How Targeted Blog Content and Strategic Internal Linking Increased Referrals for a West LA Therapy Practice

Customer Background

A group therapy practice in West Los Angeles had invested a small amount in SEO about 18 months before working with us. That effort lasted around five months and mainly focused on keyword/meta data guidance and blog post topic suggestions. While it generated some early visibility, growth soon plateaued.

The Challenge

By the time we began working together, the practice’s website was underperforming despite having strong clinical expertise and a library of blog content. The main issues included:

• Technical gaps: broken links, missing alt text, and slow image load times.
• Weak internal linking: blog posts were siloed, with no clear structure to reinforce specialties.
• Content quality gaps: older posts were under-optimized, missing keywords, and not formatted for search visibility.
• No cohesive strategy: content was published without a roadmap tied to referral goals (ADHD assessments, couples therapy, attachment, stress/anxiety).

The Solution

We rolled out a multi-phase SEO strategy focused on both technical foundations and content authority:

1. Site Cleanup & Optimization

   • Fixed broken links and improved internal linking across blog posts and service pages.
   • Compressed images and added missing alt text to improve speed and accessibility.
   • Updated meta titles and descriptions to boost click-through rates.

2. Content Overhaul

   • Refreshed existing blog posts with clearer headings, author bios, CTAs, and keyword alignment.
   • Added external references to credible sources and internal links to reinforce specialty pages.

3. Content Expansion

   • Published weekly blogs for 8 weeks, then shifted to bi-weekly.
   • Topics were chosen through keyword research, aligned with referral goals (ADHD, couples therapy, attachment, stress/anxiety).
   • Built interlinked content clusters to establish topical authority.

4. Website Redesign

   • Built a new site with improved UX, mobile responsiveness, and modern design.
   • While the redesign caused a short-term dip during reindexing, impressions rebounded within one month.

5. Local SEO Boost

   • Audited existing citations for accuracy.
   • Added the practice to therapy directories and business listings to increase local visibility.

Results

The improvements compounded over time, with steady growth in visibility, rankings, and referrals.

1. Search Visibility Growth

Using Google Search Console data, we tracked a dramatic increase in impressions over the course of a year:

• Daily impressions grew from a few hundred to more than 13,000 per day.
• This represents a 16x increase in visibility in under 12 months.
• Growth was consistent month-over-month, showing sustainable SEO momentum.

2. Improved Ranking Visibility

• The practice’s average position across hundreds of keywords improved steadily, moving into the top 20 for many high-intent search terms.
• This indicates that the site is ranking higher not just for one blog post, but across a much broader set of services and specialties.

3. Higher-Quality Traffic

Beyond raw visibility, the practice began ranking for queries directly tied to referral goals:

These keyword wins diversified the site’s traffic and reduced reliance on a single blog post.

4. Real-World Business Outcomes

• Referrals have grown by more than 200% year over year.
• The practice achieved its highest monthly referral volume ever within 8 months of the redesign.
• With growth in visibility and rankings still accelerating, referrals are projected to keep climbing.

Callout Stat: In under a year, impressions increased 16x and referrals grew more than 200% YoY, marking the highest growth in the practice’s history.

Lessons Learned

• Strong content needs structure. Blog posts alone aren’t enough — interlinking and clustering build topical authority.
• Technical SEO is foundational. Fixing broken links, slow images, and weak metadata unlocks hidden performance.
• Redesigns work when SEO is baked in. Short-term dips are natural, but long-term results accelerate when UX and SEO align.

Conclusion

By aligning content with referral goals, strengthening the technical foundation, and improving site structure, this therapy practice turned its website into a referral engine. In less than a year, they more than doubled referrals and established themselves as a trusted local authority.

Want to see similar results for your practice or small business?

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