A Healthy Website: Keyword Strategy Tips for Healthcare SEO
Are you a healthcare provider trying to keep up with SEO?
It can be difficult to understand the significance of optimization as a healthcare provider. Once you’ve made your way through the rigors of medical school, it seems unfair to have to educate yourself in the ways of digital marketing.
Unfortunately for you, SEO makes the internet world go ’round and if you aren’t privy to it, you can easily fall behind your better-prepared competition. But, it’s never too late to learn.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at SEO keyword strategy; tips and tricks to survive in the digital world. You don’t have to be a doctor to get your SEO in tip-top shape, but you do have to be diligent and stay on top of trends as they morph and change on a seemingly week-to-week basis.
Don’t be afraid, it’s only SEO. Let’s get started.
Why SEO Is Important to You
First, let’s talk about the importance of SEO for your practice’s website. It used to be that you would just go to the nearest healthcare provider when something felt wrong. You either have a family practitioner or you go to the walk-in. That’s all changed.
Now, when illness strikes, the first thing someone is going to do is hop on Google and search for what their symptoms mean. Once Web MD’s convinced them that they’ll die if they don’t see a doctor, they’ll google healthcare providers near them.
If you’ve posted up in a smaller town where you’re one of only a few healthcare providers, then maybe you can rely less on your web presence. If you’re in a larger place, your web presence means everything.
Think about what we talked about earlier. The potential patient is going to Google which healthcare providers are near them. This is where your website’s SEO comes in. Knowing which keywords to use to optimize your site is what will bring the patient to you instead of another provider.
SEO Keyword Strategy For Your Practice
The keywords that you use will act as the bait for the new patients. If you treat these potential patients as customers, then you’ll realize that SEO for your healthcare office is similar to SEO for any other kind of young company.
When someone uses a search engine to find out where they should seek help, they might type in what their symptoms are, their location, and what they’re looking to find. You, as the healthcare provider, need to appeal to these search terms by answering the questions before the searcher asks them.
By using keywords that tell Google where you’re located and what your specialty is, you’ll rise up the search rankings. If you’re a chiropractor in Denver and someone types “back pain Denver” into Google, you want to be on the first page of results. Use appropriate keywords on all of your landing pages to satisfy the search terms.
Local SEO
Local SEO is a relatively new concept. In the last few years, especially with the rise and continued development of smartphones, we’ve seen more people use localized search terms on their phones to conduct map-based searches for things that are near them.
Local SEO Keywords
To optimize your local SEO, you need to focus as much on the location part as you do on the keywords that bring in traditional users. Your keywords should include your location down to the intersection, your contact information, your hours, and what you do.
These keywords should always appear in your link title and the meta description of your link. The meta description is essentially a free advertisement that Google provides you to appeal directly to the user on the SERP.
Other Local SEO Help
Using Google My Business will help you appear on map-based searches. Fill out all of the required fields stating your information (business name, business type, location, etc.) and your business will always show up when someone’s looking for a healthcare provider with their map app.
Appearing in local search directories will help out your local SEO as well. If you rank highly on online review listings, then you’ll rise up the ranks on the SERP. Directories like Yelp go a long way with bringing in customers, so try to maintain a good rating and promote your positive reviews.
Content Creation
You can really grow your healthcare business by creating and linking to engaging content relating to the healthcare field. This is a great way to use relevant keywords to draw in future patients. Once they arrive at your blog, then you can direct them to book an appointment at your practice.
Blogging continues to be one of the best ways to improve traffic on all sites, healthcare-focused ones included. They allow you to display your personality and establish yourself as an authority on the subjects that you have expertise in.
Researching appropriate keywords with an online keyword tool will help you out, especially in the beginning when you’re still figuring things out. Keyword tools let you know the average number of times that keywords are searched and how many other sites are using them on their blogs.
It’s good to mix in a healthy amount of buzzworthy keywords in with some more unique phrases. Bring people in with your keyword usage and keep them there with the useful info in your engaging articles.
You don’t want to get in the habit of “overstuffing” your articles with keywords. These are still humans that are reading them, so you should focus on writing creative and helpful content.
Get More Patients Today
Getting your website in good standing should be a high priority for your healthcare practice. If you’d rather stay out of the digital marketing side of things, then you should hire a professional to take care of it for you.
Always consider the fact that many patients are searching online for medical help before they contact a healthcare provider. Having a good keyword strategy for your SEO is super important, as is mastering location-based searches and having a content-driven blog.
Once you’re seeing more and more patients coming in your doors, you’ll be happy that you sorted all of this out.
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