Protrade

The client 

Protrade Ltd is a long-established UK supplier of professional-grade tools, fixings and workwear, serving trade professionals across construction, manufacturing and engineering. Since it was founded in 1973, the business has expanded to five depots across the East Midlands and is now a key part of the DIPT Group, alongside Metal Fabrication Supplies. With a team of over 60 staff, Protrade has built a reputation for quality and reliability in the construction supply sector, offering over 10,000 products and championing their vision for a brighter future for the industry, providing customers with maximum safety whilst minimising costs.

The challenge 

Protrade first approached us in 2018, and we helped contribute to immense success in our first 3 years, helping to quadruple revenue! However, from 2021 (post-pandemic) we started to see a steady decline in organic traffic. Despite their strong offline reputation and longstanding presence in the trade supply sector, their online visibility was slipping. Competitors were rapidly expanding and diversifying their digital strategies, investing in a broader range of marketing channels, which allowed them to gain ground and overtake Protrade’s share of voice in the market. In the last year we started to see an over-reliance on Performance Max (PMax) campaigns within their paid media strategy which, whilst this had initially driven some success, limited opportunities for sustainable, long-term growth by focusing spend narrowly and offering limited control over targeting and messaging.

At the same time, Protrade’s brand awareness remained relatively low, which was impacting both direct and organic traffic. Fewer users were searching for Protrade by name, making it harder to build a strong presence in branded search and convert repeat visitors. Adding to the challenge, overall search volumes in the industry had seen a slight year-on-year decline, meaning that every visit to the site needed to work harder to convert. Protrade needed a more robust and strategic SEO foundation to reverse these trends, increase visibility, and strengthen their position in a competitive space.

What we did 

Category Page Optimisation

We initially addressed Protrade’s category structure, which had become bloated and ineffective. Our initial audit revealed over 1,000 category pages, most of which lacked meaningful content, had weak or missing metadata and suffered from poor internal linking. This made it harder for users and search engines to navigate the site effectively. To resolve this, we streamlined the category architecture by reducing the number of pages to around 500, with further consolidation opportunities identified. Working with Protrade’s internal team, we added optimised category page copy to enhance topical relevance and improve keyword targeting. Additionally, we strengthened internal linking between related categories, creating clearer pathways for both users and search engines to explore the site. These changes laid the groundwork for improved visibility, relevance and user experience.

Content Strategy & Implementation

We kicked off a comprehensive content audit to assess Protrade’s existing assets and identify key areas for improvement. From this, we developed a strategic content roadmap that outlined clear priorities aligned with business goals and SEO opportunities. We focused on implementing these recommendations, beginning with optimisation of high-impact areas such as product pages, where we enriched content and applied structured metadata to enhance relevance and visibility. We revamped pages and improved the nav, to better reflect search intent and improve engagement, whilst ensuring we communicated brand credibility and trust.

Google My Business (GMB) & Local SEO

To strengthen Protrade’s presence in local search, we carried out a full review and optimisation of their Google My Business (GMB) profiles across all five depot locations so we could ensure accuracy, completeness and alignment with best practices. This included consistency across all online directories, which is crucial for building trust with both users and search engines. We enhanced all listings with optimised descriptions, relevant categories and high-quality images to improve visibility in local search results and drive more footfall to physical locations.

The results 

The results we’ve generated for Protrade organically have equated to impressive commercial growth and we’re thrilled to reverse the organic decline Protrade had previously experienced. 

Organic revenue growth up 31% year on year

Organic is now one of Protrade’s highest revenue drivers, showing sustained growth year on year, due to improved keyword targeting and higher conversion rates on site. Month on month we’re seeing a steady upward trend and organic traffic accounting for 46% of total site revenue, reinforcing its value as a core acquisition channel.

Branded clicks up 139% year on year

We’ve seen a huge jump in branded search demand, meaning more users are searching directly for Protrade. This increased brand awareness has been influenced by Digital PR wins and earned media coverage from reputable industry sources and a stronger presence in SERPs, with Protrade appearing more frequently for brand-related queries.

Organic Search now drives 53% of total traffic & 46% of revenue

Organic is now the dominant traffic source, showing that SEO is the largest contributor to overall site traffic. We’re seeing higher engagement and conversions from organic traffic suggest improved user experience and targeting. Plus the increase in organic revenue share means Protrade is relying less on paid media for conversions.

Do you have a similar project in mind?

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Just tell us what you want to achieve, and we’ll let you know what experience we have in your sector, and how we can help you. Alternatively, you can check out more of our work here. Our methodology has been successful in almost all sectors, delivering double and triple-digit improvements on average. Get in touch today.