Building topical authority for a corporate-law boutique in 9 months
A London boutique law firm was invisible on Google for the corporate finance and acquisitions work they wanted to win. We architected three topical clusters, published 38 long-form articles, and made them the canonical answer in two of three target niches.
- Client
- UK boutique corporate-law firm (name withheld)
- Size
- 12 partners, £6M annual revenue
- Service
- SEO & Organic Growth
- Duration
- 9 months engagement, ongoing retainer
The challenge
Where they were.
The firm had a partner-written blog with 80 posts, none of which ranked beyond page three. They were spending £14k a month on Google Ads to capture demand they should have been earning organically. Worst of all: when prospects Googled their name plus a competitor, the competitor's content appeared first.
The approach
How we worked.
Authority audit
Mapped 600+ competitor articles across their three target practice areas. Identified 14 'canonical questions' the partners answered in client meetings every week but had never published.
Cluster architecture
Designed three topical clusters: 'UK M&A for mid-market', 'Founders & exits', 'Investment fund formation'. Each cluster had one pillar page and 8-12 supporting articles in defined publishing order.
Technical foundation
Migrated their site to Next.js with proper schema markup, sitemap, internal linking, and sub-second TTFB. Killed 40 thin posts. Consolidated remaining 40 into the new architecture.
Publishing cadence
Two articles per week. Partners drafted technical content in plain text; we handled SEO architecture, internal linking, and supporting commentary. Quarterly reviews to rework underperforming pieces.
The outcomes
What changed.
- 8.2x
- Organic traffic in 9 months
- #1
- Rank for 14 commercial-intent keywords
- 5
- New corporate clients from organic alone
- £11k
- Monthly Google Ads spend cut
“We have always been good lawyers. Now Google knows it. The work Drift and Forge did has paid back six times over and continues to compound every month.”
Built with