Fixing the fundamentals for Côte: +£2m in organic revenue (in just 4 weeks)

From staging site issues to seven-figure organic growth

Côte are the masters of modern French dining, serving up steak frites, tarte Tatin and a generous pour of vin rouge across 80+ brasseries nationwide.

We first partnered with Côte in late 2022, starting with a three-month SEO project that delivered a 118% boost in top three keyword rankings. Off the back of that, we moved into a 12-month retainer, with a focus on localised optimisation. 

That work, detailed in our local SEO case study, strengthened visibility across every location, from Aberdeen to Exeter.

The challenge

In 2024, Côte began work on a brand-new website. As the launch drew closer, we were brought in to review the staging site. This surfaced a number of technical SEO fundamental issues that, if addressed early, would protect performance and maintain the gains we had already made.

Our approach

Armed with our pre-go-live checklist, we flagged key opportunities to tighten technical SEO foundations. Two issues stood out:

• Heading hierarchy: Multiple H1s per page were muddying the waters for search engines.
• Self-referencing canonicals: Absent or incorrect canonicals meant Google risked seeing duplicate content where it shouldn’t.

We scoped the fixes in detail, aligning with Côte’s development workflow so they could be implemented without disrupting other priorities. This included:

• Updating the CMS so editors could set the correct heading level in each block, giving every page a clear, single H1 and logical structure.
• Fixing an issue causing multiple-H1s to be generated in the site header, enforcing a single H1 per page and a clear semantic hierarchy for SEO and accessibility.
• Integrating editable heading levels in all content blocks, giving editors flexibility to maintain proper H1–H6 structure and improve on-page SEO consistency.
• Adding self-referencing canonicals to every page, ensuring Google indexed the correct URLs (and not, in one case, a staging site).

Our role didn’t stop at identifying the issues. We stayed close post-launch to monitor performance, prioritise fixes, and make sure the content and technical setup were working seamlessly together.

The results

With the changes implemented, performance began to steadily improve, and the impact was clear and measurable. 

In July 2025 alone, Côte’s website generated +£2m in bookings from organic traffic. 
Plus, we generated:

• +40% organic bookings 
• +98% page views 
• +77% YoY engaged sessions
• –31% bounce rate
• +43% average position increase across tracked keywords

(July ‘24 vs July ‘25)

Most importantly, search intent and user journeys are now more aligned, meaning visitors land on the page they expect, stay longer, and are more likely to book.

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The takeaway

Like any good French recipe, the magic comes from the right ingredients in the right order, and sometimes that starts with making sure the oven is switched on.

Technical SEO might not be as glamorous as a glossy ad campaign, but in Côte’s case, getting the fundamentals right unlocked the full value of the content and local SEO work we had already put in place.

We’ve seen the same story play out with brands like Muji, where our work drove 350% organic growth, and Rosa’s Thai, where we delivered 16k bookings through SEO.