SEO for Doctors: 6 Strategies for Massive Growth
You’ve probably heard the term search engine optimization or SEO for short but have a vague understanding of what it can do for your business. As a doctor, how can SEO take your business strategy to the next level? What value does SEO bring to medical practices? This blog will delve into actionable tips that utilize SEO to create a successful business strategy.
Understanding the Basics of SEO for Medical Practices
Before you learn the ‘how’ of SEO, you should understand what it is exactly. SEO is a well-known process in digital marketing that involves improving the quantity and quality of website traffic to a web page or website from search engines. This is an organic method of enhancing the online presence of your medical practice.
SEO involves utilizing link building, technical configuration, and relevant information to make a web page accessible on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Improving your website ranking is vital for various reasons.
If your website ranks high on search results, it’ll appear first when people have search queries with related keywords. SEO is also critical to improve your online presence. Your medical practice can miss many opportunities if you don’t have a solid marketing strategy. Moreover, SEO can increase your lead generation, which means more profit for the business.
However, it should be highlighted that SEO won’t boost your website traffic overnight. SEO is a long-term strategy that can lead to more potential patients over time. While you may not see the fruits of your labor instantly, your business can enjoy the benefits for the long term.
Nowadays, it’s an absolute must for businesses like medical practices to invest in SEO. Why? People may never find your business online if your website does not rank among the top three search results from Google, Bing, or other search engines. SEO for doctors is a need in this increasingly interconnected world.
But how can you elevate your SEO efforts? Here are tips for SEO for doctors you should follow:
Optimizing Website Content
One of the most vital medical search engine optimization tactics you should implement is having a responsive website design. What’s the point of developing a stellar website design if it takes forever to load? A responsive web design enables the websites of medical practices to load faster and make the content easier to navigate.
Moreover, it ensures that people won’t have difficulty locating the information they need from your website. They’d be more inclined to stay longer on your site and revisit it in the future, giving your practice a competitive advantage.
Optimizing website content also means ensuring your website is mobile-friendly. Nowadays, nearly 60% of search queries are done via mobile devices. This entails that more people conduct healthcare searches through their smartphones or tablets. If your website ranks high on search engine results but takes too long to load or looks weird on the mobile version, your website visitors might be inclined to move on to another medical practice instead.
There are plenty of ways to improve your web design for SEO purposes. Here are some effective tactics you can explore:
- Pay attention to your website navigation. It should be easy for people to locate the information they need.
- Maximize the power of color psychology. Use colors like blue and green that symbolize credibility and health.
- Try a pre-designed theme or layout. iMatrix has many stellar website designs you can adapt to your website.
- Test responsiveness in real devices. You should test them on mobile and desktop.
- Don’t forget landscape orientation. The website should look good no matter how the mobile user views it.
When developing a responsive web design, you should highlight mobile-friendly content. This means that the stellar videos, photos, and visuals you worked hard on should look more or less the same when people visit your website on their devices. The transition from desktop to mobile version must be seamless.
The main goal of a responsive web design is to elevate your user experience. You want to entice more patients to visit your clinic by delivering an excellent online experience. Everything from URL structure, page organization, meta descriptions, title tags, and more will alert search engines to website quality and influence rankings.
Keyword Research Refinement
Keyword research is vital in any effective plan for SEO for doctors. This is the process of finding and analyzing search terms that people use on search engines. The goal is to use the data you gather to elevate your SEO for doctors and position yourself as a business leader.
You don’t have to conduct this research manually. You can choose a paid or free keyword research tool to boost your local SEO efforts and more. Here are some free tools you can explore:
With everything you have on your plate, like managing your Facebook business page, it may not be practical to conduct this doctor SEO strategy yourself. Fortunately, you can turn to marketing experts like iMatrix to elevate your practice website with the right keywords.
When using keywords, your goal should be to target your ideal patients or target market. You should determine the type of search queries your potential patients use. This is so you can focus on integrating these keywords into your website and attract visitors to your clinic or hospital.
Here are some sample keywords you can use for your website, if applicable:
Chiropractors
- Chiropractor in Austin, Texas
- Chiropractor near me
Veterinarians
- Veterinary center near me
- Veterinary clinic near me
- Pet doctor for cats in California
- Pet doctors near me
Eye Doctors
- Eye doctor near me
- Eye doctor in New York
Building Quality Backlinks
Another vital component to increase your search volume is using quality backlinks. Link-building is the process of building backlinks or one-way hyperlinks to a website. The goal of link-building is to enhance your website’s search engine visibility.
Nowadays, search engines don’t simply analyze your website content to determine your ranking. Google changed the game two decades ago by also analyzing how many people linked to that specific page. To this day, backlinks remain integral in determining a web page’s quality.
With that said, your website should not only lead website users to other pages on your website, but you should also have external links on your page. For example, you can add links to credible websites for statistics or research journals for medical findings.
Regarding backlinks, you should think in terms of quality instead of quantity. You should determine if the website you’re linking to is relevant to your business strategy and is a trustworthy source. You should ensure that the backlinks you use reinforce your integrity as a business. Hence, you should be strategic in your keyword usage.
While link building is vital for SEO for doctors, you should avoid bad SEO practices that can lead to penalties for your business. For example, you shouldn’t use hidden text or spam irrelevant keywords to boost your website ranking. You should also avoid copying your competitor’s content and keyword stuffing. While your intention may be to rank higher on search results, these tactics might backfire on you, and search engines might punish you.You shouldn’t add unnecessary backlinks if you’re not confident about the credibility of the website you’re looking at. Ultimately, this would reflect the quality of your business as well.
Backlinks can help build strong relationships with other companies. You should partner with related businesses to fortify each other’s backlink strategy. You shouldn’t use backlinks that direct website users to your competitors in your area. You wouldn’t want to lose potential patients to them, after all.
Content Optimization for Search Engines
An excellent SEO tactic for doctors who can demonstrate their expertise is creating quality content. When creating content like a blog post or video, you should develop content your potential patients are searching for. Ponder on the profile of your ideal patient. What would they usually search for when looking for medical practices like yours?
It would be best if you integrated these key elements into your content. You should answer their question through your content. Simultaneously, you should encourage them to visit your clinic or hospital so you can help them solve their problems.
When developing content, you should consider the language you use. While using the right keywords, you should avoid complicated jargon most people won’t understand. After all, you’re writing blog articles or developing videos for people who need your help, not people who can do what you do professionally.
It would help to remember your keywords when writing blog articles or making educational videos. While demonstrating how your business can be of service, you should hit two birds with one stone by prompting search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to recognize how you’re an authority figure in the topic you’re discussing.
Content optimization is an excellent creative outlet that you can use for various marketing platforms as well. You can utilize the content you develop for your website, social media channels, e-mail marketing efforts, and more.
Social Media Integration
SEO for doctors doesn’t just cover your stellar practice website. It would be best to integrate your social media channels into your overall business strategy. Your professional social media channels can help elevate your overall SEO strategy, but how?
One tactic you can explore is including social sharing buttons on your website. These buttons would make it easier for website visitors to share your content on their respective social media platforms. If they like a blog article you’ve written, this button allows them to share it on their Twitter/X account easily.
You can also integrate your keyword research efforts into your social media strategy. You can use the exact keywords for more patients to find your practice or clinic when they search related terms on search engines.
Another tactic you can apply is to include links in your social profiles. You can use link trees to direct people to more relevant website links. If possible, You should include relevant website links to your social media posts.
Your social media channels are an extension of your website. That’s why you should adapt SEO tactics to your social media strategy. Overall, all your digital marketing tools should work together seamlessly for more people to discover your business and book an appointment with your clinic.
Developing a Successful Business Strategy and More
These SEO tactics can elevate your business strategy and help more patients find your patients online. With a stellar SEO game plan, you can encourage more people to leave patient reviews and book an appointment with your clinic. After all, your digital marketing efforts should boost your business and educate people about what your clinic can bring to the table.
With everything you have on your plate, it might be challenging to apply these SEO tactics and encourage people to read your online reviews. Fortunately, you don’t have to do everything alone. We at iMatrix can help your business integrate these SEO tactics. We’re experts in SEO for doctors, so you know you’re in good hands. For more information on digital marketing packages that include advanced SEO, call 800.792.8384 or click here.
