Background:

GardeningExpress.co.uk is our longest-standing client - we’ve been working with the online garden centre since 2011. Over that time, our brief has naturally evolved, shifting towards a more digital focus, but the core objective has always remained the same - to grow the site’s authority and build long-term brand recognition with both customers and the media.

Reviewing around 15 years of work would be a huge undertaking, so instead we’ve focused this case study on the past five years - from the start of 2020 to the end of 2024. That takes us back to just before the Covid-19 pandemic, when we rapidly adapted our approach to support the business through a period of unprecedented growth, as the UK gardening sector boomed during lockdown. With more people spending time at home, interest in gardening soared - and Gardening Express was perfectly placed to meet that demand.

Since then, our goal has been to maintain that momentum by securing high-quality media coverage and links, while also building the personal brand of founder and longtime horticulturist Chris Bonnett.

We’ve continued to position Gardening Express as a trusted name in gardening by sharing expert advice, seasonal tips, and trend-led insights - all with the aim of boosting organic performance and growing mainstream brand visibility.

Strategy:

Our strategy has evolved over time to reflect the changing priorities of the business - from brand awareness and consumer education to a stronger emphasis on off-site SEO performance and authority-building.

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, our focus was on rapid response activity, allowing us to react to surging media demand for garden-related stories and help Gardening Express capitalise on the sector’s unprecedented growth. We delivered a consistent stream of relevant, newsworthy content, securing high-profile media coverage that aligned with national trends and seasonal shifts.

As interest in gardening remained high post-lockdown, we adapted once again by shifting our focus towards more technical SEO value. We developed digital PR campaigns rooted in search intent, using expert-led content to earn authoritative backlinks from trusted publications.

More recently, we’ve placed increasing focus on building the personal profile of Gardening Express founder and horticulturist Chris Bonnett. As a trained expert with years of hands-on experience, Chris is uniquely positioned to comment on a wide range of gardening topics - from seasonal tips and planting trends to consumer advice and industry issues. We’ve played a huge role in developing him as a recognisable, go-to media voice, which has helped position Gardening Express as a trusted authority in the gardening space.

Our approach has included:

• Creating reactive and evergreen content pegged to seasonal gardening trends
• Pitching expert-led advice and opinion across consumer, lifestyle and home press
• Developing and placing thought leadership in national and trade publications
• Building relationships with journalists to secure regular gardening columns and comment opportunities
• Supporting SEO goals through high-quality, natural link acquisition

This strategy has allowed us to blend media-facing storytelling with SEO-driven results - delivering both brand visibility and long-term digital gains.

Results:

Over the last 15 years, our work with Gardening Express has delivered a powerful combination of brand exposure, expert positioning, and measurable SEO impact.

Between 2020 and 2025 alone, we secured over 5,600 items of media coverage and generated 5,103 backlinks from high-authority domains. Our coverage has spanned national press, lifestyle titles, specialist gardening media and home interest publications. While much of our content has been consumer-focused - offering seasonal advice, gardening trends and product inspiration - we’ve also embedded expert-led commentary to strengthen trust and position the brand as an authority.

In recent years, we’ve focused on developing founder Chris Bonnett’s reputation as a leading voice in UK gardening. He now has a weekly gardening column in the Daily Express, and is a regular contributor to The Sun, with expert advice appearing across key seasonal moments. His insights are also frequently featured in relevant publications including:

• Gardening Etc
• Real Homes
• Homes & Gardens
• Ideal Home
• Hello
• Love Property
• Woman & Home
• Huffington Post
• Tom’s Guide
• Metro
• Mirror Online
• Sunday Times
• Financial Times

Combining consistent media delivery with expert positioning, we’ve helped Gardening Express remain front-of-mind with UK consumers for over a decade, while steadily growing the site’s authority and search performance - even in a highly competitive e-commerce space.

We are very proud of our results in the gardening sector - click here to see another example.

Client feedback:

Chris Bonnett, founder of Gardening Express:

“Thanks to Motive I’m now a national newspaper gardening columnist. The team have delivered masses of media content and SEO links for us over the years and have even helped me secure a regular column in the Daily Express.”