If you’re in the health industry, your clients are definitely online, looking for top experts. Regardless of whether you’re a chiropractor, clinic, dentist, nursing home, or physical therapist, they will do a search before scheduling an appointment. This is why you need a good digital marketing strategy on your side. When it comes to digital marketing, the industry of your client might make a massive impact on the methods you choose in order to rank them. With that in mind and without further ado, here are the top 8 SEO strategies you can use in order to rank a healthcare-focused website.
1. Pick adequate keywords
While medical terms are generally great keywords, you need to start focusing on the terminology that your customer base understands. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential patient. How would they look up their symptoms, or describe their condition? During your content marketing campaign, these are the keywords you should focus on. Still, you shouldn’t underestimate them either. After they discover the exact name of their condition (which they can do after a brief search), they will start using it. Overall, during a keyword selection, the cooperation between an SEO expert and a medical expert is more than advised.
2. Focusing on local search
When looking for an appointment, people are always looking for local options. Sure, in some rare cases where the matter is delicate and money/time is not the issue, they may travel across several states to get the help they need. In 99% of cases, however, they’re looking for options near them. This is why it’s so important to focus on local searches. Registering your practice on the local business registry will put you on the map. It will also provide easy access to your contact info. All in all, it’s a great way to get yourself a competitive edge.
3. Find your unique selling proposition
Even within a competitive medical field, there’s a way for you to qualify using some less competitive aspects of the field. You can brag about hiring some of the best medical experts, both regular and locum doctors in the field. This gives you more attention and a new angle to promote your business. You see, in every industry, in order to run a successful marketing campaign, you need a USP (unique selling proposition). In the healthcare industry, the expertise of your staff is the best possible solution. Newest equipment and cutting-edge methods are also a great USP.
4. Create original content
Making a blog and focusing on content marketing is one of the best ways to generate some decent content. The reason why this is so important is that it generates attention, creates return visitors, and prolongs the average duration of the visit. Outside of the scope of digital marketing, it allows you to generate some value for your patients before they actually choose to do business with you. In order to be effective, however, the content needs to be original, informative, and well-written. Again, a collaboration between professional medical staff (at least in a form of an editor) is necessary.
5. Posting on social media
One of the most important things you need to keep in mind is the importance of social media for your business. While social media links and search engine links don’t affect your SEO rank, in the same way, their importance still shouldn’t be downplayed. So, you need to register on all the major social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You also need to make a regular posting schedule on these networks and try to interact with patients. Sometimes, giving professional advice in the comment section may make a world of difference when it comes to the way you’re perceived. It may even boost your traffic since people will want to check you out.
6. A personal brand makes all the difference
One of the biggest issues you need to address is the one of personal brand. In 2022, people can easily trace professionals behind your brand. They can see their CV on their LinkedIn page. They can also see the academic works that they’ve previously published. So, the resume of each individual expert that you employ should be taken very seriously. People won’t just research your practice but them, as well. From the standpoint of SEO, the traffic on their personal works and your own website/blog/social media pages will be tightly intertwined.
7. On-site SEO
Making sure your website is properly structured is one of your biggest priorities. If you want the website to be indexed quickly, you need to worry about your meta descriptions and tags, as well as focus on the technical aspect of the site. Remember one thing, when working on your SEO rank, you’re not just working to make the site appealing to your patients (human audience). You’re also trying to appeal to the algorithm. Therefore, you need to speak in a language it understands and satisfy the metrics it holds in high regard.
8. Focus on responsiveness
People looking for a medical professional are sometimes worried or in distress. At the very least, they might feel uncomfortable. This means that their patience is thinner than it usually is (and it was not that great, to begin with). The key thing you need to focus on is the overall responsiveness of all the devices. Remember, the majority of the audience online is using their phones to browse the internet. Sure, you don’t have to go mobile-first but focusing on mobile responsiveness does make a world of difference. This takes a lot of work and technical expertise.
In conclusion
At the end of the day, while taking a business-like approach is a good idea, there’s a big difference between this industry and the majority of its counterparts. People want a high level of professionalism and, when getting advice, they want it to come from an actual medical expert. A personal brand is just as important as the brand of the medical business itself, which is why collaboration with the right experts makes all the difference.