Fastest-growing leasing companies in Organic Search

For the last 5 years, Select Car Leasing has consistently dominated the UK car leasing market,  maintaining the highest visibility, traffic, and keyword rankings. And with nearly double the visibility of its closest competitor, it remains the biggest name in the industry. However, the past 12 months have brought significant shifts among competitors, with some longstanding names seeing declines and new challengers gaining momentum.

Since January 2020, the top positions in the leasing sector have remained largely unchanged, with Select Car Leasing leading, followed by Nationwide Vehicle Contracts and Vanarama. However, for the first time we’ve seen declines for some of the biggest names, with a new contender pushing through into third place for overall visibility, knocking Vanarama off the podium and reshaping the longstanding competitive landscape for car leasing.

Which Leasing companies have accelerated the fastest in Organic Search?

We’ve analysed the performance of some of the UK’s top leasing companies to uncover who’s gained the most ground in search over the past year, and how this affects the standings.

#1 Leasing.com

Leasing.com is the fastest-growing leasing site in Organic Search today, having doubled their search visibility in the last year alone – showing more growth than Select Car Leasing, Lease Loco, Vanarama and Leasing Options combined. And this growth sees them overtake Vanarama, taking third overall in the competitive rankings for visibility and traffic. 

Identifying opportunities in lower-volume, high-intent search terms, Leasing.com placed focus on optimising content further down the funnel, allowing them to demonstrate their automotive expertise to search engines, and significantly improving their visibility across non-branded terms in the meantime. 

Focusing on optimising for non-branded terms resulted in a 94.6% increase in non-branded traffic YoY, while also organically boosting brand recognition – resulting in a 64% increase in branded traffic. Up to now, brand awareness has been built through backlink profiles and strong Paid initiatives, however the top growth contenders this year are demonstrating that there is still ample opportunity to grow brand visibility through well-written, audience-first content.

#2 LeaseCar.uk

LeaseCar.uk has also made significant strides in their organic performance by focusing on high-intent commercial keywords to drive their visibility across non-branded terms – growing their presence in search by 50% YoY and increasing their non-branded traffic by 33% – twice the level of growth of Select Car Leasing in this crucial area. It’s clear that there has been a shift in focus for Leasing companies this year, with the strongest growth noted for those who look to target the lower-hanging fruit, rather than battling over the top-level generic terms. 

#3 LeasingOptions.co.uk

Leasingoptions.co.uk doubled down on both branded and non-branded strategies, focusing on implementing audience-focused content at a manufacturer level to strengthen their non-branded KW profile, and switching up their backlink strategy, focusing on building quality over quantity. This strategy saw them nearly double their branded traffic in the last year as a result, presenting a very promising visibility increase of 43%. Their success this year is further confirmation that brands can no longer rely on the overbuilt backlink profiles that rely on forums and directories – when it comes to link strategies, quality is key.

And an honourable mention for… 

CarleasingMadeSimple, who have shown unprecedented growth, with a 150% increase in search visibility in the last 6 months alone. So why aren’t they taking one of the top spots? Their performance in this area has been extremely volatile, with fluctuations of up to 60% in a single day – raising questions about whether this momentum is sustainable. What we do know is that if they manage to stabilise their performance and maintain this growth, they could become a serious threat to the top competitors over the coming year.

Fuel for thought

An interesting trend has emerged in the past year’s ranking shifts: leasing companies with ‘Lease’ or ‘Leasing’ at the start of their domain names have experienced three times the visibility growth of those without. This raises the question – could domain name relevance be a contributing factor to organic search success?

Who hit the brakes and takes last place in the race for Organic Growth?

Not everyone has their foot on the gas. This year has seen some of the biggest shifts in the competitive space, with some of the industry’s biggest names slowing down significantly.

Nationwide Vehicle Contracts

Nationwide Vehicle Contracts was heavily impacted by Google’s August Core Update, resulting in a 28% drop in visibility the following month. Despite efforts to recover, they have struggled to regain this lost ground, with their performance now mirroring levels last seen in early 2023, far from their previous peak.

Nationwide has become this year’s case study for why SEO is so important in such a competitive market. With their visibility down 25% YoY, competitors have taken advantage of the gap, and reduced Nationwide Vehicle Contracts January traffic share by 1/3rd. 

Vanarama

Vanarama failed to find another gear this year, with their organic visibility showing very minimal growth at just 3%. And while this isn’t a decline, in a market where competitors are growing by over 100% in the same period, they’re at risk of being left behind. 

Despite steady visibility, they struggled to retain their traffic, with non-branded search dropping 7%, knocking Vanarama from 3rd to 5th in January’s traffic share standings. Their past success has been largely driven by strong brand-building strategies, but as predicted last summer by UpShift’s Lucy Dodds, reduced SEO efforts are starting to take their toll. In a rapidly evolving market, brand strength alone may no longer be enough to keep them ahead.

Hippo Leasing

Hippo Leasing initially saw strong growth, putting them ahead in September 2024, briefly overtaking Lease Loco, Leasing Options, and LeaseCar.uk. However, this growth was short-lived, with overall visibility falling 17% since its peak. 

Unfortunately for Hippo, we saw declines across the board, with a dip in YoY traffic of 13%, branded 6%, non-brand 37% YoY, and the largest loss of overall KW rankings with a drop of 17%. This sharp decline highlights the importance of sustained SEO investment rather than relying on short-term spikes.

Can Nationwide and Vanarama make a U-turn and return to their podium positions? 

One key takeaway from these shifts is the increasing importance of non-branded search. Those who lost ground in visibility and traffic also saw declines in keyword rankings, particularly in non-branded search – while those who grew did so by expanding their reach beyond their brand.

This suggests that a strong brand alone is no longer enough, and a few have perhaps been too reliant on this over the years. In 2025, the companies that focus on broader search demand, particularly through SEO-driven content are the ones accelerating ahead, and if Nationwide and Vanarama want to catch up, they’re going to have to make a strategic shift – and fast!

What’s Next? The Race for the Top in 2025

With some of the biggest names in car leasing slowing down and newcomers accelerating fast, 2025 is set to be a defining year for organic search dominance in this space.

To secure a podium position next year, leasing companies must reconsider their approach. Those that combine strong brand awareness with aggressive SEO strategies, digital PR, and non-branded search growth will be the ones driving the market forward.

If you want to get your name amongst the fastest-growing leasing companies for the upcoming year, get in touch.