Step-By-Step Guide: Thames Freeport SEO Case Study
Thames Freeport SEO Case Study Results Snapshot
*Traffic from Google Increased by 45%
*Traffic from Bing Increased by 145%
80+ Top 5 Google Rankings
*Tracked metrics for July 2024 compared to February 2025.
Increasing organic clicks and search visibility for one of the UK’s most important trade and logistics hubs
Thames Freeport is a major economic zone connecting Ford Dagenham, the Port of Tilbury and DP World London Gateway. With a nationally significant role in trade, logistics, manufacturing, clean energy and investment, the organisation needed its website to perform as a credible source of information for stakeholders, businesses, policymakers and search users researching UK freeports.
Maznet worked with Thames Freeport to improve organic visibility, increase qualified traffic and build a stronger search presence around high-value topics, including freeports, port infrastructure, sustainable construction, retrofitting, smart cities and key Thames Freeport partner locations.
The Challenge
Thames Freeport operated in a complex, high-value sector where search demand was split across several types of intent.
Some users were searching directly for the organisation, using branded keywords such as “Thames Freeport”. Others were searching for broader informational topics such as “what is a freeport”, “retrofitting buildings”, “sustainable construction” and “benefits of smart cities”. There was also strong opportunity around strategic location searches, including “Ford Dagenham”, “London Gateway Port”, “DP World London Gateway” and “Tilbury Port”.
The challenge was to make sure the website could capture this demand with clear, optimised content that explained Thames Freeport’s role while also ranking for wider industry topics relevant to investors, partners and stakeholders.
What We Did
Maznet supported Thames Freeport with a structured SEO programme designed to improve visibility, rankings and organic traffic quality.
This included:
- Keyword research to identify high-opportunity topics across freeports, ports, logistics, sustainability, construction and smart-city search demand;
- On-page optimisation to improve how core pages targeted relevant search terms;
- Content recommendations for informational articles capable of attracting non-branded organic traffic;
- Search performance monitoring across Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Ahrefs and other SEO platforms;
- Tracking of organic clicks, engaged sessions, keyword rankings, Domain Rating, referring domains and indexed pages.
The strategy was designed to build both branded authority and broader topical visibility, helping Thames Freeport appear for searches related to its locations, stakeholders and wider economic themes.
Keyword Ranking Wins
The strategy was designed to build both branded authority and broader topical visibility, helping Thames Freeport appear for searches related to its locations, stakeholders and wider economic themes.
1st position – london freeport
1st position – tilbury port
1st position – tilbury freeport
1st position – benefits of smart cities
3rd position – freeport
3rd position – dp london gateway
3rd position – thames gateway port
3rd position – smart city advantages
3rd position – dp world london gateway port
4th position – london gateway
4th position – london gateway terminal
4th position – dp world london gateway
4th position – ???
5th position – ford dagenham
5th position – london gateway port
5th position – port of tilbury
Key Results & Performance Growth
From the first full month of tracking in July 2024 to February 2025, Thames Freeport saw measurable growth across clicks, engagement and organic visibility.
Organic Click Growth
571 to 829 monthly clicks, up 45%
Peak Google Organic Clicks
1,050 clicks in October 2024
Google Organic Clicks Generated
5,708 clicks from July 2024 to February 2025
Bing Organic Clicks
22 to 54 monthly clicks, up 145%
Indexed Pages in Google
15 to 41, up 173%
Google Average Position
21.6 to 15.1
The Impact
The SEO work helped Thames Freeport improve its presence across several important search areas.
The website generated more organic clicks, increased engaged organic sessions and improved its average search position. At the same time, the site built visibility for high-relevance topics connected to the organisation’s wider mission, including freeports, port infrastructure, sustainable development, retrofitting and smart cities.
By expanding beyond purely branded search terms, Thames Freeport was able to reach users earlier in their research journey and strengthen its position as an authoritative source in the UK freeport, logistics and investment landscape.
Thames Freeport SEO Summary
Maznet helped Thames Freeport turn a specialist, stakeholder-focused website into a stronger organic search asset.
Through keyword research, content strategy, on-page optimisation and performance tracking, the site improved its ability to capture meaningful search traffic from both branded and non-branded queries.
The result was a stronger organic footprint, more clicks, more engaged sessions and increased visibility for the search terms that matter most to Thames Freeport’s audience.