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Local SEO for Medical Practices: A Guide to Attracting New Patients

Updated: 6 days ago

Local SEO for Medical Practices


As a doctor, particularly if you are new in your practice, there will definitely be challenges in attracting new patients. To succeed in your medical practice, you need to do everything possible to attract the right patients. Apart from attracting the right patients, you also need to be able to persuade them to stick with you.


Many people now search for products and services on Google Search. People search online for medical practices and doctors nearby. Local search has become increasingly common among people all over the world.

Local SEO for Medical Practices
Local SEO for Medical Practices

According to stats, 46% of all Google searches are seeking local information on products and services. 97% of people learn more about a local company or product online.


As a doctor, you can take advantage of local search engine to get your medical practice in the faces of people that needs your services. Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an effective way to increase your presence when people search for medical practices in your community.


With local SEO for medical practices, your website and medical practice will appear on top positions when people search for medical practices on Google and other major search engines.


However, to succeed in local SEO for your medical practice, you must understand what local Search Engine Optimization is all about. Continue reading to learn more about it here.


What is local SEO for medical practices in digital marketing?


Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in digital marketing is a detailed niche area of SEO marketing concentrated on enhancing the exposure of localized products and services on search results.


With an effective local SEO strategy in place, people will be able to see you or your medical practice when they search on Google, Yahoo, or Bing for doctors or medical practices in their local communities.


What differentiates Local SEO from Organic SEO?


As a beginner, you should understand that SEO has two major components which are organic SEO and local SEO.


Organic SEO


Organic SEO is simply the marketing technique used to increase your ranking on search engine results simply by optimizing your website.


Furthermore, organic SEO lacks a geographical element and is always not associated with a physical business location. In organic SEO, the person searching for information is more concerned with discovering useful information about a business instead of the location.

What differentiates Local SEO from Organic SEO?
What differentiates Local SEO from Organic SEO?

Local SEO


It is simply optimising your business website to ensure that it shows up in local search results when people search for businesses around your local community.


It is the technique of establishing indications of relevancy around an exact location.


Organic SEO aims to optimize a business website to increase its ranking and boost traffic to the website, while local search engine optimize a business website to increase ranking so that people can see the business website when they search for similar businesses in a particular location.


Why Is It Important To Have Local SEO For Medical Practices?


Local SEO for medical practices is important for doctors because According to a Pew Internet & American Life Project study, 80% of online users search the internet for health-related topics.


Furthermore, over half of the internet users, or over 60 million Americans have stopped by a webpage that supplies support or information for people who want to know about a certain medical ailment.

Why Is It Important To Have Local SEO For Medical Practices?
Why Is It Important To Have Local SEO For Medical Practices?

If medical doctors could provide the information or offer treatments for the medical ailments these online users are searching for on the internet, it could result in an enormous opportunity for doctors and their practices.


The importance of local SEO for medical practices includes:

  • It demonstrates credibility and helps maintain patient confidence.

  • It helps to maintain pace with competitors who have established an online presence.

  • It increases the number of walk-in patients by making it easy for patients to locate medical practices.

  • It provides opportunities for patients to leave reviews about their doctors.

What are the Benefits of Local SEO For Medical Practices?

What are the Benefits of Local SEO For Medical Practices?
What are the Benefits of Local SEO For Medical Practices?
  • It converts better than most other digital marketing platforms.

  • It helps to reduce the costs of advertising and brings good returns on investment (ROI) than pay-per-click (PPC).

  • It navigates rapid foot traffic. Over 88% of localized searches result in a phone call, chat, or visit to the store within 24 hours of the search.

  • It goes perfectly well with voice search, a growing SEO marketing trend.

How Can Doctors Attract New Patients by Using Local SEO Strategies?


There are various strategies that doctors can use to attract new patients.


1. Optimize Your Website For Local Search


Internet users would prefer going to a nearby doctor, so their search keywords may contain a certain town or neighborhood. Utilize local search engine to optimize your website to reach more potential clients.


Include your business location in the title, tags, and text. Ensure that your address appears in your page footer. Ensure your business address is consistent on every single site your practice pops up, including your various social media pages, Google Maps, and online medical directories.

How Can Doctors Attract New Patients by Using Local SEO Strategies?
How Can Doctors Attract New Patients by Using Local SEO Strategies?

2. Produce High-quality Content


Search engines take note of several elements when ranking websites. Uniqueness and relevance of content, visits and number of pages are part of them. Create quality content and share them on your website at least once every day or week.


This will make sure that your website is active and engaging. The more quality content and engagements that you have on your website, the higher your website will be ranked by search engine.


When you are creating content, focus your attention on the most relevant topics that interest your audience. Use keywords that people commonly make use of to discover medical practices in their local communities.


3. Create High-quality Links


Boost your chances of getting new patients by writing guest posts and adding high-quality links to your website. Adding links to your website to guest posts will drive traffic to your website and increase your presence in local search results.


Local SEO for doctors


Local SEO is important for doctors who want to get more local clients. When people search for information on Google, they usually click on the pages that appear on top of search results.


Doctors with a solid local SEO strategy attract new patients by appearing on top of search results. Research has shown that after users search for local doctors online, as many as 76% could end up visiting one of the doctors within 24 hours.


Leverage local SEO to connect with the locals and get them to your practice.

 

Local SEO for medical professionals


Local SEO for medical professionals is different from technical SEO. Setting up your practice's online presence is the first step to boosting your local visibility.


This can be achieved by creating a compelling website, blog and Facebook page. Creating a Google Business Profile is also great for local SEO.

 

Healthcare local SEO


Healthcare local SEO is an effective strategy to increase practice recognition and attract prospective clients. Healthcare SEO strategy includes:


Managing your local listings


As a local practice, your information is posted on multiple websites and directories. It’s important to manage your local listings to ensure you’re providing everyone with accurate information about your practice.


Claim your Google Business Profile listing


If you want to succeed with your local SEO efforts, you need to claim your Google Business Profile listing.


Ask for patient reviews and respond to them


The importance of online reviews for building a solid Local SEO is immeasurable. A greater percentage of people who seek healthcare services online trust reviews as much as personal recommendations. 

 

Local SEO for dermatologists


Local SEO for dermatologists is similar to that of any other discipline in the healthcare industry. People looking for dermatologists online search for the best providers in their various locations.


Hence, it’s important to optimize your site for local searches. Ensure you put your practice out on all local listings.

 

Local SEO tips for doctors

  • Leverage the power of patient testimonials and reviews.

  • Optimize your Google Business profile

  • Optimize your site for mobile.

  • Focus on high-quality local link building.

  • Research local keywords

  • Leverage local directories

  • Create locally relevant content

 

Orthopedics doctors’ SEO ideas


Claim any listings you have on Yelp, Yellow Pages, or any other NAP (name, address, phone number) citations. You can optimize these local listings for search engines to boost your online visibility.


Ask current patients to leave reviews on your page. Your patients need to know they can trust you to offer quality services.

 

Medical practices SEO services


The common medical SEO practices include:


SEO services


SEO experts use various techniques to help your medical practice website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords.


This makes it easy for your target audience to locate you when searching for medical services in your area.

 

Website design


You also get a functional and visually appealing website design for your brand. Medical practice SEO experts help optimize your website for better user experience.

 

SEO for medical clinics


Mobile optimization is important in SEO for medical clinics. It can be challenging and time-consuming, but it can also allow healthcare organizations to stand out. Creating high-quality and relevant content is the foundation of SEO.


Develop informative blog posts, articles, and videos related to your medical specialty. Seek a reputable SEO agency like Intellius Medical for your medical practice’s SEO.

 

Search engine optimization for ob-gyn practices


SEO is very important for medical practices, including doctors of obstetrics and gynaecology (OBGYN). To optimize your OBGYN practice for search engine, do the following:


Keyword Research and Optimization


Conduct thorough keyword research to identify the terms and phrases potential patients are using when searching for OB-GYN services in your locality.


Use online tools to discover relevant keywords. Incorporate keywords into your blog posts, service pages, and meta descriptions.


Create High-Quality, Informative Content


Content is an important component of SEO. Create and share high-quality, informative content on women’s health and pregnancy topics on your website, blog page, and social media pages.


Conclusion


You must know what local SEO is and its importance for doctors. You should also know the local SEO strategies to achieve your goals. Ensure that you follow the useful tips explained above to increase your rankings in search results and get seen by more patients searching for medical practices in your local community. Contact us to learn more information.

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