Platform migration
Moved the entire website off GoDaddy onto a fast, flexible WordPress foundation built for SEO.
SEO and Local Growth Case Study · Healthcare · Local business
From invisible to page one: how a Los Angeles dermatology practice grew organic traffic 15x.
Kanaan & Co. rebuilt Dr. Janet Vafaie's website from the ground up, then earned the rankings, links and traffic to match. Here is what changed in the numbers.
15xmore monthly organic visits
7 → 103keywords in Google's Top 3
17xmore referring domains
97%of organic traffic non-branded
At a glance
The results in six numbers.
Every figure compares the practice today against where it started. Sources and dates are in the methodology.
0+735%Monthly organic visitsfrom 110 (Sep 2023)
014.7xKeywords in Google's Top 3from 7 (Aug 2024)
017.3xReferring domainsfrom 32 (Sep 2023)
0+20 ptsDomain Ratingfrom 6 (Aug 2022)
0+32%Total ranking keywordsfrom 139 (Aug 2024)
013.8xEst. monthly traffic valuefrom $130 (Sep 2023)
A trusted practice that Google could not see.
Dr. Janet Vafaie is a board-certified dermatologist that patients across Los Angeles and Malibu trust. Her reputation in the exam room was not showing up in search.
The practice ran on an aging GoDaddy website that was slow, hard to update and nearly invisible to Google. In the summer of 2022 the site drew about 60 organic visits a month, held a Domain Rating of 6, and ranked in the Top 3 for only a handful of terms. In one of the most competitive dermatology markets in the country, that meant prospective patients were finding competitors first.
In 2022 the site ranked in Google's Top 3 for only 7 keywords.
What we did
A rebuild, not a touch-up.
We migrated off GoDaddy onto a fast WordPress foundation, rebuilt every service page, published a steady content library, and ran an ongoing backlink and digital-PR campaign, plus paid search and Local Service Ads to capture demand immediately.
Service page rebuild
Rebuilt and expanded every treatment page: dermal fillers, chemical peels, spider vein treatment, Mohs surgery, Morpheus8, microneedling, SculpSure, hair loss and more.
SEO content program
Published a library of educational articles answering real patient questions on rosacea, nail fungus, tranexamic acid, mole mapping and skin health.
Backlinks & digital PR
Ran an ongoing link-building campaign that grew referring domains from the low 30s to 553.
Paid search & Local Service Ads
Managed Google Ads and Google Local Service Ads (Google Guaranteed) in parallel to capture high-intent patients immediately.
The turning point
Quiet progress, then a breakthrough.
Search results do not move overnight. For the first stretch the work compounded quietly. From late 2024 onward, rankings, links and traffic accelerated together, right as the rebuild and content program took hold.
Growth over time, 2022 to 2026Monthly organic visits & referring domains
Monthly organic visitsReferring domains
The results
Where the practice ranks now, versus where it started.
Two years ago most of its keywords sat on page three or worse. Today the footprint is concentrated in Google's Top 3, where nearly all clicks happen.
Where the keywords rankAug 2024 vs Aug 2026 · higher Top-3 is better
Aug 2024Aug 2026
Keywords in Google's Top 3 grew from 7 to 103.
Keyword wins
The searches that now find the practice.
These are non-branded wins (searches for the doctor or practice by name are excluded). Some are competitive money terms that climbed; others are brand-new rankings from new service pages and content.
Biggest ranking climbsRank before → rank now · lower position is better
| Keyword | Vol/mo | Before | Now | Change | Visits/mo | Type | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dermatologist los angeles | 1,400 | #14 | #4 | +10 | 148 | climbed | Homepage |
| best dermatologist los angeles | 300 | #7 | #2 | +5 | 115 | climbed | Homepage |
| best dermatologists in los angeles | 90 | #8 | #2 | +6 | 32 | climbed | Homepage |
| best dermatologist in los angeles | 90 | #9 | #2 | +7 | 26 | climbed | Homepage |
| dermal filler los angeles | 150 | #20 | #3 | +17 | 21 | climbed | Dermal Fillers |
| dermatologist in los angeles | 150 | #12 | #3 | +9 | 19 | climbed | Homepage |
| dermatologist malibu | 40 | #3 | #1 | +2 | 19 | climbed | Homepage |
| los angeles dermatologist | 200 | #9 | #4 | +5 | 15 | climbed | Homepage |
| cosmetic dermatology los angeles | 200 | #24 | #6 | +18 | 14 | climbed | Homepage |
| cosmetic dermatologist malibu | 30 | #4 | #1 | +3 | 13 | climbed | Homepage |
| los angeles dermatologists | 90 | #15 | #5 | +10 | 9 | climbed | Homepage |
| cosmetic dermatologist los angeles | 80 | #15 | #4 | +11 | 9 | climbed | Homepage |
| dermal fillers in los angeles | 70 | #21 | #4 | +17 | 9 | climbed | Dermal Fillers |
| dermatologists los angeles | 70 | #13 | #4 | +9 | 8 | climbed | Homepage |
| los angeles skin doctors | 70 | #14 | #4 | +10 | 8 | climbed | Homepage |
| lip fillers malibu | 90 | #12 | #5 | +7 | 8 | climbed | Dermal Fillers |
| best dermatologists los angeles | 20 | #10 | #2 | +8 | 7 | climbed | Homepage |
| dermatologist la | 40 | #78 | #3 | +75 | 6 | climbed | Homepage |
| best dermatologist la | 10 | #8 | #1 | +7 | 5 | climbed | Blog: Laser Therapies |
| botox malibu | 150 | #20 | #1 | +19 | 4 | climbed | Dermal Fillers |
| snakeroot extract | 300 | — | #1 | new | 53 | new | Blog: Nail Fungus |
| rosacea causes | 4,900 | — | #18 | new | 22 | new | Blog: Rosacea |
| female hair loss specialist los angeles | 150 | — | #2 | new | 20 | new | Hair Loss (Women) |
| chemical peel los angeles | 200 | — | #5 | new | 19 | new | Chemical Peels |
| spider vein treatment los angeles | 150 | — | #5 | new | 18 | new | Spider Vein Treatment |
| chemical peels los angeles | 150 | — | #5 | new | 14 | new | Chemical Peels |
| mohs surgery malibu | 40 | — | #1 | new | 13 | new | Mohs Surgery |
| snakeroot extract for toenail fungus | 100 | — | #1 | new | 12 | new | Blog: Nail Fungus |
| facial fillers malibu | 80 | — | #3 | new | 12 | new | Dermal Fillers |
| sclerotherapy los angeles | 200 | — | #7 | new | 11 | new | Spider Vein Treatment |
| tranexamic acid hyperpigmentation treatment | 80 | — | #4 | new | 9 | new | Blog: Tranexamic Acid |
| spider vein treatment | 5,500 | — | #24 | new | 8 | new | Spider Vein Treatment |
| morpheus8 los angeles | 300 | — | #10 | new | 7 | new | Morpheus8 |
| wart removal los angeles | 80 | — | #5 | new | 7 | new | Dermatologic Surgery |
| juvederm malibu | 60 | — | #3 | new | 7 | new | Dermal Fillers |
| mole map | 1,600 | — | #15 | new | 6 | new | Blog: Mole Mapping |
| sculpsure body contouring | 150 | — | #6 | new | 5 | new | SculpSure |
| tranexamic acid for skin | 7,600 | — | #26 | new | 5 | new | Blog: Tranexamic Acid |
| dermal filler clinic | 70 | — | #6 | new | 5 | new | Dermal Fillers |
| microneedling malibu | 40 | — | #1 | new | 4 | new | Microneedling |
What drove it
The pages doing the work.
Each winning keyword traces back to a page we built or rebuilt. Here is where the new organic visits come from.
Monthly organic visits by pageFrom winning non-branded keywords
How the wins were won
More than half are brand-new rankings.
Of the current Top 100 keywords by traffic, 54 are rankings that did not exist two years ago and 40 are existing rankings that climbed. This is growth built from new content and new authority, not a lucky bounce.
Top 100 keywords, by how they were won
New (54)Improved (40)Held (6)
Real demand, not name searches.
About 97 percent of the practice's organic traffic is non-branded, roughly 889 of 918 monthly visits. Branded traffic is people who already know the practice. Non-branded traffic is new demand: people searching for a dermatologist, a treatment or a solution and finding this practice for the first time.
Nearly all of that traffic, 99 percent, comes from the United States, concentrated in the local Los Angeles and Malibu market the practice serves.
97 percent of the traffic is people who did not know the practice yet.
Want results like these for your practice?
We build and grow websites for medical and dermatology practices: the migration, the pages, the content, the links and the ads, as an extension of your team. Book a call and we'll map out what growth could look like for you.
Methodology & notes
How we measured this.
- Primary source: Ahrefs Site Explorer, pulled August 8, 2026 (subdomains mode, United States).
- Keyword position changes use Ahrefs' 2-year comparison (Aug 2024 to Aug 2026). The growth-over-time series uses monthly all-time snapshots from 2022 to 2026.
- Branded searches (for the doctor or practice by name) are excluded from keyword wins; branded terms are only about 12 keywords and 29 visits per month.
- Google Ads and Local Service Ads performance is not included here. Ahrefs reports organic search only, and Local Service Ads are invisible to third-party tools.
- Search volumes, traffic and traffic value are Ahrefs estimates, directionally reliable but different from Google Analytics and Search Console.