Sandstone Technology

Sandstone provides forward-thinking banking solutions for financial institutions to increase customer retention and customer experience, whilst helping to solve the increasing internal and external pressures faced by today's BFSI sector.

Challenge

We first connected with Sandstone in early 2023. At the time, their website was not optimised for SEO. They had a .com domain redirecting to a .com.au which was not ideal, they were not ranking for any keywords in the UK (which is one of their primary regions globally) and their website was not optimised for international SEO. In addition, their website UX/UI design was dated and not optimised for conversions. Additionally, while they had a strong foundation with their website built on HubSpot's Content Management System (CMS), there was an opportunity to elevate their content strategy to better support SEO, drive organic search traffic, and generate inbound leads. A strategic website overhaul was needed to align with their global growth ambitions.

We were introduced to Nathan and Samuel through HubSpot, and they quickly proved to be the right partner for our website refresh project. Not only did they understand our vision for a fresh, engaging user experience, but we were also looking for a long-term partner to collaborate with on ongoing website optimisation.

Emily Bailey, Senior Marketing Manager

Solution

Phase 1 involved completing a comprehensive website and SEO audit to identify broken 404 pages, 301 redirects, missing title tags/meta descriptions/H1s, page speed and how Sandstone's website was performing in terms of keyword rankings, organic search traffic, backlinks and Domain Rating (DR). This then informed the overall SEO/content strategy, site map and recommended international SEO for the new website. Our Discovery Workshop with the Sandstone team also locked-in the objectives and key results that needed to be delivered with the new website. 

Phase 2 focused on the website design and copywriting for all website and landing pages, including responsive mock-ups for desktop, tablet and mobile. Sandstone were keen for a really fresh UX/UI design which incorporated animation and the use of custom graphics. And they wanted their copywriting to be less corporate/jargony and more engaging.

Phase 3 focused on the website development on HubSpot's CMS. Phase 4 included content population (text, images and videos), optimising each website page for SEO, connecting Google Analytics/Search Console and setting up conversions.

Their deep domain expertise, strategic insights, creativity, and professionalism have made a real impact. If you're looking for experts who operate with transparency and consistently deliver value, Nathan and Samuel are the team to trust!

Emily Bailey, Senior Marketing Manager

Results

The new website has exceeded expectations not just regarding design but also its impact on direct/organic search traffic, conversion rate optimisation and its Domain Rating (DR). The website has resulted in a 67% increase in direct/organic search traffic, a 586% in their website conversion rate and a 10.7% increase in their Domain Rating (DR). Domain Rating (DR) is a proprietary SEO metric by Ahrefs. It represents the strength of the website’s backlink profile on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100, with the latter being the strongest. Domain Rating is widely used in the SEO community to evaluate link-building opportunities and estimate the website’s authority gained via backlinks.