Private Dental Practice Link Building Case Study

Standing out in the dental industry isn’t easy, especially for private clinics competing against corporate chains and insurance giants.

Our clients, a well-established dental practice had this problem. Despite offering premium services and having a strong local reputation, they were seeing limited organic visibility and a drop in patient inquiries. Their website was well built, but their backlink profile lacked both authority and relevance, making it difficult to rank for valuable local keywords such as “best dentist near me” and “cosmetic dentist in [city].” This meant they were missing out on high-intent traffic that could convert into appointments.

At Rhino Rank, we specialize in helping businesses in competitive industries build credibility and improve their search performance through strategic link building. Our mission was to position the clinic as a trusted, go-to dental provider and drive visibility for critical local search terms.

We began with a full SEO and backlink audit, assessing everything from domain authority and traffic sources to anchor text and referring domains. It quickly became clear that many of their existing backlinks were low-quality and irrelevant, offering little SEO value.

To fix this, we used the client’s $5,000 monthly budget to build a targeted link building campaign that combined Curated Links for domain trust and Guest Posts for contextual relevance.

Curated Links for Authority and Trust

• Curated Links Package 4 ($3,900)
  • 10x RD 20-100 links
  • 16x RD 100-250 links
  • 12x RD 250-500 links
  • 11x RD 500+ links

These backlinks were placed on reputable, niche-relevant health and dental sites, helping elevate the clinic’s perceived authority and improve its rankings in Google’s eyes. This foundation of high-quality links directly contributed to an increase in domain trust.

Guest Posts for Credibility and Relevance

• 2x DA30+ Guest Posts ($240)
• 2x DA40+ Guest Posts ($380)
• 2x DA50+ Guest Post ($280)

These guest posts were placed on high-traffic dental, wellness, and local lifestyle blogs, capturing the attention of people who were actively searching for dental care in the area. This combination of relevance and reach gave the campaign a strong local and national presence.

One of the key issues uncovered by the client’s dedicated Account Manager was the overuse of exact-match anchor text in their previous SEO efforts. This is a tactic many businesses used, but one that can easily raise red flags with search engines and lead to penalties or your hard-earned links simply being ignored.

To resolve this and build a healthier, more sustainable backlink profile, we developed a new anchor text strategy focused on balance and relevance:

• 80% Branded Anchors – The clinic’s name and service-based variations to reinforce brand authority. (e.g., “[company name] dental care” or “[company name] cosmetic services”.)
• 20% Relevant Keywords – Targeting important service-related terms naturally within guest posts and curated link placements (e.g., “teeth whitening in [city]” or “Invisalign specialist”).

This strategic distribution helped diversify their backlink profile, improve search engine trust, and boost rankings for high-intent local keywords, without risking over-optimization.

Within just 10 months, the campaign delivered outstanding results.

The clinic started ranking for highly competitive local search terms, which led to a 427% increase in organic traffic.

This growth was driven by a 419% increase in high-intent keyword rankings, directly contributing to a surge in patient inquiries and appointment bookings.

Thanks to this success, the clinic has continued to invest in our link building services. Their current focus is on scaling their link building efforts even further, targeting higher-authority backlinks and expanding their content marketing strategy to solidify their position as a leading dental provider in their region.