How we increased organic traffic by 738% in six months through technical SEO, service-page optimisation, content strategy, local SEO and link building.
Spires Oral Care is an established dental practice in Northern Ireland, offering general dentistry, cosmetic treatments and facial aesthetics.
The practice had a strong reputation, experienced clinicians and a wide range of high-quality treatments. The problem was that Google did not seem to know much about any of that.
Despite the quality of the business, the website had limited organic visibility and was attracting very little traffic from relevant searches.
Spires Oral Care approached us in September 2022 to change that.
Over the following six months, we developed and implemented a complete SEO strategy covering keyword research, technical SEO, service-page optimisation, copywriting, blog content, local SEO and link building.
The result was a 738.2% increase in monthly organic users, alongside significant growth in keyword visibility and first-page rankings.
Not bad for six months’ work.
The results at a glance
In six months, we achieved:
- •+738.2% monthly organic traffic: from 170 to 1,425 users
- •+971.6% total ranking keywords: from 127 to 1,361 keywords
- •+3,100% growth in keywords ranking in the top three: from 1 to 32 keywords
These results came from improving the whole website rather than relying on one isolated tactic.
We fixed technical issues, improved the commercial pages, created useful content, strengthened local visibility and built relevant links to the domain.
In other words, we gave Google more reasons to understand, trust and rank the website.
The results at a glance
Spires Oral Care already had the ingredients of a strong dental brand.
They offered a wide range of treatments, invested in modern equipment and had extensive experience across cosmetic dentistry, facial aesthetics and general dental care.
However, the website was not reflecting that strength in organic search.
Important pages were not properly optimised, the blog section had indexing issues, page titles and descriptions needed work, and the website did not have a clear content strategy targeting the searches potential patients were making.
There were also technical and structural issues making it harder for search engines to crawl, understand and rank the website.
The goal was not simply to generate more traffic. We wanted to attract more of the right traffic: people searching for dental treatments and aesthetic services in the areas served by the practice.
What we did
1. Researched how potential patients were searching
Every good SEO campaign starts with understanding search demand.
We carried out detailed keyword research to identify how potential patients searched for the treatments provided by Spires Oral Care.
This included commercially valuable service searches, local queries and informational questions related to dentistry and facial aesthetics.
We looked at factors such as:
- The relevance of each keyword to the practice
- The intent behind the search
- Estimated search demand
- The strength of competing pages
- Whether the keyword required a service page, blog article or local landing page
That research gave us a clear roadmap.
Rather than writing content for the sake of publishing something new, each page and article had a specific purpose within the wider SEO strategy.
2. Fixed technical SEO issues
Â
Before creating more content, we needed to make sure the website’s technical foundations were working properly.
Blog indexing
The blog section contained a noindex directive, which meant search engines were being told not to include the articles in search results.
We removed the directive so Google could crawl, index and rank the content.
It is difficult for a blog to generate organic traffic when Google has effectively been asked to ignore it.
Title tag optimisation
We rewrote page titles to make them clearer, more natural and more relevant to the content of each page.
Title tags help search engines understand a page, but they also appear prominently in search results. They therefore need to support rankings while giving users a good reason to click.
Redirect improvements
We implemented the correct redirect between the non-www and www versions of the website.
This ensured users and search engines consistently reached the preferred version of each URL, helping to avoid unnecessary duplication and split authority.
Homepage heading optimisation
We added and optimised the homepage H1 heading around the practice’s core offering.
A clear heading structure makes a page easier for users to scan and gives search engines a better understanding of its main subject.
Meta descriptions
We wrote optimised meta descriptions for important service pages.
Meta descriptions are not a direct ranking factor, but they can influence how attractive a result looks in Google. Better descriptions can help improve click-through rates by clearly explaining what users will find on the page.
URL structure
We simplified URLs to make them easier to read and understand.
Cleaner URLs provide clearer context to users and search engines, while also making pages easier to share and manage.
3. Optimised service pages and wrote new content
Technical SEO created the right foundation, but the website also needed stronger content.
We worked closely with Spires Oral Care to improve key service pages across dentistry and facial aesthetics.
The copy needed to do several jobs at once:
- Clearly explain each treatment
- Answer the questions potential patients were likely to have
- Reflect the practice’s expertise
- Target relevant keywords naturally
- Encourage users to enquire or book
We avoided forcing keywords into copy where they did not belong. Instead, we built each page around the information a prospective patient would genuinely need before making contact.
This helped make the pages more useful for visitors and more relevant to the searches we wanted them to rank for.
4. Built a focused dental content strategy
Alongside the commercial pages, we created a blog strategy targeting relevant informational searches.
Each article was based on keyword research and selected because it supported a treatment offered by the practice.
For example, content around teeth whitening could attract someone researching the treatment before they were ready to choose a dentist.
Rather than ending the journey at the blog post, we used internal links to guide readers towards relevant service pages and enquiry options.
This allowed the content to do more than generate traffic. It helped introduce potential patients to the practice and connected informational searches with the services Spires Oral Care provided.
5. Improved local SEO visibility
For a dental practice, local visibility is essential.
Most prospective patients are not looking for a dentist hundreds of miles away. They are searching for a trusted practice within a convenient area.
We reviewed and optimised the Spires Oral Care Google Business Profile, making sure that key business information was accurate, current and consistent with the website.
This supported stronger visibility in local search and gave prospective patients clearer information about the practice before visiting the website.
We also made sure the website content supported local relevance, helping Google connect the practice with the locations and communities it served.
6. Improved the user journey
SEO is not only about getting more people onto a website. The website also needs to help those people take the next step.
We introduced live chat functionality, allowing prospective patients to ask questions and contact the practice more easily.
This helped reduce friction for users who were interested in a treatment but not yet ready to call or complete a longer enquiry form.
Traffic is useful. Traffic that can easily start a conversation is much more valuable.
7. Strengthened the website’s link profile
We also carried out a targeted link-building campaign.
The goal was to earn relevant external links from reputable websites, strengthening the authority signals pointing towards the domain.
Link building works best when it supports a website that already has strong technical foundations and useful content. Links alone cannot fix weak pages, but they can help good pages compete more effectively in search results.
By combining on-site improvements with off-site authority building, we gave the website a stronger overall SEO foundation.
We also reviewed review/rating schema opportunities. Instead of forcing markup that could become inaccurate or unreliable, we took the sensible route.
Technical SEO should make a website stronger, not messier. Sometimes the best optimisation is knowing what not to add.
The results
The results over six months:
- • Between October 2022 and March 2023, monthly organic users increased from 170 to 1,425.
- • That represents growth of 738.2% in just six months.
- • The website expanded from ranking for 127 keywords to 1,361, an increase of 971.6%.
- • The number of targeted keywords ranking in Google’s top three positions grew from 1 to 32.
These improvements meant Spires Oral Care was no longer almost invisible in organic search. The website was appearing across a much broader range of relevant dental and aesthetics queries, including searches closely connected to the treatments offered by the practice.
Why the strategy worked
The campaign worked because we did not treat SEO as a checklist of disconnected tasks.
- The keyword research guided the strategy.
- The technical work made the website easier to crawl and understand.
- The service-page copy targeted commercial searches.
- The blog content expanded topical visibility.
- The local SEO connected the practice with nearby patients.
- The links strengthened the website’s authority.
Each part supported the others.
Publishing blog content without fixing the indexing problem would have achieved very little. Building links to weak or poorly optimised pages would have limited their value. Increasing traffic without improving the user journey would have left more potential enquiries on the table.
By working across the full website, we created the conditions for sustainable organic growth.
Client feedback
The client was pleased with both the results and the service they received, leaving us a five-star review on our Google profile.
Results matter, but so does being easy to work with. We aim to provide both.
Want similar results?
Is your website offering a great service but struggling to get found in Google?
We can help with the whole process: SEO strategy, technical optimisation, copywriting, content and authority building.
Get in touch with Doctorank for a free SEO audit, and let’s find out what is holding your website back.
