As a business, you would want your medical website to show up at the top of Google’s search results. This is important because around 73% percent of patients choose to use search engines for locating a health practitioner in their area! Additionally, 89% of consumers use search engine while solving their healthcare queries. In most cases, around 55% of online searchers click on any one of the first three entries. Hence, it is crucial that your hospital or treatment center appears in the top three. If not, you are at high risk of losing patients to your competitors!
So, how it works? A business organization operating online should focus on integrating a healthy dose of medical search engine optimization (SEO) to their website.
Understanding Medical SEO
Medical SEO is a technical procedure of increasing search engine rankings of a medical website. It helps physicians and treatment centers to connect with more number of patients looking for their services.
Top Reasons to Invest in Medical SEO
Traditional method of running a website is outdated. It is not capable of delivering results. In order to connect with consumers online, a business website should appear on the first three organic results. Not investing in professional SEO services will divert your clicks to the competition!
Many doctors solely depend on pay per click (PPC) ads for leads. Although PPC ads are effective in attracting attention from searchers, your website should comprise of all that’s needed to maintain client’s interest. Content rich in information is one of the crucial things to attract and maintain visitor’s attention.
Using Medical SEO for Listing Website on Google’s Search Results
There are many things one can do to make it to the top of Google’s search results. Some of the most crucial ones include:
– Fast loading, secure, and mobile friendly
– Several pages integrated with quality content optimized for medical SEO
– Choice of the right medical keywords
– Integrated with medical schema and optimized title tags and meta descriptions
– Optimized images and videos
– Authority builders such as directory citations, social signals, and quality backlinks
– My Business page on Google should be 100% filled out
Here’s what you need to know in detail:
Fast Loading, Secure, and Mobile Friendly
Speed of a website, its level of security, and mobile-friendliness are primary ranking factors. In case, your website does not load within three seconds, expect the visitors to exit. Additionally, Google keeps this in mind and avoids placing slow website in top spots. So make sure your website loads within half a second.
Security is immensely important. For a healthcare or medical company, a secure (HTTPS) website is a must-have!
These days, more than 70% of searches happen on a mobile device. Hence, it is crucial for your site to be mobile friendly. Ease of use can help you attract more clients who trust you.
Content Optimized for Medical SEO
It is important to create your web pages oriented towards clients and not specifically for search engines. Add high quality content to your medical web pages.
Industry Keywords
It is crucial to create content around the accurate healthcare industry keywords to optimize your website content for SEO. This can be done under the guidance of Medical SEO Services in Broward. Building a basic foundation using medical SEO keywords revolving around your specialty and local area (city, country, and state) will help. Avoid stuffing keyword into web page.
Medical Schema
Title tag of a web page is a major ranking signal. Professionals recommend including keywords in title tag and Meta description, including schema for doctors. A schema is a type of website code added to provide more context and information about your page to Google.
Optimized Images and Videos
Video marketing is one of the most effective ways to consume content. No wonder web pages with videos get over a 157% increase in organic traffic from SERPs. Additionally, a video is 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of Google as compared to traditional web pages. However, these videos should be optimized well to offer results.
Building Offsite Authority
Offsite indicators such as links back to website are a crucial factor of Google ranking. Google views an offsite authority as approval badge. Some of these badges include backlinks, directory listings, and social media profiles.
My Business Page on Google
Google My Business page is a crucial part of online business. Many patients these days look for healthcare services close to their residence. Hence, the searches are made using the phrase “near me”. Such searches have almost doubled since the year 2015. On the other hand, local patients can find you once your website shows up in the local pack (a group of 4 – 5 business listings that show up above the organic search results) of Google. Check your own GMB listing to ensure the following is filled out:
– Categories of your company
– Main phone number
– Proper description your company
– Hours of business operation
– Address or service area of your business
– Reviews of business/services