SEO case: from 0 to 10,000 organic traffic — medical services website promotion

Difficulties encountered

At the start of the work there was no understanding of what the competitors were breathing and why they were taking their positions.

Therefore, to begin with, we conducted a niche analysis, as a result of which we planned 4 iterations for the preparation of the semantic core:

• Over 90 pages of spot services for the treatment of a number of diseases in Germany
• Around 40-60 informational articles for a corporate blog

Together with the NS we started content and link analysis of our competitors:

– prepared reference strategy

– started creating the content structure and ToR for each page of the service

– started working on the content marketing

Additionally we worked over the structure and definition of the main sections for new pages with diseases.

Bottom line, major challenges:

• The site was mostly empty
• The site did not have an intuitive structure
• A certain portion of priority service pages were missing (about 35%)
• Content was not optimized: text structure, titles, meta tags
• The site did not have most of the standard technical characteristics (sitemap.xml; robots.txt; microdata, CNC, etc.)

Promotion strategy

Primary tasks of the project, which were completed in the first 2 months:

1. Formation of basic ToRs for the programmer and content person for the site.
2. Gathering a core of requests for priority categories of services and articles.
3. Creation of the correct structure of the site.
4. Carrying out of the niche analysis and definition of the pool of the main competitors
5. Content works based on the analysis of the content of competitors (creating the structure, text, titles, meta)
6. Expansion of the index through thematic articles
7. Link strategy

Stages of optimization work

Stage 1: Technical and SEO site audit

At the end of which, collected and brought to the programmer the implementation of basic tasks:

• Creating robots.txt file, XML and HTML sitemap;
• Installing SSL certificate;
• The formation of the structure of pages, adjustment of the menu in the header and footer;
• Removing double pages, setting redirects;
• Connecting and configuring webmasters;
• Installing the counter Google Analytics
• Output breadcrumbs;
• Speeding up site load speed;
• Optimizing the mobile version;
• Implementation of micro markup Articles, Breadcrumbs, Organization;
• Works to remove erroneous pages from the index;
• Removal of pages from the old version of the site, setting up redirects;
• Optimization of the side menu;
• Other tasks.

* Note: It was about the elaboration of the entire site, both in terms of technical and SEO. All pages were fully developed against the background of the client’s priorities with a glance at competitors from the issuance.

Step 2: Collecting and preparing the semantic core

A multi-iteration process with sequential collection of queries, distribution of them to their pages, and subsequent approval with the client. As we collected the kernel, we got even more coverage on related services, which allowed us to create and optimize even more landing pages later.

In the process of collecting the semantic core, we found a number of info-queries that were suitable for further writing thematic articles. Thus, we not only optimized the main pages, but also developed the site as a whole and expanded the index in particular.

Step 3: Create content

At the stage of analyzing the content of competitors faced, in general, a multi-tiered, maximum detailed content structure, where each concept, description of the service and the nuances associated with it on the site is given capaciously and clearly. Therefore, steps were taken to identify a number of key players in the market and their content analysis with the formation of the most complete structure, the volume of texts and qualitatively spelled out meta.
Based on the study of the content of the main competitors from the issuance, in addition, based on the priorities of the client, were implemented:

• Multi-iteration complex ToR for page content optimization (structure, text, titles, meta);
• Writing, testing and subsequent placement of the text;
• His indexing and control of movement in search.

In the process of writing and placing the texts we had to show the new and fully optimized pages to search engines as quickly as possible, so we started reindexing the landing pages in webmasters and placing backlinks to the site. The result – a rapid increase in the number of indexed pages on the site:

Step 4: Forming a Linking Strategy

Monthly growth of link mass due to the procurement.

• Key competitors were identified by Yandex;
• Downloaded link profiles of direct competitors;
• Search for donors;
• Checking each domain for quality parameters;
• Determining the required monthly budget for links;
• Publishing links

Maintaining a constant dynamics of text placement and backlinks – in a short time landing pages began to take the top places in extradition (see p.3.).

In addition, we have received an increase of 4-fold from the original indicators literally 4 months of promotion:

General dynamics of the semantic core

Start indicators

At the start of promotion on the collected semantic core site had the following positions:

– top-50 — 0%
– top-20 — 0%
– top-10 — 0%
– top-5 — 0%
– top-3 — 0%

Results after 11 months

By key query groups:

– top 50 – 92 average (+92%)
– top 20 – 83 average (+83%)
– top 10 – 50 average (+50%)
– Top-5 – 19 average (+19%)
– top-3 – 7 average (+7%)

Instead of a conclusion

At the start of the project, after proper study, there was a complete understanding of the competition in the niche and its main players. The most direct competitors were identified, the visibility of which we could achieve in the first quarter. Therefore, it was decided initially to dedicate most of the time to a combination of analytics and building the right content marketing. That was the basis of our strategy. We ended up with a combination:

• correction of technical and visual errors;
• defining the main services and maximizing the allocation of services to sub-services;
• preparation of content strategy;
• systematic development of the reference profile;
• development of the project by writing new thematic articles, creating a section of the Glossary, shooting a video for the main pages of services, etc.

Due to what, the project has received and continues to receive adequate growth in organics. We hope the case will be useful!