How Healthcare Practices Use SEO To Flourish
Trying to outrank sites like Mayo Clinic and WebMD is challenging. These organizations invest enormous sums of money in SEO and have a cozy relationship with Google.
However, there are other tactics medical practices can use to improve their ranking in search results, including targeting long-tail keywords and creating location-based content. Organizations are much more likely to rank well if they are location-specific.
Website Speed And Stability
Site speed and mobile-friendliness matter to Google, making them an essential aspect of healthcare SEO. The more organizations can improve them, the higher they will rank.
Ideally, pages should all take less than two seconds to load. Longer than that harms the experience and causes some users to click back to the results.
Organizations that aren’t sure how fast their pages are loading can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. It tells you how long each element takes and where to improve.
Security
Healthcare SEO companies also recommend improving your site’s security, particularly if you operate in the healthcare industry. Google will penalize your pages if you don’t use SSL encryption to protect users’ data from hackers.
Compelling Content
Healthcare organizations should add as much compelling content to their websites as possible. The more they add, the more likely they will attract new patients.
The great thing about healthcare content is how useful it is. Patients often read every sentence in detail because it concerns their bodies.
Of course, Google agrees. That’s why it strictly controls health-related content that can rank well on its platform. Low-quality pages will not help organizations rank higher and could even penalize them.
When writing content, remember to:
- Only write about what patients are searching for
- Include practical information that can help them
- Avoid falling foul of Google’s quality controls relating to healthcare-related content
Writing in long-form helps to convince Google that clinics are an authority in the medical field. The more quality links they can include to substantial their claims, the better.
Visual Elements
Many healthcare organizations add high-quality visuals alongside any text they create for their site. Videos, images, graphics, and charts make content easier to consume, drawing patients towards it. Google promotes sites with longer dwell times and more interactive “rich media” features.
Organizations can also include keywords in their alt text to drive SEO but shouldn’t stuff them. Just add them naturally.
Medical Keywords
Healthcare clinics can also boost healthcare SEO by adding the right medical keywords. Google is generally pretty good at mapping regular user searches to technical medical vocabulary. For instance, a user might search for “blocked ear,” and Google will return results related to “impacted cerumen.”
When choosing medical keywords, organizations should start with the services they offer and go from there. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner to get more ideas for related search terms.
They should never include keywords unnaturally. Anyone reading it shouldn’t be able to tell they are there. Long-tail keywords are the most problematic since they are difficult to include without sounding awkward.
Finally, the more readable the website content is, the more likely it will be successful. Google favors approachable content that appeals to its audience.
Offsite Indicators
Healthcare SEO can also boost ranking by improving offsite indicators like social media traffic and link building.
Adding links from third-party websites to yours, for instance, tells Google that other people like and enjoy your content. The search engine will then use this data to promote your pages.
Social media traffic doesn’t impact SEO directly. However, it can make websites easier to find. Customers are more likely to click on pages once they get brand exposure via social media.
Local SEO
Finally, local SEO is another critical element of healthcare SEO because most medical practitioners operate locally. For example, a dentist might only attract customers from the same town or city.
Local SEO seeks to improve page ranking for location-specific search terms, such as “rehab clinic near me” or “hospital care in New Jersey.” It is easier to rank for these since they are less competitive.
The best way to improve local SEO is to get an SEO agency for healthcare to build your Google Business Profile (GBP). Appearing in Google’s local pack makes it much more likely users will click on your business and explore it further.
Quality GBP profiles should include:
- The business category (healthcare)
- The organization’s name, address, and telephone number
- A description of what the organization does
- The service area coverage
- A link to Google reviews of the practice
Local healthcare SEO also adds citations to directories, social profiles, and newspaper websites. Listing these consistently across the web helps to establish authority across the web.