Getting a Good Start With Local SEO for Healthcare

Do you want to drive more traffic to your healthcare clinic? The best way to increase your visibility on local search engine results pages (SERPs) and get more patients to your local business is through healthcare local SEO. This guide will help you get started with the five top local SEO tips:

• Cleaning up your website
• Claiming and optimizing your GMB
• Updating your local listings
• Coming up with informative content
• Managing patient reviews

By applying local SEO to your healthcare business or practice, you’ll enjoy more engagement and increased traffic to your local business.

Let’s go!

Why Local SEO Is Important to Healthcare?

If you have a local practice, a clinic, or a hospital and want to promote your expertise and attract more patients, consider local search engine optimization (SEO). These are strategies aimed at promoting businesses online; they are techniques that help websites rank higher in local organic search results.

As of August 2022, Google remains the most widely used search engine, with a nearly 85% market share, while Bing has only 9%. Considering that more people are using Google to find healthcare information, optimizing your website for this search engine makes sense.

With local SEO for your healthcare website, you can do the following:

• Improve site crawlability. By optimizing your site for local SEO, you’re helping search engines crawl and index your site. Google will understand what your pages are about and rank you higher when your keywords appear in organic searches.
• Create a positive impression on your new patients. An optimized site is well-designed, user-friendly, and informative. An efficient online doctor's office reception area welcomes your patients to your website and your local clinic.
• Enhance user experience (UX). Develop and optimize your healthcare site with your patients in mind. From updated and helpful content to engaging and attractive site design,  employ design, content, and local SEO to promote user experience and trust in your local brand.
• Provide valuable information. An optimized site for local SEO has your updated contact information to direct your site visitors to your local office or clinic. This site also shows content that introduces your expertise, company background, products, or services to help your patients make the best choice for their care.

Are you interested in learning more about Local SEO? Watch the video below to see why you should invest in local SEO today. Intrigued? Drop us a line at hello@digitalauthority.me. We read every email!

5 Tips To Use Healthcare Local SEO

Local SEO ensures your business is front and center when customers search for businesses like yours. Many strategies work, but these top five techniques work best for healthcare businesses or practices.

     1. Clean Up Your Website

By cleaning your website, you can prepare it for local organic search. You can identify your website's strengths and weaknesses and develop ways to improve your pages.

The best way to start is with a local SEO audit. An audit is a thorough review of your site, usually done by a local SEO agency. This SEO review is carried out over a few days and ends with a report from the agency. An audit considers the following:

• Research on your keywords
• Analysis of your Google Business Profile (GMB)
• Review of local citations
• Focus on customer or patient reviews
• Checks of website analytics
• Analysis of your competitors

     2. Claim and Optimize Your GMB

Your Google My Business page (GMB) is your business listing on Google that also puts you on Google Maps. A GMB profile is a free listing that features additional information about your business, like your website, business hours, photos, and customer reviews. Optimizing your GMB and ensuring it contains updated information about your business can help you rise to the top in local organic searches.

Claiming your GMB helps your patients quickly discover your business on Google. Because your GMB connects to Google Maps, your patients easily find directions to your business no matter where they are. Consider the following tips to optimize your GMB listing:

• Complete your GMB profile by adding an engaging description using your keywords.
• Verify your business location in your GMB profile, so it shows correctly on Maps.
• Add authentic photos, videos, and a 360° view of your business, staff, and amenities.
• Ask your patients for a review by sharing your review link through email or social media.
• Answer all customer questions clearly and straightforwardly.
• Add health insurance information if you're a provider.

     3. Update Your Local Listings

Aside from your GMB listing, you can generate more exposure and increase traffic by listing your business in local directories. Doing so expands your online reach and improves your reputation because Google considers local listings reliable.

Patients use local online healthcare directories to find practitioners, specialists, and clinics. Since most business directories include customer reviews, patients can use these to make better health decisions. Here are a few tips for updating your local listings.

• Be consistent with your name, address, and phone number (NAP) across directories.
• Make your business listing stand out by mentioning something unique like your products, languages spoken, accreditations, etc.
• Include your social media platforms so your patients can easily connect to your business.
• Use a directory listing management software to help you sort out, update, and manage multiple listings.

     4. Create Informative Content

A way to promote your local business is to create informative, helpful, and high quality content. The best content gives your business authority. You will rank higher on SERPs through improved  content quality and user experience.

Using related keywords helps you create the best content. Whether using text content, videos, infographics, photos, or tables, your patients will easily find your content when you use the right keywords. And informative content is created through thorough research. Here are some strategies to help you build the best content.

• Perform thorough keyword research using tools like Google Keyword Planner or explore Google search for related terms.
• Come up with local headlines or post and page titles.
• Create the best impression using unique content, real photos, or videos.
• Start a blog and write about what you know about local  health issues and the local healthcare environment.
• Use social media to connect with your local patients and people worldwide.

     5. Manage Patient Reviews

Patients rely on reviews to decide whether a service is okay or a product is best for them. They look for good reviews and check for any negative ones, which can be red flags. With your GMB claimed and optimized, you can manage reviews by thanking people for positive reviews and authentically addressing those who gave your business negative reviews.

Reviews on GMB may be removed upon request. You can ask Google through your GMB profile to remove harmful and non-relevant reviews.

Summing Up

Local healthcare SEO will promote your business and increase local traffic. By cleaning up your website, claiming your GMB, and updating your local listings, you can encourage local SEO and rank higher in local organic searches.

Also, posting informative and high quality content and managing patient reviews can help optimize your content for local SEO. All these strategies are crucial to the success of your healthcare marketing campaigns.

Do you want to know how local SEO can promote your healthcare business or practice? Let's start today. Contact Digital Authority Partners now for the latest in local SEO.