Results so far
We measure growth year on year, not single-month snapshots. Over the rolling six months (December 2025 to May 2026 against the year before), the work is compounding, and this is in a market where search demand has been easing.
The story: leadership, a blocker, recovery
We took Top-10 visibility from 43% at launch to a market-leading 56% in February, ahead of Unite, Vita, IQ and Amber. A Core Web Vitals issue on the city pages, waiting in the developers' queue, then combined with several Google updates to hold the city pages back. The fix went live on 19 May and the pages are recovering, with 38.6% more keywords in Google's Top 10 that month.
Search demand for student accommodation has fallen year on year for several years, with the usual peak around clearing in August and the September move-in. The growth above is share we have won while demand has softened, not a rising market.
What we did, month by month
Each entry is a single task we completed, with the month. Google's algorithm updates are marked in violet for context. Tap any item for detail.
Set the phased plan across research, content, technical, and local and AI search.
Mapped the site's technical health and priorities, including that it had no structured data (schema) in place.
Including early internal-linking improvements.
Set the target keywords per page and removed cannibalising headings that had pages competing with each other.
Reviewed the location pages and produced the first city content briefs.
First rounds of location-page content, taken into review with the client.
Started the trust-and-authority work and an initial schema audit, plus metadata checks.
A broad core update, rolled out 11 to 29 December 2025.
Built a demo location page, made the first tone updates and uploads, and took the Glasgow page live.
Progressed the local listings alongside the location-page work.
Tested the content tone across several city pages before rolling it out more widely.
Rolled the approved tone into further city pages.
A deep dive into how the short-stay pages were competing with the main city pages.
Talked the client through the trust-and-authority improvements and strengthened internal links.
A core-style update scoped to Google Discover, released 5 February 2026.
Found the 22 city pages scoring a CLS of 0.71 against Google's 0.25 "Poor" threshold, and sent the developer fix guide to Propeller on 16 March.
Continued the city rollout and added Content Impact and Action Plan pages to the report.
Ready for the developers to implement.
A spam update on 24 March and a broad core update on 27 March added market-wide volatility during the blocker period.
Extended content with localised sections and FAQs for each city, which cut Google's page-switching by 43%.
Now 23 pages, including the postgraduate page, back to the developers to implement.
Propeller implemented the fix on 19 May; we confirmed the mobile location pages had cleared "Poor" in Search Console by 26 May, and pushed Google to re-index them.
Handed the outstanding page-speed and Core Web Vitals items to Propeller to implement.
To get ahead of clearing, a key conversion-driving period each August and September.
Testing links between location pages to strengthen the relationship between hubs and properties.
A broad core update, rolled out 21 May to 2 June 2026, weighting topical authority and E-E-A-T more heavily.
Built the handover dashboard and "SEO & AI Search Story" for the transition. It was very well received and is now a template we use for other large clients.
A developer spec to add the city hubs to the main navigation and footer. Sent on 26 June and approved by Empiric on 30 June.
A global spam update, logged on Google's Search Status Dashboard on 24 June 2026.
Jordan confirmed the page-speed improvements were done on 7 July; we are checking the desktop result in Search Console.
June came in at 12.5k clicks and 587k impressions, with the full keyword, ranking and AI-visibility breakdown. Sent on 8 July.
A template change had removed the title tags from every property page. We flagged it on 10 July and confirmed them restored on 13 July.
Introductions, communications and processes, current projects and the roadmap.
What we're waiting on
Work we have delivered or recommended that now needs someone else to action.
With the developers (Propeller)
- Build the internal-linking changeThe internal-linking spec
- Build the schema mark-upThe schema recommendations
- Confirm the desktop page-speed result
With the client (a decision or input)
- A branded email alias
- The directory-listings approach
- The central Google Business Profile decision
What comes next
The foundations are strong and the technical fix is live. From here we compound the momentum. Some of this sits in the current programme; the rest we would build out as the partnership grows.