PROJECTS
Here is a flavour of some of the projects I’ve worked on over the years.
Much of my work has included SEO campaigns, Google Analytics, general website consultancy and some Google Ads campaigns.
I have also helped small businesses with general admin, e-commerce orders, content creation, email marketing and list management, liaising with customers and general business correspondence.
HOLIDAY COTTAGE COMPANY
SEO, Google Ads and email marketing campaigns for a Hampshire based holiday cottage company (B2C)
This holiday cottage started operating in 2015 and has invested enormously in building very high quality accommodation, winning a gold award for Green Tourism in 2020, along with Gold at the Beautiful South Awards at the end of 2019.
I was approached to help them improve the optimisation of their website to attract more enquiries, supported by a small Google Ads campaign. I also help update their weekly news and send out weekly email newsletters.
When we started working together in May 2018 they were getting approximately 2000 sessions to their website per month. After a website re-design, rewriting of content, search engine optimisation and investing in social media campaigns, their visits jumped to over 8000 sessions the following January.
This has resulted in a very positive impact on business, with a big increase in bookings to operating at full capacity at weekends and school holidays. Five star reviews on TripAdvisor and Facebook have added to their success.
LOCATION AGENT
This location agency has a location library of thousands of properties and locations available for film hire across the UK, from small London studios, to beautiful suburban residences to stately homes and outdoor spaces.
They were spending hundreds of pounds per month on Google Adwords and wanted to improve their search rankings to reduce spend, and gain more visits to the website in the organic search results. At the time the site was attracting just over 1000 visits per month from organic search.
Firstly, I analysed the website as a starting point and to find out if any technical issues may have been hindering search results. I then carried out keyword research to work out the best keywords to target for their market. The main pages were optimised and advice was given as to how to optimise each location, since there are thousands, this is best done when the locations are added to the website.
From there I also advised on other aspects of online marketing to draw visitors from a variety of sources. The website now attracts over 5 times the number of visits from organic search results that they were attracting when I first started working with them.
“Sam has made a huge difference to our online presence. Super efficient and a super nice person to work with.”
Emma Plimmer, MD, Locality Ltd
DORSET WILDLIFE TRUST
I volunteered to assist the Dorset Wildlife Trust move all of their website content from an old bespoke content platform to a new Drupal CMS platform hosting all the Wildlife Trust websites nationally.
I initially helped assess which pages were getting the most page views to assist them with planning the migration and removing older content. I was tasked to help with migrating content for all their nature reserves into the new CMS which is linked to the Wildlife Trust nature reserves nationally so members can search for reserves near to them more easily.
"Sam McArthur volunteered for Dorset Wildlife Trust to help us move to our new website platform in 2019. Sam was a pleasure to work with and we were so grateful for her time. She grasped the design and functionality of the website really quickly, was incredibly organised and had great attention to detail whilst transferring over and organising new content. Sam's expertise and input also enabled us to create a more interactive and easy to use website which is so important for us to be able to gain new supporters for our charity."
Sally Welbourn, Marketing Manager, Dorset Wildlife Trust
E-COMMERCE BUSINESS
The initial brief from this client was to find which keywords potential visitors would type into a search to find the website and target web pages accordingly to drive some initial traffic to the website quickly and generate awareness of the business and some early sales. From thereon, SEO would be ongoing to ensure the page ranked well for target keywords.
I worked closely with the client to provide SEO for the key product pages of the website. In depth keyword research was carried out over hundreds of potential keywords and a shortlist drawn up. Pages were then identified to be optimised with ongoing monitoring and optimisation as new products were added. A Google Adwords campaign was also set up to ensure the site would be found for key products and highly targeted keywords.
Within 3 years, traffic to the website grew month on month. From zero visitors, the site went on to attract approximately 17,000 visitors per month and was regularly found for over 2500 keyword combinations, including first page rankings for target keywords. A combination of search engine optimisation, PR activities and email marketing ensured the website was at the top of Google rankings for highly targeted keywords, maintaining brand awareness and generating a healthy level of sales.
“It is my great fortune that Sam has been involved in the SEO Marketing of my company from the beginning, and has seen to it that we are on page 1 of the search results that are key to us. I could not be more grateful to her for her incredible expertise and her complete reliability. Not only that, she is a genuinely lovely person, too, all of which makes it a joy to work with her.”
Mayke Hogestijn, Lavender & Sage
OTHER PROJECTS
Other projects include SEO and website updates for a garden designer, setting up a new skincare business - Sun & Flower and admin/bookkeeping for a property investor.
