Absolutely amazing, everything on time and to a high standard. They have gone above and beyond.
Kayleigh CrowtherGeneral Manager, Creative Carpers
SEO case study · Prize competitions
Referring Domains Up 1,650%, 8 to 140 in Twenty Months
How Absolute Digital Media built the linking profile of a UK prize competition operator from 8 referring domains to 140 in twenty months, secured page-one visibility for the category term “carp giveaways” and kept a brand-led organic channel steady at around 650 visits a month.
+1,650%referring domains, 8 to 140 live linking domains
What did Absolute Digital Media achieve for Creative Carpers?
Absolute Digital Media's SEO campaign for Creative Carpers delivered +1,650% referring domains, Position 4 “carp giveaways” (page one, Sep 2026), Position 1 “creative carpers” (held throughout) and ~650/ month organic visits (stable brand-led channel, 2024 to 2026).
The client
A competition operator whose pages expire within days
Creative Carpers is a Milton Keynes prize competition operator running weekly draws for carp fishing tackle, at creative-carpers-giveaways.co.uk. It runs several competitions a week, each a time-limited page that goes live, sells tickets, draws a winner and closes.
Almost none of the site’s inventory is permanent, which is the defining constraint on what organic search can do for it: there is no growing catalogue of pages to rank, and the brand and category terms carry the channel. Acquisition runs through Meta, where Absolute Digital Media manages a paid social account that produces more than £180,000 a month in attributed revenue. The organic brief was narrower: give the domain the authority to hold its own name and its category term against a crowded field, and build a linking profile that a competition site cannot earn by itself. The business is run by General Manager Kayleigh Crowther and works with Absolute Digital Media across paid social and search.
The results
Eight referring domains to 140, and the positions held
Referring domain history and rankings are Ahrefs Site Explorer data, referring domains history and organic keywords (UK), retrieved 15 September 2026. Traffic is a Semrush Domain Overview estimate, UK database, monthly history to August 2026. Both are third-party estimates and are quoted with their source and date. Competition pages expire within days, so Ahrefs' keyword and traffic counts for this domain swing with whatever is live on the day it crawls; the durable measures are the linking profile and the permanent pages' positions, which are the ones reported here.
+1650%
Referring domains, 8 to 140 live linking domains, Jan 2024 to Sep 2025
Position 4
“carp giveaways”, page one, Sep 2026
Position 1
“creative carpers”, held throughout
~650 / month
Organic visits, stable brand-led channel, 2024 to 2026
The challenge
Four constraints on a competition site in organic search
The strategy
The choices that shaped the campaign
Authority first, using the competitions as the story
The programme led with sustained link acquisition aimed at angling, competition and lifestyle publishers, using the competitions themselves, the prizes and the winners as the story. Publishers will not link to a ticket page, but they will cover a prize, a winner or a competition tied to something their readers care about, and that is the only opening a competition operator has with an editor. Ahrefs recorded 8 domains linking to creative-carpers-giveaways.co.uk in January 2024 and 140 by September 2025, with the count rising in every quarter of that period.
Breadth of referring domains rather than a few trophies
The target was breadth of referring domains rather than a small number of high-authority placements. In a category publishers are reluctant to cover, one hundred and thirty new linking domains from angling, competition and lifestyle sites did more for the domain’s standing than a handful of national placements would have. Breadth is also the achievable brief here: national coverage of a ticketed competition is rare, while a steady stream of specialist and lifestyle coverage is repeatable month after month, which is why no quarter in the period was lower than the one before it.
Concentrate on the pages that do not expire
Every internal and external link was pointed at the homepage or the competitions hub rather than at expiring competition pages, so authority accrued to assets that would still exist next month. A link earned by a competition page dies with the page. One earned by the hub compounds. On a site where almost all inventory is temporary, this single rule decides whether a link acquisition programme accumulates anything at all.
Defend the brand and the category term
On-page work on the two permanent pages kept the site at position one for its name and on page one for “carp giveaways”, the term with the clearest commercial intent in the category. The homepage holds position one for the brand name and position four for “carp giveaways”, on page one alongside far larger tackle retailers and competition aggregators, with “carp competitions” at position 10.
Keep the brief narrow and measure the durable things
The organic channel was never asked to replace paid social. It was asked to make the brand and its category term findable, reliably, at no media cost. That framing also set the reporting: this is an authority and visibility case study, not a traffic growth case study, so the measures on this page are the linking profile and the permanent pages’ positions rather than keyword and traffic counts that swing with whatever competition happens to be live on the day the crawler visits.
What we delivered
Who ran what
A sustained link acquisition programme
Outreach to angling, competition and lifestyle publishers over twenty months, pitched on the prizes, the winners and the competitions rather than on ticket pages. The count of live linking domains rose from 8 in January 2024 to 27 by August 2024, 58 by June 2025 and 140 by September 2025, with no quarter lower than the one before it.
Every placement aimed at a permanent page
Internal and external links were directed at the homepage and the competitions hub, never at competition pages that would close within days. It is the rule that let authority accumulate on a site whose inventory is almost entirely temporary.
On-page work on the two permanent assets
With no compounding library of pages to rank, the on-page programme concentrated on the homepage and the competitions hub, holding position one for “creative carpers” throughout and page one for “carp giveaways”, the category phrase with the clearest purchase intent.
Reporting against the measures that survive the month
Referring domains and rankings were tracked in Ahrefs UK and organic traffic in Semrush UK, with the durable measures reported rather than the volatile ones. Semrush places the domain’s UK organic traffic between roughly 530 and 690 visits a month across the entire period from September 2023 to August 2026.
The team behind the campaign
Who worked on this account
Lewis Esson is Head of SEO at Absolute Digital Media, leading a team of seven across organic strategy for gambling, lending, adult and regulated ecommerce brands. He joined ADM as…
Alex is Head of Content at Absolute Digital Media, overseeing content production and ideation for regulated-sector clients in iGaming, finance, and healthcare. He specialises in creating content that performs reliably…
Jack Hawtin leads the outreach team at Absolute Digital Media, running link building and outreach strategy mainly for iGaming clients, alongside adult industry brands, interior design, and a smaller portfolio…
Shofiur Rahman is Head of Technical at Absolute Digital Media, leading the team responsible for everything the agency builds and runs: client websites, internal applications, infrastructure, AI systems and the…
The results
A linking profile built from almost nothing
Ahrefs records live referring domains month by month. From 8 in January 2024 the count rose to 27 by August 2024, 58 by June 2025 and 140 by September 2025, an increase of 1,650% over twenty months, with no quarter in that period lower than the one before it. Prize competition sites are rarely linked to by publishers, which is what makes the shape of that curve the result rather than its end point.
The permanent pages hold the positions that matter. The homepage is position one for the brand name and position four for “carp giveaways”, the category phrase with the clearest purchase intent, on page one alongside far larger tackle retailers and competition aggregators. “Carp competitions” sits at position 10, also on page one.
Semrush places the domain’s UK organic traffic between roughly 530 and 690 visits a month across the entire period from September 2023 to August 2026, with 536 in August 2026. For a business whose acquisition runs through paid social, the organic channel’s job is to be found by name and by category term reliably, and the figures show a channel that does that consistently.
This is an authority and visibility case study, not a traffic growth case study. Competition pages expire within days, so Ahrefs’ keyword and traffic counts for this domain swing with whatever is live on the day it crawls. The durable measures are the linking profile and the permanent pages’ positions, which are the ones reported here.
| Measure | Figure | Date or period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live linking domains | 8 | January 2024 | Ahrefs |
| Live linking domains | 27 | August 2024 | Ahrefs |
| Live linking domains | 29 | January 2025 | Ahrefs |
| Live linking domains | 58 | June 2025 | Ahrefs |
| Live linking domains | 140 | September 2025 | Ahrefs |
| Referring domains, change | +1,650% | January 2024 to September 2025 | Ahrefs |
| “creative carpers”, position | 1 | September 2026 | Ahrefs UK |
| “carp giveaways”, position | 4 | September 2026 | Ahrefs UK |
| “carp competitions”, position | 10 | September 2026 | Ahrefs UK |
| UK organic traffic | 536 visits | August 2026 | Semrush UK |
Rankings: Ahrefs UK, best position by URL, 15 September 2026. Referring domains: Ahrefs Site Explorer, referring domains history, retrieved 15 September 2026. Traffic: Semrush Domain Overview, UK database, monthly history to August 2026. All figures are third-party estimates and are quoted with their source and date.
Takeaways
What operators in hard-to-link categories should take from this
In their words
What Creative Carpers say
Frequently asked questions
Link building in hard-to-link categories, answered
Can a prize competition site build links?
Yes, with the right story. Publishers will not link to a ticket page, but they will cover a prize, a winner or a competition tied to something their readers care about. Creative Carpers went from 8 to 140 referring domains on that basis.
Where should links point on a site whose pages expire?
At the permanent pages. Links to competition pages are lost when the competition closes. Links to the homepage and the competitions hub keep working.
Why is traffic flat while authority grew?
Because the site has almost no permanent inventory to rank beyond its brand and category terms, and its acquisition runs through paid social by design. The organic channel’s job is reliability, not scale.
How is the data measured?
Referring domains and rankings are Ahrefs UK data on the dates given. Traffic is a Semrush UK estimate. Both are third-party figures and are quoted with their source.
Is it better to chase a few high-authority links or many smaller ones?
In a category publishers avoid, breadth wins. One hundred and thirty new linking domains from angling, competition and lifestyle sites did more for this domain’s standing than a handful of national placements would have, and it is the brief an outreach team can actually deliver every month rather than once a year.
How long does a linking profile take to build from a standing start?
On this account the count rose from 8 referring domains in January 2024 to 27 by August 2024, 58 by June 2025 and 140 by September 2025, an increase of 1,650% over twenty months. The useful signal was not the end point but that no quarter in that period was lower than the one before it.
Can a small domain hold position one for a brand name that is also a generic phrase?
It is not automatic, and it needs both authority and on-page work on a permanent page. “Creative Carpers” competes with the phrases anglers actually use, “carp giveaways” and “carp competitions”, and with rivals building content around the same terms. Position one for the brand has been held throughout, alongside page one for the category term.
What should organic search be asked to do alongside a large paid social account?
Something it can do better than paid. Here acquisition runs through Meta, so organic was briefed to make the brand and its category term findable reliably at no media cost rather than to carry volume. A narrow brief is what allowed the work to concentrate on authority and on two permanent pages.
More proof
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