The Q2 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 Q2 2025 benchmarking report for UK Childcare providers has just been published. It covers 12 large national childcare providers, including Bright Horizons, Childbase, Thrive Childcare and Education, Kids Planet, Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries, Little Pioneers, Banana Moon Franchise, Family First Day Nurseries, Fennies Nurseries, Grandir UK, Happy Days Nurseries & Pre-Schools, and The Old Station Nursery Group.

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 Q2 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.

Q2 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.

Pay-Per-Click Marketing

Pay-Per-Click marketing is constantly evolving, with more and more advertisers being forced to hand over a lot of control to Google's algorithms as the push for automation grows ever stronger. There are still key elements of control that we have though, the main one of these being budget which is ultimately something the algorithms can't take from you. That's why being smart with your budget and ad coverage is essential to achieving strong results and bettering what your competitors have to offer.

There are varying monthly ad budgets across the competitors in the report. While this gap highlights the competitive advantage that larger budgets can provide, it's not just about spending more; it’s about spending smarter. By focusing on driving efficiency in campaign management, targeting, and budget allocation, businesses with smaller budgets can still effectively compete with larger players. Investing in data-driven strategies and refining ad performance can help close the gap and maximise the return on every pound spent, enabling growth even in a competitive landscape.

The report highlights the importance of budget efficiency by comparing monthly ad spend with estimated CPC in relation to your competitors, see who has the highest and lowest CPC. To maximise the effectiveness of your budget, it’s essential to focus on driving CPC down while maintaining or improving campaign performance.

By optimising targeting, refining ad copy, and leveraging data to identify high-converting opportunities, you can ensure every click delivers maximum value. This approach not only stretches your budget further but also boosts your return on ad spend (ROAS), enabling you to achieve stronger results without simply increasing expenditure.

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.

In our previous report, Thrive Childcare and Education reported 29 4xx errors. This quarter, Thrive Childcare and Education has reduced their 4xx errors to 5, and they’re no longer the brand to watch. Instead, Happy Days Nurseries & Pre-Schools reported the highest number of 4xx errors (233). This UK childcare provider should consider including redirect links from any broken/redundant pages.

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.

In our previous audit, Kids Planet reported the slowest mobile site speed (22). This quarter, Kids Planet has increased their mobile site speed to 29, and they’re no longer reporting the slowest site speed. The mobile site speed for this quarter ranged between 48 and 11, with Little Pioneers reporting the slowest speed. This UK childcare provider should reassess their website’s content to look for ways to reduce page weight, which will help to have a positive impact on mobile site speed.

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 62 and 13, with Banana Moon Franchise reporting the lowest DA. This UK childcare provider should consider building relationships with trustworthy brands with a similar target audience to help increase their online outreach and secure quality 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 providers reported a decrease in organic traffic on desktop, while Banana Moon Franchise saw the biggest increase (+1544%). For mobile, 4 providers reported a decrease in traffic, while Kids Planet saw the biggest increase (+389%). This data shows that consumers use various devices to visit websites, and brands should take this into consideration when optimising their websites for usability.

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 continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (4,740) — a slight reduction from 4,768 in the last quarter. The majority of Bright Horizons’ appearances came from ‘images’ (3,400), which is the same for all providers.

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.

Bright Horizons secured the most longtail keyword appearances on desktop for position 3 (674) and positions 4–10 (1,315). While further down the leaderboard for position 3, Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries secured 217 appearances for positions 4–10. Receiving results for positions 4–10 is an effective and quick way for brands to improve their online ranking in search engines.

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 screenshots of Kids Planet’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK childcare provider clearly considered line breaks with their posts, helping to encourage social media users to read their content.

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 has the most Facebook Likes (47,500) and the most Instagram followers (13,800). All childcare providers should regularly monitor their social media channels to ensure they’re responding to questions social media users leave on their platforms.

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.

In our previous report, Little Pioneers flagged 75 accessibility alerts. This quarter, Little Pioneers has reduced these alerts to 68 and is no longer the brand to watch. Instead, Happy Days Nurseries & Pre-Schools reported the highest accessibility alerts (291). This childcare provider should spend time assessing their website for opportunities to reduce these alerts to help build trust with visitors.

GET THE FULL 70-PAGE Q2 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 Rory Tarplee.