Case Study
From 3 enquiries per month to 40+
Solid Ground Aviation was invisible online — no rankings, a slow site, and zero inbound enquiries. We rebuilt the website from scratch, implemented local and national SEO, and launched a content strategy targeting student pilots at every stage of their decision. Within six months, monthly enquiries grew 13× and the school stopped relying entirely on word-of-mouth.
The challenge
What Solid Ground Aviation needed to solve
Solid Ground Aviation was a UK Part-FCL school running PPL and modular CPL training with strong word-of-mouth intake but effectively no digital presence. The legacy site loaded slowly on 4G, did not rank for any intake queries, and was producing roughly three enquiries a month despite the school being a known name in its corner of the UK training scene.
Our approach
How the engagement was delivered
Discovery
Mapped the UK student pilot funnel — PPL, NPPL, modular CPL, hours building — and audited existing content against real UK search demand. Identified that the school was invisible for every commercially meaningful term in its region.
Rebuild
Rebuilt the site from scratch with dedicated pages per course, honest indicative pricing, aircraft details, and clear instructor profiles. Replaced the legacy stack with a performance-first setup.
SEO foundation
Layered local SEO for the training airfield catchment alongside national intent for "modular CPL UK" and "hours building" queries. Built out Course and LocalBusiness schema.
Content cadence
Published monthly content addressing the decisions UK prospects actually make pre-enquiry — PPL vs NPPL, modular vs integrated CPL, class 1 medical — each linked into the relevant intake page.
Timeline
Week 1–6: discovery and full site rebuild. Week 7–14: SEO foundation, Course schema, and GBP rebuild. Month 4–6: monthly content cadence driving the 13× growth curve.
Results
What the work produced
13×
Monthly enquiry growth
Moved from roughly three enquiries per month to more than forty consistently by month six.
94
PageSpeed score
Rebuilt performance from a low-40s legacy baseline on mobile, which was a major factor in UK regional SEO gains.
#1
Local rankings
Took the top organic and map positions for the school's primary training catchment across the core learn-to-fly intake terms.
0 → 400
Monthly organic sessions
Grew from effectively zero indexed traffic to a reliable 400+ monthly organic sessions of qualified intake intent.
Off word-of-mouth dependency
Enquiry source mix
The school is no longer dependent on word-of-mouth for intake — organic and local search now carry the majority of enquiries.
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