The Client
BeyondHR is a Human Resources consultancy firm that provides a range of services across Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England. They assist organisations in recruiting, managing, and safeguarding their staff.
BeyondHR offers services to both SMEs and larger corporate clients. The consultancy team is composed of experienced HR consultants who are experts in the outsourced HR industry and Health & Safety Consultants, who have supported thousands of SMEs across the UK and Ireland, boasting more than 200 years of combined experience.
BeyondHR’s mission is to be the leading provider of outsourced HR support services and health & safety advice for SMEs in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England. They are committed to bringing clarity and perspective to people management, recruitment, and health & safety issues – going beyond what is expected of your usual HR consultancy firm.
The Challenge
As part of the business strategy, BeyondHR needed to develop a separate sub-brand for its health and safety services – BeyondSafety. This would help the business expand into the health and safety sector and establish a credible presence within it.
BeyondSafety assists businesses in ensuring that they are in compliance with relevant health and safety legislation. They encourage businesses to reach out to their consultants for guidance and support in this area, aiming to become the leading provider within NI, England and Scotland.
The challenge now was to create two separate brands that could promote both aspects of their business. However, we needed to ensure that the Beyond brand identity was reinforced and that the SEO efforts of the previous domain were maintained. This required a strategic approach to website design and SEO.
The Solution
The solution wasn’t as simple as splitting the website into two separate domains, doing so would pose several challenges including;
- Challenging the SEO of the existing domain.
- The individual cost of hosting two domains.
- Time and effort spent managing two domains
So we decided against a standalone website. Instead, we decided to build a ‘microsite’ within the existing BeyondHR website. This would ensure that everything was kept under one roof and that the SEO strategy remained strong with opportunities to pursue different sets of keywords within each site.
The Microsite Build
The microsite build still had everything that you would need from a standalone website – dedicated web pages, a different design, chatbot features, etc. We ensured that it was in keeping with the Beyond brand identity whilst establishing a separate persona that communicated a set of different services.
Homepage
The homepage welcomes visitors to BeyondSafety, quickly establishing the business as a health and safety consultant. In order to extinguish between the two brands, we used separate colour themes; incorporating a green theme which is perfect for health and safety-related services.
Health and Safety Services
For simple and user-friendly navigation, we also built a separate services page. This type of website design ensures that visitors can quickly find the information they need, in addition to providing opportunities to capitalise on keywords from dedicated URLs.
Videos
As part of the client’s SEO strategy, we also sought to leverage Google’s video feature in search results. This dedicated video page would allow the client to rank for specific keywords through informational videos, providing an opportunity to push the BeyondSafety microsite up search engine results.
Resources
We also wanted the BeyondSafety microsite to become a hub of information that would attract visitors for health and safety advice and guidance. This would contribute towards the domain authority for both BeyondHR and BeyondSafety and help establish the BeyondSafety brand as a credible expert within the field.
Dedicated Client Portal
We also created a client portal for Beyond HR’s clients to securely access and upload HR information. This would help protect their client’s data and ensure that they could securely receive sensitive documents.
The Results
The results of this microsite approach yielded the best results for SEO and website management. The client now had a streamlined solution where all of the business activities were centralised through one main website, with a dedicated microsite that promoted the sub-brand and attracted a different target audience.
- We didn’t disrupt the current SEO efforts.
- The main website now ranks for 280+ keywords.
- They are ranking for video search engine results.
We successfully created two separate brands that were both underpinned by the Beyond brand identity. The client was satisfied with the microsite; it met all of their needs and consolidated their brand and sub-brand in one place.
An innovative approach for SEO domain
At ProfileTree, we specialise in both website design and SEO, this gives us the best tools in order to create sleek and functional websites that are underpinned by a strategic approach.
That’s what sets us apart from the competition, it could have been more convenient for BeyondHR to request an entirely new website for their sub-brand, but we were able to provide strategic industry insights, ensuring that we could find an SEO domain solution that worked for their needs and objectives.
Why Is a Domain Important for SEO?
The domain name of a website is an important factor in SEO, here’s a breakdown of how domain names can impact SEO:
Brandable Domain Names
Search engines, especially Google, have been placing more emphasis on brand signals. A unique, memorable, and brandable domain name can help build brand recognition, which can indirectly benefit SEO through increased user engagement, trust, and link-building opportunities.
Domain Age
Older domains are often viewed as more trustworthy by search engines, although the impact of domain age on SEO is relatively small compared to other factors. It’s more about how well a site has been maintained and improved over time.
Clean History
A domain with a clean, penalty-free history is generally seen as more trustworthy by search engines. A domain that has been penalised in the past may have a harder time ranking, even under new ownership.
SSL Certificate (HTTPS)
Google has confirmed that HTTPS (SSL-secured sites) is a ranking signal. Users are more likely to trust a secure site with their personal information, and browsers like Chrome now label non-HTTPS sites as ‘Not Secure’.
While the domain name is an important aspect of SEO, it is just one piece of the puzzle. High-quality content, a well-structured website, fast loading times, mobile-friendliness, high-quality backlinks, and a great user experience are among the many other critical factors for SEO success – which is exactly what we did for the BeyondSafety microsite build.
Check Out More Case Studies
If you enjoyed this case study, check out more of our previous projects: Community Charity Marketing Project | Website Design for Membership Platform | Website Build for LGBT Ireland | Tourism Marketing for Crumlin Road Gaol.
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