For years, Lings Cars was a legendary outlier in the world of car leasing. Its website was an unapologetic assault on the senses – flashing GIFs, auto-playing music, chaotic typography, and Ling herself appearing in videos and pop-ups to shout about deals. It was Marmite marketing at its finest: people either loved the madness or fled immediately.
But now, Lings Cars has had a redesign, and dare we say, it looks…normal.
To top this off their organic search visibility has dramatically improved as a result.
Personality vs. performance
For years, digital marketers have debated Lings Cars’ unconventional strategy. The site was memorable, sure. But from an SEO perspective, it was a nightmare:
- Slow load speeds due to excessive animations and embedded media.
- Confusing UX that overwhelmed visitors rather than guiding them to conversion.
- Lack of structured data to help Google understand content properly.
- Difficult mobile experience, which became an increasing issue as mobile-first indexing became crucial.
Despite all this, Lings Cars still managed to generate significant direct traffic, word-of-mouth buzz, and PR coverage. But when it came to organic search, Google wasn’t amused.
A cleaner site = A bigger presence
Recently, the site underwent a drastic redesign. Gone are the relentless flashing banners, clashing fonts, and sensory overload. The new version is sleek, structured, and actually usable.
And the results? A massive uplift in organic search rankings.
The transformation has a big thumbs up from Google
- Weekly UK traffic volume numbers nearly tripled, reaching 6,349 visitors, a sharp increase from an average of 2,500 over the previous two years.
- Impressions skyrocketed, jumping from around 4,561 to nearly 67,235.
What marketers can learn from Lings Cars’
- Memorability is great, but usability wins. A unique brand personality can make you stand out, but if your website frustrates users (and search engines), it’s working against you.
- SEO still needs the basics. No amount of quirky branding can compensate for poor page speed, bad UX, or a lack of structured content.
- You can still be different – just don’t be difficult. Lings Cars could have kept some of its eccentric branding while implementing cleaner UX and SEO best practices years ago. Striking that balance is key.
The Inevitable Question: Was It Worth It?
Lings Cars is no longer the most bizarre site on the internet. For fans of its unhinged aesthetic, that’s a bit of a loss. But for Google, users, and business performance, the change was a clear win (and an obvious one, that should have happened many years ago if we’re all honest about it)
The site still has personality – it’s just now paired with a structure that Google can rank and a UX that users can tolerate.
If you want to follow Google’s best practices or just discuss Ling’s evolution, get in touch with us. We know a thing or two about leasing.