Health Services SEO Case Study, Website Rebuild
Full website rebuild with surgical SEO preservation: 3.6x more first page keywords and zero ranking loss
Website rebuilds are the highest-risk SEO scenario. Complete redesigns typically destroy rankings. The industry average is 30-50% traffic loss during a website migration. This health services provider couldn’t afford that loss: they had existing rankings driving real patient enquiries.
The brief was clear: build a completely new website while surgically preserving every ranking the old site had earned. Not just maintaining, but improving. We took over in January 2025, mapped every URL, every ranking, every piece of content driving traffic, and launched the new site at the end of January with zero ranking loss.
Surgical SEO Preservation
Before touching a single line of code, we audited everything. Which pages drove traffic? Which keywords were ranking? What internal links supported those rankings? Every URL was mapped. Every redirect was planned. Every piece of ranking content was preserved or enhanced, never deleted.
The new site launched with perfect URL structure preservation, proper 301 redirects where needed, and enhanced content that maintained the semantic signals Google was rewarding. Health SEO requires particular care under Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines, so every page maintained proper expertise signals while gaining modern design and improved user experience.
Where They Are Now
The numbers tell the story. Before the rebuild, the site had 2,209 ranking keywords, 992 on the first page, and generated 1,806 clicks over 90 days with an average position of 15.9. Twelve months later: 6,400+ ranking keywords, 3,622 on the first page, 2,359 clicks per 90-day period, and an average position of 15.6. Not only did we preserve the rankings, we improved them: position moved from 15.9 to 15.6 while tripling the keyword coverage. That’s keywords up 193%, first page keywords up 265%, and clicks up 31%. Impressions exploded from 40,047 to 173,800+, a 334% increase. Over the full 12 months since launch, the site has generated 10,000+ clicks and 497,300+ impressions from Australian searches. Year-over-year, clicks are up 31% and impressions are up 335%.
| Metric | Before Rebuild | Current 90 Days | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking keywords | 2,209 | 6,400+ | +193% |
| First page keywords | 992 | 3,622 | +265% |
| 90-day clicks | 1,806 | 2,359 | +31% |
| 90-day impressions | 40,047 | 173,800+ | +334% |
| Average position | 15.9 | 15.6 | +0.3 places |
| Year-over-year clicks | 1,796 | 2,359 | +31% |
| Year-over-year impressions | 39,925 | 173,800+ | +335% |
| 12-month total clicks | — | 10,000+ | |
| 12-month total impressions | — | 497,300+ | |
Before Rebuild = October 2024 to January 2025, the 90 days before the new site launched.
Current = the most recent 90-day period as of January 2026.
Clicks = the number of times someone clicked through to the website from Google search results.
Impressions = the number of times the website appeared in someone’s Google search results. An impression counts every time the listing shows up, whether or not someone clicks on it.
Average position = the average Google ranking across ALL tracked keywords, not a hand-picked selection. The improvement from 15.9 to 15.6 while tripling keyword coverage demonstrates successful preservation and growth.
Ranking keywords = the number of different search terms Google shows the website for in search results.
First page keywords = keywords ranking in positions 1-10, meaning they appear on the first page of Google search results where most clicks happen.
Year-over-year growth = comparison of the same 90-day period this year versus last year, showing how performance has improved over 12 months.
All data filtered to Australian searches via Google Search Console. Data current as of January 2026.
The headline is zero ranking loss combined with 3.6x more first page keywords. Going from 992 to 3,622 keywords on page one while maintaining (and slightly improving) average position proves the surgical approach worked. Most website rebuilds lose 30-50% of traffic. This one gained 31% in clicks and 334% in impressions.
If you need a website rebuild without losing your search rankings, get in touch.
We understand how to preserve SEO through major site changes.
Frequently Asked Questions
How We Report These Results
Australian data only. Every number on this page comes from Google Search Console filtered to Australia. Unless specifically stated otherwise, we report on Australian search performance because that’s where our clients’ customers are. Worldwide numbers would inflate the results, and inflated numbers help nobody make good decisions.
Average position means ALL keywords. When we say average position improved from 42 to 27, that’s the average across every single keyword that site ranks for. Hundreds of them. Sometimes thousands. We don’t cherry-pick the best performers and ignore the rest. You’re only as good as your lowest-ranking keyword, and everything moves together. If we’re doing our job properly, Google expands the keywords, the synonyms, and the search terms you appear for as it recognises your site deserves to be there.
This is a process of proving to Google that your website should be the one people see when they search for what you offer. That proof builds over months, not days. It’s why consistency matters more than any single tactic.
Why SEO and Google Ads Work Better Together
We don’t recommend running Google Ads without SEO. The two have a symbiotic relationship that most businesses miss.
Google Ads fills the gaps where your SEO hasn’t reached yet. You’re paying to appear for the searches you haven’t earned organically. But those paid visits do more than generate leads directly. When someone clicks your ad and completes their search on your site, that signals to Google that your site satisfied the searcher. We call this a completed search session, and it’s one of the strongest signals you can send. That signal helps your organic rankings.
So Google Ads doesn’t just fill gaps… it actively helps your SEO by proving to Google that your site deserves to rank for those terms.
As your SEO builds and you start ranking organically for more terms, you can pull back your ad spend on those keywords and redirect it to the terms where you still need coverage. The result: your total cost per lead drops over time while your visibility keeps growing. Running only one is leaving results on the table. Both together compound each other’s effectiveness.
Want to understand how SEO and Google Ads would work together for your business? Talk to us and we’ll map it out for you.