How a Digital Health Platform Grew from 100K to 600K+ Monthly Organic Visits
The client is a US-focused digital health platform where people ask doctors health questions online. As part of its SEO team since 2022, and later as SEO Team Lead, I worked on the technical, content and authority changes behind its organic growth.
Results summary
| Client | US-focused digital health platform (name withheld) where people ask doctors health questions online |
| Market | United States, YMYL health and medical searches |
| Competitors | Established health publishers including WebMD and Healthline |
| My role | SEO Analyst from 2022, then Senior SEO Analyst, then SEO Team Lead |
| Scope | Technical SEO, internal linking, content strategy, E-E-A-T, AI search, link building, team leadership |
| Outcome | Organic traffic from 100K to 600K+ monthly visits; Top 3 US rankings for 50+ competitive keywords; 1M+ AI citations; 40% of traffic recovered after the Nov 2023 core update |
Competing with the biggest names in health search
The platform publishes a very large library of doctor-answered health questions and condition content. That scale is a strength, but it creates three classic problems for a YMYL site:
- Crawl and indexation. With 100K+ pages, Google was not reliably finding and indexing the pages that mattered most, while low-value URLs competed for crawl attention.
- Weak internal linking. Valuable, high-intent pages were buried deep in the site with few internal links pointing at them.
- The YMYL quality bar. Ranking against WebMD and Healthline requires content that clearly demonstrates medical expertise, accurate sourcing and trust, and that is exactly what Google's core updates reassess.
What we changed
1. Crawl and indexation fixes at scale
I ran technical audits across 100K+ pages with Screaming Frog and Search Console data to find crawl traps, duplicate and thin URLs, indexation gaps and rendering issues. Fixes were prioritised by how much search demand each affected page group served, so developer time went to the changes with the biggest impact first.
2. Internal linking architecture
Internal links were rebuilt so authority flowed from popular pages to high-intent ones. Related questions, conditions and specialities were connected in clusters, and important pages moved closer to the homepage in the site's link structure.
3. E-E-A-T and medical trust signals
Content was strengthened with clear doctor authorship and review, cited sources and regular updates. These are the signals Google looks for on health pages, and they made the content more resilient through core updates.
4. Content strategy for high-intent health queries
Keyword research and competitive analysis identified 200+ high-value keyword opportunities. Content roadmaps, on-page optimisation and metadata improvements targeted the searches where patients were actively looking for answers or care.
5. Core Web Vitals and performance
Speed and mobile performance work took Core Web Vitals scores to 90%+, improving user experience on the mobile devices most health searches come from.
6. Structured content for AI search
Direct, well-structured answers and schema markup made the content easy for generative search to use. The result was more than one million AI citations and AI Overview appearances.
7. Authority building
Link-building focused on high-quality, relevant links from authoritative healthcare and medical publications, rather than volume.
8. Automation
I built an AI-SEO workflow connecting Ahrefs to an LLM through an MCP server, which cut manual analysis time by about 60% and let the team spend more time on fixes.
How the work progressed
| Period | Role | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 2022 – Jan 2024 | SEO Analyst | On-page optimisation, structured data, quality link building and steady organic growth |
| Nov 2023 | – | Google core update hits part of the site; recovery work begins |
| Jan 2024 – Jul 2024 | Senior SEO Analyst | Blog and content roadmap, internal linking, metadata, keyword coverage for high-intent queries |
| Jul 2024 – present | SEO Team Lead | Team leadership, technical audits at scale, Core Web Vitals, AI search strategy, core update recovery |
The outcome
Organic traffic grew roughly 500%, from about 100K to more than 600K monthly visits, and the site reached Top 3 Google rankings in the US for 50+ competitive keywords, ahead of WebMD and Healthline.
Related work on the same platform
- AI health assistant launch: launch SEO for a physician-trained AI health assistant, with YMYL-compliant authority signals, E-E-A-T and AI search optimisation from day one.
- Pharmacogenomics product page: designed, built and optimised the web page for a pharmacogenomics testing product, explaining a complex medical product clearly.
What other health brands can learn
- Fix indexation before publishing moreOn large sites, more content does not help if Google cannot find and index what you already have.
- Internal links are the cheapest ranking leverPointing existing authority at high-intent pages often beats building new links.
- E-E-A-T is your core update insuranceVisible medical expertise and review make content more resilient when Google reassesses quality.
- Write for AI answers tooClear, direct answers and schema earn citations in AI Overviews and chatbots, not just blue links.
- Automate the analysis, not the judgementAI workflows save hours of data work; people still decide what to fix.
Want this approach on your site? See my healthcare SEO services or get help with core update recovery.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long did the growth take?
The growth from 100K to 600K+ monthly organic visits happened over my time on the platform's SEO team, which began in 2022. It came from steady, compounding work on technical SEO, content and authority rather than a single change.
Which change made the biggest difference?
No single change. The biggest gains came from combining technical fixes, so Google could find and index the right pages, with internal linking that pointed authority at high-intent pages and content that met YMYL quality standards.
How did the platform recover from the core update?
We mapped which pages and query groups lost traffic, then improved content quality and E-E-A-T signals on those sections and fixed related technical issues. That work recovered 40% of the organic traffic lost after Google's November 2023 core update.
Can these results be repeated on other health sites?
The methods transfer to any health or YMYL site: technical audits, internal linking, expert-reviewed content and structured data. The size of the gains depends on the site's starting point, its competition and how quickly changes can be shipped.
Want results like this?
Book a healthcare SEO audit and get the same diagnostic approach applied to your site.