Seen. Everywhere.

Position One for Radiators on a Category Page Holding 229 Referring Domains

Stelrad is the UK’s largest radiator manufacturer, and its revenue online sits on category pages competing against retailers and aggregators for the highest-volume terms in home heating. Absolute Digital Media built the link profile behind those pages: 448 live dofollow referring domains at DR 50 or above, and 132 at DR 70 or above.

Radiators and central heating, the category Stelrad manufactures for

What did Absolute Digital Media achieve for Stelrad?

Absolute Digital Media's Link Building campaign for Stelrad delivered 448 live dofollow referring domains at DR 50+, 132 live dofollow referring domains at DR 70+, 4 category pages at position one: radiators (electric, column, designer) and 126,024 UK organic traffic from 20,455 (high of 148,270).

Radiators and central heating, the category Stelrad manufactures for
The client

A manufacturer with homepage authority and no page-level authority

Stelrad is the UK’s leading radiator manufacturer, supplying panel, column, vertical, designer, towel rail and electric radiators to homeowners, installers, merchants and housebuilders. It sells direct online and through the trade, and its category pages compete on the same terms as BestHeating, Screwfix, Wickes and the radiator specialists.

The brand carried decades of trade recognition and a homepage link profile to match. What it did not have was page-level authority on the category URLs that earn, which is where every competitor on page one had concentrated theirs. Absolute Digital Media was appointed to build that authority alongside the SEO retainer, the paid search account and the digital PR campaigns, each of which is reported on its own page.

The results

448 referring domains at DR 50+, four category pages at position one

Ahrefs referring domain counts are live dofollow domains not flagged as spam, excluding sitewide placements. Starting points are the readings at the programme’s opening checkpoint. Page-level referring domain counts were not tracked at that checkpoint and are shown as reached values only. Both Ahrefs and Semrush are cited so each claim can be checked against a second source.

448
Live dofollow referring domains at DR 50+, Ahrefs
132
Live dofollow referring domains at DR 70+, Ahrefs
4
Category pages at position one: radiators, electric, column, designer
126024
UK organic traffic from 20,455, high of 148,270, Ahrefs
Independently judged

A multi-award-winning agency

European Agency AwardsIntegrated Agency of the Year - SilverEuropean Agency Awards 2026European Search AwardsBest Use of Search B2C (PPC) Small (The Swallow Co.)European Search Awards 2026UK Digital Excellence AwardsStandout B2C Ecommerce Website of the Year (Stelrad)UK Digital Excellence Awards 2026UK Paid Media AwardsBest Integrated Paid Media CampaignUK Paid Media Awards 2026UK Agency AwardsBest New Business CampaignUK Agency Awards 2025UK Search AwardsBest Use Of Search (Retail/Ecommerce) - SEOUK Search Awards 2024European Agency AwardsIntegrated Agency of the Year - SilverEuropean Agency Awards 2026European Search AwardsBest Use of Search B2C (PPC) Small (The Swallow Co.)European Search Awards 2026UK Digital Excellence AwardsStandout B2C Ecommerce Website of the Year (Stelrad)UK Digital Excellence Awards 2026UK Paid Media AwardsBest Integrated Paid Media CampaignUK Paid Media Awards 2026UK Agency AwardsBest New Business CampaignUK Agency Awards 2025UK Search AwardsBest Use Of Search (Retail/Ecommerce) - SEOUK Search Awards 2024
The challenge

The retailers outrank the manufacturers in home heating

The strategy

The choices that shaped the programme

Radiators and central heating, the category Stelrad manufactures for
Radiators and central heating, the category Stelrad manufactures for
Stelrad radiators installed in the home
Stelrad radiators installed in the home
Radiators and central heating, the category Stelrad manufactures for
01 Decision one

Build to the six category pages that compete

Target URLs were selected from the category taxonomy on volume and competitive gap: radiators, towel rail, electric, vertical, designer and column. Links were placed on those URLs directly, with the radiators page first. The rejected alternative was to continue building to the homepage and rely on internal linking, the default for manufacturers, and why manufacturers lose to retailers on category terms. The radiators page holds position one because it holds 229 referring domains of its own, not because the homepage is strong.

Radiators and central heating, the category Stelrad manufactures for
02 Decision two

Earn trade and institutional authority, not just consumer press

Heat-loss data, specification resources and installer guidance were built to be cited by the bodies that define the sector. That earned links from CIBSE, CIPHE, BIID, Make UK and the Supply Chain Sustainability School, and from merchants and housebuilders including City Plumbing and Bellway. Consumer interiors titles were pursued in parallel. The rejected alternative was to rely on consumer press alone: Elle and Homes & Gardens tell Google the brand is known, CIBSE and CIPHE tell Google the brand is the authority. A manufacturer needs both, and only the second is hard for a retailer to copy.

Stelrad radiators installed in the home
03 Decision three

Make the calculators the linkable assets

The BTU calculator and heat-loss tools were positioned as the reference resources of the category, so that guides, trade sites and regional press link to them naturally. The BTU calculator page now holds position one for btu calculator and radiator calculator. The rejected alternative was a high-volume blog calendar: volume produces pages that rank for nothing and earn nothing, and a calculator that every installer guide links to outperforms a year of posts.

Stelrad radiators installed in the home
04 Decision four

Hold a DR 50 bar and curate the profile

Reported placements were dofollow editorial or institutional links from domains at DR 50 or above, screened for relevance and spam signals, with the disavow file reviewed against every crawl. The rejected alternative was to report the raw referring domain total: it grows on its own for a brand this size and it flatters a chart. The curated count is smaller and it is the one that moved the category pages.

The team behind the campaign

Who worked on this account

The results

A manufacturer outranking every retailer on its own head term

The link profile is the result the programme owns outright. Stelrad holds 448 live dofollow referring domains at Domain Rating 50 or above and 132 at DR 70 or above, on a named list that runs from Elle, Cosmopolitan, Metro and Apartment Therapy through Homes & Gardens and Homebuilding & Renovating to CIBSE, CIPHE, BIID, Make UK, ArcelorMittal and Barclays. Domain Rating moved from 57 to 64.

Position one for radiator and radiators alone is a combined 80,000 monthly searches held by a single page that carries 229 referring domains. Across the site, UK terms in the top three rose from 421 to 2,035 at the latest reading, with a high of 2,354, and page-one terms from 1,362 to 4,441, with a high of 4,756. Ahrefs UK organic traffic rose from 20,455 to 126,024, with a high of 148,270. Semrush corroborates independently, with UK organic traffic at a record 122,531 from 35,105.

Ranking and traffic movement is shared with the SEO retainer and the digital PR campaigns; the Stelrad SEO case study reports the traffic story in detail and the Stelrad digital PR case study reports the campaign coverage.

Category page Ref. domains Rankings on the page (UK monthly volume)
/radiators/ 229 radiator (41,000) position 1; radiators (39,000) position 1; radiators uk (5,400) position 1
/radiators/towel-rail-radiators/ 204 towel radiator (14,000) position 3; heated towel radiator (1,300) position 1
/radiators/electric-radiators/ 144 electric radiators (14,000) position 1; electric radiator (6,400) position 2
/radiators/vertical-radiators/ 131 vertical radiators (12,000) position 3; tall radiators (9,300) position 3; vertical radiator (3,500) position 2
/radiators/designer-radiators/ 108 modern radiators (4,500) position 1
/radiators/column-radiators/ 98 column radiators (11,000) position 1; column radiator (2,100) position 1

Named consumer and interiors placements include Elle (DR 90), Cosmopolitan (89), Metro (88), Apartment Therapy (87), iNews (84), Homes & Gardens (83), T3 (77), Remodelista (77), Woman & Home (76), Homebuilding & Renovating (75), GreenMatch (75), The Eco Experts (72), Ask the Builder (61), Homes & Antiques (59), KBB Review (57) and Homes & Interiors Scotland (54). Trade, institutional and regional sources include ArcelorMittal (80), Barclays (80), CIBSE (76), Make UK (75), Express & Star (75), CIPHE (73), National World (74), Portsmouth News (73), BIID (72), Supply Chain Sustainability School (70), Sunderland Echo (70), Northumberland Gazette (66), Bellway (65), City Plumbing (61), Professional Electrician (53) and Builders Merchants News (50). Average Domain Rating across the 32 named sources is 72.

In their words

What Stelrad say

Frequently asked questions

Link building for manufacturers and category pages, answered

What does link building own on this account, and what do the SEO and digital PR pages own?

Link building owned the always-on acquisition of editorial, trade and institutional links to Stelrad’s category pages, and the authority metrics that follow: 448 live dofollow referring domains at DR 50 or above, 132 at DR 70 or above, and the link equity held on six category URLs. The SEO retainer owned on-site work and reports traffic. Digital PR owned the creative campaigns that earned the largest single bursts of national coverage. Category rankings are the shared outcome and this page says so.

Why build links to category pages when the brand already had a strong homepage profile?

Because the homepage does not sell radiators. The category pages do. A manufacturer of Stelrad’s standing already had brand authority; what it did not have was page-level authority on the URLs competing against BestHeating, Screwfix and the aggregators for terms like radiators, electric radiators and column radiators. Building 229 referring domains onto the radiators category page is why it holds position one for two terms with a combined 80,000 monthly searches.

How do you earn trade and institutional links for a manufacturer?

By giving the sector something worth citing. Heat-loss data, specification guidance and installer resources earned links from CIBSE, CIPHE, BIID, Make UK and the Supply Chain Sustainability School, and from merchants and housebuilders including City Plumbing and Bellway. Those are links a consumer PR campaign never produces, and they are the ones that tell Google a manufacturer is the authority in its category.

How many links a month, and at what bar?

The reported bar was DR 50, dofollow, editorial or institutional, with every domain named. 448 live referring domains at that bar is the count that matters; the raw total is larger and less useful. Volume was never the target.

Does link building still move rankings for an established brand?

Yes, where it is pointed at the right pages. Stelrad’s Domain Rating moved from 57 to 64 across the programme, which is a modest change for a domain that size. The category pages moved far more: UK terms in the top three rose from 421 to 2,035 at the latest reading, with a high of 2,354, because the equity landed where the competition was.

How do you keep a large brand's link profile clean?

By reporting only what clears the bar and reviewing the disavow file against every crawl. Brands attract unsolicited links at scale; the programme reported dofollow domains at DR 50 or above, excluded anything sitewide or flagged as spam, and kept the client’s attention on the links that moved the category pages.

What happened to traffic?

Ahrefs UK organic traffic rose from 20,455 at the opening checkpoint to 126,024 at the latest reading, with a high of 148,270, a sixfold increase. Semrush corroborates independently, with UK organic traffic at a record 122,531 from 35,105. That movement is shared with the SEO retainer, and the Stelrad SEO case study reports it in detail.

Can you run the same programme for other manufacturers and retailers?

Yes. The method is the same for any brand whose revenue sits on category pages: map the categories that compete, build the trade and editorial reason to link, place the links on those URLs, and hold the bar. Absolute Digital Media runs it across eCommerce, manufacturing and regulated sectors.

Work with us

Are your links pointing at the pages that earn?

If your revenue sits on category pages and your link profile sits on your homepage, the conversation worth having is about which categories compete and what it would take to hold authority on them.