Healthcare SEO is an essential part of your medical practice’s marketing strategy. If you’re not using it, you’re missing out on a significant opportunity to increase your patient base and grow your practice. Health care SEO is a unique form of search engine optimization (SEO) that focuses on ranking your medical website at the top of SERPs.
Healthcare websites are complex, so it’s not surprising that they require specialized SEO techniques. In addition to all the usual things you’d do for any website — keyword research, content creation, link building — there are several more healthcare-specific elements that can help your site rank better in search results.
In this article, we dig deep into healthcare marketing and how it differs from regular SEO. We’ll also discuss hacks you can use to rank your website high and generate more leads.
Health Care SEO Basics
The healthcare industry is a big business. It represents one of the most significant segments of the U.S. economy and has been growing steadily for decades. With more than $3 trillion spent annually, it’s no wonder why healthcare SEO has become a lucrative field to venture in.
Plus, it is a powerful tool for healthcare marketers. It will help you develop a patient-focused online presence while ranking your website high. Through this ranking, you will increase your website traffic and conversion chances.
However, for SEO to work in your best interest, you must invest your time and skills. You have to understand its operation as well as implementation. Below are some tips on how you can easily rank your healthcare marketing agency using SEO:
Optimize Your Site for Google Search Results
The most popular search engine by far is Google, so it makes sense that this should be your main focus when optimizing your site for search engines.
Google uses an algorithm called PageRank to determine which sites are most relevant to users’ queries and then ranks them accordingly. Pages must meet specific criteria before ranking highly in Google’s results pages, including having good content and backlinks from reputable websites with high authority.
Quality of content
The quality of your content is crucial when it comes to health care SEO. Think about it this way: if you have a website that contains only a few paragraphs about heart disease, but an expert cardiologist writes them, Google will consider that page valuable and rank it higher for queries like “heart disease” or “heart attack treatments.”
However, if someone searches for “heart attack symptoms” on Google, and all they see are articles written by people who don’t know much about heart attacks, then Google won’t find those pages helpful and rank them high either.
So, SEO is all about creating high-quality content that answers search intent. For instance, if you’re trying to rank for keywords like “nosebleed, ” you should write about nosebleeds. But if you’re trying to rank for keywords like “acute appendicitis,” writing about general appendicitis may not work best.
Health Care SEO Research Aids Your Keyword Research
Keywords are the words people type into search engines when looking for something specific. So you should first identify the target keywords on which you will build your healthcare content.
For example, if you specialize in treating children with ADHD, then targeting the keyword “ADHD treatment” would be a good starting point. However, if there’s not much competition for this keyword and it doesn’t have much volume (meaning that it’s not being searched very often), then it might not be worth focusing on immediately.
Instead, try targeting a keyword like “childhood ADHD symptoms” because there’s more volume associated with it and more competition among other medical professionals who treat children with ADHD symptoms.
Similarly, you will need to look at your competitors and determine what keywords they are ranking well on in Google’s search results. You can easily do this by using tools like SEMrush or SpyFu, as well as through manual searches using Google AdWords Keyword Planner.
After determining what keywords your competitors are using, you’ll also have a clearer idea of what keywords you should be targeting. You can also use Google’s Autocomplete feature to determine the most searched terminologies/keywords.
Create a Strong Domain Authority
One of the most important aspects of SEO is your domain authority. Domain authority represents how well a website ranks in search engines. So the higher the domain authority, the better it will rank.
You can increase your domain authority by adding an SSL certificate and a 301 redirect to secure and direct users to your new URL. You can also create backlinks with relevant anchor text, which helps people find your site when searching for specific keywords.
Keep in mind that it takes time for SEO to work, so don’t expect results right away. But if you follow these steps and make intelligent decisions about your content and keywords, you’ll see results in no time.
Content Development
Content creation is a huge part of SEO. The more relevant and helpful content you create, the more traffic you get from search engines.
So the first thing you should do once you set up your site is create a blog for publishing content. Then, focus on creating quality content helpful to potential patients.
The idea behind this strategy is that if your likely patients find helpful information about their specific ailments through search engine results, they are more likely to visit your website and eventually become your regular clients.
In addition to creating blog posts, there are many other types of content that you can display and attract more traffic.
• Infographics
• Videos
• Podcasts
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is another vital tool for health care SEO. It’s a free resource that will help track your website traffic and effectively tell you its distribution. You can then use that data to adjust your strategy accordingly.
For example, if you find that most of your traffic comes from social media platforms, you might want to invest more time building up those platforms. Additionally, once you have a good idea of where people are coming from, you can start to optimize your site for specific keywords.
Use Local SEO
You can’t afford to ignore local SEO when improving your medical practice. It’s one of the most important aspects of your business and quite possibly the most overlooked.
Local SEO is essential to any digital marketing strategy because it appears in local search results on Google and Bing. It allows potential patients to find you in their area and get answers to questions they may have about you and your services.
Unfortunately, if you’re not utilizing local SEO, you could miss out on hundreds or thousands of potential new leads each month. Here are some basic tips for getting started with local SEO:
• Create unique listings on Google+ Business Pages
• Claim your listing on Yelp
• Then use relevant keywords in your content.
The Outreach Aspect of Health Care SEO
The outreach aspect of healthcare SEO is often overlooked but can significantly impact your site’s rankings. If you have a strong outreach strategy in place, it can help you improve your search engine rankings, increase your traffic, and drive more patients to your practice.
Outreach increases your visibility on the web. It’s also a great way to get backlinks from authoritative sites that will help you rank higher in search results. Plus, outreach can help build relationships with other healthcare professionals who might mention you in their blogs or social media posts, which could bring more patients to your practice.
Here are some tips for successful outreach:
• Find potential partners online by searching for keywords related to your field (e.g., “orthopedics”). Look at the websites of local hospitals, other medical facilities, and professional organizations like the American Medical Association (AMA).
• Find contact information for influential figures within these organizations so you can reach out personally via email or phone. If you don’t know how to contact someone directly, try contacting them through their website’s general email address or by sending an email inquiry through their contact form.
• Find people in your community who might be interested in your content. You can use social media or Google AdWords to find people who live near you and are searching for topics related to your business. If they’re searching for information about dentistry, they’ll likely be interested in reading about your practice online.
• Look at the demographics of the people who visit your site and target those same demographics with outreach campaigns. For example, if most of the visitors to your website are older women looking for information about oral health issues, look for similar people on Facebook or Twitter so that they can learn more about what you do online.
The Value of Social Media for Health Care SEO
It’s no secret that social media has transformed how people interact with each other and businesses. For healthcare marketing, social media can be a great way to not only reach out to clients but also nurture relationships.
Here are some of the ways you can use social media for health care SEO:
Have a presence on every platform
It’s essential to have a strong presence on every major social media platform for easy crawling by search engines. For example, if you’re a hospital or clinic offering foot care services, set up accounts on both Facebook and Twitter so that people can find you easily when searching those terms.
Create content that resonates with your audience
The success of any social platform depends on how well it connects with users. And to do this successfully, you must create content that resonates with your target audience.
The same principle applies to search engines — if they see that people are actively engaging with your content online, they will rank you higher in the SERPs (search engine results pages).
If you know what your audience cares about, deliver content that addresses their needs. This will help build trust between them and your facility and keep them coming back for more information over time.
Promoting Events and Educational Opportunities
Events like conferences and webinars are another way for healthcare companies to showcase their expertise and provide value to customers who want to learn more about their industry.
By promoting these events on Facebook or Twitter, attendees can learn more about these opportunities from their friends, who may even attend.
Connect with Potential Patients Directly
Social media allows you to connect with people who are already interested in your business or service. You can find them by searching for keywords related to what you do, then engage with them by asking questions or posting content that inspires conversation.
Build Trust and Credibility
Additionally, social media lets people see what kind of person you are before they directly engage with your business. If you’re friendly and open about who you are and how you work, people will be more likely to trust that their experience working with you will be positive.
Generate Leads
Social media allows businesses to generate leads through organic methods without having to pay for advertising space on other sites. This saves money while allowing businesses to build relationships with potential customers before buying anything from them.
Increase Brand Awareness
By participating in the conversation about healthcare, you can raise awareness for your brand and educate consumers about what makes it unique. As people start talking about your brand online and with their friends, this will lead them to check out your website or contact you directly for more information.
Get More Links
People love sharing things that they find valuable or exciting with others on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Post valuable content that people find helpful or interesting. They may share it with their friends who could also be interested in learning more about what you offer — leading them back to your site where they can convert into leads or customers of yours.
Use Hashtags Effectively
Hashtags are an easy way to track conversations about your brand or industry, find out what people are saying about your competitors and keywords related to your business (and respond accordingly).
Benefits of Health Care SEO
Health care SEO is an essential tool for any healthcare organization. With more and more people searching online for medical answers, you must get your website optimized for search engines.
Here are some benefits of health care SEO:
• Increased traffic to your site
A well-optimized website will attract more visitors from search engines. So more people will be able to find your website when they’re looking for crucial information about a specific disease or condition, or even just general health issues.
• Better visibility in local searches
Health care SEO will increase your online visibility and appearance on local searches. For instance, once you search for “plastic surgeon” on Google, you will see local results like “Plastic Surgeon in San Francisco” or “Plastic Surgeons in Los Angeles.”
These results are based on Google’s knowledge of where you’re located and the popularity of your website — which means if your website isn’t optimized for local searches, you may be missing out on potential patients close by. Healthcare marketing agencies serve to eliminate these fears.
• Better Rankings
Your website will rank higher on Google if you have good content and a strong strategy. So if your site has excellent content and is optimized for search engines, it will have more opportunities to be seen by more people. This will help you get more traffic and leads and increase sales.
• Increase in social media engagement
Social media is an essential aspect of online marketing today, and health care SEO can help you gain more followers on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. An excellent social media presence will also help you improve brand awareness and reputation.
• Improved conversion rate
It has been proven that websites with a clear focus on their target audience perform better in conversion rates than those that do not have such a focus. Therefore, optimizing your website for health care SEO will make it easier to increase your conversion rates and make more sales or appointments with patients.
• More leads and sales
The goal of any business is to get more people to visit their site. When you rank well for healthcare-related keywords, you will get more traffic, translating to more sales. For instance, if someone searches “Cleveland dentist” and you appear on the first page of the search results, you will have a better chance of getting their business.
The best part is that prospects who click over from Google are already interested in what you have to offer, so they are more likely to be converted into regular customers.
• Fewer competitors
If you rank in the top 3 spots for a search term like “dentist near me,” there will be no competition for that keyword. That means every person who searches for it will see your website before any other competitor.
At the end of the day, it’s about providing excellent medical care for your patients and establishing an online presence to facilitate that care. Healthcare SEO can be a powerful ally in making this happen and a valuable source of income.
Ultimately, success doesn’t happen overnight, especially in the highly competitive and dynamic world of Health care SEO. It takes time, effort, and a systematic approach to develop and implement an effective SEO strategy to generate leads and convert visitors into paying customers.