Understanding SEO (search engine optimization) is critical for growing a modern medical practice. With nearly 5% of daily Google searches being health-related, the internet significantly influences how patients find healthcare providers. This shift in human behavior underscores the importance of a strong online presence for medical practices. Most patients research and explore your practice’s digital presence to determine compatibility before they ever step foot in your office. In order to stand out and attract more patients, understanding and implementing SEO is absolutely crucial. Effective SEO extends beyond mere keyword repetition, requiring a comprehensive approach to ensure high visibility on search engine results pages. This visibility is key to connecting with potential patients in your area. Utilize the following checklist to assess the SEO health of your practice and identify areas of improvement.
1. Find Your Website’s Domain Authority Score
It’s important to start with a baseline understanding of your website’s Domain Authority. Think of it like taking the temperature of your site to understand its overall health. Domain Authority (DA) measures your website’s potential ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs), with scores ranging from 1 to 100. Higher scores indicate a greater likelihood of ranking well. DA is predicted through machine learning based on a domain’s presence in Google’s search results, where scores of 40-50 are average, 50-60 are good, and above 60 are excellent. Use the free Moz domain authority checker tool to find your site’s score.
2. Utilize Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free, user-friendly tool that provides insights into how visitors arrive at and interact with your website. It offers a dashboard for tracking trends, traffic, keyword usage, page popularity, visitor duration, and conversion actions like email sign-ups or appointments. Use it to understand how people are finding your site, and which elements are helping or hurting converting users into your patients. Utilizing this data is key to optimizing your site’s overall performance.
3. Set Up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster
Two other free tools are important for finding and resolving any technical issues with your site that may be impeding your performance. Google Search Console (GSC) offers insights on search traffic, including impressions, clicks, click through rates (CTR), and allows for the identification and resolution of technical issues to boost search performance. Bing Webmaster performs similar functions for Bing, aiding in site indexing, solving ranking issues, and analyzing backlinks. Both tools are essential for optimizing search engine visibility.
4. Submit a Site Map
This step can be easy to overlook but is a significant factor in your site’s overall performance. In simple terms, it tells search engines exactly how to find you, rather than relying on them to discover you. Think of it like a needle in a haystack emitting a signal—simple to do and worth it for quick results. A sitemap outlines your website’s structure, guiding search engines on which pages to crawl for ranking, which is essential for SEO. Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster both allow submission of sitemaps, which can significantly increase site visibility and traffic by ensuring main content pages are indexed.
5. Create Quality Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other sites to yours, serving as a key ranking factor for search engines. Basically, these links increase your credibility with search engines, indicating that your content is useful. Aim for over 60 quality backlinks for optimal performance, with 40-50 being adequate. Avoid paying for backlinks as they are often schemes; instead, seek natural inclusion on high-authority sites to boost your site’s visibility and credibility, such as setting up a professional profile on reputable platforms. Some examples might include setting up profiles on reputable healthcare directories and review sites, or engaging with local community events and getting mentioned on their websites.
6. Keep an Active Watch on Your Review
Online reviews can make or break a business. Over 90% of people read online reviews before choosing healthcare providers, with many influenced to choose or avoid doctors based on these reviews. It’s crucial for healthcare professionals to actively monitor and manage their online reputation across platforms like WebMD, Vitals, and Google My Business. And keep in mind that high-ranking reviews from authoritative sites like these also boost visibility. Responding to both positive and negative feedback can enhance your reputation, showing commitment to patient satisfaction. Reputation Management software from Officite makes this task much easier to manage.
7. Set Up Google My Business
Google My Business allows your practice to appear on Google Maps and enables customer interactions through reviews and questions. It’s a free platform to update practice information, such as hours and services, enhancing local search visibility. Utilizing this tool provides insights into how people discover your practice, offering opportunities to optimize your profile for better search performance. For example, you might add keywords related to new services offered at your practice to improve search results.
8. Claim Free Healthcare Directory Profiles
Provider profiles on healthcare directories like WebMD, Vitals, ZocDoc and Healthgrades not only help patients find you within the directory, but also help boost your website’s rankings on search engines like Google. A free healthcare directory profile sends signals to Google that your medical practice is in operation and therefore be indexed and featured in search results.
9. Claim Free Business Directory Profiles
Medical professionals can also utilize free business directory profiles like Yellow Pages, Yelp for Business, and Foursquare to boost their website’s ranking on search engines. Although patients may not be using these specific platforms to find a doctor, listing your profile builds your website’s overall domain authority and tells Google that other reputable websites are mentioning your medical practice.
10. Consider SEO Services from Officite
Officite has a team of experts with proven success in SEO strategy and practice, specific to the medical industry. This takes all of the guesswork out of setting up and maintaining an SEO strategy, and is an efficient way to get appointment-ready, local patients finding your practice quickly and easily.
Conclusion
Boosting your website’s search rankings is essential in today’s digital-first healthcare environment, where patients frequently research providers and health information online. A strategic approach to SEO is critical to ensure your practice appears prominently where potential patients are searching. Diversifying your online presence through various authoritative health platforms, optimizing your site for SEO, and managing online reviews are key steps to enhance visibility, attract patients, and build a strong online reputation for sustained success.
About Officite
Officite is a unique, all-in-one digital marketing service for medical practices. With both industry-specific knowledge and digital marketing expertise, we help practices grow their patient base with powerful websites, social media & reputation management, search engine solutions, telemedicine, and patient education. Officite automates your practice’s lengthy processes (i.e. appointment scheduling, patient forms, etc.), so you can save your team (and patients) more time.
If you found this checklist useful and are interested in scheduling a free website analysis with one of our SEO-experts, please visit the link below.
