⬆️ Winners in the Search Innovation category

    Send request
    and get an offer

      Send request
      and get an offer

      Growth of organic traffic for the network of medical clinics from 162.5 thousand to 2.5 million visits per year

      Author
      Author: Tetiana Khramova
      Optimizer
      Reviewer
      Head of SEO
      2022-03-21

      For the teaser image:

      Customer

      Multidisciplinary medical network of clinics in Kyiv, providing services to adults and children.

      Our task

      The main task set before us is to increase non-branded search traffic.

      In November 2018, we started working on the project.

      The client additionally provided a list of priority medical areas for work: gynecology, cardiology, pediatrics, surgery, oncology, emergency care, a hospital with a list of services for the treatment of diseases, and top procedures in the context of each of the listed areas. In June-August 2019, 5 more new areas of the clinic were taken into work: insurance, dentistry, vertebrology, patronage service, diagnostics.

      Niche and competitor analysis

      We began work on the project with an analysis of competitors in each medical area.

      We faced different types of competition in the search results:

      Competing for a position on the first page of Google search results was not easy, and we risked losing our budget with no return.

      Since the instructions for Google assessors pay special attention to medical topics, one of the key elements of the promotion was to refine the site to fully comply with the instructions.

      The provision of medical services has a local link. Key requests related to the provision of services for the diagnosis, counseling and direct treatment of diseases are mainly geo-dependent. Patients rarely go to other regions for treatment, the only exceptions are serious diagnoses.

      In addition, the list of key medical queries contains information queries, a large proportion of which falls on high-frequency short queries related to the search for data on the symptoms and causes of diseases. The user is not yet ready to apply for services to the clinic, he is only interested in the disease — and such traffic also needs to be collected on the site through properly-organized content.

      As a result, we identified 3 types of traffic, which we planned to work on attracting:

      What was analyzed on competitors’ websites

      Advantages and disadvantages of top sites from the point of view of the average user:

      The compiled list of shortcomings was used as a list of recommendations for improving the site being promoted.

      We also analyzed how exactly users can come to the site, what types of pages can be entry points.

      Semantic core

      At the start of the work, we collected a semantic core of 600 key queries, divided into 33 semantic groups. In the future, we will expand the semantic core every month. Today, work is underway on 2868 keywords (118 semantic groups).

      We work with the following types of landing pages:

      According to the organizational structure, the network of clinics includes individual specialized medical centers, for example, the Center for Oncology, the Center for Vertebrology, the Center for Cardiology, and others.

      The work is carried out with each separate direction, which made it possible to compete in search results in all major niches of medicine.

      Content

      EAT and YMYL

      Persuasive content that builds user trust is the most important component of a medical website.

      A “sheet” of well-known text optimized for key queries does not motivate users to make an appointment with a doctor, so we developed the structure of selling pages. When preparing content, we constantly asked ourselves the question: “Will the user trust their health, time, and money to the clinic by studying the information on the page”?

      When writing content, the EAT evaluation criteria (expertise, authority, and reliability) and YMYL with instructions for Google assessors were taken into account.

      To meet the criterion of expertise, our copywriters prepared the content together with specialized clinic doctors with relevant medical competence. The information was prepared professionally, clearly presented articles were written simultaneously by several authors. New materials on the site are published monthly — consistently and without interruption.

      All materials on the site are regularly reviewed, analyzed, and updated by our optimizers.

      Development of pages based on instructions for Google assessors + usability

      Development of pages based on instructions for Google assessors + usability

      We based the structure of the page on the instructions for Google assessors, which indicate special requirements for the YMYL theme.

      Other edits:

      Software edits

      At the start of work, our specialists performed a technical audit of the site and eliminated software errors:

      To increase the CTR of pages and natural traffic, the project optimizers are constantly working to improve the snippet: we are experimenting with adding Emoji and special characters to the title, description, and breadcrumbs.

      Download speed improvement

      We have improved the page loading speed of the site from the “red” zone to the “green” zone, based on PageSpeed ​​indicators.

      External optimization

      background

      The project had unnatural dynamics in the number of referring domains: throughout history, there were three periods of unnatural growth and a decrease in the number of donor domains:

      A year before the start of our work, the number of external donor domains was increased, on average, by 60 sites:

      What was done

      Our optimizers conducted a detailed analysis of the existing link mass on the project, sending 245 domains for rejection through the Disavow service.

      In the medical niche, “crowd marketing” is effective for the project: thanks to the careful selection of thematic threads on the forums, we received natural transitions to the site through referral links.

      In addition, our specialists carried out work on the purchase of links and the placement of press releases on trust news resources. To improve the reputation of the medical network, we have prepared press releases about the achievements of the clinic in the field of medicine and its merits.

      The general graph of the dynamics of growth in the number of referring domains to the project over the past year:

      Working with Google. My business"

      We have carried out work on the registration and optimization of Google cards. My business" for each clinic of the medical network, broken down by line of business.

      Today we are working with 24 branch cards.

      Our monthly work package for each card includes:

      The work is carried out jointly with the specialists of the clinic.

      Results

      Free search traffic at the start of work was 162,652 visits in November 2018, and this figure in November 2019 reached 2,494,653 visits.

      Comparison of free search traffic figures for November 2018 and 2019:

      The general schedule for the growth of project attendance for the entire period of work from November 2018 to November 2019:

      Of the 2868 keywords that are actively promoted today, 1740 queries are in the top 10 of Google. Below we have given several examples of the dynamics of positions by groups of requests:

      According to the serpstat.com service, the visibility of the project as a whole in Google search results over the past year has increased from 27.67 (data for 12/18/2018) to 434.94 (data for 12/06/2019).

      The general graph of the growth of the visibility of the project as a whole in Google search results over the past year:

      According to the serpstat.com service, the total number of keywords for which a domain ranks in the top 100 of Google has grown over the past year from 51,618 (data for 12/18/2018) to 1,122,949 (data for 12/06/2019 .).

      The overall graph of the growth in the number of keywords for which the domain is ranked in the top 100 Google over the past year:

      Conclusion

      In the work on the project, our specialists focused on competent content and optimization of each promoted page. The constant expansion of the site structure contributed to the monthly increase in free search traffic on the project over the predicted figures.