THE OUT are a luxury car hire startup. Founded by Jaguar Land Rover in 2019, THE OUT has been providing luxury car hire service in London. For 2 years I was their Head of Marketing working across all marketing channels as well as owning the pricing strategy, utilisation forecasting and merchandising.
At THE OUT, I identified a critical need to expand our online presence and build a platform for national growth through SEO. Our existing website’s limited structure and inefficient content management process were significant roadblocks. Leading this initiative, I spearheaded the development of a new website information architecture (IA) and collaborated with our product and tech teams to implement a user-friendly CMS. Within six months, this strategic approach resulted in a 30% uplift in organic traffic and top rankings for key location-based search terms, setting the platform for UK-wide expansion.
The Challenge
Our original website presented several key challenges that were hindering our growth potential:
Poor User Experience: The site lacked clear categorisation, with only individual car model pages and no overarching brand or category pages. This made it difficult for users to compare vehicles and understand our full offering.
Limited SEO Visibility: We were only ranking for “London” and car model terms. We weren’t capturing traffic from surrounding areas or other key UK locations, severely limiting our reach.
Inefficient Content Management: Every website update, even minor changes, required the involvement of our development team. This was a huge drain on resources and meant our marketing team couldn’t react quickly to new opportunities. Content releases were tied to bi-weekly development sprints, meaning no agile or quick release of new pages.
No National Expansion Strategy: The website wasn’t structured to support our national expansion plans. We needed a scalable solution to target new locations effectively.
The Solution
Recognising these challenges, I led the initiative to overhaul our online presence with a focus on improved IA and content management. This involved a collaborative effort with our product and tech teams:
Strategic IA Overhaul: I led the design of a new IA based on in-depth keyword research, analysis of user journeys, and SEO best practices. This involved creating:
Category pages for car brands (e.g. Range Rover, Defender).
Category pages for model types (e.g. SUVs, sports cars etc, 7-seaters).
Location-based landing pages with sub-locations (e.g. London -> South West London -> Twickenham; North-west England -> Manchester -> Stockport).
This new structure dramatically improved user experience, making it easier for potential customers to find the right vehicle in their desired location. Critically, it also provided a solid foundation for location-based SEO.
CMS Integration: Working closely with the product and tech teams, we selected and implemented Contentful as our new CMS. This was a key decision as it gave our marketing team complete control over content creation and publishing. The intuitive interface meant they could create new pages, update existing content, and launch campaigns quickly and efficiently, without needing to involve the development team.
Keyword Optimisation: Using Google’s Keyword Planner, we conducted in-depth keyword research and optimised all content, both new and existing, for relevant search terms, with a particular focus on location-based keywords.
Internal Linking Strategy: We implemented a strategic internal linking structure, using a combination of main navigation, footer navigation, and contextual links within page content. This improved site crawlability, distributed link equity effectively, and enhanced user navigation.
The Results
The impact of these changes was significant:
Substantial Page Increase: We expanded the website from a handful of pages to over 60, a five-fold increase within a few months.
Organic Traffic Growth: Within six months, we saw a 30% increase in organic traffic.
Improved Keyword Rankings: 90% of the new pages achieved top 5 rankings in Google within six months. Some key examples include:
“Range Rover hire Heathrow” ranking #2.
“Defender hire East London” ranking #1.
“Range Rover hire Manchester” ranking #2.
Increased Traffic to Location Pages: We saw a significant uplift in traffic to our new location pages as their rankings improved. These pages were also used for paid media campaigns and led to conversion increases when traffic was sent to these pages.
Marketing Team Empowerment: The CMS has allowed our marketing team to create and publish content five times faster, freeing up valuable time for our development team to focus on other strategic projects.
Conclusion
By leading the strategic overhaul of our website’s IA and collaborating with our product and tech teams on the CMS implementation, we successfully laid the foundations for national expansion at THE OUT. The resulting 30% increase in organic traffic, improved keyword rankings, and empowered marketing team demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach.
Some of the amazing brands I’ve helped grow
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