Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 12.07.2022 
Helping an insurance company become a top source of expat news and views
International health, life and income protection insurer William Russell needed to raise its profile among its target audience of expats. Working with Sticky, they were looking to increase organic traffic, search impressions and click-throughs, as well as enhance brand visibility.
We immediately saw the potential to position William Russell, a well-established, family-run company with a reputation for customer service, as a leading publisher on all things expat-related. To do this, our strategy was to turn the William Russell blog – then used to publish content relating only to the company and its products – into a go-to source for content covering all aspects of expat life.
Our SEO-led strategy aimed to build a content pipeline that would allow William Russell to influence expats and would-be expats looking for trusted news, views and information on all aspects of moving and living overseas.
Uncovering key expat concerns
The initial focus was on British expats, aged 40+ and living in locations such as Spain, Hong Kong and Singapore. Our research revealed that key expatriate concerns include healthcare, education, finances and safety. Armed with this knowledge we carried out detailed keyword research to identify opportunities for content production. This included destination guides and advice on global healthcare, as well as topical pieces on subjects such as Brexit and COVID-19, and ‘how-to’ guides on education, finding a job, buying property and organising finances overseas.
Using our expertise and tapping into data and insights from highly reputable sources, we then produced a wealth of high-quality, relevant expat content, complete with images, as well as posts for William Russell’s LinkedIn channel.
The results
Despite being run on a limited budget, this content-led campaign has had stunning results. Here are a select few (April 2021 vs April 2022):
- We grew impressions through search from 1.37m (April 2021) to 19.7m (April 2022) (Source: Google Analytics) – a 14x increase.
- Six-monthly click-throughs through organic search increased from 22k (up to April 2021) to 699k (up to April 2022) – a 31x increase
- Organic traffic increased from 5,345 to 131,438 monthly visits (April 2021-April 2022) – a 5x increase in organic traffic (source: SEMrush)
- William Russell ranks for 57 new keywords in positions 1-3 and 149 total new keywords on the first page (Source: Ahrefs)
- Ranking for 4k new keywords overall (Source: Ahrefs)
- Tripled the number of backlinks, from 1k to 15.7k – 10.6k new backlinks in total (Source: Ahrefs)
- Domain Authority climbed 11 points, from 37 to 48 (April 2022; Source: Ahrefs)
The campaign has also elevated William Russell’s website from a tier 5 to tier 3 website in one year – the company’s own measurement of brand visibility through search.
“We’re overwhelmed by the results of the campaign,” said William Cooper, Marketing Director at William Russell. “As well as their SEO and copywriting expertise, Sticky have a great understanding of our business and our audience and that has made all the difference, helping us produce truly valuable blog content that is boosting both search visibility and brand cut-through.”
H2: The power of content
Our campaign proves the effectiveness of a content-first approach to SEO. Never compromising on quality or strategy for the sake of winning quick, dirty backlinks means the website is not only high-ranking, it’s also a genuinely valuable, highly readable resource for expats. This is a future-proofed, audience-first strategy with the kind of results few companies could hope for.
