Driving Patient Growth for UCF Health Through Strategic SEO
Socratik partnered with UCF Health, the faculty practice of the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, to increase new patient volume through a robust digital strategy. When staffing shortages temporarily paused lead generation, we implemented a scalable SEO roadmap focused on content creation, local SEO, link building, and keyword expansion ensuring long-term growth despite operational challenges.
From 2020 to 2024, our efforts drove significant results: organic traffic grew over 120% in one year, high-quality backlinks increased tenfold, and UCF Health became one of the most visible healthcare providers in the Orlando area. This case study highlights how our proactive, data-driven SEO approach delivers measurable, lasting impact.
About UCF Health
UCF Health is the faculty practice of the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, providing primary and specialty care at two medical centers in East Orlando and Lake Nona. Serving the greater Orlando community, the clinics emphasize accessible, patient-centered care while also supporting medical education and research.
1
The Challenge
UCF Health set out to increase new patient volume through stronger digital visibility and engagement. In early 2021, their strategy centered on content creation, local SEO, and link building to drive patient leads online.
Midway through the year, staffing shortages and reduced patient capacity forced the team to pause new digital lead generation efforts, including web form sign-ups. This unexpected shift raised a critical question: how do we maintain SEO momentum and growth when patient acquisition is temporarily on hold?
Timeline of Challenges
- 2020–2021: Initial push to grow patient leads through SEO, content, and link building.
- Mid-2021: Staffing turnover created capacity issues; digital leads were paused.
- 2022–2024: With staffing stabilized, focus shifted back to patient acquisition while building long-term resilience against major competitors like WebMD and Mayo Clinic.
2
The Solution
Instead of pivoting away from our established strategy, we leaned into a scalable SEO roadmap designed to weather short-term challenges and deliver long-term growth.
- Content Creation – Publishing in-depth medical content aligned with patient search intent.
- Local SEO – Optimizing for “Orlando” + service-based keywords to capture local patients.
- Link Building – Strengthening domain authority with high-quality backlinks.
- Keyword Expansion – Diversifying reach with both branded and non-branded search terms.
- Annual Content Review (2022 onward) – Refreshing and optimizing existing content to stay competitive with algorithm updates and shifting search behavior.
This ensured that when patient capacity returned, UCF Health would be in a prime position to convert digital leads at scale.
3
The Results
Performance growth year by year:
- 2020-2021: Organic traffic up by +14.08%
- 2021-2022: Organic traffic up by +121.65%
- 2022-2023: Organic traffic up by +72.01%
- 2024-2025: Organic traffic down only 8% post launch of AI Overviews
- Link building efforts boosted linking root domains by more than tenfold.
Despite staffing challenges, UCF Health’s SEO program proved resilient and scalable, delivering sustained growth from 2020–2024. With consistent content creation, technical optimization, and keyword expansion, UCF Health is now one of the most visible healthcare providers in the Orlando area and well-positioned for continued patient growth in the years ahead.
