SUSO Digital has earned a Bronze award in the Search category at The Drum Awards for Marketing EMEA 2026, recognizing a search optimization campaign that combined traditional SEO, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and user experience improvements. The award-winning project helped a global online fitness coaching brand significantly increase organic visibility, AI-driven referral traffic, and lead generation in one of Google's most competitive search categories.

SUSO Digital has received Bronze in the Search category at The Drum Awards for Marketing EMEA 2026, highlighting the growing industry recognition of search strategies that extend beyond traditional SEO to include AI-powered discovery platforms.

The agency's winning campaign, "Engineering Search Visibility in a Human-Led Health Brand," focused on rebuilding the digital search presence of a global online fitness coaching company. Rather than relying solely on content production, the initiative combined website architecture optimization, entity-based SEO, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), structured data, and conversion rate optimization to improve search visibility and business outcomes.

The campaign addressed a challenging competitive landscape. Operating within Google's health and wellness ecosystem—an area subject to heightened quality standards under Google's Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) framework—the client was competing against well-funded fitness applications and digital coaching platforms. At the beginning of the project in April 2025, the website generated approximately 1,609 monthly organic sessions, ranked at an average search position of 18, and produced relatively few qualified enquiries.

Instead of expanding the site's existing content footprint, SUSO Digital adopted a structural SEO strategy centered on improving relevance and authority. The agency replaced a blog-heavy website with dedicated landing pages aligned to specific services and user intent, enabling search engines to better understand the site's topical focus while improving the customer journey for prospective clients.

A key element of the strategy involved strengthening entity relationships using structured data. By implementing schema types including Person, Service, Offer, FAQPage, and Article, the agency established clearer connections between the business founder, coaching services, and program offerings. Entity optimization has become increasingly important as search platforms and AI assistants—including Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini—rely more heavily on structured information to interpret content and generate responses.

The campaign also included a comprehensive content audit that resulted in the removal or redirection of more than 300 low-value blog posts. Rather than pursuing content volume, the strategy concentrated ranking authority on high-intent commercial pages designed to answer specific user needs and support conversions.

Recognizing the rapid evolution of AI-powered search, SUSO Digital developed dedicated pages optimized for conversational search queries. These pages were structured to improve extractability by generative AI systems, reflecting the broader industry shift toward Generative Engine Optimization, an emerging discipline that focuses on improving visibility within AI-generated answers rather than solely traditional search engine rankings.

User experience optimization remained another important component throughout the campaign. Using behavioral insights from Hotjar, the agency identified friction points affecting mobile visitors and redesigned service pages to create a more streamlined path from search result to enquiry submission. The SEO strategy was also maintained during a complete website redesign, helping preserve search performance throughout the transition.

The results demonstrated measurable improvements across both traditional search metrics and emerging AI discovery channels. Between April 2025 and February 2026, monthly organic sessions increased from 1,609 to 4,674, representing 190% growth, while monthly Google Search Console clicks rose by 317%. Search impressions expanded from 170,000 to 390,000, and the site's average Google ranking improved from 18 to 7.4.

One of the campaign's more notable outcomes was the growth in AI-generated referral traffic. Monthly visits originating from platforms including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini increased from 16 to 82 sessions, representing 413% growth. Although AI referral traffic currently represents a relatively small portion of total website traffic for many organizations, its rapid growth reflects changing search behaviors as enterprise users increasingly interact with conversational AI platforms to research products and services.

The campaign also produced tangible business outcomes, with monthly coaching enquiries increasing from approximately 15 to more than 100, illustrating the relationship between technical SEO improvements, user experience enhancements, and conversion-focused website design.

The recognition arrives as search marketing continues to evolve beyond keyword optimization. According to Gartner, organizations are increasingly adapting digital marketing strategies to accommodate AI-powered search experiences and conversational interfaces. Meanwhile, McKinsey & Company reports that generative AI is reshaping how consumers discover information and engage with digital content, prompting businesses to invest in structured content, trusted entities, and AI-ready websites.

For enterprise marketing teams, the campaign highlights a broader industry trend: effective search optimization now extends beyond rankings to encompass structured data, entity authority, AI discoverability, and user experience. As AI search platforms become a larger part of the digital discovery ecosystem, organizations that build technically robust, trustworthy, and conversion-focused digital experiences may be better positioned to maintain visibility across both traditional search engines and emerging AI interfaces.

Market Landscape

Search optimization is entering a new phase as Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) becomes increasingly relevant alongside conventional SEO. Enterprise organizations are investing in structured data, entity-based optimization, conversational content, and user experience improvements to improve visibility across Google Search as well as AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini.

As AI-generated search experiences continue to grow, marketers are shifting focus from keyword rankings alone toward creating authoritative, structured, and machine-readable content that supports both traditional search engines and generative AI systems.

Top Insights

• SUSO Digital won Bronze at The Drum Awards for Marketing EMEA 2026 after delivering a search strategy that combined SEO, GEO, structured data, and UX optimization.
• The campaign increased monthly organic traffic by 190% while improving Google rankings and generating over 100 monthly coaching enquiries for the client.
• Entity-based SEO, schema implementation, and AI-ready content played a central role in improving visibility across Google Search and AI platforms including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.
• Removing more than 300 low-value pages helped consolidate topical authority and strengthen high-intent landing pages designed for conversions.
• The campaign reflects the growing importance of Generative Engine Optimization as enterprise marketers adapt to AI-powered search and conversational discovery.

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