33% annual organic traffic growth in “under the filter” domain conditions

Client

The clinic of German Medicine in Kyiv, specializing in high-quality surgery for complicated cases.

The key directions of treatment

• Gynaecology
• Mammology
• Surgery
• Urology
• Proctology
• Oncogynaecology
• Surgical Oncology
• Urologic Oncology
• Proctological Oncology

Our goal

Increase of organic traffic on the site and, subsequently, an increase in conversions on the site in the priority directions defined by the client:

• Gynaecology
• Proctology
• Mammology
• Oncology

Source data and project features

Region: Kyiv and oblast

Start of work: October 20, 2021

Project features: the site worked on Joomla in the beginning, and later migrated to WordPress at the end of 2021.

Language of promotion: Russian

Search Engine: Google

Software developers and copywriters are assigned by the client; physicians are directly involved in writing articles for the site.

Challenges

• During the initial analysis of the site, our team had a sneaking suspicion there was a Google filter on the domain, since the optimization of landing pages was not worse than that of competitors, while the position was way lower.
• Unoptimized (duplicate) meta tags for the key pages.
• A weak, low-competitive link profile, non-scheduled purchase of links from low-quality donor domains.
• The site was in the run on the companies list, more than 70 low-quality domains.

Comparative analysis with the competitors

When taking over the project, our team conducted a comparative analysis of the main indicators of the client’s site compared to its competitors:

As you can see from the comparative analysis, the client’s site was losing in traffic to all competitors: with a relatively strong site DR – the lowest traffic metrics.

Given equal keyword counts with the competitor №4, the traffic is 3.5x lower, which proved our theory of poorly designed semantics for the landing pages of services.

For example, for the query “treatment of lung cancer” all competitors are ranked in the top 10, and the client’s site – at the 74th position.

However, the landing page of the promoted site is filled with information at the same level as that of competitors. The same situation is true for the majority of high-priority pages.

Additionally, the Ukrainian version of the site has not been implemented.

There is no blog for information requests on the site.

Selected work strategy

Technical audit of the site

The first stage of working on the project – a complete technical audit of the site and its internal optimization, as well as drafting recommendations for the correction of critical errors.

A distinctive feature of this specification is that it was required to identify critical errors, as well as to prevent their recurrence in the new CMS site.

Later on, following the implementation of the new CMS, our experts conducted an additional check on the specification items to make sure there are no errors on the new site.

Analysis of getting the site under the Google filters

Due to the fact that during the incoming analysis, we had some concerns about Google filters being imposed on the domain, our team conducted a thorough analysis and audit of the site and took a number of actions to improve the situation.

Example: section that is perfectly designed for internal optimization

site/kompyuternaya-tomografiya, yet was completely unranked by Google.

In this case, we decided to conduct the test with a change of directory with and without a 301 redirect: we created a new directory page site/kt-diagnostika/, set up a redirect with site/kompyuternaya-tomografiya to the new page.

Changing the directory did not give us the expected results, and 23.02.22 after four months of the project promotion and a lack of positive dynamics, we offered the client two options to remove the site from the filter:

1. Conservative — continue to consistently work with the site (elaboration of semantic core, meta tags, texts, increase link profile) and wait for the next update, which will allow the search engine to fully re-evaluate the site. In case the situation does not change after the update – proceed to point 2.

2. Radical — change the domain without waiting for an update (that is, in the near future). There is a risk that the filter will be passed with 301 redirect, as well as the risk of subsidence of existing positions (however, if you change the domain correctly, they will be minimized).

Starting from February 24, 2022, the project was suspended due to the outbreak of full-scale hostilities, returning to the discussion back in May 2022: the client opted for the second course of action, the radical one.

While discussing a new domain for the site, the search engine held a Core Update in May, following which the percentage of queries output on the worked-out pages increased from 2% to 8%.

October 2022 Core Update raised to another 14% of the output on the first page, following which it became clear that Google saw all our improvements and the issue of changing the domain was solved.

Semantic core

The first stage of working on the Semantic Core

Along with the technical audit of the site, we started working on the collection of semantic core for the priority directions defined by the client. Due to the fact that the clinic specializes in the surgery of complex cases, we selected the following for the first period:

Gynaecology:

• Ovarian cyst
• Uterine myoma
• Hysteroscopy
• Removal of uterine polyp
• Cervical dysplasia
• Gynecologist consultation

Urology:

• Transrectal resection of the prostate
• Crushing of kidney (ureter) stones
• Lithotripsy

Proctology:

• Hemorrhoids
• Proctologist consultation

General Surgery:

• Gallbladder stones
• Hernia removal

Mammology:

• Mammalogist consultation
• Breast fibroadenoma

Diagnosis:

• CT
• Colonoscopy

Oncology:

• Oncologist consultation
• Oncology

The second stage of working on the Semantic Core

While working on the semantic core and semantic groups for the priorities, we found “cannibal pages,” duplicating the content of the main page, which may negatively affect the growth of the main category positions.

Our optimizers have reviewed all pages of the site on the basic (promoted) requests, preparing the ToR for “gluing similar pages”.

An example of “cannibal pages”:

site/lechenie-gemorroya

The queries by which the page was ranked:

Second example: site/gemorroi

The queries by which the page was ranked:

The third stage of working on the semantic core

Upon working out and optimizing priority pages – collecting semantic core, updating MT and texts – we have come to the stage of expanding the semantic core and the allocation of narrower areas of services in separate pages.

For example, from the “Gynaecology” group, we highlighted a group of queries for the Women’s Consultation, and after optimization it came to the top for many queries.

From the “Hemorrhoid Treatment” group we have highlighted and optimized the following pages:

Thrombectomy, Hemorrhoids (external, acute, internal), Longo surgery, etc.

An example for Thrombectomy:

site/gemorroi/trombektomiya-gemorroidalnyh-uzlov

An example for the Longo surgery page:

site/gemorroi/operacziya-longo

Building up an external link mass

At the early stage of the project, our experts analyzed the existing link profile, rejecting all low-quality and spammy donors, which could affect the growth of positions.

Having analyzed and revised our link profile, we started building up links from quality and trusted domains. The main focus was on the medical sites.

We used the following link procurement methods during the project:

• Outreach
• Purchasing through link exchanges
• Registration on trust directories and platforms
• Registration on review sites
• Crowd Marketing

E-A-T factors

It should be noted that the following E-A-T factors: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness were well-established on the project.

The texts for the service pages were written and/or proofread by the clinic’s physicians, as confirmed on the service pages.

The website has patients’ testimonials as well as video testimonials.

We have also finalized pages about the clinic’s equipment, “About the clinic” page, as well as the information on available service payment options.

Results on the project

The priority highly-competitive directions defined by the client showed an increase from 30% to 150% compared to the original traffic.

In the “Gynaecology” direction the traffic increased by 300% from the start of work until December 31, 2022, with a small slump at the end of 2021 (when the site moved to a new CMS):

200% growth in mammalogy direction:

100% growth in proctology direction:

150% growth in surgery direction:

300% growth in oncology direction:

Conclusion

Despite the assumption that a Google filter was applied to the domain, we continued to improve and optimize the site pages, which had a positive effect on the growth dynamics of the site. All succeeding Google updates significantly improved the project’s visibility in the search engine.

Our team achieved such results thanks to:

• a detailed semantic core;
• well-written content;
• internal optimization of priority pages;
• a good selection of donors for building up external links.

Project participants:

Project Managers: Oleksandra Nesina

Optimizer: Nataliia Pronina/Lehkobyt Andrii

Linker: Yevhen Fedchenko