By Akshay Kadukkatt
I didn’t set out to work with dental clinics. Honestly, my first thought when that inquiry came in was — what does a dentist need SEO for?
Turns out, quite a lot.
If you’re a dentist in Thrissur or anywhere in Kerala, you’re probably getting patients from word-of-mouth or from a Google search. And if you’re not showing up on that Google search, someone else is getting that patient. That was the conversation I had with my first dental client, and it changed how I thought about local SEO entirely.
I’m Akshay Kadukkatt, an SEO freelancer based in Thrissur. I’ve been doing this for a while now — working with businesses across different industries, building websites on Shopify and WordPress, and figuring out why some businesses show up on Google and most don’t. You can see more of my work at akshaykadukkatt.com. Over the past few years, the clients have been an interesting mix: dental clinics trying to book more appointments, gym centres trying to fill memberships, event management teams trying to get found before wedding season, catering services that had no online presence at all, accounting institutes looking to attract more students, and e-commerce stores wondering why their Shopify site wasn’t converting.
Each one taught me something different.
The dental clinic problem
Most dental clinics have a Facebook page and maybe a website someone built three years ago. That’s it. No Google Business Profile properly set up. No location-specific pages. No reviews strategy. The clinic could be excellent — and many of them are — but they’re invisible to someone typing “dental clinic near me” at 11pm with a toothache.
What I found is that local SEO for healthcare is genuinely different from other niches. People search with intent. They’re not browsing. They want to book an appointment, and they’re going to call the first result that looks trustworthy. So the work isn’t just technical — it’s also about making sure the website actually communicates trust. Clear services, real photos, Google reviews that actually get responded to. Small things that add up.
Gym centres and the membership problem
Gyms are interesting because the competition is hyper-local. Nobody drives 45 minutes to a gym. They want the one that’s close, has good equipment, and looks like real people go there — not a stock photo shoot.
Most gym owners I’ve worked with had the same issue: a decent enough facility, maybe an Instagram page with transformation posts, and a website that either didn’t exist or looked like it was built in 2015. The enquiries weren’t coming in because nobody was finding them online.
The fix isn’t complicated, but it requires actual work — getting the Google listing right, building out pages for specific services (weight training, cardio, group classes, personal training), and making sure the site loads fast on a phone because that’s how most people are searching. Once that foundation is in place, the calls start coming.
Event management is its own puzzle
Working with an event management team was where I learned that timing matters as much as rankings. Wedding season in Kerala has a predictable rhythm. If you haven’t built your search presence three months before the season starts, you’re late. It’s not enough to rank — you need to rank when the searches are happening.
For that client, we focused on content that matched what couples actually search for: venue options by district, packages, real event galleries. Not generic “we provide complete event solutions” copy that says nothing. Specific, searchable content that answered real questions.
Catering and the challenge of trust
Catering is an industry where the food speaks for itself — but online, nobody can taste anything. So everything rides on how the website looks, what the menu says, whether there’s a contact form that actually works, and whether Google thinks you’re a real business.
I’ve worked with catering services that had incredible food and zero online presence. Getting them to show up on local searches, getting their Google listing sorted, and making the website easy enough for someone to call or message within 30 seconds — that’s the actual job.
Accounting institutes and the student search
This was a niche I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I did. Accounting institutes — the ones running CA foundation coaching, Tally courses, GST training — have a very specific student funnel. Most of their students are searching on Google right before admission season. Miss that window and you’ve missed the batch.
What made this interesting is that the searches are very specific. Someone looking for “CA foundation coaching in Thrissur” is a different person from someone searching “Tally course with placement.” Both need to find the same institute, but through different pages, different content, different keywords. Building that structure out properly — so the institute shows up for all the relevant searches, not just one — made a real difference in enquiry volume.
Shopify and WordPress: different animals
I do web development on both platforms, and they attract very different clients. Shopify clients usually have a product they believe in and want sales. The site is up — so why isn’t anyone buying? That’s usually a traffic problem (nobody is finding the store) or a conversion problem (people are landing but leaving). Sometimes both.
WordPress clients tend to have more complex needs — blogs, service pages, multilingual setups, custom functionality. I like WordPress for its flexibility, but I also spend a lot of time fixing websites that were “built cheaply” and then abandoned. Speed issues, broken plugins, no SSL, no SEO structure. A good WordPress build takes time and planning.
Why I work the way I do
I’m not an agency. I don’t have ten people working under me farming tasks out. When you work with me, I’m the one doing the work — the keyword research, the technical audit, the content strategy, the link building. That means slower scale but more control over quality.
Most of my clients come through referrals, which I think is the honest measure of whether this work is actually helping people. A dental clinic in Thrissur refers a friend who runs a catering business. That friend refers someone setting up a Shopify store. A gym owner mentions me to the accounting institute next door. And so on.
If you’re a local business trying to figure out why your website isn’t bringing in leads, or you’re building something new and want it done right from the start — that’s the conversation I’m happy to have. Head over to akshaykadukkatt.com to see the work, read case studies, or just get in touch directly.
Akshay Kadukkatt is an SEO freelancer based in Thrissur, Kerala. He works with dental clinics, gym centres, event management teams, catering services, accounting institutes, and e-commerce businesses on Shopify and WordPress. Visit akshaykadukkatt.com to learn more or get in touch.
