From 3,562 to 67,008 Monthly Organic Sessions After a Core Update
E-E-A-T content, link remediation and native Arabic expansion for an international clinic recovering from a broad core update.
What did Absolute Digital Media achieve for Vera Clinic?
Absolute Digital Media's SEO campaign for Vera Clinic delivered 67,008 monthly organic sessions (from 3,562), 1,273 keywords in the top three (from 101), +258% goal completions and 58 Domain Rating (from 50, while cleaning the profile).
An international clinic where the decision is both health and travel
Vera Clinic is an aesthetic clinic operating internationally, best known for hair restoration alongside a wider cosmetic offering, serving patients across the UK, Europe and the Middle East.
The category is unusual in two ways that shaped the whole campaign. It is a health decision, so search engines assess the content against the standard applied to anything affecting wellbeing. And it is a travel decision, so the patient is choosing a provider in another country and carries an additional layer of doubt that a domestic clinic never has to answer. Both are answered by the same thing, which is demonstrable expertise on the page, and Vera Clinic committed to building it.
From 3,562 to 67,008 monthly sessions
Traffic, keyword and Domain Rating figures are from Ahrefs Site Explorer. Conversion figures are drawn from the client’s own reporting. Both sources agree on direction and scale.
A multi-award-winning agency
Integrated Agency of the Year - SilverEuropean Agency Awards 2026
Best Use of Search B2C (PPC) Small (The Swallow Co.)European Search Awards 2026
Standout B2C Ecommerce Website of the Year (Stelrad)UK Digital Excellence Awards 2026
Best Integrated Paid Media CampaignUK Paid Media Awards 2026
Best New Business CampaignUK Agency Awards 2025
Best Use Of Search (Retail/Ecommerce) - SEOUK Search Awards 2024Integrated Agency of the Year - SilverEuropean Agency Awards 2026Best Use of Search B2C (PPC) Small (The Swallow Co.)European Search Awards 2026Standout B2C Ecommerce Website of the Year (Stelrad)UK Digital Excellence Awards 2026Best Integrated Paid Media CampaignUK Paid Media Awards 2026Best New Business CampaignUK Agency Awards 2025Best Use Of Search (Retail/Ecommerce) - SEOUK Search Awards 2024 Five constraints on a core-update recovery
The choices that shaped the account
Rebuild for demonstrable expertise, not for keyword coverage
The content overhaul was directed at what a health-related page has to demonstrate rather than at what it has to contain. The rejected alternative was expanding coverage: more pages, more terms, more surface area. On a site that had just been assessed by a quality-focused update, adding volume to a body of content already judged insufficient makes the assessment worse rather than better. Every key service page was rewritten to establish who was providing the information, what qualified them, what the procedure actually involves and what the realistic outcomes and limitations are. In a health category, and particularly one where a patient is travelling to receive treatment, the page has to answer the doubt rather than sell past it.
Disavow before acquiring
The backlink audit and disavow ran before the acquisition campaign started. Sequencing matters more here than in most verticals: health content sits under the most severe quality scrutiny in search, and clearing the profile first meant every earned placement counted once, adding position rather than offsetting legacy links. Domain Rating rose from 50 to 58 across the campaign while the profile was being cleaned, a controlled rate for a health domain and deliberately so.
Build the internal linking structure as an authority system
A site-wide interlinking strategy was designed to distribute authority deliberately from informational content to the pages that convert. This is the least visible work in an SEO engagement and frequently the highest return on a large site. A domain can hold substantial authority and route little of it anywhere useful. Designing that routing costs nothing in acquisition and changes what every existing link is worth.
Write natively for MENA rather than translate into it
The Arabic-language content was rebuilt as content written for Arabic-speaking patients rather than as a translation of English pages. The demand in those markets is substantial and the competition is largely publishers rather than clinics. Translated pages lose to natively written ones on every measure that matters, because translation carries the structure and assumptions of the source language and the search behaviour does not match. Pages written for the market took first positions on health terms with thousands of monthly searches behind them, and became some of the strongest performing pages on the domain.
Run SEO, paid and digital PR against one plan
Activity was coordinated with the client’s paid media and internal content teams rather than delivered in isolation, so that keyword targeting, messaging and market priorities aligned across channels. The recovery window mattered commercially: international travel was reopening and returning demand was concentrated in a specific period. Channels working from separate plans would have spent that window competing with each other.
Who ran what
SEO strategy, led by Ben Austin
Ben diagnosed what the core update was assessing and sequenced the answer: expertise rebuilt before coverage expanded, the profile cleared before acquisition started, the internal linking designed as a system, and the MENA expansion written natively rather than translated. Coordinating the plan across the client’s paid and content teams is what let the recovery land inside the window when returning travel demand was worth the most.
Content, led by Alex Stott
Alex’s team rewrote every key service page to E-E-A-T standard: who is providing the information, what qualifies them, what the procedure involves, and what the realistic outcomes and limitations are. The Arabic estate was written for Arabic-speaking patients rather than translated, and those pages took first positions against publisher competition and became among the strongest on the domain.
Digital PR and outreach, led by Jack Hawtin
Jack ran the profile work in the order that made it count: the full backlink audit and disavow first, then earned placements into a cleaned profile. Domain Rating rose from 50 to 58 while links were being removed, which is the harder version of an authority gain, and the placements earned against the rebuilt service pages are what made the recovery durable in the most scrutinised category in search.
Technical SEO, led by Shofiur Rahman
Shofiur built the authority system beneath the content: the site-wide internal linking structure routing equity from informational pages to the pages that convert, the content hierarchy that gives the domain a readable shape, and the technical remediation and multilingual architecture that let the Arabic estate rank in its own markets. On a domain this size, that routing changed what every existing link was worth.
Who worked on this account
Lewis Esson is Head of SEO at Absolute Digital Media, leading a team of seven across organic strategy for gambling, lending, adult and regulated ecommerce brands. He joined ADM as…
Shofiur Rahman is Head of Technical at Absolute Digital Media, leading the team responsible for everything the agency builds and runs: client websites, internal applications, infrastructure, AI systems and the…
Alex is Head of Content at Absolute Digital Media, overseeing content production and ideation for regulated-sector clients in iGaming, finance, and healthcare. He specialises in creating content that performs reliably…
Jack Hawtin leads the outreach team at Absolute Digital Media, running link building and outreach strategy mainly for iGaming clients, alongside adult industry brands, interior design, and a smaller portfolio…
What the campaign achieved
Organic traffic grew from 3,562 to 67,008 monthly sessions on Ahrefs Site Explorer, a recovery from the core update and then well beyond the pre-update position of 13,000. Keywords in the top three grew from 101 to 1,273, and positions four to ten from 208 to 3,417.
Goal completions rose 258% and goal conversion rate rose 111% on the client’s own analytics, with organic keywords on pages one to three up 181%. The Ahrefs and client-side figures agree on direction and scale. Domain Rating rose from 50 to 58 while the profile was cleaned, the harder version of an authority gain because it was achieved while removing links rather than only adding them. The Arabic-language pages became among the strongest on the domain, taking first positions on health terms in MENA markets where the competition was general publishers rather than clinics.
| Measure | Start | End of recovery period |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly organic traffic | 3,562 | 67,008 |
| Keywords in the top three | 101 | 1,273 |
| Keywords in positions four to ten | 208 | 3,417 |
| Domain Rating | 50 | 58 |
Traffic, keyword and Domain Rating figures from Ahrefs Site Explorer. Client analytics additionally show goal completions +258%, goal conversion rate +111% and organic keywords on pages one to three +181%.
What healthcare and international clinics should take from this
What Vera Clinic say
Healthcare SEO and core-update recovery, answered
How do you recover from a broad core algorithm update?
By identifying what the update assessed rather than by adding more content. On the Vera Clinic campaign the response was rebuilding the service pages to establish who was providing the information and what qualified them, which took the site from 3,562 to 67,008 monthly organic sessions. Publishing more into a body of content already judged insufficient makes the position worse.
What does E-E-A-T actually mean for a healthcare site?
Stating who wrote the content, what qualifies them, what the procedure involves and what the realistic outcomes and limitations are. It is not a score to optimise, it is a description of what a page must contain before it deserves to rank on a subject that affects someone’s health.
Should a clinic disavow toxic backlinks?
Where a profile carries irrelevant or low-quality links and the site sits in a health category, yes, and before starting any acquisition. Health content is assessed more severely than almost any other category, and clearing the profile first means each new placement adds position rather than offsetting legacy links.
How much difference does internal linking make?
On a large site, a great deal, and it is the cheapest work available. Most domains hold more authority than they distribute usefully. Designing the routing from informational content to converting pages costs nothing in acquisition and changes what every existing link contributes.
Should international content be translated or written natively?
Written natively. Translation carries the structure, phrasing and assumptions of the source language, and search behaviour differs by market. On this account the Arabic pages written for their market became among the strongest on the domain, competing against general publishers rather than clinics.
How long does core update recovery take?
Content and structural remediation typically show movement within a quarter of landing. Full recovery on a health domain takes longer because the authority and quality assessment rebuilds gradually. This recovery ran across roughly two years from trough to peak.
Why is healthcare SEO harder than other verticals?
Because the assessment standard is higher and the content restrictions are tighter. Pages affecting health are judged against expertise and accountability criteria that commercial categories are not, and the language that would perform best commercially is often the language a responsible clinic cannot use.
Does medical tourism need a different SEO approach?
It needs an additional layer. A patient travelling for treatment carries doubts a domestic patient does not, about accountability, aftercare and recourse. Content that addresses those directly performs better than content that avoids them, because avoiding them leaves the patient to resolve the doubt somewhere else.
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