What are 7 medical SEO tips really for to increase your visibility on Google in healthcare?
Asking this question is more than legitimate. To understand its importance it is good to carry out a brief scenario analysis. How? By examining how and where people find health-related information during their daily lives.
Who do patients turn to before making an appointment with one doctor rather than another? Where do they book a visit to a particular medical center? How do they come to understand that they need a specialist’s consultation? Where do they find out about the treatment prescribed, the treatment to be followed and the medications to be taken?
Recent studies have highlighted how, today, about 73% of people use search engines to find a doctor to rely on. Before even asking friends and relatives, ask Google.
In addition to this it is estimated that 89% of people use search engines to find answers regarding their health concerns . You look for the symptoms on the internet for a self-diagnosis, or rather to understand what you suffer from.
In short, people, on a daily basis, get information on Google and therefore rely on the internet to improve their knowledge in the health field. They look for information on diseases, on medicines, but they also compare the opinions on dentists , physiotherapists and surgeons as well as on the various specialized centers. Finally, after having informed themselves, always through the internet, they book and pay visits to one structure rather than another.
Having said that, it is easy to understand why a solid presence on the web is of fundamental importance for those who work in the healthcare sector. Only by being present on search engines where the various users go to find information can we reach the perfect match between supply and demand. On Google there is, in fact, a constant search for medical information. For this reason, questions must be answered with an offer that is precise, timely, correct and above all in step with the times.
The Internet appears to be the most democratic place in the world. Everyone finds space. The point is that not all, however, find visibility. Here’s why the 7 tips for medical SEO become as precious as gold.
Medical SEO in the Healthcare field : how to get visibility
The basic concept to always keep in mind is one and only one. You can only increase your visibility on Google if you understand that Google itself has a vested interest in satisfactorily answering its customers’ questions. For this reason, the search engine will reward, by giving greater visibility, those sites that will be able to respond in the best possible way to the possible questions of anyone who uses the internet, whether from their PC, tablet or even better from their smartphone.
The Google search results are generated, in fact, using an algorithm that aims to put in the first places the sites able to provide the most interesting answers to search queries .
In addition to this there are many ranking factors that enter the Google algorithm and that allow the search engine to reward one site rather than another.
How should the health structures present throughout the Italian territory do to obtain a good positioning? How should a physiotherapist, a gynecologist or a dentist move to make their website reach the top places on Google so as to have much more chances of being seen by an increasing number of possible customers? First of all, it must improve its website and its contents at an SEO level and then implement marketing strategies in the health sector.
Medical SEO: the meaning and importance
So what does Medical SEO mean ? The acronym stands for Search Engine Optimization , or search engine optimization.
When we talk about Medical SEO we refer to the set of strategies and techniques put in place to increase the visibility of a website of a Healthcare Facility or a Medical Specialist and improve its position in the rankings of search engines, or in the unpaid results also called organic.
The optimization goes through both the structure of the site, the tree of the website, HTML code, internal links, but also and above all of all textual content. However, the management of incoming links or Backlinks should not be underestimated .
A practical example? Let’s say that a user, playing at home with their children or on the pitch with friends, has stretched a muscle. The chances of this person searching the internet for how to solve this problem are very high. By opening Google, therefore, the potential patient will find a lot of information on how muscle strains are treated, but also various information on medical centers that provide state-of-the-art physiotherapists , latest generation machinery and innovative techniques for muscle recovery in the shortest time possible.
In this sea of information, full of sharks, how will the user land right in your center? Even knowing that you always need a little bit of luck, it is always good to give a little help to the Blindfolded Goddess. Most users, in fact, are quite lazy. Unlikely to see the entire first page of Google and all the proposed results. It is also almost impossible for it to reach the second page of the search engine. This is why it is important to climb the SERP and get the first places, that is, greater visibility. If you arrive in the first three or four results, the user is much more likely to enter your site and book a visit to your office, becoming, treatment after treatment, a capable, long-term loyal client.
The user can find you because thanks to SEO optimization in the health field, of the contents of your site, you are first on Google with a video in which you show how to massage a muscle, or because you are in the first places thanks to the post on your blog where explain in a simple and effective way what distortions are, how they are treated and prevented.
To answer the question of how to climb the SERP, there are the 7 popular Medical SEO tips to increase your visibility on Google in the health sector.
7 tips for medical SEO: improve the visibility of your site
So how to move on the web? What SEO techniques need to be put into practice?
- Create sites and pages for users, not search engines. Try to constantly think as a user and therefore what you would look for on Google to get the performance offered. Websites are not meant to tell others how good and beautiful you are. There is no technical competition, whoever has the most beautiful site does not win, but only the one that responds best to the search engine parameters.
- Think about what makes your healthcare facility or dentist business and website unique. What sets you apart from others? Focus on your strengths, your values and the relationship you want to have with your patients.
- Create a site capable of performing on mobile devices, tablets and desktops, with a well-thought-out structure that is easy to understand by any user. Make the user experience easy and immediate by trying to immediately offer the answers they are looking for and then ‘capture’ them by offering other information that is equally interesting and that they might like to read.
- Create original, clear and above all easy-to-find content. By listening to your patients and their questions, but also their needs, you will be able to understand how to give them all the answers on the internet.
- Optimize the images, but also the videos that you are going to insert on the site and that must relate to your business or be relevant to the content offered.
- Wink at local SEO aiming to become authoritative especially in the area where you operate
- Monitor incoming links. The more authoritative they are, the better the reputation you will acquire on the web.
Healthcare marketing: from users to customers
Having good visibility is certainly important, but that’s not all. Yes, it is necessary to implement Medical SEO techniques and improve the positioning of the website of your health facility, but it is also necessary to improve the presence on the web and on social networks and create a good reputation. The name of the doctor’s office must be able to make space on the internet and be recognized by users. Your patients must also be able to leave reviews through social networks and promote you on different channels.
