LSEO Case Study / Sports & Entertainment / Enterprise Link Building
How LSEO Helped ESPN Break Into Google's Top 5 for Premier League Money Terms
ESPN already had elite content and strong in-house technical SEO. LSEO's role was narrower and highly targeted: build page-level authority to the Premier League pages that were within striking distance for massive, non-branded commercial search terms.
Case Study at a Glance
Enterprise link building for one of the world's strongest sports brands.
For ESPN's UK search presence, Premier League queries represented an enormous audience opportunity. ESPN's internal teams already produced authoritative sports content and maintained sophisticated technical SEO. The missing lever was targeted off-site authority at the exact pages competing for the league's most valuable non-branded searches.
- Client
- ESPN
- Industry
- Sports / Entertainment Media
- Primary Service
- Enterprise Link Building
- Primary Market
- Google UK / Premier League
- Primary Targets
- Premier League category and subcategory pages
- Keyword Strategy
- Non-branded, high-volume "Money Terms"
- Initial Campaign
- Approximately 90 days
- Relationship
- ESPN has continued to engage LSEO on additional projects
01 / The Challenge
A giant brand was still losing some of the biggest Premier League searches.
Brand strength does not automatically guarantee page-one dominance. Even ESPN found itself outranked by smaller competitors for highly valuable Premier League queries.
The target set included terms such as "Premier League results," "Premier League fixtures," "Premier League scores," "Premier League standings" and "Premier League table." These were not obscure long-tail phrases. They were broad, non-branded searches capable of delivering substantial incremental audience when rankings moved into the strongest click positions.
ESPN did not need another content factory. It needed additional authority pointed at the pages already built to satisfy the demand.
02 / What LSEO Found
The opportunity was already visible in ESPN's rankings.
The campaign followed the same core logic LSEO later used at enterprise scale for clients such as Redfin: find commercially important queries already ranking within striking distance, then direct authority to the exact page that can win.
03 / The Strategy
The LSEO Money Term strategy, concentrated on Premier League page-one opportunities.
The work was intentionally narrow. ESPN's internal teams continued to own world-class content and technical SEO. LSEO supplied the off-site authority layer designed to move a defined group of high-value terms.
Prioritize the highest-value rankings
LSEO identified ESPN's most valuable Premier League keyword targets, with emphasis on broad, non-branded terms where stronger rankings could materially expand search visibility.
Build links directly to priority pages
High-quality backlinks were acquired to the corresponding Premier League content pages, concentrating authority where ranking movement was needed rather than at the domain level.
Optimize the target mix monthly
Ranking movement was reviewed every month so link acquisition could stay focused on the pages and keywords with the greatest opportunity for additional gains.
Built to complement ESPN's internal team
This was not an outsourced full-service SEO engagement. LSEO worked alongside ESPN's in-house content and technical SEO resources, providing the specialized off-page execution needed to strengthen page-level authority.
No branded-query safety net
The campaign's proof came from non-branded Premier League searches. Winning those terms meant competing on relevance and authority rather than relying on the ESPN name itself.
04 / The Results
Page-two terms moved into the Top 5, and the entire tracked set strengthened.
The clearest wins were exactly where the Money Term strategy was designed to work: high-volume terms already showing relevance, but not yet earning the strongest click share.
| Keyword | Oct. Start | Dec. | Jan. | Feb. | Current | Net Movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premier League results | #14 | #10 | #8 | #10 | #5 | +9 positions |
| Premier League fixtures | #18 | #17 | #11 | #6 | #5 | +13 positions |
| Premier League | #31 | #27 | #10 | #19 | #14 | +17 positions |
| Premier League scores | #8 | #11 | #8 | #8 | #4 | +4 positions |
| Premier League standings | #5 | #5 | #4 | #4 | #4 | +1 position |
| Premier League table | #4 | #4 | #4 | #4 | #5 | Remained Top 5 |
Source: LSEO's existing ESPN case study. Five of six tracked terms improved from their starting position; the sixth remained in the Top 5 throughout the campaign.
05 / Why It Worked
LSEO added the missing signal instead of rebuilding what ESPN already did well.
ESPN's internal teams had strong content and technical foundations. That made off-site authority a rational lever rather than a substitute for weak pages.
The campaign focused on broad Premier League searches with significant audience potential, not vanity metrics or obscure long-tail wins.
Page-level acquisition concentrated authority on the exact URLs competing for each money term, making the strategy measurable and accountable.
06 / Beyond the Breakthrough
The 90-day win became a longer LSEO relationship.
The Premier League campaign was not a one-and-done project. Following the ranking gains, ESPN has continued to engage LSEO on additional projects.
That continuation matters because enterprise search relationships are rarely won by theory. They are earned by solving a defined problem, proving the result, and becoming a partner the internal team trusts when the next challenge appears.
07 / What This Means in the AI Search Era
The campaign predates modern AI visibility tracking, but the authority lesson still matters.
LSEO does not attribute present-day ESPN visibility in ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews or other answer engines to this historical Premier League campaign. The engagement predates LSEO's current first-party AI visibility measurement.
08 / What Enterprise Marketers Can Learn
Three lessons from ESPN's Premier League campaign.
A powerful domain does not guarantee that every strategically important page has enough authority to win its most competitive queries.
Focusing on high-value, non-branded queries near page one can be more commercially useful than maximizing total keyword count.
ESPN did not need LSEO to replace its internal SEO function. It needed focused expertise in the specific authority gap holding back priority rankings.
09 / Measurement & Data Integrity
The case study uses the ranking history already published by LSEO.
Because this is a historical engagement and no first-party AI visibility data is available from the campaign period, the page stays focused on the ranking evidence that can be directly supported.
10 / FAQs
Frequently asked questions about the ESPN engagement.
What did LSEO do for ESPN?
LSEO executed a focused enterprise link-building campaign for ESPN's UK Premier League pages. The work centered on acquiring authoritative backlinks directly to pages targeting high-volume, non-branded Premier League searches.
What is the LSEO Money Term strategy?
The Money Term strategy prioritizes commercially meaningful, non-branded keywords already within striking distance of stronger search positions, then builds authority directly to the page ranking for that term and measures movement before rotating to the next opportunity.
Which Premier League keywords improved?
Examples include "Premier League results" from #14 to #5, "Premier League fixtures" from #18 to #5, "Premier League scores" from #8 to #4 and the broad term "Premier League" from #31 to #14.
How many tracked keywords reached Google's Top 5?
Five of the six tracked Premier League terms ultimately ranked in Google's Top 5. The tracked set began with two of six in the Top 5.
Did LSEO replace ESPN's internal SEO team?
No. ESPN already had sophisticated content and technical SEO resources. LSEO supplied a specialized off-site authority program designed to complement the internal team and solve a specific ranking problem.
Did ESPN continue working with LSEO?
Yes. Following the success of the Premier League campaign, ESPN has continued to engage LSEO on additional projects.
Related LSEO Capabilities
The services behind enterprise search authority.
Build Authority Where It Matters
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