Your medical practice website is a powerful tool to help you be seen and heard online. If your clinic is in an area with tense competition, your website can promote your expertise so you can rise above the competition. If your website is not doing all these, it needs an overhaul. What your healthcare website needs is a prescription for local medical SEO.
SEO or search engine optimization is a collection of tactics to build your reputation and visibility online. Medical practitioners must rely on the following SEO strategies to launch their careers online.
Top Local SEO Tips for Medical Practitioners
Most consumers start their search for products or services online. However, Hubspot discovered that around 72% of consumers who performed a local search went to a store after five minutes.
Your new patients could be out there searching for your business online! It’s now up to you. Help your clients find you and highlight your services by optimizing your medical practice website.
Start with Keyword Research
Keyword research is one of the foundations of good local SEO. With the right local keywords, your audience can easily see your website. For a medical practice site, keyword research should include the following:
- Conversation-like searches made by your users. Think of AI search questions almost like honest conversations.
- Location-based keywords for a location-specific audience like “San Diego chiropractor” or “cosmetic surgeons in San Diego.”
- Look for seed keywords. These are generalized words that you can use to build your keyword strategy. General words like dermatologists, surgeons, or back pain can be seed words to create more complex and more targeted terms like “dermatologist price in San Diego,” “San Diego knee surgeon,” or “back pain relief in San Diego.”
- Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to help you find top-tier keywords for your practice.
- Check the keywords your competitors are using.
Claim and Optimize Your GMB Listing
As said by Digital Authority Partners, using trusted local SEO practices can effectively promote your local medical practice. One of the most crucial local SEO strategies is optimizing your GMB or Google My Business profile.
Your Google My Business listing is your practice’s page on Google search and Maps. Your GMB has your business information, including customer reviews, photos, ratings, and a short 170-character description of your business.
Claim and optimize your GMB so Google can highlight your page during a search. Create separate GMB listings for your different locations to lead your customers to your other clinics using Maps.
Your GMB sets your first impression, so don’t forget the following tips to optimize this listing.
- Add updated images and videos of your clinic or medical office.
- Create a Q and A section to answer basic customer questions about your practice/business.
- Encourage customer reviews, and don’t forget to respond to them.
- Keep all information updated, including holiday hours and accessibility options.
- Create an engaging business description. Maximize the allotted character length.
Be Consistent with Your Online Listings
Aside from your GMB profile, placing your practice on various local listings and directories can help improve visibility. Medical directory sites like HealthLine, RateMDs, Doctor.com, and Vitals.com are among the most popular listings to consider. In addition, consider adding your business to general directory listings such as the Yellow Pages and Yelp.
Be consistent with your business information to avoid confusing your customers. Update your listings in case there are changes in your business information. And aside from your directory listings, don’t forget to update your contact information in your blogs and social media pages.
Create Geo-Targeted Web Pages and Blogs
If you have several clinic locations, it’s best to create pages for each to geo-target your audience. This separation helps you highlight services or offers specific to a particular area.
Include your keywords plus location in your landing page URL, page title, and meta description. Include your location in your content. Write supporting blogs for your particular clinic location and highlight services and offers you promote here. Consider adding the following information to help further your clients improve user experience.
- Include a local map to help your clients find your practice.
- Add an updated photo of your location. Include exterior and interior images.
- Ensure that your contact information is on every page.
- Include amenities available in your clinic like parking, nearby transportation hubs, Wi-Fi, wheelchair accessible parking and entrance, elevators, etc.
Shine on Social Media
Social media has made a significant impact on your popularity online. By establishing your social media presence and sharing quality and high-value links, you improve your brand exposure and promote your practice online and offline.
Social media influences SEO by extensively distributing your content, increasing organic traffic, promoting brand recognition and reputation, and boosting local SEO. Whether you’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube, remember the following tips:
- Promote your practice through different content. Use videos, podcasts, infographics, and posts.
- Post helpful guides, tools, and data on your social media account.
- Share beneficial information from high-ranking or authoritative medical sites.
- Manage customer comments and encourage reviews. Accommodate all direct messages.
Promote Your Online Marketing with Offline Marketing
To successfully promote a local medical practice, you need to combine online marketing strategies with offline marketing activities. It’s about integrating these different strategies to promote your practice. These marketing integration tips can help.
- Promote your offline events, special discounts, and new services through social media.
- Create consistency with your brand on all online and offline platforms. Your website must reflect your physical location in terms of branding, language, and design to establish trust.
- Tie up data from your online and offline marketing data.
- Promote your website and social media sites through offline means such as signage, pamphlets, booklets, and newspaper ads.
Final Words
These local SEO strategies can improve visibility and brand recognition to grow your medical practice online. With an optimized online presence, you’ll enjoy increased web page traffic and more clients and patients to visit your local office or clinic. In addition, medical SEO secures your rankings and your popularity on SERPs to dominate your local market.
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