Quick answer: Local SEO for doctors helps your practice appear in Google Search and Maps when patients search for a doctor or specialist nearby. Verify your Google Business Profile, keep your name, address and phone number consistent, build a page for each service, collect genuine reviews and keep patient privacy in mind.
There are lots of ways to search for a physician, pediatrician, physical therapist, or any doctor’s office in your area. One of the most popular ways has been through searching on search engines such as Google. To help your doctor’s office stand out against your competitors in your local area, we’ve compiled a list of 10 tips to help improve local SEO for doctor’s offices. Let’s get started! For help, see our affordable local SEO services.
Why is Local SEO for Doctors Beneficial?
Local SEO for doctors is what helps your patients, or potential patients, find your doctor’s office online. Without implementing local SEO into your website or online profiles, patients will have a harder time finding you and your services. A lot of individuals search for businesses online and your doctor’s office should be present and available for them. Someone new could move into your local area and be looking for a doctor’s office for a physical. If you don’t establish an online presence, it gives your patients a reason to choose your competitors over your office.
Search engines are always active in crawling websites, including your doctor’s office website, for new information and updates. Be sure to always update your doctor’s office information to be up-to-date for your patients and search engines. This builds credibility and reliability about your office which your competitors might be lacking in. When you’re able to be there with reliable information for your patients, search engines will reward you over time with local SEO benefits.
Local SEO for Doctors: 10 Best Practices
1) Optimize for Local Search
Unless they have someone in mind, patients tend to search locally for a doctor’s office near them. With this reason in mind, it’s important to have an online presence and be known in your local area. Having and targeting keywords that include your location helps potential patients find your office and schedule an appointment with you. Besides keywords, you can include your location in your copy, meta tags, meta descriptions, and titles to help patients find you. People often prefer to visit a doctor that’s located nearby (especially if something unexpected was to happen). Optimizing your website with local SEO will benefit both your business and your patients.
2) Reliable NAP Information
NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. These three pieces of information are what your patients typically look at when finding your business online. It’s important for SEO purposes to keep these pieces of information consistent throughout your website, social profiles, listings and directories, and online profiles. If you were to make a change to these pieces of information, it’s important to update every place that it’s listed or displayed. This helps not only your patients get the right information but helps search engines know what information is trustworthy and real when crawling your website. Most of the time patients will need additional information by calling your doctor’s office. So, be sure to have your NAP available to help them out.
3) Create a Google Business Profile
A Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is vital for local SEO because it helps patients find your office information in one place. Include your NAP information, website link, hours of operation and reviews. An active, accurate profile helps set you apart from other doctor’s offices in your area.
If you have a specialty, your profile can show patients your expertise. Be specific about the services you offer, because people often search for specific services. Creating a Google Business Profile is one of the best first steps for your online presence.
4) Generating New Content
One of the best SEO ways to build traffic to your website is by creating new content for your patients or for users. If there are specific articles (especially that relate to your specific specialty) write about them! Find valuable information for your patients that helps answer questions, helps them learn, or could be entertaining to them. Especially in the medical field, there are always different questions that could arise or common issues discussed. Being up-to-date and informative through original content can help benefit your patients and users in their time of need.
Building original content also helps build authority and credibility in search engines’ eyes. The more original and reliable information you post on your site, the more search engines recommend you as a trustworthy source in rankings. You don’t want to bombard your website with loads of articles just to add content to your site. If the articles are beneficial and searched for, then your SEO will see the benefits and help rank your website higher. Having original content can help add value and resources to your website and patients in need.
5) Creating Landing Pages for Services/Products
If your doctor’s office offers multiple types of services and products, it’s important to build dedicated landing pages for each of the services and products you offer. For example, if someone was to search for plastic surgery they could find multiple services that are included in the idea of plastic surgery. When you don’t include specific landing pages for a specific service within the idea of plastic surgery, your patients will give up finding out if your office offers those specific services.
When you create individual landing pages for them, users can find them easier on your website because they are more specific and in one place. They don’t have to go through a long breadcrumb trail or scroll through the entire page to find what they’re looking for. For SEO purposes, make individual landing pages for your services and products to help users and potential patients find what they’re looking for easily.
6) Joining Local Listings and Directories
Adding your business information to local listings and directories helps your doctor’s office reach more potential patients, and most listings are free. You could list your practice in places such as Healthgrades, WebMD and our small business directory. Medical niche directories also help specific patients find you.
7) Check on Your Reviews
Reviews are one of the first things patients look at when choosing a doctor, and they are one of the signals Google can use for local rankings. Certain procedures can be worrying, and reviews can ease nerves. Do not ignore your reviews.
Thank patients for positive reviews. If you receive a negative review, respond professionally without sharing any patient health information, because replying publicly can break patient privacy rules, and invite them to contact your office. To generate more reviews, send a follow-up email or text asking about their experience, and never offer rewards for reviews.
8) Build High-Quality Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other reputable sites to yours, and they help build credibility. You earn them by publishing useful content, such as medical resources, local guides or press features, that other sites want to cite. It also helps to link out to credible sources in your own articles, for example a health authority when you write about the flu. See our white hat link building service.
9) Have a Strong Social Media Presence
Share consistent, professional content that reflects your practice, such as health reminders, office events and seasonal services. Keep patient privacy in mind and only feature patients with their written consent.
10) Video Marketing
Video helps patients understand your services and feel comfortable before they visit. You can create videos that explain procedures, introduce your team and show your office, and put them on your website and social profiles. Get written consent from anyone who appears in them.
Get Professional Help Today for Local SEO for Doctors
SEO takes steady work, and busy doctors and offices often cannot find the time. GreatInflux can help.
At GreatInflux, our goal is to help small businesses grow online through affordable SEO services. See our affordable local SEO services and our guides to doctor directories and doctor website design. Read more: healthcare content marketing guide.
Where we work
GreatInflux runs SEO, Google Ads, social media and web development for businesses in the United States, United Kingdomand United Arab Emirates. Campaigns are planned market by market: local search, currency, ad platforms and compliance differ, so a plan built for Dallas is not the plan we would run in Dubai.
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