SEO delivering 40x return on investment in bookings for Draughts London
Draughts London
Search Engine Optimisation
The Brief
Draughts London had two thriving venues, a loyal local following and a strong word-of-mouth reputation - but organic search wasn't working hard enough. People searching for board game bars in London, unique date nights, group activities or things to do in Waterloo weren't reliably finding Draughts. The goal was to build sustainable, compounding organic visibility that would bring in new customers and fill bookings without ongoing ad spend - and to make every pound invested in SEO pay for itself many times over.
Technical Foundation - Making the Site Easy to Find and Index
Before content, the technical groundwork was laid. Page speed, crawlability, structured data for venue and event listings, and local SEO signals across both the Waterloo and Stratford locations were all addressed. Google Business Profiles were fully optimised. The result was a site that search engines could easily understand, index and rank - and one that local searchers could trust.
Content Strategy - Owning the Questions People Are Asking
The content programme was built around how Draughts' target audience searches: 'board game bars London', 'things to do in Waterloo', 'unique date night London', 'team social ideas London', 'pub quiz near me'. Each article, guide and events page was mapped to a specific search intent and audience segment. Over time, this created a compounding library of content that earns organic traffic long after it is published - unlike paid ads, which stop the moment the budget runs out.
Events SEO - Turning the Calendar Into a Search Asset
The What's On page and individual event listings were structured as proper SEO pages, not just promotional flyers. Each event got a dedicated page with relevant keywords, structured data markup and clear booking paths. People searching for specific themed events - quiz nights, board game meetups, unique London experiences - land directly on a bookable page, reducing friction and increasing conversion.
For every £1 Draughts London invested in SEO, £40 came back in booking revenue. And that figure doesn't account for what customers spend once they arrive - on food, drinks, and repeat visits. Organic search now brings in a steady stream of new customers who had never heard of Draughts before searching for something to do, consistently outperforming paid channels on a cost-per-booking basis.
£1 in. £40 back in bookings.
A 40x return on SEO investment - and that's before accounting for what every new customer spends on food, drinks and return visits once they're through the door.
40x Return on SEO Investment
Every £1 spent on SEO returned £40 in direct booking revenue.
Compounding Content Library
Articles and guides that keep earning organic traffic long after they are published.
Events Built for Search
Individual event pages structured to rank and convert - not just promote.
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Fancy A Chat?
We will have a chat through your business, opportunities that are relevant and how we might be able to help.
No sales pitches, pressure or nonsense — just a 15 minute overview of where you are.