Estate Escapes

The audience

Our target audience was UK holidaymakers searching for luxury countryside hotel stays, self-catering accommodation and experiences in the Peak District and Yorkshire Dales.

The core strategic challenge was ensuring four new domains could each build independent search authority, giving a clear and distinct presence in search, serving specific audience needs without overlapping or competing with one another.

The strategy

Everything started with research. We conducted in-depth keyword analysis with thorough intent mapping across each accommodation type and location. The goal was to understand exactly how our audience was searching, and to use that to divide demand cleanly across the four sites.

This gave us a clear picture of which terms belonged to which domain, and how each site could serve a distinct segment of audience intent, creating distinct search propositions.

How we did it

The original domain contained fewer than one hundred pages. Splitting that into four meant each new site would launch with significantly less of the existing content and authority. The margin for error was small, so precision in planning and delivery was critical.

Rather than treating this as a standard migration, we approached it as four concurrent site launches, each with its own strategic roadmap and two non-negotiable priorities: maximise growth potential and protect existing visibility during the transition.

Central to this was a keyword governance framework that assigned distinct keyword territories to each domain. Every site had a clear and defensible search identity from day one, with no cannibalisation between them. We also identified content gaps across the new sites and provided targeted recommendations to fill them, prioritising the page’s most likely to drive non-brand traffic early.

We also took the deliberate decision to retain references to the legacy Devonshire Hotels brand name across the new sites during the transition, protecting branded traffic while audiences became used to the new branding and found their way to the new domains.

Throughout the project, we worked closely with the Estate Escapes team to ensure all content met the new brand guidelines without sacrificing SEO performance.

The challenge

A key aspect of this project was aligning strong brand expression with sound SEO foundations. The new Estate Escapes brand came with a distinct visual and editorial direction, which needed to be integrated seamlessly with technical SEO requirements, particularly around metadata, content optimisation, and the treatment of legacy brand references.

Rather than treating brand, design, content, and SEO as competing priorities, we ensured we were all working to the same agenda. We established a clear communication process across the brand and design team, the development team and SEO teams, ensuring every crucial decision was reviewed through an SEO lens before implementation. Trade-offs were understood by everyone involved and reflected in the build accordingly.

The result was four sites that genuinely reflect the Estate Escapes brand, built with an SEO-first mindset.

The results

Against a target of 10% non-brand traffic growth, we delivered 53%, five times our objective, less than a year after the final migration completed.

What this shows

This project demonstrates how a well-structured SEO strategy can support and accelerate ambitious brand transformations.

By building a clear framework for how each site would perform in search, we enabled a multi-domain approach to become a platform for sustained organic growth—without compromising on brand vision.

With the right strategy in place, complexity becomes opportunity.