Who are HL Training and what were they looking for?
HL Training Services is a Bristol-based, ITSSAR, AITT and RTITB accredited forklift training provider, delivering courses on-site UK-wide and at their Bristol training centre.
They needed their site to rank for the dozens of different truck classifications they train on, most of which had no dedicated page and no real SEO strategy behind them.
The Content Cluster
Before building a single page, we mapped out HL Training’s entire training taxonomy: every truck and plant classification they’re accredited to train on, from counterbalance and telescopic forklifts through to side loaders, pedestrian trucks and container handlers. Rather than building pages reactively as requests came in, this gave us one structured plan covering the full site.
The build order follows demand and efficiency rather than just working top to bottom. Categories with existing sibling pages to adapt (like reach truck variants) come first as quick wins, brand new categories with clear search demand come next, and low-volume categories like container handlers (around 20 searches a month) are scheduled last.
B1 and B2 counterbalance were chosen to go live first, both because they’re B-series is the biggest classification and the results validate the approach before it’s rolled out across the rest of the cluster: telescopic, side loaders, pedestrian and container handlers to follow.
The Search Problem
Forklift training has an odd search problem: everyone searches for a “forklift licence”, but no such licence exists in the UK. The real qualification is a Certificate of Training, and using the wrong term on the page risks looking inaccurate to anyone who actually knows the industry, including inspectors, insurers and competitors.
Ignoring the search term wasn’t an option either. “Forklift licence” and its variants (b1 licence, b2 licence, counterbalance licence) carry real search volume that HL Training couldn’t afford to leave to competitors who weren’t being as careful with the facts.
We worked through this with HL Training directly rather than guessing at a compromise. Each page uses the language people actually search for, then explains clearly, usually in the FAQs, that the correct qualification is a Certificate of Training. That way the pages rank for the demand that exists while staying accurate for anyone reading closely.
Early Results
Ranking within weeks
B2 hit position 4-5 for its core search terms within three weeks of going live.
Targeting real search terms
Both pages rank for the “licence” language people actually search, while staying accurate about the real qualification.
First clicks converting
B2 is already turning impressions into clicks, with a 7% CTR on its top keyword.
Proof for the cluster
Two pages in, validating the approach before the rest of the content cluster rolls out.
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