Are you a doctor looking for SEO services for your medical practice?
If so, we’ve written this article to discuss everything you need to know about medical SEO.
What it is, how it works, and its benefits.
We even discuss frequently asked questions about this service.
So, let’s jump into it.
How Does Doctor SEO Work?
Doctor SEO works by optimizing your website to appear high in Google search results.
This means that whenever a potential new patient searches a term relevant to your business, such as “family doctor accepting new patients”, your medical practice shows up.
If you apply SEO properly to your website, you will be able to show up for a variety of these types of keywords.
Why Your Medical Practice Needs SEO
There are many reasons why doctors should perform SEO on their websites.
Showing up high in Google Search can be an extremely effective marketing channel for the following reasons.
Benefits Of Medical SEO
Let’s discuss five of the most significant benefits of medical SEO.
Appear In Front Of Interested Searchers
By optimizing your medical website to best practices, you will be able to appear for many different types of searches.
These include searches that express high-intent from the user.
For example, if your website appears first in Google for the term “emergency doctor near me”, you have a very high chance of converting this user.
This is because the user is searching for your service right now, and are ready to convert this very instance.
No Need To Rely Solely On Referrals
Medical professionals – especially doctors – rely heavily on referrals and word of mouth marketing.
This is the old school way of marketing.
If you want to utilize both old school and new school methods, marketing your website through SEO will give you this additional online marketing channel to lean on.
New Patients On Autopilot
Once you hire an SEO professional to do the work, your marketing is hands-off.
This allows you to focus on what really matters – servicing your medical patients.
With marketing off of your mind, new leads will be coming to you every single month virtually on autopilot.
Cost-Effectiveness
Website positioning can be one of the most lucrative marketing initiatives you use for your business.
This is because each click that goes to your website from organic search engine results is free.
This is quite contrary to PPC, where you pay for each click.
With SEO, you can receive an unlimited number of clicks at zero cost to your business.
Longterm Strategy
SEO is a longterm lead generation strategy that can benefit your medical practice for years to come.
By getting starting now, you will still be reaping the rewards years down the line, as you will have an even stronger ability to rank for your target keywords over time.
Common Healthcare Keywords And Search Terms
To find success with your marketing campaign, you need to ensure you target the correct medical terms.
Doing so will allow your website to achieve maximum exposure in organic search results.
Below is a list of common doctor keywords that can drive targeted and high volume traffic to your website:
“doctor near me”
“doctors office near me”
“family doctor office”
“family doctor office + city”
“doctor office + city”
“best physician in city”
“affordable physician in city”
“doctor practice near me”
“best family doctor in my area”
In the above example, simply replace “city” with your target service area.
Use this as a starting point for your keyword research.
How To Perform SEO For Doctors
Now that we understand how important search engine optimization can be for doctors and medical practices, let’s discuss how to actually perform the service for your healthcare website.
Below are some of the most heavily-weighted variables for search engines when analyzing how high they should rank a doctor’s website.
Website Content
The content on your website is what communicates to Google what your website is about.
The more content you have, the more the search engine will be able to understand what your website should rank for.
Relevant, Valuable, Long-Form Content
In order to indeed be able to rank for certain keywords, your website must have the most relevant, valuable, and helpful content on the web for any specific target topic.
Google wants to show its users the best possible results for any given keyword query.
Therefore, the deeper into a medical topic you are able to get, the higher the likelihood you will be able to rank for it.
Each of your target pages should be at least 1,500 words.
If you’d like to learn more about content writing for SEO, please watch this video:
Target Keywords
In terms of rankings, having long-form content doesn’t matter if you don’t include your target keywords in your writing.
Every piece of content you write should be written with one or two target keywords in mind.
By dialing-in on a select few keywords for each piece, you will be able to laser-focus your writing and be able to create one valuable, long-form piece of content with a high ability to rank.
High Search And High Intent Keywords
The medical keywords you target should include both high intent and a high search volume.
You want your website visitors to convert.
By including high-intent keywords in which specify buyer-intent, such as “emergency medical practice near me”, your visitors will have a high chance of turning into leads.
These words also need to have a significant search volume.
It doesn’t matter if you rank for a target keyword if the said keyword has a zero monthly search volume.
Targeting keywords that actually get a decent amount of monthly search volume is extremely important for SEO.
Google My Business Optimization
Optimizing your Google My Business (GMB) profile is necessary to appear in local searches.
It is one of many great local store marketing ideas.
Your GMB profile is the profile of your business on Google that appears in search results for a search query with local intent.
Appear In Google Maps
Appearing in Google Maps is imperative for your medical practice.
This is where users are either searching directly for directions to the nearest doctors office or are searching Google with a local search term such as “doctors office near me”.
Either way, appearing high for terms like this can drive lots of targeted traffic to your medical website.
Authoritative Backlinks
Getting backlinks pointed to your website is a huge SEO ranking factor.
They help to establish local relevance, niche-relevance, and authority for your website.
The more high quality backlinks you have pointed to your website, the stronger your SEO foundation will be.
Thus, higher rankings.
Local And Relevant Links
Locally-relevant backlinks will help to tell Google that you are located where you say you are located.
This provides “proof” to Google that you are indeed local to your area, thus allowing you to rank higher for local searches.
Examples of these types of local links are: being listed on your local Chamber of Commerce or being listed on a local directory.
Being included on niche-relevant websites is helpful too, such as being listed on a directory of medical websites.
Focusing in on both local and niche relevant links are imperative for local rankings.
Good Reviews
GMB reviews, Facebook reviews, Yelp reviews, etc., are great for doctor SEO because they help to increase conversion rates.
Client Testimonials And Social Proof
Client testimonials and reviews act as social proof for your business.
Consumers feel more comfortable buying from a business that has great reviews from past clients.
The same applies to medical practices and doctors.
The more 5-star reviews you have on all of your platforms, the higher your conversion rates will potentially be.
Commonly Asked Questions About SEO For Doctors
We’ve also included answers to frequently asked questions about medical SEO services to help you understand more about what exactly it is so that you can make a more informed decision for your practice.
What Is The Best Digital Marketing Service For My Practice?
There are many online advertising options out there for doctors.
Google Adwords, social media marketing, email marketing, content marketing – you name it.
Typically, PPC services are expensive for the medical industry since most physicians are willing to pay high customer acquisition costs upfront.
This leads to a high cost per click (CPC) for services like Google Adwords and Facebook Marketing.
Although they can still be effective, it is more expensive than most other industries.
Ultimately, all of these services can work if done right – however, we suggest SEO as you do not have to pay for every click that your results generate.
How Do We Know How We Stack Up Against Other Doctors?
We conduct a full competitive analysis for you.
This will show you the strengths and weaknesses in your competitors’ SEO strategy, as well as the medical keywords that they’re currently ranking for.
By breaking down what other doctors are doing right, and what they are doing wrong, we will be able to develop a comprehensive SEO strategy for your practice that will give you a high chance of ranking above the rest.
What Are The Next Steps?
The next steps are to contact us for your free SEO evaluation and competitive analysis.
From here, we can discuss exactly what it is you would like to achieve with your marketing campaign and how we can go about doing so in a timely fashion.
You can also book an appointment for a free 30-minute strategy session to discuss your marketing needs.
Make Active Business Growth Your Medical Digital Marketing Partner Today
Speak with us today to learn how to effectively market your medical practice using SEO for doctors.
We have deep experience in the medical field and would love to put that experience to work for you.
So, if you’re looking to generate a highly effective lead generation machine with digital marketing, contact Active Business Growth today!
We looking forward to hearing from you.
Please note that we also offer SEO for orthodontists as well.
