SEO for Doctors – 15 Strategies to Boost Your Web Traffic

In the digital age, where patients are scrolling through the internet before contacting a professional, SEO for doctors has never been more important to boost your business and reach prospective patients.

SEO for doctors is a strategic way to enhance your medical practice’s online visibility by utilizing digital and content marketing techniques to reach potential patients. It involves optimizing your website and online content so that search engines such as Google can understand it better and position your medical practice with listings on the first page of search engine results.

Curious about how you can optimize your site and benefit from leveraging SEO for doctors? Keep reading to learn proven SEO strategies that can help attract new patients and grow your healthcare business.

What is SEO for doctors?

Search engine optimization for doctors is the process of optimizing your website to increase its visibility on Google and make it easier for potential patients looking for doctors to find your business online.

How exactly do you implement an SEO strategy? Like the practice of medicine, SEO for doctors involves several different strategies to diagnose and improve your website functionality. From utilizing effective keywords that your potential patients search for to creating valuable and engaging content, there are a lot of ways to improve your search engine optimization ranking and grow your business.

What are the benefits of SEO for doctors?

When done correctly, implementing a local SEO plan can boost your business and draw in new prospective patients thanks to the power of the internet.

Some of the biggest benefits your medical practice will see when hiring a digital agency like Mediaboom to help with SEO services for doctors:

1. Increased Visibility & Credibility

The first visible benefit of SEO is right there in the name: visibility. Effective SEO for doctors will help your practice rank higher in search engine results, making you more visible to potential patients looking for your services.

Not only will you increase visibility, but higher rankings will translate into greater credibility on the internet. When your medical practice’s website appears on the first page of Google, it automatically looks more trustworthy and reliable.

2. More Targeted Traffic

Improving your search engine optimization will help you reach and target specific demographics, locations, and user behaviors, which in turn, will make your online web traffic more specific to your services. This means that people who land on your website are those who need or are interested in your medical expertise and are more likely to convert into patients.

3. Better Patient Acquisition

Prospective patients are Googling you before they come into your practice. In fact, a 2019 study found that 89% of patients will Google their health symptoms before going to their doctor, showing that even if you’re not utilizing modern technology, your patients are.

With increased visibility and more targeted website traffic, using search engine optimization strategies for doctors will help you gain new patients at a much lower cost than traditional advertising. That’s why SEO services for doctors are a cost-effective investment for your medical practice.

4. Better User Experience

Google loves websites that offer a great user experience — and so do patients! SEO encourages improvements in site speed, making it easier to navigate and more mobile-friendly. This contributes towards a better user experience and overall higher patient satisfaction.

As a doctor, you want to make sure your patients can always find you when they need you.

Focusing on local SEO for doctors will help more people find you and benefit from your skills and services. That’s why having a strong SEO strategy is so important — It helps boost your visibility and credibility, making it easier for patients to find you when they need medical care.

15 Strategies to Boost SEO for Doctors

Implementing the right SEO for doctors requires some strategy and analysis to see where you currently rank and how you can improve.

Whether you’re looking to do it yourself or hire a firm like Mediaboom, here are some common ways you can implement an SEO strategy for your medical practice.

1. Attractive and mobile-friendly website design

In today’s digital world, patients expect an easy-to-use website for their doctor’s office that can easily be accessed anywhere. Considering that more than 50% of global website traffic comes from mobile, designing a visually-appealing and responsive website is essential to improving your online presence as a medical practice.

Starting with clear navigation, readable fonts, and an intuitive layout can help get listed on the first page of Google and improve the experience perspective patient has.

Still, trying to figure out where to start? Contact Mediaboom to learn how we can help you improve your search engine optimization with high-quality website design services and comprehensive digital marketing strategies.

2. Speed, Performance and UI/UX

Having a great user experience (UX) is a simple way to get to the top of the search engine rankings. A slow or outdated website can cause visitors to quickly leave your website — otherwise known as bouncing —  which can negatively impact your ranking on search engines.

To improve your site’s speed and performance, consider using lower-resolution images, removing extra JavaScript, and using a fast and reputable hosting service.

3. Site Audit to solve SEO problems

Performing a thorough site audit can help you discover pesky SEO problems you might not realize are impacting your rankings.

By seeking out and solving issues like broken links, duplicate content, or 404 errors, you can quickly boost your rankings just by performing regular site maintenance.

The best way to do this is through regular SEO audits, which can make sure the overall structure, layout, and content of your website is helping, not hurting, your search engine rankings.

Mediaboom can help you conduct an SEO site audit to outline what’s working well and where you can improve your digital marketing.

4. National and local keyword research

To put it simply — keywords make your content discoverable. Conducting both national and local SEO for doctor keyword research can help you identify what terms or phrases your prospective patients are using.

Then, with a strong digital content marketing strategy, you can incorporate these keywords into your content across landing pages, blog posts, and other pages to improve your visibility.

5. Optimization of landing pages from an SEO perspective

If you want to attract more potential patients to your website, you should create landing pages that are optimized for search engines.

You can do this by using relevant keywords in your meta descriptions, title tags, and header tags to help boost your visibility in search results and get more eyes on your content.

6. Develop a content marketing strategy

Content is king in the SEO world! Generating quality, relevant content that resonates with patients and showcases your expertise can bring huge SEO benefits.

By using a keyword research tool, you can discover what your prospective patients are searching for, then incorporate those keywords into blog posts, e-books, infographics, videos, and more. A strong content marketing strategy will boost your credibility and tell Google you’re an expert in those keywords.

7. SEO articles publication

One great strategy to incorporate in your SEO for doctors strategy is to publish original and valuable SEO-optimized articles.

Whether it’s about new treatments or common questions you get, including keywords relevant to your medical practice can boost your SEO rankings and showcase your expertise in your field.

Mediaboom offers SEO services for doctors to help improve their content marketing and help with their search engine results. You don’t have to come up with a strategy alone — reach out to Mediaboom today!

8. Include videos in your website (can rank)

Acing SEO for healthcare isn’t just about text. Videos are increasingly important for better local SEO results. 

From explainer videos to patient testimonials, incorporating videos into your site can increase the time spent by visitors and lower bounce rates — both of which contribute to your SEO score.

9. Get quality backlinks

Backlinks, when another site links to your site, is another way to tell search engines that your website is reputable and legitimate.

High-quality backlinks signal to search engines that your content is valuable and worth referencing, which will help boost search engine rankings. Some ways to garner backlinks from other sites include guest blogging, partnering with local businesses, or getting mentioned in the press.

10. Create a Google Business Profile for Local SEO

​​A Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business, is a free and critically important way to get better SEO rankings when it comes to local SEO for doctors.

It not only gives your medical practice more visibility with prospective patients searching locally, but it also incorporates your practice on Google Maps which will help direct patients to your practice.

When done correctly, a Google Business Profile will attract, engage, and convert local patients.

11. Subscribe to directories of doctors

Did you know that listing your practice on reliable doctor directories can help boost your online presence and improve your SEO?

These directories have a high domain authority, which means that your medical practice is more likely to get listed on the first page of search engines. Plus, being listed in reputable local business directories can also add more credibility to your practice.

12. Share the best articles on social networks (for social signals)

When it comes to SEO FOR DOCTORS, social signals like Likes, Shares, and comments on your social media platforms are essential.

These social signals can indicate to search engines that you have an engaged audience and that you’re sharing relevant information that they’re interested in. This will help boost your overall credibility and can positively impact your position on search engines.

By using a keyword research tool to identify the most searched-for topics and keywords related to your industry, you can further amplify your reach and ensure you’re sharing the right articles on your social channels. 

13. Monitor Google Search Console constantly

Not sure how your SEO campaigns are impacting your rankings? You can use Google’s Search Console to get a better understanding of how your content is impacting your traffic and ensure you’re seeing results from your campaigns.

This free service will show you how Google is reading and processing your site and then help you pinpoint any issues that might be impacting your SEO performance. As you run different SEO campaigns and work to optimize your site, using this resource can ensure the content and keywords you’re using are helping boost your traffic and not negatively impacting it.

14. Install GA4 to track user behavior

This summer, Google changed its main analytic platform from Universal Analytics to GA4. That means that even if you’ve used Google to track your user behavior and website analytics in the past, you’ll have to get used to the new GA4 platform.

Despite the added work of switching from Universal Analytics to GA4, users will get to benefit from the latest technology to see how your website visitors engage with your site. With added customization and predictive analytics, you can get a glimpse into the specific aspects of your website that impact your business the most.

For medical practices that participate in paid ads, you’ll be able to get better insights from GA4 to see where your traffic is coming from and how website visitors convert on your page.

Not sure how to set up GA4? At Mediaboom we offer comprehensive SEO services for doctors, like helping you get set up on GA4 to ensure you’re focused on the right metrics and boosting your business.

15. Implement a live chat to reduce your bounce rate

One of the latest technologies to help with SEO for doctors is to implement a live chat feature on your medical practice’s website.

By providing immediate support and answers to visitors’ queries, you can engage users more effectively and therefore encourage them to stay longer on your site — all with the end goal of converting them into patients!

Hire a web agency now to boost your SEO for doctors

From creating a high-quality content marketing plan to using the right keywords, there are countless ways you can implement a strategy to improve your SEO for healthcare. If you’re not sure where to start or are looking for the right SEO services for doctors, Mediaboom can help. Contact us today for an SEO consultation and discover the difference search engine optimization can make for your business!