Guide to Healthcare SEO – 14 Ways to Optimize Your Site

Increasing your online presence in the healthcare space using healthcare SEO doesn’t have to be complicated. A solid healthcare SEO strategy has many moving parts and can take some time to curate. However, if you’re neglecting SEO for the healthcare industry, you are likely overlooking an untapped opportunity.

Healthcare SEO is search engine optimization for healthcare industries. There are several techniques you can use when trying to improve SEO on any website. When executed successfully, healthcare SEO will increase organic traffic and convert potential patients into regulars. Increasing your visibility can help your brand become a trusted name and reference point – for private medical practices and hospitals.

Regardless of the size of your medical practice, SEO for the healthcare industry can be incredibly beneficial. There are many approaches to how healthcare SEO can elevate your practice in the healthcare industry. Keep reading to learn about our best healthcare SEO tips.

What is Healthcare SEO?

Healthcare SEO (alternatively called medical SEO) is the focus on the healthcare industry in search engine optimization efforts.

For the most part, SEO for healthcare has most of the same practices as other SEO focuses. However, a standout difference in SEO for the healthcare industry is that the target audiences are already predetermined within local radiuses.

There is so much relevant content to be shared within the healthcare industry, so this market is prime for quality content production.  A good healthcare SEO strategy will boost your website’s overall rank and help improve your pages’ visibility.

Why does SEO matter in the healthcare industry?

Now that we’ve gone over exactly what healthcare SEO is, we can discuss how it can benefit your business. Since most clinics, hospitals, and other medical practices receive plenty of foot traffic, many question the benefits of investing in a healthcare SEO strategy.

 An advantage of SEO for healthcare is that it’s easier to pin down your local market.

Typically, patients are locked in with a provider through their insurance. However, there are still plenty of lucrative reasons for healthcare professionals to invest in excellent SEO practices.

Reaping the benefits of more leads and conversions to new patients is just one of the perks you can get with SEO. You can also build your company’s reputation as a good, knowledgeable source.

Overall, it’s all about making it easier for your potential patients to be able to find you easily and understand what your practice has to offer them.

9 Healthcare SEO Strategies to Try

Most SEO strategies can apply to every industry. However, there are specific methods that can be beneficial to SEO for healthcare. Here are some of our top ways to increase organic traffic for healthcare providers:

1. Using a mobile-friendly website design

Chances are over half of your audience will browse your website on a mobile device. So, it’s essential to not overlook how user-friendly your website and content is.

Investing in a developer to ensure your website runs smoothly on mobile will be worthwhile. Another route people take is to make an app, to help offload some potential issues that may arise on mobile websites as well.

2. Optimizing your page speeds

Another factor Google takes into account when determining what websites to put at the top of SERPs is how fast they are.

Another thing to note is that it’s common for mobile versions of websites to load slower than their desktop counterparts. Some technical work will be needed to ensure both pages are optimized for speed, but it’s definitely a worthwhile investment.

You can conduct a speed test with any website URL using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

3. Choosing the Best Healthcare SEO Keywords

When it comes to figuring out what keywords to target, tools like Semrush, Moz, Ahrefs and more are gold mines. These tools will show you exactly what your audience is searching for by volume. Once your team reviews all of the information and data these tools provide, you will have a clear idea of what keywords to target.

However, for healthcare SEO strategies it’s more beneficial to target long-tail keywords. This method allows you to target people searching for a specific solution for a problem that your company can help address.

For example, say that a potential patient is searching for the cause of their stomachache. Typically, searches like this start with broad searches, and are narrowed down into more specific causes. This is where long-tail keywords will come in. Long-tail keywords are less competitive and more effective if you offer the solution for what they are searching for.

4. Building Authority with Medical Content Marketing

Domain authority can take several months and even years in some cases to build. Most aspects of healthcare SEO rely on time, patience, and consistency.

It’s important to have realistic expectations for your content. You can target shorter search queries and see some success. However, it’s not likely you will be able to bypass big names like WebMD. Instead, a workaround many people utilize is targeting long-tailed queries mentioned above instead.

5. Landing Pages

Landing pages are typically built around getting a user to take action. When executed properly, they can increase conversion. One of the strengths that landing pages possess is lead generation.

It’s good practice to have multiple landing pages to help funnel from different campaigns.

6. Incorporate Strategic Internal Linking

Internal linking is one of the easier and quicker ways to begin optimizing your site. Relevant and high-quality internal links direct users to more sites on your page that will provide value to them.

Internal links also help familiarize Google with your site. When inserting your internal links, think of this as another way to tell Google what your page is about.

An additional tip is to always go back and insert internal links to any new posts into your older posts. This will help indicate that the new page has good, relevant content and information.

7. Building Backlinks

On most SEO tips lists, building a solid backlink profile will be one of the most challenging things to accomplish. However, it’s also one of the most effective ways to ensure your site always ranks well.

Acquiring backlinks is extremely time-consuming, as you will likely need to figure out an outreach strategy.

8. Implementing Schema Markup for Healthcare Practices

Schema markup is a form of structured data. Initially, Schema can be a bit intimidating since it involves some HTML coding. However, it’s pretty straightforward and can be a skill that is picked up quickly with a great return on time investment.

Utilizing Schema markup can benefit any business model, as it will improve your site ranks. Schema markup allows you more control over how Google indexes your site.

9. Tracking Your Results

It’s important to remember that SEO is a long game and can take years to see lasting and consistent results. With this in mind, keeping track of your results is a great idea.

Familiarizing yourself with the results and data will help you build solid healthcare SEO strategies. Tracking your organic traffic and paid traffic alike can help decipher trends as well as seasonal traffic. In most industries, there will be high influxes and extreme drops depending on certain factors, such as holidays and events.

5 Ways to Improve Healthcare Local SEO

One of the keys to healthcare SEO is nourishing local SEO. This will also set you up to focus on learning how to best serve your community.

However, healthcare local SEO can be stiff competition since your competitors are in such close proximity to you.

So, how do you master local SEO and overcome the competition for the top spot on search engine results pages? Here are five ways to establish your company as a trusted place in the healthcare industry:

1. Google Business Profile

Creating a Google Business Profile will allow you to control how your business shows on search engine results pages. Once your business is claimed, you’ll have benefits like verifying business hours, sharing photos of your establishment, and responding to reviews.

2. Healthcare business listings

Another great way to ensure your business’s fronts are optimized for search engines is to ensure your practitioners are listed. Many people find their providers through their own search efforts, especially for more specific specialists and issues. This technique doesn’t only work for individuals! You can also implement this strategy for specific hospital departments, where you can list your practitioners and their specialties.

3. Local Keywords

Local keywords are highly effective, especially for healthcare SEO. Utilizing local keywords can be as easy as just tagging relative locations to the original search query. For example, “Chiropractors near me” can be extremely effective paired with keyword bidding.

You may also notice long-tail keywords that will branch off general queries like: “Chiropractors near me that take [type of insurance]”. This is a great way to target potential patients with accepted insurance.

Localizing queries and content is an effective way to boost actual conversion. However, it’s not the best option when you’re looking to increase sheer impressions and engagement.

4. Content that targets local patients

The most relevant audience for service-based businesses is always the local audience. So, it makes sense that SEO for the healthcare industry is heavy on local keywords and long-tailed queries.

It’s important to know what your community needs and is searching for. Providing answers for exactly what they are looking for is a great way to establish rapport. As we just went over, using local keywords to serve your target audience directly is highly effective.

5. Manage patient reviews

Reviews are a way to thank people for their business by responding to positive reviews in an appreciative manner. However, when it comes to managing bad reviews, it’s typically frowned upon to delete or invalidate them.

Instead, try responding to negative reviews with an apology with a genuine attempt to rectify whatever went wrong. This response method is a great reflection of any potential patients looking over the reviews.

There’s also a good chance that a one-star review will change if the problem is fixed. Or, at the very least, there is an effort to help.

Working with a Healthcare SEO Agency

In some cases, in-house marketing can tackle SEO responsibilities. However, for some companies, outsourcing SEO services makes more sense.

Although there are many SEO agencies, finding one that specializes in your niche is essential. Working with an agency specializing in healthcare SEO will likely boast great results and help you gain more insights for your audience.