Effective, trustworthy healthcare is something every patient wants, but they don’t always have an easy time finding it. So they turn to the place everyone depends on for answers: search engines.
Your healthcare practice can take advantage of potential patients’ drive to use search engines. It could even be as simple as incorporating search engine optimization (SEO) services into your digital marketing strategy.
SEO is an effective digital marketing approach. Its biggest benefit is that it can help grow healthcare practices when it’s applied in the form of specific, expert-backed services. You may be unsure what those services are, and that’s OK. We’re here to help guide you through the journey of SEO to lead you to increased traffic, conversions and patient acquisition.
In this post, we’ll share the basics of expert SEO services for healthcare. We’ll then dive into specific SEO services that our experts recommend for healthcare brands. We’ll also discuss what you should consider when choosing an SEO services provider. Now, let’s get into it!
Understanding SEO services for healthcare
SEO centers on getting your website and content to rank as high as possible on relevant search engine results pages (SERPs). By doing so, SEO can help you increase organic traffic, conversions and brand awareness.
Basically, it helps your brand get in front of the eyes of potential patients — specifically, those who have issues or questions that relate to your healthcare field.
By increasing brand visibility and helping brands create relevant content, SEO increases the likelihood of potential patients booking an appointment.
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SEO may seem like a broad concept, and it is. But when it comes to applying the concept of SEO to your site, it gets very targeted.
For instance, SEO service providers, like BURG+CO., can help you target the potential patients who are looking for you. We do that by helping you:
- Complete keyword research that allows you to target your key demographic
- Create keyword-specific content that drives conversions
- Build credibility and authority in your healthcare field
5 expert-backed recommendations used by SEO services for healthcare practices
Now that we’ve talked about the importance of using SEO in healthcare, it’s time to see how it can be put into practice. SEO has been around since the 1990s. And there are plenty of expert-backed SEO services that are worth incorporating into your own SEO strategy.
Here are five SEO services our own experts recommend that every healthcare brand consider:
1. Prioritize local SEO
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When a patient needs help, they want the highest quality of care combined with convenience. It’s important to focus on showing up in searches run by people in your local community.
When it comes to healthcare, people are likely to add “near me” for many searches. That’s called local SEO. An SEO services provider can see what issues people in your local area are searching for. Then, they can create content that showcases your value to them by addressing those issues.
2. Optimize website content for health keywords
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Healthcare itself is a pretty broad term, but there are hundreds of common keywords related to it that people may be searching for. Health keywords can cover anything from “common sports injuries” to “persistent back pain.”
An SEO agency can make sure that not only does your website content use the right keywords, but also that those keywords are likely to rank high on SERPs. How, you ask? By using SEO factors like backlinks and readability.
3. Emphasize technical SEO for faster load times
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People want the answers to their search questions as quickly as possible (and it’s never quick enough). That’s why a page’s load speed plays such an important role in your SEO.
If the page doesn’t load in less than three seconds, the user is likely to click off of it. When they do, it causes you to lose engagement, conversions and a potential patient. By using technical SEO tools, such as Semrush, you can find ways to decrease load time, such as by optimizing images.
4. Prioritize content features that increase healthcare website readability
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Healthcare is an expansive industry that can seem complicated and intimidating to those outside of it. It’s essential that your healthcare website is as readable as possible.
Using content features that promote readability, such as bulleted lists of symptoms and data tables comparing similar diagnoses, can help users find the information they need without feeling overwhelmed by paragraphs of medical jargon.
5. Utilize online reviews and testimonials
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The opinions of your current and past patients play an essential role in appealing to potential patients. That’s why online reviews and testimonials play a significant part in your SEO success.
You and an SEO services provider can work together to determine the best way to use testimonials to bring in new patients. One way to do so might be including them on your site or in social media campaigns. Responding to all reviews can also help boost your credibility in the eyes of search algorithms.
Selecting affordable SEO services
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Learning about the services that an SEO agency can implement is one thing. Choosing the right provider for you is another. Let’s face it: It’s all about the money.
You want the best bang for your buck in every service that you outsource. In the matter of choosing an affordable SEO service provider, here are some criteria to keep in mind:
- Access to SEO tools and software, such as Semrush
- Experience working with a variety of company budgets and sizes
- Focus on local SEO
- Audits and regular metric tracking included
Challenges and solutions in healthcare SEO
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Just like any strategy, healthcare SEO can come with some issues. This is especially true when it comes to the involvement of people’s medical information and history.
Healthcare SEO has many strict regulations to ensure that all related businesses are HIPAA compliant. The right SEO provider can optimize your content and, at the same time, ensure that you’re complying with regulations. This includes doing things like:
- Creating patient consent forms
- Using encryption protocols
- Transforming data into anonymous forms
Want to attract new visitors to your website with SEO? BURG+CO. can help
At BURG+CO., we know what it takes to get you the SEO results you want and how to navigate the tricky healthcare regulations to get there. We use all the practices discussed above and more to make sure that you’re approaching SEO from every angle to help move your bottom line.
Contact our team today for more information about digital marketing or to schedule a free consultation.