SEO promotion of medical websites is a rather complicated and time-consuming process: it is subject to increased requirements for the quality of published content. But rapidly losing of website positions in the search may not be the first reason.
We were faced with a challenge: the website had no critical problems in the technical part but the content began to lose positions, and the amount of organic traffic dropped sharply. This problem happened in May 2020 after another update of the Google search engine.
A Client contacted us to find out the reason for the drop in traffic and restore positions and visibility in search results.
1. About the Client
Our Client is the director of a Medical center providing medical services in Ukraine and plastic procedures in Ukraine and Europe.
We have been working with the client for a long time. Periodic cooperation continues for 4 years.
The project was paused due to a problem with a sharp drop in traffic and visibility. The Client asked for advice on "what to do?".
On our part, we tried to convince the Client of the opposite, that the project is interesting and needs to be dealt with in a comprehensive manner (that is, what exactly could lead to the problem) and we, nevertheless, convinced the Client to return in June 2021.
The Client worked only with paid traffic on his own for the period May 2020 - July 2021. Regarding the SEO problem, there was a pause and reflecting on what to do.
As of July 2021, we were faced with an almost complete absence of visitors on the website (July 2021: 50-100 users per day compared to earlier, April 2020: 1500+ users per day) and we start to figure out the problem.
A thorough check revealed a duplicate of the promoted website, which is also owned by the Client as it has appeared. The Client used the second website for advertising. That is on the Client's 2 websites there were the same services and contact information. One website is on the com.ua domain, and the other is just on .ua. There was a blog on one of the websites where articles were posted and some of it "overlapped" in semantics with services, which is an error, and can also be the reason for lowering positions.
As a result, the Client's promoted website fell under the filter, because the websites linked to each other. After the problem has been discovered, the websites were glued using a 301 redirect.
2. How did we derive the website from the filter?
The challenge is that you cannot quickly return to the “before the filter was applied” state. Therefore, it is worthwhile to be patient and think over a plan that needs to be followed for the next few months (at least 3).
Since the website duplicated the content of the another, first of all, it was necessary to get rid of non-unique content.
Medical texts go through a more thorough check before the search engine puts them in the first place in the search results. Therefore, we decided to rewrite all the texts on the service pages (we reassembled the semantics and wrote new texts).
We analyzed the articles from the blog for quality (uniqueness, "water", spam and readability) and semantics so that the keywords do not overlap with the semantics that we have collected for the service pages. Blog articles that did not meet these criteria were corrected and used for external placement (links exchange).
2.1 Texts improvement
Medical content must meet the E-A-T criteria, that is, be expert, authoritative, and trustworthy. For example, you can win the reader's trust with the help of the comments of the doctors themselves in the text, indicating their experience and the meaning of the text itself.
Fig. 1 – Doctors' comments in articles increase reader loyalty
Text information should be structured and understandable, so that the reader could visually concentrate when searching for the end of one section and the beginning of another.
Also, work continued on developing and filling the information blog with articles useful for clients. Readers are looking for answers to many questions about health (for example, how to get rid of snoring) on the Internet. It is not customary to talk about some topics, but constructive explanations can be found on the blog of medical centers for your questions.
Fig. 2 – Blog on the Client's website
The blog is an additional traffic channel for the website. Part of the readers, as a result, are converted into clients of the clinic, so the information should answer the user's questions. And also, it will add credibility and expertise to the website on the part of readers-potential clients.
The blog needs to be carefully planned and developed: the more topics the articles reveal, the more user queries will be satisfied. And the higher the attendance of the Client's website will be.
2.2 Development of the semantic core and metadata
Semantics includes all keywords that are used to describe some kind of activity. In our case, these are the pages of the main services of the medical center, which will be issued in the search for queries from the SС.
Fig. 3 – The result of the correct development of the semantic core and metadata
The Title and Description tags are involved in the formation of the snippet. Possibility of reaching the first positions increases by including relevant information for the user and the search engine, and keys from the collected semantic core, because this data is involved in ranking and responding to the user's query.
After analyzing and collecting semantics, we rewrote all the meta tags on the website taking into account the already collected keywords. It doesn't have an immediate effect, but a well-designed snippet looks more attractive and increases CTR.
2.3 Link strategy development
Links to the promoted website from other related websites and forums can accelerate the growth of awareness and bring new traffic and customers. To do this, we used temporary and permanent links leading to the service pages of the Cleint's project.
Fig. 4 – Number of links BEFORE the websites has been linked each other
Abrupt changes in the number of referring donors and pages indicate that the growth of the link profile occurred in an unnatural way, and this can also cause negative signals in the search engine.
Smooth link building is the best strategy to increase your website visibility and traffic.
Adhering to this tactic, we gradually continue to improve the link profile of the promoted website. In the future we expect the emergence of natural links.
Fig. 5 – Link profile dynamics for November 2020-October 2021
Every month we develop a plan for the next period (month) and generate a report for the previous one. We are currently actively working on new content for posting articles to the blog. Since a blog is a traffic-generating section of the website.
We also continue to work on the link profile and focus on crowd and perpetual links.
3. Deliverables
Our strategy for 4 months has shown a significant increase in website positions and visibility.
Fig. 6 – Dynamics of traffic and visibility of the promoted website
Attendance has increased significantly: the number of visits per day has increased 20-25 times! That is, the search engine stopped applying the filter when ranking the website.
Fig. 7 - Growth in the number of users during the time of working with the website (comparison September 2021 and May 2021)
Fig. 8 – Traffic per May 2021
The increase in conversions to the website was due to improved visibility in Google, as well as the visibility increased due to working with text content.
Now the TOP-10 includes 44% of commercial queries (996 out of 1819). Prior to the start of our work, the website did not occupy the first position for any of the more than 5000 queries.
Fig. 9 – Positions prior to the start of our work
Fig. 10 – The current situation
Now the website of our client often appears on the first page of the search, which increases traffic and brings new clients to the medical center.
Conclusion
Deriving a website from the filter is not as easy as it might seem. Nice results and the return of our Client to the TOP positions in the search require a thorough check and search for new websites for purchasing links, drawing up technical specifications for writing new blog texts, and a regular pace of work on the website.
If you take long breaks, then the result will noticeably begin to deteriorate, and the first places in the organic search will become 10th.
Despite some delays on the part of the Client, we make every effort and sometimes help him place texts so that time and effort isn't wasted (there is no content manager to fill out the website).
If you are ready to constantly cooperate, want to derive the website from filters (if such a situation happened), strengthen and enhance your position in Google - we will be happy to help!
