The Q1 2025 benchmarking report for UK childcare providers has just been published. Learn how 12 of the largest UK childcare providers perform across the digital space. 

The latest Q1 2025 benchmarking report for UK Childcare providers has just been published. It covers 12 large national childcare providers, including Bright Horizons UK, Childbase Partnership, Kids Planet Day Nurseries, Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries, Thrive Childcare and Education, Little Pioneers, Grandir UK, Banana Moon Franchise, Happy Days Nurseries & Pre-Schools, Fennies Nurseries, Tiny Toez, and Family First Day Nurseries.

The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other childcare providers to win brand exposure locally, build organic visibility, and generate online enquiries. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.

To see a preview and contents page of the Q1 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.

Q1 2025 WINNERS LEADERBOARD

For a glance into just 6 of the metrics, we evaluated these 12 childcare providers on, check out our quick-look table below;

Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's top and poorest-performing childcare providers, or request a copy of the report for the full review.

Request the report

What The Industry Research Report Covers

The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each site based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.  

Driving Optimal ROAS from Paid Media Channels

Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing.  Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.

Technical Website Compliance

Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. Childcare providers won't have content which faces frequent changes, such as product pages, so brands in this sector should be able to effectively maintain technical website compliance.

Happy Days Nurseries & Pre-Schools reported the most 4xx errors (536). This childcare provider should assess all internal links and ensure they point to the correct pages. For external links, a link-checking tool can identify broken outbound links, and this provider should update/remove them accordingly.

Site Speed & Conversion Rate Performance

When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. Building trust is crucial for brands within the childcare sector, so these providers will want to ensure their site is fast, and gives an excellent impression of their services at every touch point.

The mobile site speed for this quarter ranged between 75 and 19, with Happy Days Nurseries & Pre-Schools reporting the lowest speed. Taking steps to increase their mobile site speed will help to reduce bounce rates and improve the web experience for users, encouraging them to return time and time again.

Building Competitive Advantage with Domain Authority

Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. An effective digital PR strategy can help any childcare provider achieve high-value backlinks.

A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. The DA score for this quarter ranged between 75 and 19, with 7 providers not reporting in the ‘good’ zone. However, the one to watch is Happy Days Nurseries & Pre-Schools. This childcare provider also reported the fewest backlinks and backlinks from the fewest domains and should consider developing relationships with authority websites in their space to help increase their backlinks.

Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop

A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. Though many sectors we specialise in are seeing the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, and battling for a smaller pool of potential customers, childcare is an essential service for many families, limiting the potential for users to turn elsewhere for alternative solutions.

Two of the childcare providers reported a decrease in organic traffic on desktop, while only 4 saw a decrease on mobile. Banana Moon Franchise saw the biggest loss on desktop (-70%), though reported a +1,200% on mobile. This suggests that all providers should regularly assess which device receives the highest traffic so they can optimise their website for the device that receives the least traffic.

Universal Search Opportunity

Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a site can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. For childcare providers, who want to build trust, 'reviews' and 'image pack' results are a great way to tell (and show) parents more about their nurseries.

Bright Horizons UK secured the most Universal Search appearances (4,210), with the majority of these coming from ‘images’. On the other hand, Banana Moon Franchise reported the fewest appearances for ‘images’ (10) and should ensure all images are optimised with alt information.

The Longtail Keyword Opportunity

Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for brand new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Longtail keywords for nurseries may reflect prospective parents looking for specific details about the locations, such as for information about food menus and outdoor facilities, or they could be focused on fee information and funding.

Brighton Horizons UK reported the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (742) and positions 4–10 (1,367). A longtail keyword strategy can lead to higher conversion rates by using specific phrases, so it’s important that all childcare providers regularly assess (and if necessary, update) their longtail keyword strategy.

Facebook Adverts

With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019. Childcare providers can use Facebook ads to target specific areas where they have more places available, and advertise any upcoming open days that can provide in-person opportunities to convert.

We’ve included examples of Kids Planet Day Nurseries’ sponsored posts. This provider should reduce their text to help with scannability for social media users.

Top Social Shares & Content

When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your brand engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Childcare providers can look to creating shareable content about child development, nutrition, and education as a simple way to get high levels of engagement and build trust in their brand.

Bright Horizons UK has the most Facebook Likes (47,600) and the most Instagram followers (13,600). All well-engaged social media following can improve a brand’s visibility and increase their traffic, helping to increase their position in SERPs.

Website Readability & Accessibility

20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, brands lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. For childcare providers needing to build trust, they must ensure accessibility is one of their foremost considerations when developing their site.

Happy Days Nurseries & Pre-Schools reported the most accessibility alerts (231). This childcare provider should regularly conduct a thorough accessibility alert audit to identify common problems, such as missing alt text, low colour contrast or improper heading structure.

GET THE FULL 70-PAGE Q1 2025 REPORT

To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Mike Movassaghi.

Photo by Ben Wicks on Unsplash