Website performance is of critical importance to any business, regardless of industry. This holds true even for the medical community. Whether you have a new practice or one that has been in existence for a long time, you need to spread the word about your medical practice to the community—those looking for a new primary healthcare provider or other specified medical services. To ensure the community finds your website and hears about the services your practice provides, you need to understand what medical practice SEO is and how it helps to improve website visibility.
What is Medical Practice SEO?
SEO is short for search engine optimization. In the world of search engines, the better a website performs during an internet search, the higher it is displayed in search results. A higher-ranking website will generate more traffic as those searching the internet for the specified keywords are more likely to click on the first link than on links lower down on the list. Medical practice SEO is about improving how well a website performs on search engines.
Search engines look for certain information when determining the ranking of certain websites when creating a search list. The exact algorithm is not known as websites like Google and Yahoo do not publish this (in order to prevent websites from doctoring the site for the goal of improving search engine results). However, enough is known to help improve the quality of the site and to assist in its ranking gain.
A boost in medical practice SEO will help your website climb a search engine ladder. By doing this, you’ll receive more website traffic, which will most likely result in an increase in bookings and patients to your practice. Simple adjustments to the way your website looks and the information included can take a poorly performing website and convert it into the top results-generating site within your community. You need to learn how to take advantage of medical practice SEO in order to make the most out of your marketing efforts.
What are the Benefits of Medical Practice SEO?
The main benefits of medical practice SEO are all related to boosting your search engine results. That is the entire purpose of medical practice SEO. By boosting your search engine results, you’ll increase website traffic, which likely will boost call-ins and new clients. This can be especially important if you have a new practice and you’re attempting to draw in new clients. Established practices with a surplus of clients may not think that they need to take advantage of medical practice SEO as it already has word-of-mouth; however, it can still be very beneficial.
Whatever position you’re in, by taking advantage of what medical practice SEO is able to do, you can see a jump in your website interaction. Even if you’re not taking on new clients, if you provide some helpful blog posts or other material, you can increase revenue generated off of ads placed on the posts, which gives you more money to invest back into the practice.
How to Utilize SEO for Your Medical Practice
There are various ways for you to take advantage of medical practice SEO when creating your website and improving the search engine rankings. Each of these points will help boost traffic and make your website more attractive to potential patients. It is important, though, for you to monitor the analytical data of your website continually. These website analytics will show which keywords are working, where visitors are coming from, and what they are finding most desirable about your website. This information can provide you with a roadmap toward success. Just make sure to implement these adjustments to your site to expedite the traffic process.
Keywords
If you really want to take advantage of search engine optimization, you need to have appropriate keywords. However, don’t just use “medical practice” as your keywords. There are thousands of other websites that will include these keywords, and attempting to outperform all of these websites is very difficult. Instead, you need to use what is known as long-tail keywords. These keywords are often four or five words in length and better describe your services. This can include the exact kind of practice you run and the location. All of this information is important when it comes to boosting search results and bringing in additional traffic from the internet.
Localized SEO
One of the biggest problems physical locations run into regarding search engine optimization is the site is not properly optimized for its location. There are thousands of medical practices spread throughout the country, so the chance of your website appearing at the top of a national search is slim to none. However, you can improve your ranking based on your location.
In order to do this, you need to perform what is known as localized SEO. By doing this, you’ll bring in location-based information to your site. This way, search engines such as Google can better display your website based on searches performed by local individuals in need of a medical practice.
To do this, you need to have your location address displayed on the website. It shouldn’t just be on the “Contact Us” or “About Us” pages. You need to include it as a footer on the bottom of your website. This way, it is on every page, which makes it easier for Google to scan your pages and list the information. You should also include other important information, which will help improve your search engine results based on where you live.
Media
Take advantage of images. The old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words” is true. You don’t need to flood your website with pictures, but a handful of images spread throughout the site is beneficial. Stock photos are great, but it’s also a good idea to use original images, and make sure to include tags on the images that utilize localized information and keywords. This way, you’ll help boost your search engine results not only for text-based searches but for image-based searches as well.
The same is true with video. The benefits of video are you can post information on YouTube, which not only is owned by Google but is the second largest search engine on the internet, so it helps generate results in several ways.
Mobile-Friendly
You must have a mobile-friendly version of your website. Failure to create a mobile-friendly website is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. More internet searches are now performed on mobile devices than on desktop devices, which means someone is more likely to search for your medical practice over their phone than on a desktop computer.
Google has stated it will rank websites with a mobile version higher than websites without a mobile-friendly version for internet searches performed on smartphones and tablets. With more people searching with their mobile device, failing to have a mobile-friendly website will handcuff you and prevent you from climbing up the search engine ladder.
If someone is out of their home and looking for a medical practice, they will search for one on their phone. There’s a better chance of you connecting with these individuals if you have a mobile-friendly website. It doesn’t take much to adjust your website and to have it designed to load properly on mobile devices. And by doing so, you’ll see a jump in traffic while increasing the number of leads and potential clients you generate.
Aim for Quality
No matter what you put on your website, always aim to make it the highest quality possible. In the modern world of search engines, quality is always better than quantity. So don’t stuff keywords or force anything. Keep it organic. From there, everything else should fall into place.
Turn to Experts You Can Trust
When it comes to your medical practice, when you’re just emerging onto the market, you need to do what you can to drive in new clients. Even if you’ve been around for years, if you’re looking to expand and bring in new patients, you’ll want to invest in attracting these individuals to your location. One of the best ways to do this without dropping a considerable amount of money on television advertisements is to improve the medical practice SEO of your site. By improving these aspects of your website, you’ll often see a dramatic increase in website traffic thanks to the boost in search engine rankings.
If you’re looking to expand or bring in more clients, the best way to do this is to let the experts at Crystal Clear Digital Marketing help you take your practice to the next level. Contact us today to speak with one of our team members!
