A ranking orthodontist site crashed and lost everything. We rebuilt it, and got it to #2

Our client is an orthodontic clinic that was already ranking on Google, ranking #7 for its main keywords. But underneath, the site was a disaster waiting to happen.

The design was outdated, the site was painfully slow, and worst of all, it was riddled with security problems. Then it went down completely. This is how we brought it back and pushed it further than it had ever been.

A Site on the Edge

On the surface, it was ranking. Underneath, it was a ticking time bomb:

• Outdated, poorly-built design and very slow load times
• Unauthorized access inside the WordPress admin
• Dangerously outdated PHP
• Nulled and cracked theme and plugins
• Cheap hosting with no proper backups

Any one of these could take the site down. Together, it was only a matter of time.

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That time came when someone updated the PHP version, and the entire site went down.

With no proper backups from the hosting, there was nothing clean to restore. All that existed was an old backup running cracked, compromised software. That’s when they came to us.

The Decision

We restored the old backup immediately, and the site came back broken and unstable, still running nulled software full of vulnerabilities.

Patching a compromised, cracked-software site was never going to be safe or stable. So we made the call: rebuild it clean, the right way.

The Rebuild

We rebuilt the entire site on a fresh WordPress install, on new cloud hosting, with proper security and technical improvements baked in from day one.

But here’s the part that mattered most for SEO: we rebuilt it without breaking Google’s trust. We kept every detail consistent, so search engines saw continuity, not a brand-new site:

• Every image and page URL kept identical
• Every publish date and update date preserved
• Full security hardening and technical improvements
• A clean, fast, modern design

This is where most rebuilds destroy rankings. Ours protected them.

Local Optimization

Alongside the rebuild, we optimized the clinic’s Google Business Profile, strengthening its local presence so it could compete in the map pack, not just organic results.

The Result

The rebuild didn’t just save the rankings. It improved them.

Within 5-6 days, after making the new site live, the site was fully recovered, faster, secure, and climbing. It now ranks #2 for both of its main keywords, higher than it ever reached before the crash.

Final Word

This project came down to two decisions that made all the difference: rebuilding clean instead of patching cracked software, and preserving every URL and date so the new site inherited the old one’s authority.

Done wrong, a rebuild like this wipes out years of ranking progress. Done right, it becomes the foundation for something stronger.

Every detail here is real. The client’s identity is kept private on request.