If you have a healthcare practice and want to grow it, there can be many challenges and opportunities you will be faced with, so it’s important that you don’t overlook the power of SEO.
According to a survey of clinicians and IT decision makers carried out in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2021, 64 percent of respondents believed that telehealth had the biggest impact on healthcare services over the last year.
With this shift towards a more digital presence in the field of healthcare there is no better time to grow your presence online.
So, what is healthcare SEO and why would I need it? Good question. We’re already with you.
Search engine optimisation is a powerful tool that can help your practice get more traffic to your website by increasing your presence within search engine results (such as Google & Bing) when people are looking for topics related to your services. This means more patients contacting you, which translates directly into growth for your business.
Know Your Practice
To be effective, you need to know your practice. You should have a clear understanding of who you are and what you do, as well as the key goals that you want to achieve. This is highly important, as getting the right message across to your audience will help determine the amount relevant visibility and traffic flowing to your website.
Next, it’s imperative for healthcare professionals to understand their competition. You can start by looking at your competitor’s websites and ads. A great place to begin overall is assessing the highest ranked practices in your search results. Look at the types of keywords and ad copy they are utilising and whether this is applicable to your practice. What are the key differences between the higher and lower ranked SERPs? Are particular phrases showing up more frequently? These are the sort of questions you want to ask yourself. This will help you identify areas where you can target and increase your digital presence as a more authoritative voice within your selected industry. Understand Your Patients
You’ve probably heard the phrase “understanding your patients.” It’s a crucial part of understanding what your patients want and how they experience your practice.
The first step to understanding your patients is getting to know them as people. It’s important to ask yourself questions like: What do they want from their healthcare provider? How do they feel about going to the doctor? Do they feel confident in the care that they receive? Are there any issues that could be improved through better communication or a more efficient process?
These questions will help you understand what motivates people in general, but it’ll also help you understand what keeps them coming back for more at your office. Once you have a greater understanding of how your target audience acts, it is easier to predict and strategize around their online actions.
Answer questions (Have a FAQ section)
Another great way to establish your healthcare domain as trustworthy and authoritative to search engines like Google & Bing is to have content highly related to search queries. This can be done by answering the most common and uncommon questions typically asked by your patients. It’s also worth considering the most pressing questions your potential patients are asking, and the ones they might ask in the future.
It’s also important to anticipate new types of questions people will have because there are always new technologies entering healthcare and science fields that require additional education and research (e.g., artificial intelligence). If someone has never heard of telemedicine before but they get sick one day and need medical attention, they might Google “can I see a doctor online?”. Wouldn’t it be nice if they found an article written by your practice explaining exactly what this technology is all about?
Use All the Tools at Your Disposal
The world of online healthcare marketing is vast. And there are all sorts of tools available to help you get the word out about your practice. Here are some ways you can use them:
Social media. Many of your patients are on social media, so make sure you’re there too! You can post daily or weekly updates about new services offered at your clinic, upcoming events (like flu shot days), and other information that’s relevant for your audience. Utilising these practices will contribute to improving your overall Google search rankings.
Content partners. With platforms like LinkedIn Pulse and Reddit giving healthcare organisations a chance to share their stories with broader audiences than ever before, it’s important not to miss out on this opportunity by failing to establish relationships with influential bloggers who will talk about what you do in their own networks of readers or listeners.
Video marketing and social video campaigns are another great way to spread awareness about what sets apart one practice from another-and they’re easy enough even if budget is tight! All it takes is some basic equipment (or even just someone holding an iPhone) and a good script for how-to videos explaining common ailments; talking about how physicians diagnose these conditions; making recommendations on lifestyle changes that might improve treatment outcomes over time; or explaining why certain procedures aren’t covered under certain insurance plans…whatever works best from where they stand today versus doing nothing at all.”
Once you’ve begun building on your social media, it’s also important to create your Google business profile (GBP). This is the cornerstone to your online brand, any local or specific searches that are done you want to be in control of what the user sees related to your business. Optimising this well will boost your local search traffic and domain authority.
If you need help creating a healthcare SEO strategy, talk to us!
Healthcare SEO is a big field with many applications, but the most important thing to remember is that it’s not just about having a good website. You also need to make sure that your content is optimised for search engines and that it’s easy for people who are looking for information related to your practice or specialty.
If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help with this, check out our website, email us at online@signifydigital.com or give us a call today on 02072886206!
