Argos: From crisis to comeback - Organic

The challenge: a digital perfect storm

The final months of 2023 sent shockwaves through the e-commerce world.

Following a series of major search engine algorithm updates, the largest sites in the UK experienced a staggering 45% decline in organic visibility, representing the largest drops ever for these brands.

For Argos, with its massive online footprint, it had the most to lose, and the impact was devastating.

To fix this, our objectives were clear:

Reverse the decline: Claw back the 45% visibility loss and stabilise performance.
Outperform the market: Ensure Argos recovers faster and stronger than its key competitors.
Build for the future: Embed a sustainable, best-practice organic strategy within their teams to prevent a repeat scenario.

Our approach: from diagnosis to decisive action

We needed a swift response and couldn’t rely on older, siloed ways of working.

We immediately set-up collaborative “war rooms,” pulling together key stakeholders from Argos’s marketing, e-commerce, development, and content teams.

Bringing everyone together in a room allowed us to gather insights from every corner of the business while conducting our own investigation.

Our deep-dive analysis, combining technical audits with competitor and content gap analysis, revealed a three-pronged challenge:

Significant technical debt was hampering site performance.
The existing on-page optimisation and content strategy were no longer fit for purpose in the new search landscape.
A skills gap existed within internal teams regarding next-level SEO best practices.

We needed a blueprint for success – a way to prove a new methodology could deliver tangible results quickly and secure the buy-in for a site-wide overhaul.

Enter Project Gryphon

Project Gryphon was the name we gave to our focused, six-week proof-of-concept based around the following rallying cry:.

When progress stalls, we must shift our perspective and break down the barriers holding us back.

To meet our expectations, we need to accelerate optimisation, address performance drags and get more skilled resources to improve the site quicker.

We chose a single, high-value category, toys, to serve as the testing ground for our new, multi-layered strategy.

Forging a solid technical foundation: We prioritised and actioned critical technical fixes, working closely with the product and development teams to ensure Argos.co.uk was performing at its peak.
Evolving on-Page optimisation: We moved beyond simple tweaks, implementing a holistic approach that covered everything from meta and title optimisation to taxonomy updates and user experience refinements.
Transforming content strategy: We shifted the focus away from outdated practices and championed the creation of genuinely helpful, user-first content. Crucially, we designed and delivered a bespoke upskilling programme to empower Argos’s talented content writers with the SEO expertise they needed to excel.

Overcoming initial resistance to changing established processes was a hurdle, but the clarity of our data and the collaborative nature of the project quickly won over hearts and minds.

The results: a landmark recovery

The impact of Project Gryphon was clear. The toys section became the only area of the entire website to see positive growth in both impressions and clicks during the six-week period. It was the proof we needed.

Appliances -8.9% URL Clicks	Baby & Nursery -12.4% URL Clicks	Garden & DIY -14.4% URL Clicks	Health & Beauty -29.9% URL Clicks
Home & Furniture -16.5% URL Clicks	Sport & Leisure -6.7% URL Clicks	Technology -16.5% URL Clicks	Toys +2.6% URL Clicks

With this blueprint for success, started to roll out the strategy across the entire site. The results exceeded all our initial objectives:

Visibility nosedive reversed: We recovered the entire 45% drop in organic visibility, returning Argos to its pre-downturn performance levels.
Market dominance reclaimed: While competitors struggled to recover, Argos actually outperformed the market, with +61% growth in visibility,
A sustainable legacy: Our processes and training have been fully integrated into Argos’ BAU processes.

Project Gryphon isn’t a one-off fix; it is an ongoing, fundamental, and sustainable shift in Argos’ approach to organic growth, fostering greater collaboration and a renewed focus on SEO excellence across the business.