Strategy
This client was undertaking a full website rebuild alongside a design and build studio. The studio led creative and build. We led SEO, GEO and AI-readiness through the design, build and migration. The risk in any rebuild is well known: organic search, usually the most valuable channel, is the easiest thing to lose in a migration. Most rebuilds count themselves lucky to break even. The brief was to protect search equity through the migration, then accelerate it, and to build the site for AI retrieval at the same time.
Rather than treat SEO, GEO and AI visibility as cleanup bolted on after launch, we ran the Whippet Growth Framework through the rebuild as one connected system. Technical SEO and foundations were designed in from the start so content stayed retrievable through the migration, with URL mapping, redirect discipline and crawlability handled before go-live rather than after. On top of that, structured data, a clear information architecture and authoritative content gave AI platforms something to surface and cite. The pillars are layered, not listed: foundations make content retrievable, content gives visibility something to surface, and trust signals make that visibility credible.
The technical work held and then improved. A benchmark crawl after the rebuild put site health at 77 (Good); a follow-up crawl measured it at 99 (Excellent), a 22-point gain that confirmed the rebuild was clean under the hood, not just on the surface. Organic search sessions grew close to 20% while total site traffic grew far more slowly, so organic was not just growing in volume but taking a larger share of overall traffic. Priority commercial terms moved into the top two positions, several to first, and site conversions rose 32%. In an era where organic traffic is declining industry-wide due to zero-click, AI-driven search behaviour, lifting performance through a migration is a genuinely positive result.
The GEO groundwork built into the rebuild then did something a migration is not supposed to do: it opened a new acquisition channel. AI platforms drove 5,497 sessions in the first year and 246 conversions, proving AI-referred traffic is converting rather than just visiting. The site is now cited across 10 distinct Google AI Overviews, and AI-driven discovery sits alongside traditional organic search rather than cannibalising it. The site held its existing search equity through migration and opened an AI-driven channel at the same time. The next phase extends structured data and authoritative content coverage as AI search matures.