SEO Competitor Analysis: How Dermatologists in Manchester Can Beat Their Competition

Discover what the competitive landscape looks like for the UK dermatology industry, worth an estimated 11 billion. Overall, in this competitor analysis, our main keyword focus was ‘dermatologist manchester’.

We used this to examine the dermatologists and dermatology clinics using SEO strategies successfully. As well as identifying those clinics missing key opportunities for growth.

For companies and businesses who are looking to boost their traffic and sales, this data is invaluable. In fact, you can apply our findings to your own business or niche, not just the dermatology industry. 

Overall in this report, we will be conducting an SEO competitor analysis of the dermatology industry in Manchester. To do this we will examine the top 10 ranking positions for the keyword: “dermatologist manchester”.

As such, the report will cover:

•  Keyword Overview
•  The Competitive Landscape
•  Analysis of the Top 3 Organic Competitors

And the Competitive Landscape will look at: 

•  Top 10 Competitors
•  Domain Authority
•  Keyword Search Traffic
•  Overall Website Traffic Growth
•  Search Positions
•  Backlinks
•  Top 3 Ranking Positions

Finally, we’ll look at the Top 3 Organic Competitors, including:

•  Content Analysis
•  Backlinks Analysis
•  Traffic Growth Analysis
•  Paid Advertising Analysis
•  Display Advertising Analysis

First, let’s examine our target keyword.

There are 1600 average monthly searches for the keyword “dermatologist manchester”.

And, the keyword difficulty is 66%. Indicating that it would be “hard” for a new website to rank first on Google for the keyword “dermatologist manchester”. 

On the whole, the average price advertisers pay for a user’s click on an ad is £0.31.

Next we’ll look in more detail at the competitive landscape. And we’ll see which dermatology clinics are ranking. As well as how well each is performing with their current SEO strategies.

To begin, we looked at each of the top 10 ranking positions for the keyword: “dermatologist manchester”. As a result, we discovered that only 7 are specialist dermatologists.

And in 3rd, 7th and 10th position respectively, is a hospital, a directory service, and an NHS Trust.

Note: Throughout this report, we will be focusing on dermatologists who specialise in dermatology services. And businesses, directories and hospitals that do not specialise in dermatology services are highlighted in red.

In terms of domain authority, the highest is the dermatologist, sk:n (sknclinics.co.uk) with a domain authority score of 43.

Whereas, The Skin Doctor, ranked in 9th position, has the lowest domain authority (9).

In October 2020, Derm Expert had the vast majority of the search traffic for the keyword “dermatologist manchester”.

As a result, they received 47% of the 16000 monthly searches.

And the top 10 competitors received an estimated 96.33%* of the 1600 monthly search traffic for the keyword “dermatologist manchester”.

*including the three highlighted in red, that do not specialise in dermatology services.

On the whole, our analysis of the top 10 URLs shows that:

•  5 are homepages
•  2 are service pages
•  2 are team pages
•  1 is a directory listing pages

In particular, there are 5 websites that have been generating traffic since 2012.

Whereas everythingskin.co.uk has only been generating traffic since 2018.

And in October 2020, spirehealthcare.com had the most traffic (307,804 website visits).

In comparison, in the same month, theskindoctor.co.uk had the least amount of traffic. With only 209 unique website visits.

However, Topdoctors had the greatest increase in traffic. From just 2 website visitors at the end of 2016 to 121,516 in October 2020.

In terms of search positions, we’ll look at the dermatology websites in the top 3 positions.

As such, we discovered that spirehealthcare.com has the highest number of top 3 search positions (2,787).

And, they have 37% of all the top 3 search positions held by the top 10 competitors. 

However, in the next position is sknclinics.co.uk and this is a dermatologist clinic. And, it has the highest number of top 3 search positions (2,332) of all other Manchester dermatology clinics.

Next we looked at the backlinks for each of the top 10. Of course, the top two are not dermatology specialists. Once again Spire Healthcare tops the list with the highest number of backlinks (1,775,753). 

Overall, they have 55% of the top 10 competitors combined backlinks. 

As a result, the only dermatology company with more than 2000 backlinks is sk:n Clinics (150,380). 

Next we looked at the percentage of follow backlinks held by each position. Naturally, the directory in the list, Topdoctors, has the highest percentage of follow backlinks (99.01%).

And, they have 40% of the top 10 competitors combined follow backlinks.

Overall, of our specialists, this time it’s Dr Nicole Dermatology who comes out on top, with 92.97%.

In May 2020, the top ranking position for the keyword “dermatologist manchester” was held by sknclinics.co.uk.

However, they slipped into second place in June 2020, replaced by dermexpert.co.uk.

And, dermexpert.co.uk has remained in position 1 ever since. 

At the time of this report, the top 3 websites competing for the keyword “dermatologist manchester” were:

•  dermexpert.co.uk
•  sknclinics.co.uk
•  spirehealthcare.com

However, of these three, only one does not specialise solely on dermatology. 

Derm Expert is the website of Dr Tim Clayton. And he is described on the website as a:

“consultant dermatologist based in Manchester”. 

Visit the website.

Overall, there are over 20 conditions and treatments listed on the website menu that include:

•  Acne and Rosacea
•  Allergy Testing
•  Atopic Eczema
•  Cosmetic Dermatology
•  Cryotherapy
•  Drug Rashes
•  Fungal Infections
•  Haemangiomas
•  Hair Loss
•  Laser Surgery

sk:n is a British brand. And boasts:

“the largest network of specialist skin care clinics in the UK”.

Visit the website.

Overall, there are 35 conditions listed on the website menu that include:

•  Acne
•  Acne Scarring
•  Age Spots
•  Back Acne
•  Blackheads
•  Crow’s Feet
•  Dull Skin
•  Excess Hair
•  Excess Sweating
•  Forehead Lines

As well as 43 treatments listed on the website menu that include:

•  Acne Scar Treatment
•  Acne Treatment
•  Anti Ageing Injectable
•  Anti Ageing Treatments for Men
•  Birthmark Removal
•  Botox®
•  Cheek Fillers
•  Co2re
•  Dermal Fillers
•  Dermaroller

Spire Healthcare provides private healthcare in the UK. And it is: 

“a leading independent hospital group in the United Kingdom and the largest in terms of revenue”.

Visit the website.

Overall, Spire Healthcare offers a wide range of treatments, tests and scans. But dermatology treatments are not featured in its website menu.

However, Skin Treatments is listed on its treatment areas page:

Clicking on the “Find out more” button for Skin Treatments takes us through to a page listing 21 dermatology treatments:

•  Treatment for acne
•  Allergy testing
•  Anti-wrinkle treatment by injection
•  Chemical skin peels
•  Derma roller
•  Eczema and dermatitis treatment
•  Excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis) treatment
•  Face and skin treatments for men
•  Intense pulsed light therapy for skin conditions
•  Laser verruca treatment 
•  Liposculpture to treat lines and wrinkles 
•  Malignant skin cancer excision 
•  Microdermabrasion and dermabrasion
•  Micropigmentation (permanent make-up) 
•  Mole, cyst, wart and skin tag removal
•  Patch testing
•  Photodynamic therapy
•  Phototherapy
•  Psoriasis treatment
•  Scar revision
•  Thread vein treatment

Note: Spire Healthcare is the online website in the top 3 search results for the keyword “dermatologist manchester”. However it does not specialise exclusively in dermatology treatments.

First, we analysed how well the top 3 competitors optimised their websites. Specifically, for their service keywords related to dermatology. 

On the whole, Derm Expert has 4 service keywords that they do not rank for.

And 14% of all of their keywords (631 keywords) are related to the services listed in their website menu.

However, the most frequent service keyword is “allergy testing” with 26 instances.

Overall, it appears that sk:n has 6 service keywords that they do not rank for.

Even though they have more ranked service keywords than Derm Expert, only 10% of their keywords (1,810 keywords) are related to the services listed in their website menu.

However, the most frequent service keyword is “Acne” with 963 instances.

Despite the fact that Spire Healthcare has unranked 9 service keywords, they are performing better in the search engine results.

And, just 3% of their website keywords (1,755 keywords) are related to the services listed in their menu.

And, the most frequent service keyword is “Mole, cyst, wart and skin tag removal”. Clearly, with 1,037 instances, this is their most popular service.

Next we’ll look in more detail at the content of each of these competitors.

Derm Expert’s top page is a service page.

And, the homepage generates 70.04% of its total website traffic.

Second and third place, respectively, are:

•  dermexpert.co.uk/conditions-and-treatments/atopic-eczema (service page)
•  dermexpert.co.uk/conditions-and-treatments/mole-removal (service page)

Overall, these three pages combined generate 85.8% of the website’s traffic.

sk:n’s top page is its homepage which generates 13.753% of its website traffic.

Second and third place, respectively, are:

•  sknclinics.co.uk/treatments-and-pricing/laser-hair-removal (service page)
•  sknclinics.co.uk/treatments-and-pricing/dermatology (service page)

In total, these three pages generate 29.14% of the website’s traffic.

Again, Spire Healthcare’s top page is its homepage which generates 11.48% of its website traffic.

Second and third place, respectively, are:

•  spirehealthcare.com/conditions/verruca (service page)
•  spirehealthcare.com/symptoms/anal-discharge (service page)

Unlike the previous two competitors, these three pages only generate 18.15% of the website’s traffic. 

Let’s look at the backlinks of each site in more detail. All in all, this will help to give us a better understanding of how each website reached their current positions.

First position goes to Spire Healthcare, with the largest number of backlinks (1,775,753).

Last place goes to Derm Expert, with the least amount of backlinks (372).

Overall, Spire Healthcare also has the highest percentage of ‘dofollow’ backlinks (96.16%).

And again, Derm Expert has the least with 69.59%.

Next we’ll look at backlink growth to ascertain the companies with content and backlinking strategies in place. 

In February 2014, Derm Expert had 1 backlinks.

And their largest backlink growth happened between September 2018 and April 2020. During this period they acquired 420 backlinks.

However, from April 2020 to October 2020, Derm Expert lost 200 backlinks.

As a result, this was a 49% decrease. And it suggests a shift in marketing priorities, perhaps due to Covid-19.

In June 2013, sk:n had 16 backlinks.

Overall, their largest backlink growth happened between December 2016 and July 2019. During this time they acquired 146,303 backlinks. And this was likely a period where backlinking was part of their online marketing strategy.

However, from July 2019 to March 2020, sk:n lost 32% of their backlinks (48,304 backlinks). That’s almost a third of their backlinks lost in a third of the time it took to initially grow them.

Yet, 7 months later, in October 2020, they had doubled their backlinks. As such, it’s likely that they put a strategy in place to recoup their backlink losses. And, as a result, their backlinks increased from 99,985 backlinks to 150,976.

In fact, this equates to a 50.99% increase. Not bad for 7 months.

As of June 2013, Spire Healthcare had 435 backlinks.

And their largest period of backlink growth happened between October 2014 and September 2017. All in all, during this time they acquired 104,513 backlinks.

Clearly, they had a backlinking strategy in place during this time. As demonstrated by the fact this growth continued steadily and aggressively.

Within 3 years, Spire Healthcare increased their backlinks by 17,024%. As a result, by October 2020, they had 1,808,027. This is a huge number! 

But what about all-time traffic growth?

In January 2012, Derm Expert had 312 monthly visits.

And by October 2020, their monthly visits had increased 426% to 1,643.

In January 2012, sk:n had 15,445 monthly visits.

And, by October 2020, their monthly visits had increased 1,418% to 234,519.

In January 2012, Spire Healthcare had 66,715 monthly visits.

And, as of October 2020, their monthly visits have increased 378% to 319,209.

In October 2020, Spire Healthcare was the only top 3 competitors investing in both paid search traffic and display advertising.

Overall, sk:n was the only specialist dermatology clinic in the top 3 ranking positions for the keyword “dermatologist manchester”.

Since January 2012, Spire Healthcare’s estimated paid search traffic continued to reduce until September 2016.

As a result, their traffic went from 10,444 to just 428.

However, from September 2016 onwards, their paid search traffic increased sporadically. Eventually, it peaked in March 2020 with 26,321 website visits.

And from March 2020, paid search traffic decreased 85% to 3,892 website visits.

Therefore, their largest investment in paid advertising happened in June 2019. Overall during this period they spent £44,351.

Clearly, Spire Healthcare’s reduced investment in paid search traffic between January 2012 and September 2016 was noticeable. As a result, it had a direct impact on their number of keywords in the top 3 Google ranking positions.

Thus, in April 2012, they had 3,401 keywords in the top 3 Google ranking positions. And, by October 2016, this had decreased by 96%. As a result their top 3 Google ranking positions also decreased to 108.

In October 2020, Spire Healthcare display ads were mainly targeting women aged between 25 and 34 years old.

And Spire Healthcare placed 210 display ads in 4 countries around the world.

All in all, the top 2 countries where they display their ads are:

• United Kingdom (97% of their display ads)
• Portugal (2% of their display ads)

And, the vast majority of their display ads were image ads (68%) and 32% were text ads.

In October 2020, sk:n display ads were mainly targeting women aged between 25 and 44 years old.

And sk:n placed 1,300 display ads in 41 countries around the world.

Overall, the top 2 countries where they display their ads are:

•  United Kingdom (58% of their display ads)
•  United States (14% of their display ads)

Furthermore, the vast majority of their display ads were text ads (79%).

In this competitor analysis, dermatologists in Manchester were our core focus. And various clinics and specialist skin care services were presented and analysed. Our findings have shown that each of the top 3 ranked competitors have spent a portion of their time on optimising their website. This includes evidence of a robust backlinking strategy.

However, content marketing is becoming more popular as a strategy for growth. And combined with backlinking, an emphasis on content could elevate their rankings further. 

Furthermore, for other dermatology specialists to rank well in Manchester (or the UK), they first need to overtake the top 3. For instance, Dr Nicole Dermatology, who is currently ranked in 4th position. To do this, they could invest in a content marketing strategy or utilise paid advertising. 

In fact, a strategy consisting of relevant content, building a backlinking profile and some paid advertising, will provide any one of these dermatology clinics the edge they need to increase their rank and beat their competition. 

Naturally, for many companies and business owners, investing time and resources can be difficult. Especially for new companies or SMEs.

And that’s where a marketing consultant, such as myself could help. My team and I can help you to devise a strategy that works for your business. And we can even implement it for you. In addition we can optimise your existing content or create a bank of new content. 

As a result, we’ll help you beat your competitors and get the traffic (and sales) you deserve.  

Alternatively, we can conduct a bespoke SEO competitor analysis report for your business. Find out exactly what your competitors are doing. And then learn what actions to take to outrank and outperform them.

As such, you might enjoy some of our previous reports, spanning a cross-section of different industries: 

• What Accountants in Manchester Need to Do to Beat Their Competition 
• How Can Removal Firms in London Beat Their Competitors?
• SEO Competitor Analysis: Employment Lawyers in London
• Legal Services Competition Analysis: Crisp & Co vs Slater and Gordon Lawyers

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