Case Study: Traffic Recovery in 6 Months After Decline for a Hospital in Houston
In 2025, a hospital in Houston partnered with Goforaeo after a noticeable organic traffic decline impacted patient discovery and service page performance. The hospital name is anonymized due to an NDA, and the metrics below come from GA4, Google Search Console, crawl audits, and log style diagnostics for the dates listed.
Snapshot of Results
Timeframe: March 18, 2025 to September 18, 2025
Location: Houston, Texas
Before vs after results:
- Monthly organic sessions: 61,800 to 96,400
- Monthly organic users: 44,200 to 71,100
- Non branded clicks (GSC): 18,900 to 31,600
- Indexed valid pages (GSC): 12,400 to 15,900
- Top 3 keyword count (tracked): 110 to 186
- Service line recoveries (examples): cardiology, orthopedics, imaging, urgent care pages regained stable rankings
- Monthly inquiries (calls + forms + appointment clicks): 1,120 to 1,860
Context and Starting Point
The decline was not caused by one single page. Traffic dropped across multiple service lines, which usually points to technical issues, indexation problems, content overlap, or a sitewide quality signal shift. The hospital also had many templates, doctor pages, and department pages, so small technical misconfigurations can impact thousands of URLs quickly.
The goal was recovery with stability. We focused on diagnosing the cause, fixing the foundation first, then improving content and internal linking so traffic returned and held.
Measurement Setup
Before making changes, we confirmed measurement consistency. Hospitals often have multiple subdomains, appointment tools, and tracking changes that can make “declines” look worse than they are.
What we validated
- GA4 traffic segmentation for organic vs referral vs paid
- Search Console properties and URL prefix vs domain property consistency
- Changes in consent banners and tag manager setups
- Core conversion events: calls, forms, appointment clicks
- Landing page level declines by service line
Diagnosis: What Caused the Traffic Decline
We ran a layered investigation across Search Console, crawling, templates, and recent site changes. The root cause was a combination of technical and content structure issues that reduced indexing efficiency and ranking stability.
Key issues found
- Index bloat from parameter URLs and duplicate template variations
- Canonical inconsistencies across service and department templates
- Thin and near duplicate doctor pages diluting quality signals
- Internal linking changes that reduced authority flow to key service pages
- Slow template performance on mobile affecting engagement
- Outdated or conflicting content across overlapping service pages
- Broken redirects and chains after site updates
- Some important pages were not being surfaced well in sitemaps
Strategy Overview
We used a six month recovery plan built around three phases: fix indexation and technical stability, consolidate and improve content structure, then strengthen authority flow and snippets to regain clicks.
Workstreams
- Technical SEO and indexation stabilization
- Duplicate cleanup and canonical corrections
- Content consolidation and service page rebuilds
- Internal linking and navigation improvements
- Speed and Core Web Vitals improvements
- Snippet and CTR improvements on high impression pages
- Ongoing monitoring and rollback protection
Phase 1: Technical Stabilization and Indexation Control
We stopped the leak first. The priority was to prevent Google from wasting crawl budget on duplicates and to ensure primary pages were indexable and canonicalized correctly.
Technical fixes shipped
- Blocked or canonicalized parameter and faceted URLs causing duplicates
- Standardized canonical tags across templates
- Cleaned sitemap coverage so only priority pages were included
- Fixed robots directives and noindex usage on low value sections
- Cleaned redirect chains and repaired broken internal links
- Improved crawl paths so core services were reachable in fewer clicks
Phase 2: Content Consolidation and Quality Improvements
Hospitals often have overlapping pages for similar topics. We reduced cannibalization by merging, rewriting, and restructuring content so each page had one clear purpose.
Content work completed
- Consolidated overlapping service pages into stronger canonical pages
- Updated thin pages with decision focused sections: symptoms, treatments, what to expect
- Added FAQs from real Search Console queries to capture long tail clicks
- Improved E E A T signals: provider oversight, updated dates, editorial notes
- Refreshed outdated service lines to match current offerings and patient language
Phase 3: Authority Flow and CTR Recovery
Once indexation and content were stable, we focused on regaining clicks. Many pages were still getting impressions but lower CTR than before.
CTR and internal linking improvements
- Improved titles and meta descriptions for clarity and intent match
- Added breadcrumbs and improved template headings for better SERP labeling
- Strengthened internal links into core services from hubs, blogs, and related departments
- Added “related services” blocks to reduce dead ends and improve engagement
- Improved schema where eligible: MedicalOrganization, FAQ, LocalBusiness, Physician
Local and Brand Support Signals
Even for hospitals, local signals matter. We aligned GBP and local citations for key departments, especially urgent intent services that drive inquiries.
Local actions
- GBP category and service expansions for key departments
- Updated hours and appointment links consistently
- Citation cleanup for NAP consistency where needed
- Local landing page improvements for Houston intent searches
Tools Used
GA4, Google Search Console, Looker Studio, Screaming Frog, Sitebulb (optional), PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, log file style crawl analysis where available, rank tracking via Semrush/Ahrefs, backlink monitoring, Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Clarity/Hotjar.
Timeline With Dates, Monthly Numbers, and Natural Notes
March 18 to March 31, 2025
We confirmed the decline was real across GA4 and Search Console, isolated the most impacted service lines, and ran deep crawls to identify index bloat, canonical issues, and template duplication. Quick fixes started on sitemaps, redirects, and crawl waste.
Month end metrics:
- Organic sessions: ~61,800
- Non branded clicks: ~18,900
- Indexed valid pages: ~12,400
- Inquiries: ~1,120
April 2025
We shipped the first stabilization fixes: canonical standardization, parameter control, sitemap cleanup, and redirect repairs. At the same time, we identified the worst cannibalization clusters and planned merges.
Month end metrics:
- Organic sessions: ~68,900
- Non branded clicks: ~21,400
- Indexed valid pages: ~13,100
- Inquiries: ~1,270
May 2025
We consolidated overlapping pages, strengthened key service templates, and improved internal linking into the services that historically drove the most traffic. Early ranking stability started returning.
Month end metrics:
- Organic sessions: ~76,200
- Non branded clicks: ~24,600
- Indexed valid pages: ~14,000
- Inquiries: ~1,420
June 2025
We expanded content upgrades across more departments, added FAQs from live query data, and improved speed on key templates to reduce drop off. More pages regained page 1 placements.
Month end metrics:
- Organic sessions: ~84,500
- Non branded clicks: ~27,800
- Indexed valid pages: ~14,900
- Inquiries: ~1,590
July 2025
We improved CTR through snippet updates on high impression pages and strengthened authority flow using hubs, breadcrumbs, and related services blocks. Traffic began compounding instead of fluctuating.
Month end metrics:
- Organic sessions: ~91,300
- Non branded clicks: ~29,900
- Indexed valid pages: ~15,500
- Inquiries: ~1,720
August 18 to September 18, 2025
We focused on stability and protection, refreshed underperforming pages, monitored indexing weekly, and kept internal linking consistent so recovered pages held rankings. Recovery reached a new baseline across multiple service lines.
Month end metrics:
- Organic sessions: ~96,400
- Non branded clicks: ~31,600
- Indexed valid pages: ~15,900
- Inquiries: ~1,860
Before and After Proof Summary
Traffic recovered because we reduced crawl waste and index bloat, fixed canonical and template issues, consolidated overlapping pages, and strengthened internal linking and snippets so clicks returned. Once the foundation was stable, the recovery held instead of bouncing.
- Organic sessions: 61,800 to 96,400 per month
- Non branded clicks: 18,900 to 31,600 per month
- Indexed valid pages: 12,400 to 15,900
- Inquiries: 1,120 to 1,860 per month
What Made It Work
The win came from sequencing. We fixed indexation and technical stability first, then improved content quality and reduced cannibalization, and only then pushed CTR and internal linking. That order prevented temporary spikes and produced stable recovery.