SEO Case Study: Transforming Traffic for Verywell Health

Overview

Verywell Health, a leading health and wellness blog, provides expert-reviewed health tips and product reviews verified by official doctors. Despite their established credibility, they wanted to expand their reach, increase traffic, and maintain dominance in the competitive health niche. That’s where I came in as their SEO strategist.

The objective was simple yet challenging: significantly grow their organic traffic through targeted SEO practices while maintaining the site’s authority and trustworthiness in the health space.

Goals

• Increase organic traffic across the website.
• Improve rankings for competitive health-related keywords.
• Ensure that all content aligns with E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) guidelines.
• Strengthen topical authority on health topics through strategic content development and optimization.

The Strategy

To achieve these ambitious goals, I implemented a comprehensive SEO strategy that combined technical optimizations, content strategy enhancements, and keyword-focused growth. Here’s a breakdown of the key steps taken:

1. Comprehensive SEO Audit

The project began with a detailed audit of Verywell Health’s website. I analyzed key SEO factors, including:

• Site architecture to ensure efficient internal linking.
• Page load speed to improve user experience and meet Google’s Core Web Vitals.
• Mobile optimization given the site’s large mobile user base.
• On-page SEO elements such as meta tags, image alt texts, headers, and internal linking structures.

This audit revealed opportunities to enhance site performance and boost rankings.

2. Content Gap Analysis & Optimization

Given the highly competitive health niche, I performed an in-depth content gap analysis to identify keywords and topics that Verywell Health was not ranking for, but competitors were. I worked with their content team to:

• Create new content focused on high-traffic, high-intent keywords.
• Optimize existing content with updated medical facts and expanded sections to enhance both depth and keyword density.
• Enhance E-A-T compliance by highlighting expert reviews and using medically verified data within articles.

3. Topical Clusters for Health Topics

One of the critical strategies was building topical clusters around key health areas (e.g., chronic illness management, fitness tips, and mental health advice). These clusters created a stronger internal linking structure, which helped improve rankings for broader health-related terms and created a seamless user journey.

4. Improving On-Page & Technical SEO

For long-term gains, we focused heavily on optimizing technical SEO elements:

• Structured data implementation for better visibility in search results.
• On-page optimizations such as fine-tuning meta descriptions, titles, and alt tags with SEO-friendly keywords.
• Fixing technical issues, including crawling errors and duplicate content.
• Leveraging internal linking to boost keyword relevance and improve page authority.

5. Keyword Targeting & Expansion

I conducted detailed keyword research to target high-intent, low-competition keywords alongside competitive head terms. We expanded keyword focus to not only health reviews but also niche-specific queries such as:

• Preventative health tips
• Doctor-verified product recommendations
• Home remedies for common health issues

This allowed Verywell Health to capture a broader audience while remaining authoritative.

Results

By implementing these strategies over the course of a year, the results were nothing short of transformative:

• Traffic Growth: Increased from 59.0 million to 82.3 million monthly visitors—a 39% growth in organic traffic.
• Keyword Rankings: Numerous keywords moved from page two or three of SERPs to page one, particularly for competitive health-related queries.
• Content Engagement: Optimized pages saw significant improvements in time on site and user engagement metrics.
• Enhanced Brand Authority: The E-A-T approach cemented Verywell Health’s reputation as a trusted source in the health and wellness niche, particularly for expert-verified content.

Final Thoughts

This case study highlights the power of a focused, data-driven SEO strategy tailored to the health niche. By balancing technical optimizations, content refinement, and keyword expansion, we were able to significantly increase traffic while enhancing the site’s authority and trustworthiness.

If you’re looking to drive similar results and grow your website’s visibility in a competitive market, let’s discuss how we can work together to make that happen!