
- Increasing visibility across relevant non-branded search terms
- Moving beyond branded search dependency towards high-intent queries such as “fractional CMO jobs” and “freelance communications consultant”
- Building topical relevance across Marketing, PR, Communications and Fractional Executive talent
- Strengthening the website’s technical SEO foundation
- Creating a consistent content and optimization program
- Adapting to ongoing changes in Google’s search experience, including the growth of AI-powered search
At the starting point in May 2025, The Work Crowd recorded:
- 1.09K monthly clicks
- 308K monthly impressions
- 0.4% average CTR
- 41.2 average position
The objective was to build a structured SEO system that could increase organic visibility and generate sustained search-driven growth over time.
Results
Across the full May 2025–July 2026 period, The Work Crowd generated 20.2K organic clicks and 4.22M impressions.
Importantly, the monthly snapshots also show improvement between the starting point and the end of the project.
| Metric | May 2025 | July 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Organic Clicks | 1.09K | 1.41K | 0.29 |
| Monthly Impressions | 308K | 194K | -37% |
| Average CTR | 0.4% | 0.7% | +75% |
| Average Position | 41.2 | 25.9 | Improved by 15.3 positions |
Total Organic Performance
May 2025–July 2026
- 20.2K total organic clicks
- 4.22M total impressions
- 0.5% overall CTR
- 29.8 overall average position
This gives us a much cleaner story: the monthly end position improved, while the full project generated significant cumulative organic search activity.
Business Impact
The SEO program delivered measurable improvements across both search visibility and organic engagement.
The improvement in average position and CTR indicates stronger search performance at the end of the project, while the cumulative figures demonstrate the scale of organic search activity generated throughout the 15 months.
- Monthly organic clicks increased from 1.09K to 1.41K
- Average CTR increased from 0.4% to 0.7%
- Average position improved from 41.2 to 25.9
- The website generated 20.2K organic clicks across the 15-month period
- The website generated 4.22M organic impressions across the same period
- Organic Search generated 17.4K sessions with a 73.5% engagement rate
Our Role
Dot IT led the SEO program end-to-end, building a structured organic growth system across technical SEO, content, local search, keyword tracking and website optimization.
The scope of work included:
Technical SEO: Continuous audits and monitoring across crawlability, indexation, metadata and on-page elements.
Content Strategy: Publishing SEO-optimized content built around high-intent search terms across Marketing, PR, Communications and Fractional Executive talent.
Local SEO: Ongoing Google Business Profile optimization to support local search visibility.
Keyword Performance Tracking: Tracking 93 strategically selected keywords month over month to identify ranking opportunities and guide SEO priorities.
Authority Building: Continuous backlink building and monitoring to strengthen the website’s authority.
Website Optimization: On-page SEO improvements, metadata enhancements and internal linking, reviewed and applied throughout the project.
Growth Approach
The strategy focused on building organic visibility from a relatively low starting point and creating a repeatable system for long-term search growth.
Rather than relying on a single SEO tactic, each component worked together to strengthen the website’s ability to attract, rank for and engage relevant organic search users.
This approach covered:
- Technical SEO and site health
- Local SEO and Google Business Profile
- Content strategy and keyword targeting
- Keyword performance monitoring
- Authority building through backlinks
- Ongoing website optimization
Technical SEO
The technical SEO work focused on strengthening the website’s crawlability, indexation and overall site structure to create a stable foundation for organic growth.
Key Results
- Continuous monitoring across crawlability, indexation, metadata, internal linking and site structure
- 0 technical errors recorded in the final technical audit
- Every newly published page optimized as it went live
- A more stable technical foundation built to support ongoing content and organic growth
Local SEO
The local SEO strategy focused on strengthening Google Business Profile visibility and maintaining a consistent presence across local search results.
Key Results
- 60 Google Business Profile posts published across 15 months
- Consistent publishing rate of 4 posts per month
- Ongoing optimization for local search visibility
- Continuous Google Business Profile enhancements throughout the project
Content Strategy
The content program was built around the search terms businesses and professionals actually use when looking for freelance and fractional talent. The focus was on moving beyond brand-only visibility and increasing relevance across commercial search demand.
Key Results
- 30 SEO-optimized blogs published across 15 months
- A consistent publishing rate of 2 blogs per month
- Continuous optimization of newly published content
- Content developed around key specialisms including freelance marketing, PR, communications and fractional executive talent
Keyword Visibility & Performance
The impact of the content strategy was measured through month-over-month keyword tracking across 93 strategically selected terms. Keywords were grouped by search intent and topic to identify ranking opportunities, prioritize optimization and measure organic visibility growth.
Key Results
- 46 keywords improved in ranking
- 14 keywords declined
- 18 keywords reached the Top 3
- 31 keywords reached the Top 10
Strong gains were recorded across non-branded commercial terms, with notable improvements for searches such as freelance communications jobs, freelance PR jobs, fractional CMO jobs and freelance sustainability consultant.
Website Optimization
Ongoing website optimization focused on improving on-page SEO, strengthening internal linking and ensuring newly published pages were optimized for search from launch.
Key Results
- SEO optimization applied to newly published website pages
- Metadata enhancements across key website pages
- Internal linking implemented to strengthen site structure
- Continuous on-page SEO improvements throughout the project
Organic User Growth (GA4)
Search visibility translated into engaged organic traffic, not just impressions.
Organic Search Performance
- 17.4K Organic Search Sessions
- 73.5% Engagement Rate
- 12.8K Engaged Sessions
- 2m 11s Average Engagement Time
Organic Search became one of the website’s strongest traffic channels, bringing users actively searching for relevant services, freelance opportunities and specialist expertise.
The engagement data also shows that organic users were not simply arriving through search; they were engaging with the website once they arrived.
The Power of Non-Branded Search
Branded searches such as “the work crowd”, “work crowd” and “workcrowd” already performed strongly, with a 76.4% click-through rate and an average position of 1.6.
However, branded search primarily reaches users who already know the brand.
The larger growth opportunity sits in non-branded search: terms such as freelance communications jobs, freelance PR jobs, fractional CMO jobs and freelance sustainability consultant.
These searches represent users actively looking for relevant services, opportunities and specialist expertise without necessarily knowing The Work Crowd beforehand.
Growth across these terms has expanded the opportunity to reach new businesses, hiring managers and talent beyond existing brand searches, creating a clear focus for the next stage of the strategy.
Adapting to Google's Evolving Search Experience
Search behavior continued to evolve throughout the 15-month project, driven by the growth of AI-powered search, changes to Google’s search experience and increasing competition across commercial queries.
Rather than reacting to individual changes, the SEO program followed a consistent monthly cycle:
Monitor → Analyze → Optimize → Adapt
This ensured that The Work Crowd’s technical foundation, content and on-page optimization continued to evolve alongside changes in the search landscape.
Conclusion
The Work Crowd’s organic growth was driven by a structured SEO system connecting technical optimization, content strategy, local visibility, keyword performance tracking and ongoing website improvements.
Between May 2025 and July 2026, the monthly snapshot improved from 1.09K to 1.41K organic clicks, while average position improved from 41.2 to 25.9 and average CTR increased from 0.4% to 0.7%.
Across the full 15-month period, the website generated 20.2K organic clicks and 4.22M impressions.
The result was a stronger organic search foundation, improved keyword performance and greater opportunity to reach users through non-branded search.
Partner with Us
If you’re looking to build search visibility, increase organic performance and turn SEO into a stronger acquisition channel, let’s talk.
