Nowadays, hospitals and medical professionals also have an online presence, making the healthcare sector highly competitive. Patients can search for multiple options on the internet with all details and change their healthcare professional in a second.
Search engine optimization has become extremely important in this scenario. Here are seven tips for your medical practice to help it become more visible online.
1- Original Content is King
Create valuable content, including articles, videos, images, infographics, interviews, case studies, healthcare breakthroughs, patient testimonials, and discussions revolving around the medical industry.
Search engine algorithms, especially the Google algorithm, consider the content’s quality a factor in rankings.
When you add information to your website, more people turn to it, considering you an expert in the industry. Slowly, search engines will start noticing you as a credible and authoritative source in your niche, which increases your rankings.
If you fall short of ideas for quality content, remember all the questions your patients ask you and your staff. These are the questions people probably search for on search engines as well. By answering those questions, you will drive more traffic and build credibility.
2- Pick Suitable Keywords
Google noticed that about 77% of its users search before making a doctor’s appointment. Therefore, find out search terms that you think patients would use when searching for your medical center/clinic and its services.
Make a comprehensive list of those keywords taking help from your team members. Then, search each keyword in Google Keyword Planner to figure out the key phrases having a good chunk of monthly local search traffic.
Shortlist those search terms by only picking keywords with less keyword difficulty and 200 to 10,000 monthly local search volumes.
Sprinkle these keywords from your filtered list organically within various value-added articles or other content pieces and over different relevant web pages of your site.
3- Determine the Metadata
Define your meta descriptions and title tags and add your targeted keywords to them. Google uses meta data to figure out what a specific web page is all about. The title tag works as the page title at the top of the browser, while the meta description defines the page’s content.
Also, use header tags using H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6 throughout your content to describe it to the search engine. You should naturally incorporate keywords in title tags, header tags, and meta descriptions.
4- Leverage Other SEO Verticals
Many healthcare organizations don’t try to boost their online visibility for other SEO verticals apart from a website, such as images, videos, slideshows, mobile, local, etc.
This is the best healthcare SEO strategy to rank higher on search engines and attract targeted traffic to your properties online. For example, medical centers can propel long-term traffic by using relevant search terms in the presentations shared on Slideshare.
Describe the metadata by filling out the various fields that comprise your presentation’s upload process.
5- Add a Website Map to Your Site
Another excellent but often ignored healthcare SEO strategy that are mostly used by SEO services providers, is making a sitemap for your website. A simple website map can help your site get properly indexed by search engines.
It tells Google and other search engines how you have outlined and linked different sections of your site. Plus, it will help your patients better navigate your website, which is a win-win situation.
Your hospital/clinic can create its site map or generate one using third-party tools. Creating a sitemap, yourself may seem tedious if your website is extensive.
Then, you should use a site map creation tool that you can use online without needing to download it.
6- Use Local Search to Win
Local search is among the most prominent healthcare SEO verticals as patients need to visit a physical location of your healthcare facility to get treatment and advice.
50% of the users perform local searches on their mobile devices. So, you should craft a mobile-responsive local search experience for your clients. Especially, people expect their desired healthcare practice at the top of search results while searching locally.
Furthermore, some patients are searching for the type of services you specialize in but couldn’t find the exact medical facility, to go with. You should try to rank when those people are searching as they are looking for you.
Keep updating your hospital/clinic’s name, contact number, and address accurately on the FourSquare Page, Google+ Local Page, and your site’s footer on all pages of your website.
This contact information will help search engines correctly link your healthcare center with your location. You can add the province and the city name to your title tags on the site where it is a natural fit. It will increase your chances of ranking higher on search engine result pages These are the fields you should take advantage of to optimize your Local SEO In Dubai.
Keep in mind that Google keeps an eye on the reviews of Google+ Local Page as a factor in your site’s ranking. Therefore, continue reading the reviews users write on your page to check if someone has written a bad review.
The number of reviews and their nature (positive or negative) influences your ranking over time. So, make sure patient reviews don’t negatively impact your google ranking by proactively acting on the incoming feedback and monitoring its impact.
7- Social Media is the Seasoning
Social media work as a platform allowing two-way communication between a company and a person. One significant benefit of social media is that it helps you attract traffic to your site from a larger user base than you can typically access.
Moreover, social media is one of the hundreds of factors search engines like Google consider when deciding the rankings of web pages.
Share quality content on your social media handles and request your followers to share it on their accounts. Search engines notice it when your content gets shared on social media in an influencing way and take it as a sign of your expertise in your niche.
When you optimize your social media accounts for search engines, you are performing a kind of link building, except that you get the link from social sites rather than other websites.
In addition, try adding the most information regarding your practice, like name, description, bio, and other information fields of each social profile. This data will help search engines rank your social media handles better.
Remember, only post valuable content on your socials, even if it means posting just a few content pieces.
Wrapping It Up
Any modern hospital or doctor needs to have an online presence because this is where most of their target clients hang out.
We hope that by applying the simple tips mentioned above for some time, you will start driving quality traffic to your site by ranking higher in search results.
