April 22, 2020

By Intrigue

Industry: Orthotics & Prosthetics
Location: Guelph, Ontario

Applied Biomechanics is a full-time clinic providing a range of orthotic and prosthetics services, including custom foot orthotics, custom orthopedic and neuromuscular bracing, orthopedic footwear, and compression stockings. They are the only Accredited Facility in the Guelph-Wellington County area, as designated by Orthotics Prosthetics Canada (OPC).

The Challenge

Continue growing their business in the face of new competition.

Established in 1995, Applied Biomechanics was the first full-time orthotics and prosthetics clinic in the city of Guelph. Over the past few decades, they have grown their business to a team of seven full and part-time clinical, technical, and support staff.

In 2011, they moved to their present location at 214 Speedvale Avenue West. This space includes over 2,200 square feet of reception, management, and clinical rooms, as well as 1,400 square feet of fabrication and lab facilities.

Despite their initial success, Applied Biomechanics found that they were struggling to maintain their momentum, as they were competing against new local clinics and provincial groups that had opened locations in Guelph.

Campaign Goals

  • Rank for Specific Keywords — They wanted to rank in the top position for a group of specific high-volume keywords that were being contested by a new competitor, including “guelph orthotics”, “orthotics guelph”, and “custom orthotics guelph”.
  • Increase Site Traffic & QualityThey wanted to find ways to drive more organic and local search traffic to the site, while improving user metrics like bounce rate.
  • Improve Conversions — Leads are the bottom line for any business and the end goal of the campaign was to generate more business, primarily by getting appointments through the online booking widget on their website.

The Solution

A flexible SEO package paired with long-form blog creation.

SEO Gold is Intrigue’s mid-tier retainer package for search engine optimization. The package is designed to provide the flexibility to address issues on a month-to-month basis, while ensuring sustained improvement for small to medium-sized business’ websites.

In addition to basic SEO tasks, the package also includes the following:

  • Content Creation
  • Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
  • Design & User Experience Improvements
  • Link Building
  • Local Search & Google My Business Optimization
  • Technical SEO
  • Tracking Setup
  • Web Development

In the case of Applied Biomechanics, our SEO Gold package was paired with an investment in additional content creation, specifically a number of long-form blog articles throughout the year.

Campaign Strategy

  • Long-Form Blog Content
    • Based on extensive keyword research, our team identified a number of opportunities to create new blog content or update existing blogs with more detailed content.
  • Local Link Building
    • To improve local rankings, our team earned backlinks from a number of high authority industry sites, including strategic partners in the Guelph area.
  • Design Refresh
    • We updated the site’s current WordPress theme to modernize the design of the site and provide a more modern and intuitive experience for visitors.
  • Conversion Rate Optimization
    • In order to streamline conversions, our team brought the client’s booking widget on-site and added clear Calls-To-Action to both posts and pages.
  • Technical Improvements
    • Our audit identified a number of backend issues, ranging from missing metadata and mixed content issues to page bloat and unminified JS and CSS.

The Results

186.5% Increase in Sessions
211.7% Increase in Users

SEO case study with year over year traffic in Google Analytics

The SEO package helped the organic traffic to the Applied Biomechanics site increase from an average of 300 sessions to upwards of 1,200 sessions monthly. The total year-over-year traffic nearly tripled and the client also saw a marked improvement in conversions through the website.

Win #1: Website Traffic

A major highlight of the campaign was the performance of the new and updated blogs.

Over the course of the campaign, the Intrigue team wrote and refreshed blogs on a variety of topics related to orthotics and bracing, including “Why Do Orthotics Hurt My Feet?”, “How Long Do Orthotics Last?”, and “How Often Do I Need to Change My Orthotics?”.

These topics were written in collaboration with the team at Applied Biomechanics, pairing their in-depth industry knowledge with intentional SEO copywriting for best results.

Sessions tied to blog pages on the site exploded from approximately 1,000 in 2018 to over 9,000 in 2019, while maintaining bounce rates below 60% and a solid conversion rate.

SEO Case Study of year over year blog traffic in Google Analytics

Win #2: Keyword Rankings

When we reviewed the client’s goal of ranking for the keywords in the “orthotics + guelph” cluster, we were upfront with them about its difficulty. Their new competitor’s name was an exact match for one of the main keywords, which created an inherent challenge and made it unrealistic to expect that they would be able to rank in the first position.

SEO Case Study with local pack rankings from Google My Business

Despite this, we were able to rank them consistently in the top three positions, both locally and organically, for the keywords in the cluster. The website saw a strong click-through-rate from these keywords, and they were also the top non-branded search terms for the homepage.

SEO Case Study with keyword specific rankings for Guelph geography

Our SEO campaign was able to maintain momentum for Applied Biomechanics, against their new competitors, while growing site traffic and driving more online booking.

If you’re looking to increase the organic traffic and conversions for your business, learn more about an SEO package from Intrigue. Request an audit from our team today.

Intrigue is a Canadian digital marketing company delivering solutions to help businesses get noticed and found. Guided by a commitment to empower leaders to strengthen communities, Intrigue offers website design and development, branding, online advertising, content marketing, graphic design, video production, SEO, and analytics. Take your marketing to the next level and Get Noticed. Get Found.® intrigueme.ca

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