How MILWAUKEE® SEO strategy resulted in 69% of new market conversions

MILWAUKEE® has been an IDHL client partner since 2018, and our technical SEO partnership continues to drive market-leading growth in its digital performance. To support the brand’s international expansion, we were tasked with developing a best-in-class SEO solution to transform their presence in EMEA markets and set the standard for future success.

MILWAUKEE® is a branch of the multinational Techtronic Industries Group and a leading manufacturer of heavy-duty power equipment for professional tradespeople. Looking to strengthen authority in EMEA markets, the brand needed to engage with these target audiences authentically. 

This wasn’t a typical SEO campaign. We were targeted to achieve session growth of 13 million in 26 different markets and across 30 commercial sites. Our challenge was developing an iterative strategy that captured unique local nuances while maintaining a cohesive brand identity and SEO best practices.

MILWAUKEE® has a specific target audience: predominantly male, aged 25-55 years old, skilled trades workers such as plumbers, electricians and HVAC specialists. Engaging these audiences and generating quality traffic across all EMEA markets were our top priorities.

Category and trade page content

Over the eight years working with MILWAUKEE®, we have built a rich library of content. We audited, collated and structured this asset bank and worked with local markets to adapt English-language copy into native languages. Instead of direct translations, we embedded priority keywords and optimised the content to better resonate with each audience.

A hands-on approach

To reflect regional search intent and trade-specific vocabulary, we established direct relationships with each EMEA market lead. We conducted local keyword research together instead of relying solely on English-first assumptions. To fully demonstrate the value of our approach, we trained market leads on how keyword-led translations can directly contribute to SEO growth.

Understanding market nuances

Collaborating with market leads, we shared keyword integration guidelines and content to capture cultural and linguistic nuance. We also developed an iterative content framework to give each EMEA territory ownership over copy while maintaining the overall SEO strategy. This allowed us to clearly position and emphasise MILWAUKEE®‘for trade’ only positioning in each market.

Continuous site performance optimization 

Beyond content, we optimised the website’s site speed, crawlability and structured data to ensure a seamless user journey. Internal linking was added to strengthen authority and visibility across product categories.

This hard work paid off. Expanding category and trade pages across EMEA has resulted in healthier SEO-optimised content on multiple subdomains and a broader keyword footprint. This has led to improved organic rankings and a steady increase in qualified traffic.

We transformed a translation project into a market-driven creation system, providing MILWAUKEE® with a repeatable model for future global growth. This innovative approach has consistently overdelivered on traffic targets month-on-month, contributing to some truly exceptional results.

"IDHL developed and rolled out an EMEA-wide strategy with the aim of improving overall sessions from non-branded searches, working directly with digital heads across the markets and navigating complexities such as varying local resource and differences in search patterns and behaviour. With this agency partnership, our markets have been empowered to localise content using centrally supplied key phrases and tailored support, and in turn we have seen the direct impact on our KPIs.“

Hannah Chan-Edwards, Digital Marketing Manager EMEA, TTI