► The Brief
Lots of thin pages, automatic links pointing at the wrong people, and nothing for fans to actually do.
► What I Built
Infinite Lives rewrote the content and added fan features.
- Fan ratings and rankings on every film.
- Two shareable quizzes with result cards.
- Rewritten film pages with cast tables and checked clips.
- True story articles and a blog with guides.
- Cleaner links and SEO across the whole site.
The brief
Rise of the Footsoldier is a British film series about the Essex Boys, and the Rise of the Footsoldier fan site covers every film, the characters, the cast and the true story behind them. It is our own site. It had plenty of pages but too many were thin, some automatic links pointed to the wrong people, and there was nothing for fans to actually do. Infinite Lives cleaned up the content, rewrote the film pages and gave fans reasons to stay and share.
What we built
Fan ratings and rankings
Every film page has one-tap star ratings, and a Fan Rankings table on the homepage and films page puts the films in order by what fans think. Characters get reactions, and fans can vote for their favourite quotes to push them up the list. Votes are counted without storing anyone’s IP address.
Two quizzes made for sharing
“How well do you know Rise of the Footsoldier?” and “Which Footsoldier character are you?” each end with a verdict and share buttons for WhatsApp, Facebook and X, with a share card for the result.
Rewritten film pages
The film pages were rewritten with cast tables, checked clips and where-to-watch links, and the newest film, Morocco, has its own page and homepage card.
The true story and the people
New true story articles cover the real events and places behind the films, with properly credited Wikimedia Commons images. Character pages gained their own story sections and link to the actor and their first film, and cast pages list the characters each actor plays. Quotes were checked against the films.
A blog and guides
A new blog carries news, guides and features, including the films in order, whether there will be another film, Pat Tate across all the films and a round-up of what the critics said.
Cleaner links, faster pages
The automatic linker no longer links lone first names or the wrong film, and broken links across more than a hundred pages were cleaned up. Videos now play on a click instead of loading up front, and images load as you scroll.
Search basics
Shorter titles, a description on every page that should be found, canonical addresses, FAQ markup and a sitemap trimmed to the pages that matter, with old addresses redirected.
The result
A fan site with real content behind every film and character, and things for fans to do: rate the films, take the quizzes, pick their favourite lines and share the results.
Screenshots
See it live: the Rise of the Footsoldier fan site.