SEO for Occupational Therapists: 4 Best Practices for OT SEO
Occupational Therapy marketing strategies!
Did you know that 89% of marketers say SEO is successful?
If you haven’t invested in search engine optimization (SEO) for your occupational therapy practice, you’re missing a prime opportunity to earn new patients.
But it’s not too late to get started with occupational therapy SEO. Here are four best practices for doing occupational therapy SEO:
- Find relevant keywords to help you rank in the right search results
- Create compelling content to establish trust with your audience
- Improve your site’s load time to deliver information fast
- Ensure your site is mobile-friendly to deliver a positive user experience
Keep reading to learn more about how to get started with SEO for occupational therapy! If you need help getting started with your SEO strategy, contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our SEO services!
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1. Find relevant keywords to help you rank in the right search results
If you want to get started with occupational therapy SEO, begin by identifying relevant keywords for your website. When users search online, they use keywords to help them find information in search results.
To help your practice appear in relevant search results — like searches for “occupational therapy in [your location]” — start by conducting keyword research.
You can use any number of keyword tools, like KeywordsFX, to help you identify applicable terms for targeting.
When you conduct keyword research, focus on long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords contain three or more words, like “occupational therapy clinic in Cleveland.”
Long-tail keywords are best for your business because they drive more qualified traffic to your site. For example, if someone searches a short-tail keyword, like “therapy,” it’s hard to know what they want to find. On the other hand, a long-tail keyword like “occupational therapy clinic” is more specific and drives more qualified traffic to your site.
Once you identify these long-tail keywords, you can integrate them into your site copy. For example, you can integrate keywords into your:
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Headings
- Subheadings
- Body text
By optimizing your site for relevant keywords, you’ll help your OT practice appear in relevant search results and drive qualified patients to your site.
2. Create compelling content to establish trust with your audience
Another core component of SEO for occupational therapists is content creation. If people want to find information about occupational therapy, they’re turning to search engines like Google to help them find it.
To create content effectively, your information should focus on industry-related topics. If you talked about fixing a broken deck or making chocolate bars, you wouldn’t drive as relevant traffic to your site. Instead, writing about topics like aquatic therapy or environmental modification are more relevant to your practice.
You can present this information in multiple formats, including:
If you want to have an effective content marketing strategy, you must post content often. Posting content frequently will drive a steady flow of traffic to your site, which will help boost your rankings in the search results.
You can use a content calendar to help you stay on top of publishing your content. This calendar helps you plan when to create, edit, and publish content, so you put out enough content for prospects.
By sharing valuable and informative content, you establish yourself as an authority in occupational therapy and build trust with potential patients. It’s an excellent way for you to encourage leads to choose your practice.
3. Improve your site’s load time to deliver information fast
If you want to be successful with SEO for occupational therapists, you must have a fast-loading site. Users hate to wait for slow-loading sites — users expect your site to load in two seconds. If your site loads too slow, you risk them leaving your site and heading back to the search results, which increases your bounce rate.
To prevent prospects from leaving your site, you must improve your site’s load time. You can check your site’s current load time by using Google PageSpeed Insights or any other free page speed checker.
If you find your site loads too slowly, you can take the time to make improvements on your site. Here are a few ways you can improve your site’s load time:
- Reduce image file sizes
- Reduce redirects
- Enable browser caching
- Use a content distribution network (CDN)
By improving your site’s load time, you can keep prospects on your occupational therapy website longer, so they can learn more about your practice.
Need a hand with improving your site’s load time? Consider investing in page speed services to have experts speed up your site!
4. Ensure your site is mobile-friendly to deliver a positive user experience
Another critical component to occupational therapy SEO is mobile-friendliness. With 70% of all Internet time spent on mobile, your occupational therapy site must deliver a positive experience to mobile users.
Not to mention, Google now takes your site’s mobile version into account when ranking your site in search results. With Google’s mobile-first index, you must prioritize the mobile experience for your visitors.
You can check your site’s mobile-friendliness by using our free mobile-friendly checker tool!
If you find your site isn’t mobile-friendly, there’s an easy fix — integrate responsive design. Responsive design enables your site to adapt to whatever device your audience uses — your site will scale to the device to deliver an experience that’s best for the screen they’re viewing.
In addition, creating a mobile-friendly site involves using the right website elements, like thumb-friendly buttons and hamburger menus. These elements create an easy mobile browsing experience, encouraging more patients and their families to learn about your practice.
Want to speak with an expert? Call us at 888-601-5359
Need help with SEO for occupational therapists?
Occupational therapy SEO is no small feat. It’s a strategy that requires continuous optimization and improvements, but it has lasting impacts on the success of your practice online. Though SEO can be a big undertaking, you don’t have to go at it alone — WebFX is here to help.
With over 25 years of experience, you can rely on our team of experts to help you craft a custom SEO strategy that drives results. In the past five years, we’ve driven over $3 billion in revenue and over 7.8 million leads for our clients. As a top-rated SEO agency, you can feel confident we’ll deliver results you love.
Our team of over 500 marketing experts will guide you through the optimization process to help your site appear in more relevant search results. You’ll get a dedicated account representative that’s always available to answer your questions, address concerns, and help you implement new ideas into your strategy.
Ready to obtain more patients for your practice? Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our SEO services!