CASE STUDY · MULTI-LOCATION · LOCAL SEO · REVIEW MANAGEMENT

How a Michigan Multi-Location Practice Got Its Rankings Back in a Month

Six months after a ranking drop, this practice still had none of its main keywords in the local top 3, two vendors working separately, and monthly reports showing nothing. Within a month of taking over, nine high-volume keywords were back in the top 3.

A dental practice, MichiganMulti-locationLocal SEO · Review managementRecovering a six-month drop

High-volume keywords back in Google's top 3

1 month

To recover what six months had not

New five-star reviews across Google, Yelp and Facebook

Useless pages cut from the website

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The key improvements

Two vendors, no results, and a drop nobody had reversed

Main keywords in the local top 3

None→9

Within the first month

Time stuck after the drop

6 months→Recovered

The previous vendor never got them back

Review generation

A separate vendor→21 five-star

Across Google, Yelp and Facebook

Monthly reporting

No tangible results→Rankings and leads

Progress monitored and adjusted throughout

✓ Nine high-search-volume keywords back in the top 3 of the Google Business Profile results

✓ 21 new five-star reviews from a review funnel built for the practice

✓ Poor-quality backlinks from the previous agency removed where we could reach them

✓ Consistent new-patient leads where there had been none from local search

The challenge

Paying two vendors and going backwards

This multi-location Michigan practice was fed up. It had one company chasing Google reviews and another doing SEO, and the two weren't joined up. Its rankings had taken a hit roughly six months earlier and still hadn't recovered. For its main terms, the ones that look like "city name dentist", it wasn't in the top 3 of the local results at all.

Reports arrived at the end of every month. Tangible results didn't. The practice was frustrated with the agency's ability to restore what had been lost, and with how slowly it responded when asked.

That's a common and expensive place for a practice to be: still paying, still reporting, still invisible.

The strategy

How we rebuilt the local foundation and the review engine together

Analyzed the competition properly

An in-depth look at who was outranking the practice and why, which is the step that tells you whether you're facing a technical problem, a citation gap, or a link problem before you spend a month on the wrong one.

Cleaned up what the last agency left

We removed poor-quality backlinks the previous SEO company had built, as far as we could reach them, and cut about 25 useless pages from the website so search engines could see what actually mattered.

Rebuilt the local footprint

Industry-relevant and geographically relevant directory listings created, name, address and phone data pushed out correctly through a data aggregator, and an SEO-friendly site structure so search engines could read what the practice does, where it does it, and what patients say about it.

Built a review funnel that actually ran

Rather than leaving reviews with a separate vendor, we built a funnel that made it easy for the practice to collect new patient reviews, then monitored rankings and progress as the work continued and adjusted where needed.

The results

Nine keywords back in a month, and reviews to hold them there

Within a month we restored the practice's rankings. Where it previously had none of its main keywords in the top 3 of the local results, it now had nine high-search-volume keywords back in the top 3 of the Google Business Profile results.

Alongside that, the new review management system produced 21 five-star reviews spread across Google, Yelp and Facebook. The practice moved from invisible in local search to consistently receiving new-patient leads.

Measure	Before	After
Main keywords in the local top 3	None	9
Time since the ranking drop	6 months, unrecovered	Restored in 1 month
New five-star reviews	Handled by a separate vendor	21 across three platforms

One month for rankings to restore is exceptionally quick. Every situation is different, and we won't pretend this is the norm.

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No long-term contracts · Dental-only focus · Real reporting you can actually read

How we measured the results

Ranking positions are Google Business Profile local results for the practice's main city-plus-service keywords, tracked from the start of the engagement. Review counts are new five-star reviews collected across Google, Yelp and Facebook through the review funnel we implemented.

One month for rankings to restore is exceptionally quick and every situation is unique, so this timeline should not be read as typical. This engagement predates the call and form tracking we now run on every account, so lead volume is as reported by the practice rather than from a tracking dashboard. There are no guarantees in SEO, ranking today doesn't guarantee the same position tomorrow, and client details are anonymized at the practice's discretion.