How an American Health System Grew Organic Traffic by 869% YoY
https://www.commonspirit.org/
Stats
47.7K to 462.2K Monthly Visits
Industry
Health & Medical
Niche
Hospital
Reporting Date
June 2024
CommonSpirit Health is a leading health system based in the United States. It is the country's second largest non-profit hospital chain, with over 2,200 care sites in 24 states.
Recently, its website, www.commonspirit.org, has experienced a dramatic increase in organic traffic.
Monthly visits grew from 47.7K to 462.2K, a nearly tenfold increase in just 1 year.
In this SEO case study, we'll explore the strategies behind CommonSpirit's success and share how to replicate their wins on your website.
In This Article
The Catalyst: How CommonSpirit Reached 462.2K Monthly Visits
1. SEO Power Move: Consolidated Websites Into a Single Domain
In August 2023, CommonSpirit acquired 20 hospitals and over 240 care sites in Kansas, Colorado, and Utah from Centura Health.
In addition to expanding its footprint in the health industry, this acquisition also presented a unique opportunity for CommonSprint's online visibility.
Previously, many of these facilities operated under their own websites or the centura.org domain.
However, in June 2024, CommonSpirit responded with a strategic consolidation of all domains.
They launched a dedicated subdomain for the Mountain region (mountain.commonspirit.org) within its primary domain.
They also created a dedicated landing page for every location.
Permanent redirects were then placed on the original (old) domains, redirecting traffic to the new landing page on CommonSpirit’s website.
Here’s an example of one of these location pages:
And the 301 redirect from its former domain to the new one:
These moves had a dramatic effect on CommonSpirit’s SEO, such as:
- Combining Link Juice: By merging traffic and backlinks, the primary domain leveraged the existing authority of former Centura Health facilities. 301 redirects helped CommonSpirit transfer link juice (link equity or SEO value) to its primary domain, boosting authority and rankings.
- Streamlining the User Experience: CommonSpirit patients can find all participating facilities on one website. Users can also use an interactive map functionality to discover the facility nearest to them.
- Improving Keyword Rankings: Keyword rankings skyrocketed following the website consolidation. In December 2023 (just before the consolidation), rankings were at 17.6K. In June 2024, they’ve risen to over half a million, at 581.7K.
Overall, CommonSpirit's website consolidation showcases a masterful understanding of SEO best practices.
By merging multiple domains and strategically implementing permanent redirects, CommonSpirit consolidated its SEO power and created a seamless, user-friendly experience for patients.
Why this matters:
This strategy is a prime example of how a well-executed domain migration can dramatically impact your business's online success.
By consolidating digital assets, you can:
- Boost Search Rankings: Centralize SEO efforts and maximize your online visibility.
- Strengthen Brand Identity: Build a cohesive brand image across all platforms.
- Optimize Resource Allocation: Streamline digital marketing efforts and increase efficiency.
- Enhance User Experience: Create a seamless and intuitive journey for your customers.
How to migrate your WordPress site to a new domain:
This tutorial shows you how to move your WordPress site to a new domain.
Here’s a quick overview of the process:
- Back up your WordPress site.
- Create a new MySQL database for the new domain.
- Unpack your WordPress site on the new domain.
- Set up permanent (301) redirects.
- Test and troubleshoot to ensure everything works properly.
Tools for WordPress domain migrations:
Domain migrations can be terrifying—when you don’t have the right tools.
Luckily, All in One SEO (AIOSEO) makes it easy to perform full site redirects without losing your hard-earned SEO.
Simply navigate to the Redirection Manager and enter your old and new domains. The plugin will automatically implement permanent redirects, ensuring a seamless transfer of your traffic and rankings to the new domain.
Now that CommonSpirit has a landing page for each facility, let’s see how they use Google Business Profiles to stand out in search engine results pages (SERPs.)
2. Local SEO Dominance: Leveraged Google Business Profiles
A Google Business Profile (GBP) is a free tool for businesses to manage their online presence on Google Search and Google Maps.
It's similar to a digital storefront, providing essential business information, such as:
- Address
- Phone number
- Website
- Hours of operation
GBPs can also display Google reviews, as shown in the example below.
And if you do the same search in Google Maps, you’ll see the Business Profile to the left of the map.
A Google Business Profile is a crucial tool for local businesses, considering its prominence on the SERP.
GBPs take up significant real estate, and for good reason: they help users find the information they need quickly.
CommonSpirit is well aware of the benefits of optimized GBPs, so they have established a profile for each of its facilities.
In addition to providing users with quick access to essential business details, GBPs also:
- Enhance local search visibility: GBPs help businesses rank higher in local search results, such as those triggered by “near me” queries.
- Showcase positive reviews: Positive customer reviews displayed on GBPs can significantly influence potential customers' decisions.
- Provide a platform for engagement: Businesses can interact with customers by responding to reviews, answering questions, and sharing updates.
- Increase clickthrough rates: A well-optimized GBP can encourage more users to visit a business's website.
By optimizing each GBP, CommonSpirit has positioned its facilities as trusted and accessible healthcare providers in their respective communities.
Why this matters:
According to a recent survey, local search experts believe GBP signals are the #1 ranking factor for appearing in the Google Local Pack.
A Local Pack is a highly coveted SERP feature that showcases 3 businesses at the top of search results for location-based queries.
Here’s an example:
Appearing in the Local Pack benefits businesses because it makes it easier for potential customers to find you. They improve your visibility and can drive qualified traffic to your business.
CommonSpirit understood these advantages and optimized each GBP to appear in the Local Pack.
In June 2024, they won 1.7K Local Pack rankings, proving their efforts paid off.
How to do local SEO:
There are a lot of factors that go into helping your business rank for local intent searches.
Here are some resources to help you start or improve your local SEO game:
- Beginner’s Guide to Local SEO
- How to Develop a Local SEO Strategy
- How to Create a Google Business Profile (This is a good one for today’s case study because it shows you how to optimize your GBP for local search.)
- Best Local SEO Tools
Tools for local SEO:
AIOSEO has a local SEO feature that can help you dominate local search and appear on Google Maps.
Setting up your business is easy. Just fill out the user-friendly fields, and the plugin will add schema markup to your website.
Schema markup is specialized code that helps search engines understand your content better and match your website to relevant searches.
Next, let’s see how CommonSpirit used content creation to improve its visibility even further.
3. Content Is King: Published & Optimized Health Articles
In addition to CommonSpirit’s new subdomain, they also added a subdirectory to their website in spring 2024.
A subdirectory, or subfolder, is a branch of the primary domain.
An example would be a /blog subdirectory that houses all the blog posts of a website.
For CommonSpirit, they added a Conditions and Treatments subfolder to share health-related articles with their audience.
In addition to being a helpful resource for CommonSpirit’s existing patients, this content became a driving force behind their recent organic success.
They started publishing pages in April, and over 6.4K articles were available on the website by June.
These pages generated an impressive 18.6% of all site traffic for the month.
Moreover, they helped CommonSpirit secure thousands of SERP features.
SERP features are enhanced search results that go beyond standard blue links and meta descriptions.
A prime example is the Local Pack we discussed earlier.
Two key SERP features that significantly boosted CommonSpirit’s visibility were image rich snippets and People Also Ask rankings.
Image Rich Snippets
CommonSpirit excelled at winning image rich snippets, which display images directly in search results.
These visually appealing listings have a higher CTR, with SEO statistics showing that rich snippets get 58% of all clicks.
CommonSpirit achieved this type of rich result by performing the following:
- Including images in their new articles
- Writing descriptive alt text
- Implementing strong on-page SEO
These optimizations were effective, winning CommonSpirit 26K image rich results in June.
People Also Ask (PAA) Box
Another win for CommonSpirit was its rankings in Google’s People Also Ask (PAA) box.
This section of the SERP houses related questions to the user’s original search query.
To conquer PAA boxes, CommonSpirit employed a strategic content format.
They:
- Used question-based subheadings to structure their content.
- Wrote concise answers directly below each subheading.
This FAQ-like format mirrors the structure of PAA queries, increasing the likelihood of appearing in the PAA box.
These efforts proved fruitful.
CommonSpirit ranked in the Google PAA section for 1.2K keywords in June.
Why this matters:
SERP features are an effective way to stand out on the SERP and improve your CTR.
However, high-quality content is a cornerstone of getting them.
CommonSpirit's decision to expand its content library was a strategic move that aligned with its recent patient-first approach to its website.
By creating valuable and informative content, they solidified their position in the healthcare industry and earned even more authority in the eyes of search engines.
How to create and execute a content strategy:
A well-thought-out content strategy aligns your content efforts with your business goals.
Here are a few tips for getting started:
- Define your business objectives.
- Determine your target audience.
- Take in the big picture of what you want to achieve.
These steps will help you create an outline for your content strategy. Then, it’s time to put it into action.
Here’s how to execute your content strategy:
- Pick the best content type for that piece of content.
- Match the content type to a marketing channel.
- Write high-quality content,
- Optimize your content for search engines.
- Monitor SEO performance and adjust accordingly.
For an in-depth look at each step mentioned above, check out this beginner-friendly Content Strategy Guide.
Tools for your content strategy:
There was a lot to unpack in CommonSpirit’s new subfolder and content optimizations, so let me play matchmaker for this next section.
I’m going to give you a tool that complements each of the key points discussed in this strategy.
- Rich Snippets (including images) + Schema Generator = Higher likelihood of rich results and more clicks
The Schema Generator automatically implements rich snippet schema for you, increasing the likelihood of click-worthy rich results.
- People Ask Ask Rankings + FAQ Blocks = More visibility and better brand awareness
AIOSEO’s FAQ blocks make it easy to write and answer popular questions. The best part? The plugin automatically implements FAQ schema markup, encouraging PAA rankings.
- On-Page SEO + TruSEO Analysis = Stronger SEO, better visibility, and more business for your brand.
TruSEO analyzes your content’s on-page optimizations and provides recommendations to improve it. You’ll get helpful, action-oriented checklists that make it simple to catch these opportunities and leverage them.
Here’s an example of the Focus Keyphrase Checklist that checks for your primary keyword in your content:
Standout SEO Wins
Before we wrap up, there’s a final SEO win worth highlighting at CommonSpirit.
Sitelinks Boost Visibility and Content Discovery
CommonSpirit’s recent addition of location-specific landing pages has yielded another impressive SEO win: the emergence of sitelinks.
Sitelinks are additional links displayed beneath a main search result, offering users quick access to specific website sections.
CommonSpirit’s success in securing sitelinks can be attributed to several factors:
- Clear Website Structure: A well-organized site architecture with logical URL structures makes it easier for search engines to understand the website's hierarchy.
- Breadcrumb Implementation: Breadcrumbs provide clear navigation paths and help search engines understand the relationship between pages.
- Schema Markup: Implementing schema markup for breadcrumbs further reinforces the website’s structure and can influence sitelink generation.
Ultimately, these optimizations created a strong foundation for search engines to generate sitelinks for CommonSpirit.
Tool: You can use a breadcrumb plugin to add breadcrumbs to your WordPress site (and increase the likelihood of getting sitelinks). AIOSEO Breadcrumbs give you full control over how they’re displayed and adds the schema markup for you.
Takeaways
In our analysis of CommonSpirit Health, we’ve discovered the key strategies behind their recent traffic growth.
Now, let’s put these strategies to work for your website.
Top 3 Strategies to Emulate
- Develop a robust redirect strategy. When consolidating or migrating domains, carefully plan and implement 301 redirects to preserve valuable link equity. This strategy will help you maintain SEO rankings and ensure a seamless navigation experience for users and search engines.
- Leverage your Google Business Profile to improve local SEO. Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile to enhance visibility in local search results. Provide accurate and consistent business information, encourage positive customer reviews, and actively respond to inquiries to build trust and attract local customers.
- Publish and optimize new content to keep your site fresh. Develop and execute a content strategy focused on creating valuable, informative, and keyword-optimized content. Regularly publishing fresh content will improve search engine rankings, engage your audience, and establish your business as an industry authority, ultimately driving organic traffic and conversions.
Bottom 3 Strategies to Reconsider
- Neglecting image title tags Despite having strong on-page SEO and descriptive alt text, CommonSpirit doesn’t use image title tags. Image titles appear when users hover over or click on an image. They provide additional context for users and search engines. For your website, I recommend using an Image SEO plugin to help with these optimizations. AIOSEO offers smart tags that allow you to customize and automate image titles.
- Omitting FAQ schema markup. CommonSpirit has some schema markup on its website, but I would have liked to see FAQ schema. This is particularly true for their new Conditions and Treatments articles that have a question-answer format. FAQ schema is easy to add in WordPress when you use FAQ Blocks. The AIOSEO plugin will add the schema markup automatically when you use this feature.
- Exceeding meta description character limits. Search engines truncate metadata that exceeds character limits. Try to keep your meta descriptions under 160 characters to ensure an optimal user experience. You can check your metadata in a SERP snippet tool before publishing to make sure you like how they look.
Steal Our Winning SEO Strategy: A Checklist for Your Website
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Grow Your Visibility and Organic Traffic With AIOSEO
What if you could skip the guesswork and enjoy a direct route to replicating CommonSpirit's SEO success?
AIOSEO can help you do just that.
AIOSEO streamlines many of the complex SEO tasks highlighted in this analysis. It empowers you to focus on creating exceptional content while optimizing your website for search engines. From local SEO settings to keyword-rich content that ranks, you'll get a comprehensive tool kit that supports your business goals.
Here are a few of our favorite features:
- Redirection Manager: Prevent humans and bots from getting lost when you move content or domains. Our Redirection Manager helps you easily choose and implement the best redirect type that preserves SEO.
- Local SEO: Our local SEO tool implements local business schema for you — no coding required. We'll also help you format your local SEO settings to boost your visibility in local searches and rank higher in Google Maps.
- Rich Snippets Schema: Win more rich results with AIOSEO’s user-friendly schema generator. Just pick the schema type you want, and we’ll format the structured data properly for Google.
- FAQ Blocks: Add FAQs to your content to increase the likelihood of appearing in Google’s People Also Ask box. These results help boost brand awareness and increase clickthrough rates.
- TruSEO Score: Level up your content and go beyond a simple pass or fail. TruSEO analyzes your on-page SEO, giving you actionable insights to maximize your content's reach.
- Breadcrumbs: Create a breadcrumb trail that shows users where they are on your site in relation to the homepage. You can customize the look and show them exactly where you want on your site.
