SEO CASE STUDY
181% Organic Growth for a Steroid-Free Skincare Brand
How Dermeleve grew from 5,000 to 14,000 monthly organic visitors in five months by positioning its clinically validated itch relief cream where patients were already searching.
Client
Dermeleve
Niche
Dermatologist-Developed Skincare & Itch Relief
Duration
5-Month Campaign
+9.2K
Net new sessions/mo
+181%
Traffic growth
14K
Monthly visitors
+9.2K
Net new sessions/mo
The Client
Dermeleve: A Dermatologist-Developed Alternative to Steroid-Based Itch Relief
A medically developed skincare brand whose signature steroid-free anti-itch cream provides relief lasting up to eight hours for conditions including eczema, psoriasis, contact dermatitis, neuropathic itch, and bug bites — without the skin-thinning or rebound effects associated with hydrocortisone and prescription steroids.
Available direct-to-consumer and through dermatology practices, Dermeleve addresses one of the most common and underserved complaints in dermatology with a formulation developed for long-term, daily use.
THE CHALLENGE
Condition-Specific Skincare SEO: High Stakes, High Trust Requirements
Underdeveloped Condition Pages
Dermeleve addresses multiple distinct conditions — eczema, psoriasis, neuropathic itch, contact dermatitis — but lacked dedicated landing pages for each. Without condition-specific pages, the brand was invisible to patients searching by their diagnosis rather than by product type.
Uncaptured Steroid-Free Demand
Growing consumer awareness of steroid side-effects had created a substantial search category around “steroid-free itch relief” and “safe long-term anti-itch” queries. Dermeleve had the product credentials to own these searches but no content targeting them.
Weak Clinical Credibility Signals
Dermatologist involvement, clinical validation, and safety profile information existed but were not structured as crawlable, indexable content — limiting the E-E-A-T signals Google requires for health product pages to rank in YMYL categories.
Absent Awareness-Stage Content
Patients searching “why does my skin itch at night” or “how to stop eczema itch” hadn’t yet settled on a treatment. Without symptom-level content, Dermeleve had no presence at the top of the patient research journey.
Our Approach
Condition Architecture + Steroid-Free Authority Content
Our strategy for Dermeleve was built on one insight: patients searching for steroid-free itch relief already existed in substantial numbers — but the brand with the most credible clinical answer to that search had no content there to meet them. We focused on placing Dermeleve’s genuine clinical differentiation exactly where patients were already looking.
Condition-Specific Landing Pages
Dedicated pages for eczema, psoriasis, contact dermatitis, neuropathic itch, and chronic hives were developed with clinical accuracy, condition background, and Dermeleve’s positioning — meeting YMYL standards while capturing the condition-specific intent that drives the majority of patient search behaviour in this category.
Steroid-Free Comparison Content
Explicitly positioned content addressed why steroid alternatives matter, how non-steroidal formulas work clinically, and what makes long-term daily use safe — targeting the growing consumer segment actively searching for alternatives and giving Dermeleve a clear, credible answer to their specific concern.
Dermatologist Credibility Structure
Product pages and condition pages were restructured to make dermatologist development and clinical validation explicit, crawlable, and structured — reinforcing the E-E-A-T signals essential for YMYL health content and building the trust patients need before purchasing a health product online.
Patient Symptom Awareness Content
Symptom-description articles targeting searches like “why does my skin itch so much” and “itch that won’t stop at night” captured awareness-stage patients before they had identified a treatment type — building Dermeleve’s presence at the earliest point in the patient research journey.
The Impact
181% Growth in Five Months — Across Condition, Symptom, and Treatment Query Tiers
5K → 14K
Monthly Organic Traffic
+181%
Traffic Growth
+9,247
Net new visitors/mo
+606
New keyword rankings
“By bridging the gap between clinical expertise and the way patients actually search for relief, Dermeleve transformed its organic channel into a patient acquisition engine — with rankings that compound as condition content matures.”
Actionable Insights
What YMYL Health Product Brands Can Learn From This Campaign
Differentiators Should Map to Search
Clinical product features are only commercially valuable if consumers can find them. “Steroid-free” is both a product attribute and a search query — brands with genuine clinical differentiators should map them explicitly to the terms patients use.
Condition Architecture Is Foundational
Patients search by condition, not by product type. A health brand without dedicated condition pages is structurally invisible to the majority of its highest-intent audience — regardless of how strong its product pages are.
Clinical Credibility Enables Ranking
In YMYL health categories, E-E-A-T signals are not supplementary — they are the mechanism by which a newer brand can compete for rankings in searches where patient trust is the primary purchase driver.
Symptom Content Builds Durable Funnels
Awareness-stage content targeting symptoms creates a pipeline of future buyers. Patients who find a brand while researching their condition are significantly warmer leads than those who encounter it for the first time at the product page.