LIFE SCIENCES / CLINICAL RESEARCH
hVIVO
SEO Consultant | Ongoing
hVIVO is a UK life sciences company specialising in human challenge trials, laboratory services, and contract research. It has operated since 1989. My work focused on consolidating their digital presence and optimising their content for search engines and AI retrieval. I worked with hVIVO’s very talented in-house marketing team.
The situation
Most of hVIVO’s organic search traffic came from people searching the company name or investor terms like the share price. The pages detailing their laboratory and research services attracted very little search demand of their own.
In April 2026, three websites were consolidated into one. The legacy sites included hvivo.com on WordPress, vennlifesciences.com, and crs-earlyphase.com. All content now lives on hvivo.com, built on the new platform.
What I did
Service pages rebuilt for search and AI retrieval
I rebuilt the content of the laboratory services pages to make them easier for search engines and AI tools to understand. Each of the 11 pages received 8 FAQs.
These questions were written directly from the live page content. I did not invent any capabilities. The pages cover topics such as assay development and validation, genomics and molecular services, immunogenicity, virology, microbiology, laboratory accreditations, cryostorage, and clinical trial supply kits.
Naming the service the way buyers search for it
I conducted keyword research to understand how buyers name the service. “Human challenge trials” proved to be the primary search term. “Controlled human infection model” is a supporting term.
My recommendation was to lead with “human challenge trials” and use the clinical term as support, so the pages match the words buyers type.
Structured data across the site
I implemented structured data sitewide on the new site. This includes BreadcrumbList, WebSite, MedicalOrganization, and Article schemas.
The implementation runs through the site header. This provides a consistent technical foundation for how search engines interpret the site structure and content types.
A three-site migration onto one domain
I mapped the 301 redirects for the three legacy domains into hvivo.com, and the mapping sends visitors and search engines from old URLs to the matching new pages.
A live SEO dashboard
I built a live SEO dashboard for the team. It brings data from Google Search Console, GA4, and Ahrefs into one place.
This allows for consistent monthly reporting. The team can see performance metrics in a single view without switching between multiple tools.
What changed in search
Ahrefs Rank Tracker, 7 October 2026
In December 2025, Ahrefs Site Explorer estimated that only 3 of the 52 tracked terms ranked in the top 10. These were volunteer recruitment searches. None of the laboratory or consulting terms appeared in the top 100.
By 7 October 2026, Ahrefs Rank Tracker shows 17 of the 52 terms are in the top 3 and 35 are in positions 4 to 10. This change occurred sometime between December 2025 and October 2026. The in-house marketing team also contributed to site improvements during this period. The December and October figures come from two different Ahrefs tools, so the comparison is indicative.
- Position 1: clinical trial services provider, regulatory affairs consulting, regulatory affairs consultancy, pharmaceutical development consulting, cryostorage
- Position 2: clinical research services
- Position 3: clinical assay development, pbmc sample processing
These are examples from the 17 in the top 3.
Where the work stands
The site is live, with the legacy domains redirected to hvivo.com. I analysed over 200 pages across the whole site. Structured data is active sitewide.
The SEO dashboard is in place for ongoing monitoring. The homepage and page-template recommendations give the team a clear plan for the next stage.
“Having worked with James for the past 8 months I can see why you need to work with him. He is excellent at what he does, enthused beyond belief and creative in his ideas. He keeps me updated on what we need to do when, providing that strategic view which has been invaluable. He also creates tools that take away the heavy lifting allowing us to focus on what we need to. Thanks James!”
Key takeaway
For B2B life sciences companies, technical foundations must come first. Clear entity coverage and trust signals help search engines understand your expertise.
Brand searches only reach people who already know you, so build content that answers the specific questions buyers ask. This makes your site a reliable source for both human readers and AI search tools.
More on how I work on this: SEO for Pharmaceutical Companies