How to Optimize Your Medical Practice with Local SEO
As a medical professional, you are an expert in your field, but at times, expertise alone is insufficient to draw in potential patients through your website. For clinics and doctor’s offices, optimizing your website for local search is crucial to attracting patients in your area.
Ensuring your practice shows in search engines and through Google My Business, as well as online directories, can increase patient appointments and bolster brand recognition.
Here is how you can boost your medical practice through a local search strategy:
Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile (GMP) is one of the best techniques to increase its visibility in local search results. Formerly known as Google My Business, this profile facilitates potential patients' finding of your practice by appearing in Google Maps and local search results.
Steps to Claiming Your GMB
Claim Your Profile: Visit the Google Business Profile website and follow the steps to claim your business.
Complete Your Profile: Fill out all relevant information, including your practice's name, address, phone number, website, and operating hours.
Add Photos and Videos: Upload high-quality photos of your clinic, staff, and services to give potential patients a visual insight into your practice.
Answer Questions: Engage with potential patients by answering questions they post on your GBP. This interaction builds trust and provides useful information.
We also have a detailed step-by-step guide to set up a Google Business Page
Get Listed in Local Directories and Publications
Your local SEO can be greatly increased by listing your medical practice in magazines and directories in the area. These directories can increase traffic to your website by frequently appearing highly in search results.
Some of the most relevant directories to consider are as follows:
Healthgrades
Zocdoc
Vitals
Yelp
Local Chamber of Commerce
It is easy to get listed and often only requires three simple steps:
Find Relevant Directories: Research directories specific to healthcare and your local area.
Submit Accurate Information: Ensure your practice’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across all listings.
Update Regularly: Keep your listings updated with current information and respond to reviews to engage with patients.
While some directories may offer a membership, especially organizations tied to a specific niche or demographic, many directories will list you for free. Regardless, however, joining or participating in as many relevant directories and publications as you can help increase your backlinks and boost your authority.
Use Local Keywords and Phrases
Utilizing local keywords in your website content helps improve your local search rankings by ensuring search engines get information about your medical practice’s location and what services you offer.
For example, a family medical practice that exists in Houston, Texas might incorporate words like “Houston pediatrician” or “family practice in Houston.” This targeted approach will lead to better indexing quality and an increased search ranking.
Here are some of the places to use local keywords:
Website Content: Include keywords in your homepage, service pages, and blog posts.
Meta Tags: Optimize title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags with local keywords.
URLs: Use clean URLs that include relevant keywords, such as www.example.com/family-practice-houston
To begin researching local keywords, make sure you consider the following:
Use Keyword Tools: There are many free and paid keyword tools that you can use such as Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMRush, and others. For longer keywords consider a tool like Answer the Public.
Analyze Competitors: Consider other medical facilities in your area that specialize in what you do. What kind of content are they implementing? What keywords are they ranking for?
Consider Patient Language: Think about how your patients describe their symptoms and apply these to your content and keyword strategy.
Create Localized Content Your Patients Will Care About
Creating content relevant to your specific community can help increase search traffic and engagement on your website. The content that you include can cover health concerns, events, or community involvement.
Here are some types of content to consider:
Blog posts: You can write about local health issues. For instance, is there a rise in seasonal allergies in the area? Is there a flu outbreak? These are all great topics to incorporate.
Community Events: Many medical facilities like to be involved in local community events; from hosting health fairs to participating in vaccination drives. Let your local community know what you did with a fun recap or what you have upcoming in a promotion.
Press Releases: Did you win a prestigious medical award? Did your medical facility undergo renovations? Write a professional press release to act as a trust signal and information your patients of the news.
Patient Testimonials: Another great trust signal are patient testimonials. Whether these came from your Google Business Profile or a physical form, these can be integrated into your website.
Encourage And Manage Online Reviews
Diving deeper into reviews, these are critical for local SEO and the trust you can earn with potential customers.
Here are some best practices when it comes to reviews:
Request Reviews: Request that pleased patients post reviews on Yelp, Google, and other pertinent websites.
Make Access Simple: Provide links to review websites on your website and in follow-up emails.
Respond to all Reviews: One of the first tasks we do when we onboard new Local SEO clients is ensuring they have a good method for addressing both positive and negative reviews. Always be positive and redirect when necessary.
Ensure Your Medical Practice Website Gets More Visitors
Optimizing your medical practice website for local search is essential for ensuring the patients who need you most can find you. Using local keywords, building localized content, promoting online reviews, claiming and improving your Google Business Profile, and becoming included in local directories are all fantastic measures to boost your local profile.
If you want more insight into optimizing your website for local search, remember we’re always here to help.
