SEO for Doctors: A Beginner’s Guide

Most patients use Google to look up their symptoms before they ever talk to a physician, and you still have to compete with other medical practices in the area for patients.

So how do you stick out when the odds are stacked against you?

The answer is search engine optimization (SEO).

When you create and optimize a website for your doctor’s office, you have the potential to reach lots of potential patients, give them helpful information, and encourage them to schedule appointments.

If you’re interested in learning how WebFX can help you reach more patients with SEO, call 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist, or keep reading for more information on why SEO matters for medical practices.

Why do medical practices need SEO?

Many hospitals and healthcare providers rely on traditional advertising methods like billboards and newspaper ads to reach the local community. And while these strategies can build brand awareness, they’re often ineffective in getting new patients for your practice.

But when you market your practice online, you can attract new patients at a fraction of the cost and time.

There are many online marketing strategies medical practices can use. The best place to start is to think about how people decide which medical provider to visit for their healthcare needs.

They’ll usually go online to research their options. They’ll use search engines like Google to look for “[city name] hospital” or “orthopedic doctor [your city]”.

They’ll scroll through their options, then click through to one that seems to meet their needs. In many cases, they’ll call immediately to schedule an appointment.

So, in order to reach potential patients, your practice needs to appear in the search results for the keywords and phrases they’re searching. SEO for doctors is the only way to make this happen.

When you optimize your site for search engines, you make it easy for the people who need healthcare services to find you as quickly as possible. This is absolutely essential given the urgent nature of medical care.

How to get started with SEO for doctor offices & medical practices

These are the strategies that’ll help your business grow.

1. Create new content for your site

Part of attracting new patients online is creating a full, robust website that offers something to readers.

That means offering information based on your expertise. For example, you can write about how to avoid getting sick during flu season, how parents can recognize illnesses in a child, or why it’s important to schedule regular checkups with your doctor.

With that information online, you can reach new potential patients who want to keep themselves and their loved ones healthy.

Creating content also establishes you as a knowledgeable authority on health issues. After all, if you earned your medical degree, you know more than most people about how to stay healthy.

In addition to these pages, you should also create a blog on your site that features important medical advice, recent news, and informative graphics.

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Creating blog posts is an excellent way to supply your site with fresh, new content and ideas that’ll keep people coming back. It also tells Google and other search engines that you’re an active presence online. That means you’ll probably show up higher in search engine results pages than any of your competitors that don’t blog.

And once that happens, you can start attracting more potential patients to your site!

2. Optimize each page for keywords

When you’re creating new content, it’s important that you focus on one topic per page. That keeps your pages laser-focused, so people only read about what they want to know.

The focus of your page should be a keyword, or a search term that’s relevant to the people you want to attract.

For example, if you want to attract patients that are close to your practice, you could create a page focused on the keyword “doctor’s office in [your town].”

Then, when someone near you wants to find a doctor’s office, they’ll see your page pop up.

That page could then discuss the area you serve, why you operate in that area, and how you help the people around you.

When you create this kind of informative content, Google and other search engines have a better idea about what your page discusses. That lets each search engine rank it more accurately.

Aside from the body text, you should also use your keywords in the title tag, meta description, and headings of your page.

The title tag and meta description show up on Google whenever your page ranks for a specific search. These are the first elements a user sees about your page.

However, while keywords can help your page rank better in search engines, you don’t want to overuse them. Constantly repeating keywords (called “keyword stuffing”) makes your pages unreadable, and that provides a bad user experience.

Search engines want to deliver the best experience that they can to their users. If they don’t think you’ll do that, they won’t recommend you in search results!

Instead, add keywords naturally throughout your text so your visitors (and search engines) can easily read it.

3. Get other sites to link to your content

If you want to have a strong website, you need to get other websites to link to you.

When you get a link from another website, that site is vouching for you as far as Google is concerned. When more sites vouch for you, Google will rank you better in search results.

The reasoning behind this is that you must’ve created something unique, informative, helpful, or otherwise great to earn a link from another site.

But it’s important to only get links from other reputable websites. Too many links from spam sites, and Google may actually demote you in rankings.

Instead, create great content that helps people or teaches them something new. That gives other sites a reason to link to you.

The secondary reason this is important is that links from other sites drive traffic to your front door. So if someone clicks a link to your site from somewhere else, you have the chance to turn them into a paying patient.

Basically, links give you the chance to reach out to new potential patients in search engines and other websites. That’s why it’s so important to create high-quality, informative, and helpful content.

Attract more patients with SEO for doctors

WebFX is a top SEO agency, and we’re ready to help your medical provider grow with search engine optimization. We have more than 29 years of experience and more than 500+ in-house specialists to help create a successful marketing campaign.

For a free quote, contact us online or give us a call at 888-601-5359.

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