CASE STUDY: graphic design, web design and SEO for the healthcare industry
Learn how our healthcare SEO expertise helped SemaPen boost organic website visits by 3,300%
The situation
An expert service offering that couldn't get out of the waiting room.
In the brave new world of injectable weight loss medications, SemaPen stood out from the crowd. This wasn't your run-of-the-mill online pharmacy. SemaPen was founded by Professor David Kerrigan, a renowned obesity surgeon. And, as if that wasn't enough, the company is aligned with the UK's only private obesity clinic trusted to provide NHS treatment.
These kinds of trust signals should attract sign-ups by the bucketload. Unfortunately, however, they simply weren't registering with prospective patients. It wasn't just that conversions needed a shot in the arm – SemaPen's website was all but invisible on Google.
SemaPen had an attractive service offering – a game-changing medication programme bolstered by bespoke support from real UK weight loss experts. If only they could get these USPs in front of those who could benefit most.
Did someone call for a digital hero?
The solution
Healthcare marketing heroes to the rescue.
My Digital Hero took a good look at SemaPen's website and quickly diagnosed the problem: inconsistent branding, unclear messaging and a bad case of Googleitis.
The design? More 'extra-strong mint' than 'expert medical advice'. The copy? Solid – but not tailored for conversions. And as for the SEO… Well, despite SemaPen's regular, expertly written blogs, the site only ranked for a handful of keywords.

This website needed heroic treatment – and fast. Thankfully, we had just the remedy: a tailored package of healthcare marketing solutions that would help bring SemaPen's unmatched expertise into the light.
What we did
A dose of tailored medical web design, branding and SEO.
We needed to start from the ground up. SemaPen would get a snappy new website built with SEO and UX in mind. It would have fresh content, rich with keywords and tuned for conversions. And to keep Google and users coming back, we'd publish a steady stream of authoritative blog posts that helped guide prospective patients down the funnel.

Finally, we'd give SemaPen's branding a fresh lick of paint to bring it all together. No mixed messages here. At first glance, you'd see that SemaPen knew its stuff, cared about its patients and took its role as a healthcare provider very seriously indeed.
The results
Our medical SEO skills pay off to the tune of 3,000% extra organic search visits.
The private healthcare industry moves fast, especially with new developments like injectable weight loss drugs.
But that's OK – we move fast, too. We wrote, built and branded SemaPen's new website within just two months of the contract being signed.
The new site gained pace almost immediately. The fresh, keyword-rich content was bringing in new visitors from Google and beyond. And our snappy, user-friendly design was keeping them clicking.
Within seven months of launch, SemaPen had gone from a few dozen keyword rankings in Google UK to more than 1,600. Nearly 140 of those ranked in the top 10.
In the same timeframe, SemaPen saw visits increase by 237% and page views by 180%.
And in case our healthcare SEO skills were ever in doubt, get this. Organic search traffic from Google UK went up a whopping 3,305%.
SEO couldn't take all the credit, of course. As with all good digital marketing strategies, SemaPen's success came down to a careful balance of multiple elements. SEO, yes. But also technical wizardry, clear copywriting and smart design – all working together to win SemaPen the recognition it deserved.
Impressive, right? Well, we're still not done just yet…
Key takeaways
3,305% increase
In organic Google traffic
237% increase
In overall site visits
1,618 keywords
Ranking in Google's top 100
What's next
A revolutionary new app for weight loss medication users.
SemaPen's expertise and tailored support offering remain unmatched in an already crowded market. But we both knew they could do even better.
That's why we're working together to develop the SemaPen app: a mobile-first, desktop-friendly social hub for weight loss medication users.
It's the solution that this growing user base has been crying out for. Sure – SemaPen offers expert, ongoing support and cloud-based weight tracking. But most prescribers simply sell the medication and move on, leaving customers with no way to track their progress or engage with other users.
That all changes soon. With SemaPen's revolutionary new app, users will be able to:
- Track their weight, mood and symptoms in the cloud
- Manage their medication dosage and subscription
- Chat with real UK obesity experts on the SemaPen team
- Pull in data from their smartwatch or other health tracking device
- Access a learning hub full of best-practice advice for weight loss and healthy living
- Request one-to-one sessions with dieticians, psychologists and other qualified professionals
- Engage with other SemaPen subscribers on a moderated discussion forum
- Earn rewards that keep them coming back
What we're doing
My Digital Hero is building SemaPen's new app in-house and from the ground up. That means the full whammy – through conception, design, development, testing and beyond.
We're dab hands at app development. Our lead developer started building apps in 2007 and has been coding since he was yay high.
However, SemaPen's app is perhaps the most complex we've ever worked on. With social features, gamification and rich integrations – including NHS integration – it has more moving parts than a model windmill factory.
But it's no match for our tried-and-tested, bespoke app development process. Fine-tuned over many years, it allows us to develop and deploy cross-platform apps in a fraction of the usual time.
So, we're on track and it's looking great. When's the big launch? You'll just have to watch this space…
Choose heroic healthcare marketing that's greater than the sum of its parts
You've read the case study. Now, why not see what our bespoke digital marketing superpowers can do for you?
That 'bespoke' part is important. See, we always work closely with our clients to develop the right marketing mix for their unique business goals.
For SemaPen, that meant a tailored blend of medical SEO, web development and graphic design – plus a revolutionary new mobile app. But for you, it might involve cutting-edge B2B lead generation. Or pay-per-click optimisation. Or something entirely fresh and unique.
It's all about building solutions that build on your brand's key strengths. Want to know what that might look like? Let's talk.
