How our partnership with GOSH Charity drove a +84% uplift in organic revenue in a tough market

Discover how our SEO strategy drove significant revenue uplifts for GOSH Charity

TL;DR: By shifting the focus from "general traffic" to "high-intent action," we helped the site achieve an +84% increase in year-on-year revenue and a +45% increase in event sign-ups.

The last few years have been genuinely difficult for the charity sector. Between the cost-of-living crisis impacting people’s ability to donate and the increase in AI search presence leading to lower site visits, there are challenges to confront.

When we started working with the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (GOSH Charity) team in October, we knew the landscape was tricky. Industry reports showed donor numbers dropping and organic traffic becoming harder to fight for.

The Charities Aid Foundation UK Giving Report identifies that the lowest number of people donated to a charity in 2024, a trend that continues to decline. All donors have decreased by -8% since 2019, with people who donate regularly nearly halving  in this time and 44% of these citing “can’t afford it” as their reason for not donating. 

As I said, it’s a tough time for people and for charities so having a robust strategy for success has been crucial to combat the wider economic environment. 

But GOSH Charity has an incredible brand and a dedicated team who have played a wonderful part in collaborating, sharing and driving our shared initiatives forwards to achieve the great results we’ve seen so far. Our job wasn't to reinvent the wheel; it was to partner with the team to find the specific areas where SEO could work harder.

A core element of this collaboration was prioritising the key workstreams required to add value both for site traffic, event sign-ups and of course overall revenue. Whilst there is a lot going on in search regarding LLMs and AI search, core SEO principles are still the crux of success so we began with the basics.

Our SEO strategy

We worked closely with the GOSH Charity team to identify where SEO could have the biggest commercial and charitable impact. The strategy focused on strengthening existing demand rather than trying to manufacture new interest.

Four core workstreams shaped the plan.

1. Christmas Donation Pages

We began our relationship in October'24, just ahead of the charity’s most important trading period. Rather than spend weeks on strategy decks, we moved straight into execution.

We reviewed and refreshed Christmas donation and fundraising pages to better align with seasonal intent. This included tightening messaging, improving structure, and targeting high intent festive queries where people were actively looking to give.

Impact
+45% year on year revenue growth from Christmas pages
+109% increase in ranking keywords
+95% increase in impressions

This early performance showed that even in a difficult economy, people are still willing to donate. The issue was discoverability and relevance, not demand.

2. Always On Donation Pages

Outside of seasonal peaks, GOSH Charity’s core donation pages drive consistent revenue throughout the year. These pages already had authority, but were underperforming due to content gaps, cannibalisation, and technical friction.

We expanded content to capture broader high value queries, improved internal mapping, and resolved technical issues that were holding performance back. A specific focus was placed on Legacy Giving, where intent is high but confidence and clarity are critical.

Impact
84% increase in total revenue from October 2024 to July 2025 year on year
120% increase in average monthly donation revenue
Legacy Giving pages saw 284% more clicks and 147% more conversions

3. Event Pages

GOSH Charity runs several high profile fundraising campaigns at major events, including the London Marathon and Royal Parks Half Marathon. Many of these pages existed primarily as sign up gateways and lacked the information users actually need to commit.

We rebuilt these pages as genuinely useful resources. This included route information, start times, training guidance, FAQs, and clearer next steps. In total, 21 event pages were optimised ahead of peak demand periods.

Impact
London to Brighton Cycle saw a 619% increase in conversions
Great North Run conversions increased by 263%
Royal Parks Half Marathon clicks increased by 215%
Overall event sign-ups grew by 45% year on year

4. Managing Peter Pan Traffic Loss

For years, GOSH Charity benefited from significant organic visibility around Peter Pan due to JM Barrie’s legacy gift. When this content moved to a dedicated Neverland site, traffic for related queries dropped by around 85%.

Rather than treat this as an unexplained loss, we quantified the impact and communicated it clearly to stakeholders. This helped separate structural change from performance issues and allowed us to refocus effort on priority pages that directly support core KPIs.