Building Momentum: First-Year SEO Success for a Calgary Counselling Clinic
Client Introduction
This Calgary-based counselling clinic was founded in 2018 and had built a solid foundation of marketing activity before partnering with us in early 2021. They were already sending weekly MailChimp newsletters, running radio ads and display campaigns, and investing in SEO and Google Ads.
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But their website and organic presence lagged behind competitors:
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976 ranking keywords, but limited reach in high-value categories
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347 monthly organic visits
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Just 11 backlinks and a low domain authority
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Competitors were drawing 7× more traffic and had hundreds of times more backlinks
They knew their reputation and service quality were strong — but their digital presence wasn’t keeping up.
Challenges
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Competitors dominating organic traffic and authority
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Low domain rating & limited backlink profile
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Previous SEO efforts fragmented and inconsistent
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Heavy reliance on ads and offline channels (radio, banners, Google Ads)
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No unified digital marketing strategy to tie efforts together
What We Did (First 12 Months)
1) SEO & Site Optimization​
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Rebuilt on-page fundamentals: title tags, meta descriptions, headers, alt text
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Added schema markup and a structured interlinking strategy
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Expanded service pages
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Established a monthly blog cadence
2) Authority & Local SEO
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Designed a backlink strategy to build credibility
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Updated local listings for NAP consistency
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Optimized the Google Business Profile with photos, services, and weekly posts
3) Social & Paid Media
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Maintained 3 posts per week across social platforms for consistency
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Ran a small Facebook awareness ad with minimal spend
4) Partnership
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Established trust with the clinic’s leadership, who began running all marketing decisions through us
Results After 1 Year
Within 12 months, the client saw a measurable turnaround:
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Therapy sessions attended grew +57%, from 1,434 (2020) to 2,250 (2021)
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New consults increased +74%, from 161 to 280
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Keywords in top 3 positions quadrupled (5 → 19)
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Backlinks tripled (11 → 36)
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Success supported a move from their original office into a larger clinic location
Growth in therapy sessions attended and new consults (2019–2024). Sessions nearly tripled during this period, with steady gains in both new clients and returning visits.
Client Review
"Prompt, professional and skilled! Always going above and beyond! Highly recommend!"​
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- Founder, Calgary counselling clinic
Conclusion
Within the first 12 months, this counselling clinic transformed from an under-optimized digital presence into a credible competitor in Calgary’s crowded mental health market. The combination of SEO, local optimization, and authority-building directly supported higher client volume, business expansion, and long-term marketing stability.
Long-Term Impact
While the case study focuses on the first year, the years that followed show the compounding power of the strategy:
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Therapy sessions attended:
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2022 → 2,422
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2023 → 3,252
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2024 → 4,203
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Expanded from the original office to multiple larger clinic spaces, and eventually adding a new East Coast location
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Adopted online counselling sessions during Covid, which remain a core offering today
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Introduced therapist matching quiz ads for trackable lead generation
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Continued steady backlink and authority growth (11 → ~200 referring domains by 2024)
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Nearly 10× growth in estimated organic traffic (external validation from Ahrefs, Dec 2020 → Dec 2024)
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Maintained consistent but modest social presence (IG: 501 → 711 followers, 2021–2025)
Independent visibility estimates from Ahrefs (Dec 2020–Dec 2024). While not a measure of exact traffic, the trend confirms nearly 10× growth in organic reach and steady gains in authority signals.