Using some basic search engine optimization (SEO) strategies for medical office websites, you can fill those open appointment times right now—without spending a dime, believe it or not.

You must first realize that people looking for a doctor now regard internet search engines like Google and Bing as reliable resources. The need for traditional forms of advertising—the old phone book, for example—has decreased over the past several years due to online search. To benefit, your practice must adjust to the shifts in patient behavior.

The second essential skill for success in this situation is the ability to modify the content of your practice’s website easily. You need a new website that lets you make changes when you can’t make them. Once you have that, you may begin your work and attract the attention of additional patients.

Important Words and Phrases

The key to boosting online traffic to the website of your medical business is using relevant keywords and phrases. Simply put, patients are entering keywords and key phrases into search engines.

Because each word affects your on-page SEO rankings and influences where your page appears in search engine result pages (SERP), you should be mindful of the keywords and phrases you use on your website. According to The State of Search: First Edition white paper, 95% of American internet users access search engines monthly.

To start,

List about ten keywords related to your practice and enter them into Google’s Keyword Tool. This will help you figure out which versions are best for your business. The search volume and competition data will help you decide where to concentrate your efforts.

To ensure potential patients visit your practice’s website, you should initially choose five to ten keywords and track their effectiveness.

On-page SEO

You may start preparing to employ on-page SEO to drive more traffic to your practice website after you have your keywords. In essence, on-page SEO is creating content for your website that is relevant to potential search terms for your target audience and ensuring that these keywords are included on the page.

To illustrate,

If you’re a podiatrist and have a dedicated patient education page about bunions, you should ensure that the page includes the term “bunions” along with terms like “bunion treatment in Orlando.” After that, when search engines “crawl” or index the page, they will match a searcher’s query to terms on your website to provide the most relevant search result.

The relevance and authority that previous pieces of content on your website have built will determine the page’s rank once it has been optimized (which is why we keep stressing how crucial it is to develop consistent, quality content). It’s crucial to choose the most relevant keywords for each of your pages and to indicate to search engines that they are the main focus of your content. Refrain from overstuffing your page with keywords; otherwise, the search engines may flag and ignore you.

Additionally, you should be very aware of any comparable terms (dentist vs. oral surgeon) that you might be able to employ to draw in additional business. Your page rankings will increase since search engines will perceive that you provide more relevant material if you find and use related terms.

You can also manage your meta tags on most websites these days. Search engine “crawlers” see these tags as their initial view of your website; therefore, you should use them wisely.

“Title tags” describe the information on a related page. They should be no more than 77 characters long, include your practice name, and use keywords.

The 160-character “meta descriptions” that appear beneath the title of a search result on search engine results pages (SERPs) should contain your primary call to action and keywords.

To aid search engines in determining where you provide services, ensure your content includes a few localization terms. Don’t be scared to include other locations in this list, such as Orlando, Tampa, Central Florida, and Florida. Write the terms in the appropriate places, considering the terms that a possible patient might look for.

Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO is the next thing you should learn to improve the online presence of your medical business. The main goal of off-page SEO is to establish your website’s credibility online through content and trust. To improve your website’s position and earn the confidence of search engines, you should strive to enhance the quantity, quality, and relevancy of links pointing to it from other websites.

The easiest method to achieve this is to create engaging content that addresses a query your dream client has and encourages them to share it. Getting the links and establishing your reputation without the content is impossible.

To obtain backlinks to your website, social media is essential. By giving your fans and followers relevant posts, you will gain clicks and, eventually, authority.

Immediately, you can also benefit from being inventive in your PR campaign. To help raise awareness, think beyond sending your blast to local news outlets and consider reaching out to bloggers, well-known people in your field, and social media influencers.

Become Inspired and Take Action

It can occasionally take several weeks for the major search engines to index your pages, so you should start moving forward now to see an increase in website traffic in the new year. As usual, get in touch with a professional who can handle the heavy lifting if you need help managing some of this work alone (and let’s face it, there’s a lot of it).

Recall that taking action is the first step toward seeing a change. You’ll be able to expand your online presence if you use these SEO pointers for the website of your medical business.