Calor Gas SEO at scale
The project
Calor Gas approached us with a challenge: their BBQ e-commerce website was seeing around 3 million reported visits annually – but virtually no sales. A quick review revealed that 99% of the traffic was artificial, generated by a diagnostic tool hitting the site every 10 seconds.
Once real traffic was isolated, we discovered the site was attracting only a few thousand genuine visitors per year. Built offshore, the website had serious SEO issues – essentially making it invisible to search engines. We recommended a full site rebuild with SEO baked in from the ground up, and an SEO at scale strategy.
SEO at scale approach
We focused on capturing early interest from potential BBQ customers by creating high-quality, search-optimised content around BBQ-related topics. This included:
- A strategic “theme pyramid” structure for content, building clusters around high-volume terms like BBQ recipes, with supporting pages for categories like chicken or beer can BBQ recipes.
- Technical SEO enhancements, on-page optimisation, and a new analytics setup to measure performance.
- Expanded content strategy covering BBQ equipment, tips, and seasonal themes.
The site became a rich hub for BBQ enthusiasts, attracting traffic from every stage of the buyer journey.
The results
Within 3 months, the site ranked #1 for “BBQ recipes” and multiple long-tail variations. Within 12 months, it became the most visited BBQ website in the UK and #3 worldwide. Real, relevant traffic soared to 3 million visitors annually.
Further outcomes included:
- Top rankings for all core keywords across departments
- Massive PR exposure, including features in national weekend magazines
- Sponsorships from leading brands (BBQ sauce, lager, and more)
- Stock sold out of LPG heaters after website launch
- SEO success replicated across 16 other Calor departments
- Recognised as a digital centre of excellence by parent company BDR Thermea
The project not only turned around sales and performance but also repositioned Calor’s digital presence as a global SEO success story.
