Is the website for your hospital or doctor’s office optimized for local searches? If not, you’re losing out on a highly motivated audience that is prepared to buy. Why? Because if your business is not optimized for local SEO, healthcare consumers cannot locate it online. A thorough awareness of the demands and preferences of healthcare consumers as well as Google’s constantly evolving algorithm is necessary for doctors, hospitals, and health systems to engage in effective local SEO. Additionally, you’ll need a solid strategy for local and organic search marketing optimization. Despite the extremely competitive world of today, are you prepared to increase your search engine rank and placement?
Local SEO: What is it?
The practice of optimizing your website and directory listings for improved local traffic is known as local SEO, also known as local search marketing. Typically, those who conduct local searches are more likely to convert (e.g., schedule an appointment).
Despite their interdependence, local and organic SEO demand separate methods and optimization techniques. While organic SEO concentrates on content optimization overall, local SEO is location-specific.
When your marketing team has industry and subject matter experts on staff, local search marketing is more effective. Their innate familiarity with your local audience will increase brand recognition, propel your company listing into Google’s Local Pack, the most sought-after spot on Google’s local search results page, and increase brand awareness.
What is Local SEO for Medical Professionals, Hospitals, and Healthcare Systems?
When done correctly, local SEO curates the whole online experience for your patients, from initial research through appointment setting. For delivering a pleasant user experience, you should use local SEO in conjunction with these initiatives (and others):
- Complete and accurate local pack listings and directories
- A helpful, user-friendly website that successfully directs the user experience
- localized, specific website content
- a blog and website with the best search volume and optimization
- Strong technical SEO that aids in search engines comprehending your material
- a plan for quickly reading and responding to patient reviews.
No matter how many locations you oversee, local SEO for healthcare firms is crucial for establishing credibility with your local audience. Utilizing dependable and consistent information, the objective is to increase each practice’s and doctor’s visibility and trustworthiness. Our healthcare SEO professionals typically begin by improving the Google Local Packs, which are collections of related businesses that display towards the top of Google’s search results page, when clients hire us to optimize their local search marketing. For instance, the Local Pack would show up if a site user typed in “Women’s Health in Los Angeles, CA” and a mapped area contained businesses that matched that description.
In the past two years, location-based searches, such as those using the phrase “near me now,” have increased by almost 150 percent. However, geographical data is frequently offered to search engines automatically, even without the words “near me” or “near me now,” giving local SEO digital marketing services a chance to stand out from the crowd.
Local Ranking Factors: What It Takes to Get to the Top
The Local Pack is the most essential local search approach for boosting phone calls, leads, and patients, ranking first in 93 percent of Google searches. When a user searches for a nearby urgent care, hospital, medical practice, or physician, Google delivers a neatly pinned map with three nearby companies. How are they selected? Google’s local algorithm is built around three key components:
Proximity
The distance between your company and the user’s current location.
Prominence
How well-known and respected your company is in the community
Relevance
How relevant your products and services are in relation to the search intent of the user “Local SEO, similar to organic SEO, focuses primarily on the most relevant phrases.” “Simply targeting the greatest key words in local SEO, like organic SEO, will not help generate more traffic to your local business,” Says an expert from Team-X, a local SEO Sydney company.
“You must have relevant, high-quality material.” Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and strive to offer the best answers to any queries they may have.”
The Google Local Pack is where you want your company to appear whenever someone in your local market searches for the items or services you offer.
Let us now discuss how to get there.
What are the most important Local Pack ranking factors?
Several variables impact your site’s ranking, especially when it comes to local competition. Here are the main local pack ranking elements that can help physicians, hospitals, and health systems enhance their local SEO:
Google My Business Page
Google Business Profile (GBP) is a free Google service. It enables local clients to do a keyword search based on their requirements, learn about your products and services, and get your contact information with a single tap.
Reviews
It is critical to have a review (and response) plan in place to increase the number of favorable online reviews on your GBP. Google’s algorithm places a high importance on patient evaluations and has a large effect on whether someone clicks through to your website.
SEO on-page
On-page SEO contributes to increased website exposure in search engine results pages (SERP). Include relevant keywords, phrases, and contact information (name, address, and phone number).
Links
High-quality backlinks are beneficial to both organic and local SEO. Backlinks from sites with high authority (a respected and trustworthy source of information) indicate search engines that your material is beneficial to other resources.
Now that we’ve defined local SEO and the effort required to reach the top, it’s time to look at some of the most common mistakes healthcare organizations make with local SEO.
Healthcare Local Search Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
1. Keywords that are not localized
While ranking for “best hospital” would be excellent, it isn’t particular enough to help your business rank highly on Google’s search engine results page (SERP), much alone deliver the local visitors you desire. Try using more precise keywords such as “rheumatologist in Irvine, CA” or “rheumatologist near me.” Google leverages the searcher’s current location to give relevant results for “near me” queries.
2. There are no patient reviews.
The amount (and quality) of Google customer reviews are important ranking variables for local search marketing. Customer evaluations (both favorable and negative) on hospital, multilocation practice, and individual physician listings offer increased legitimacy and garner more hits. Train your front office personnel to invite patients to share their good experiences immediately following their session to enhance or improve online review ratings.
3. Ignoring negative feedback
Negative reviews provide a unique chance for businesses to convey their personality and empathy, humanizing their brand. The greatest things to do are to acknowledge the review, express gratitude (“thank you for your comments”), demonstrate accountability, answer quickly (usually within three business days), explain how you’re improving, and stay in touch—the fortune (customer retention) really is in the details.
Furthermore, while responding to evaluations, healthcare providers must ensure HIPAA compliance by not disclosing any protected health information (PHI).
4. No listing on Google Business Profile (GBP)
Google Business Profile is the finest free form of local SEO accessible today. Google Posts (a GBP feature) engage clients, promote dialogue, and move traffic from your Google Business Profile to your website, so improving your SEO results.
According to a 2019 case study of 2,000 Google Business Profile users, just 17.5 percent of businesses produce GBP updates every week, which means your company has a huge possibility to jump up the local pack simply by posting.
5. There are no directory profiles
Though Google Business Profile has undoubtedly grabbed the lead in directory listings, you should explore submitting your company’s information to other prominent local and speciality directories (e.g., Vitals, Healthgrades, and so on). Maintaining thorough and correct practice and physician information makes it easy for your clients to identify your business and study physician education, certifications, ratings, specializations, and so on.
Complete and accurate directory profiles increase your company’s exposure by making it easy for users to find critical information.
