Work · Healthcare · Functional Medicine
Optimal Health Institute of Ohio: Built Around a Philosophy, and Still Doing Its Job
Optimal Health Institute of Ohio is Dr. Nancy Fazekas Grubb’s functional medicine practice in Uniontown, Ohio. She treats the root cause, not just the symptoms. In 2016 I built a website around that idea, and it is still the one patients see. I have worked with the practice since 2014.
50%+
New patient visits from the web
+212%
Searches on Google’s first page, against the site’s first three full years
1,000+
Different Google searches the site shows up for
The homepage as it stands today, on a site built in 2016.
Client
Optimal Health Institute of Ohio
Where
Uniontown, Ohio, serving Akron, Canton and Cleveland
Specialty
Functional and holistic medicine
Working together
Since 2014
What I do
The website, most of the copy, the SEO foundation, hosting and updates
Still found for
Functional medicine, holistic doctor and hormone searches across northeast Ohio
01
The Functional Medicine Practice
A physician trained in conventional medicine who chose to look for causes, and the patients who come to her for answers.
Optimal Health Institute of Ohio is Dr. Nancy Fazekas Grubb’s practice in Uniontown, Ohio, and patients come to it from Akron, Canton, Cleveland and across the northeast of the state. Dr. Grubb trained the conventional way, at Ohio State and at Mayo, and spent years in family medicine. Then she chose a different path. Most doctor visits are built to match a symptom to a diagnosis and a prescription. Dr. Grubb starts with a different question: why is this happening? She treats the body as one connected system. She looks at how hormones, thyroid, energy, stress, diet and lifestyle affect each other, and she treats the imbalance underneath the symptom.
Her training is what makes that work. Many of her patients have already been through the usual system. They were told nothing was wrong, or that their condition was something they would have to live with. Dr. Grubb knows that system from the inside, so she can read the same results and keep asking why. Much of her work is in hormones, thyroid and energy, the problems that are easiest to miss. Her treatments lean on bioidentical hormones, natural medicines and changes to how a patient lives.
People come to her because they want answers. Her patients pay out of pocket, and most of them do their own research before they book. They choose a doctor once they understand how she thinks. That is the kind of practice a website can help most: an approach worth explaining, and patients who read before they decide.
Dr. Grubb’s story and her reasons for practicing the way she does, on the About page.
02
A Website That Had to Carry a Philosophy
Where my healthcare work began, on a website that had to carry a philosophy.
The practice opened in 2014, and I have worked with it since that first year. Its first website had gone live before it was finished. I finished it, set up the online supplement store, and kept the site running while we worked out what the practice needed. That turned into a full new site, on a new domain, in 2016. It is the same site patients see today.
The brief was harder than it sounds. Most medical websites describe services. This one had to explain a way of thinking, clearly enough that a patient who had been told nothing was wrong would recognize themselves in it and understand the approach before booking. Dr. Grubb looks for what is causing a symptom, and everything on the site had to carry that idea.
Search had to carry the weight. A cash-pay, out-of-network practice gets its patients from search, word of mouth and direct recommendation, and paid advertising is largely closed to it, because Google and Meta restrict or reject ads for bioidentical hormones and a good deal of functional medicine. So the site had to be found by people searching for a functional medicine doctor, a holistic doctor or hormone treatment across the region, and it had to earn their trust once they arrived. It launched on a brand new domain with no history behind it at all.
03
How the Philosophy Became the Website
Functional medicine website design with the philosophy carried in the words, the pictures and the quotes, and a structure built to keep working.
The philosophy was the project. This was a different kind of website. It had to reach the person reading it. A patient who knows they have a problem but has been told nothing is wrong needs to feel understood before they read about a single treatment. So everything on the site had to say the same thing: find what is causing the symptoms and treat that. I said it three ways: in the writing throughout the site, in imagery chosen to carry the idea, and in quotes set into the pages, where a line from someone else makes the point better than another paragraph would.
The site has a philosophy page. It is there because the philosophy is the practice. The headline reads Treat The Root Cause, and beside it is a photograph of a tree with its roots exposed in the soil. The picture makes the argument before a word of the copy does, which is the whole idea in one screen. That page is also why the site still fits. Dr. Grubb practices the same way today, so the page still says what it said in 2016.
The philosophy page. Treat The Root Cause, beside a tree with its roots showing. The argument is made in the picture before the copy makes it.
I wrote most of the copy. First I read a book on bioidentical hormones and functional medicine that Dr. Grubb gave me, so I could write about her work accurately and in plain language. Then I wrote the pages around the questions patients actually ask, in the words they use to search. Each treatment page starts where a patient starts. The thyroid page, for example, explains what the thyroid does, why a problem with it often gets missed, how Dr. Grubb tests for it, and what happens next. Dr. Grubb trusted me to explain her work to her own patients.
The thyroid page. What it is, why it gets missed, how she tests for it and what happens next, in a patient’s language.
The design was meant to feel warm and calm before a word is read. I used nature imagery, custom icons, soft color and generous type, so the site feels as personal as the care Dr. Grubb gives.
The homepage: custom icons, and a line from Thomas Merton set over a full-width photograph. Words, pictures and quotes doing the same job.
Then I built the practical side. The site works as well on a phone as on a desktop. It has a blog for the practice to write on, an events calendar for the talks Dr. Grubb gives, patient forms, and a store for the supplements she recommends.
The SEO was built into the site’s structure. The practice draws patients from a wide area, so the pages were built around how those patients search across northeast Ohio, by treatment and by approach. Its strength is organic search across the region, which is what it was built for.
04
Results
A thriving practice, and a website that still brings her new patients.
50%+
New patient visits from the web
12,000
Times a month the site appears in Google searches, in 2026
2016
Built that year, and hosted with me ever since
Dr. Grubb has built a thriving practice. She opened it in 2014, and patients now come to her from across northeast Ohio. That is her work. The website’s job was to explain her approach well enough that the right patients would find her and book.
The website brings in new patients. Dr. Grubb says more than half of her new patient visits come from the web.
It is still how people find her. The site shows up on Google for more than 1,000 different searches, from her own name to functional medicine, hormone therapy and thyroid care across the region. In 2026 it appears in Google searches about 12,000 times a month. After the homepage, the page people reach most from Google is the thyroid page I wrote. And it is on Google’s first page for about three times as many searches as in its first three full years.
Searches the site ranks on Google’s first page for, average month, in three-year groups. Semrush, complete calendar years.
And it has needed very little. The site Dr. Grubb uses today is the one I built in 2016. Over the years I have added new forms, updated services and prices, and refreshed the main pages as the practice changed. It runs on the hosting I set it up on, and I keep it secure and up to date. That is what maintenance looks like when the foundation is right.
“Josh Miller is a true talent with website development, design, and knowledge on maximizing SEO content. My new website design and content was delivered on schedule and with the latest style.
Over 50% of my new patient visits were referred from the web. I can not say that was the case with my previous website designed by a ‘plug and post’ company.
In addition, Josh was extremely considerate of my schedule. He quickly and efficiently implements any necessary changes. He has the capacity to listen and analyze my needs into the product desired. I appreciate his talent!”
Nancy Fazekas Grubb, MD · Optimal Health Institute of Ohio
05
The Practice Today
Built once, and looked after ever since.
The site is its own proof. It has been live since 2016, it still works well, and it still says what the practice believes.
It is still mine to look after. Dr. Grubb has hosted it with me since it was built. I keep the hosting running, keep WordPress and everything under it up to date, and make changes whenever Dr. Grubb or her office asks for them. The money went into building it well once, and that build has lasted.
We started in the practice’s first year, and we are still working together. That is the part I am proudest of. A website needs someone responsible for it, and this one has had the same person looking after it from the start. It is still a fair reflection of how Dr. Grubb practices.
This is also where my healthcare work started. Everything I have done since for dermatology, ophthalmology and radiology practices goes back to what this project taught me about writing for patients who read carefully before they decide. Read about my functional medicine work.
Services on this project
Website redesign
The 2016 rebuild, on a new domain.
Healthcare SEO
Content written around how patients search.
WordPress maintenance
Kept up since 2016, and never rebuilt.
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Get in touch
If you want a website that is still working in ten years, I can help.
Tell me what your practice does best and who you want to reach, and we’ll both get a sense of whether we’re the right match.