Local SEO For Healthcare: Why Your Healthcare Marketing Needs to Be Community-Based
Patients who book healthcare appointments - online or not - conduct three times more online searches than those who don’t. In 2024, the patient journey involves extensive online searches, and healthcare businesses have to rise to the demand by having a strong online presence to attract new patients and continue to grow.
Even if your practice has an online presence, you may struggle to convert website visitors into returning patients. If your SEO strategy isn’t working to reach potential patients in your community, the number of impressions your website gets per month is just an empty vanity metric. So, what can you do to connect meaningfully with the patients in your community looking for the service you provide?
Local SEO, or search engine optimization, is vital in helping doctors, hospitals, and healthcare practices go beyond improved visibility to reach the right people online. This guide walks you through how local SEO for healthcare turns website visitors into long-term relationships and provides practical tips for implementation.
What Is Local SEO Strategy For Healthcare Businesses?
Local SEO strategy for medical practices involves optimizing your online content to rank higher in local search results. This includes using local keywords, creating location-specific landing pages, and actively managing your online reputation. By implementing effective local SEO for healthcare, you stand to bring in more local patients and differentiate yourself from competitors in your area.
It’s easy to de-prioritize SEO as a healthcare business. All of the important work happens in your office, right? Think about it like this: you want your patient’s experience to be seamless form the moment they set foot in your practice to the moment they leave – as much of that is in your control.
Now that so many people are first interacting with healthcare businesses online, that principle should extend to your business as it exists on the Internet. You can think of your website as a virtual storefront. This is where patients will first experience you, forming their first impressions. Don’t you want to make it easy for your patients to find you and find important information, from hours of operation to informative blog posts?
The Importance of Understanding Potential Patient Needs
Understanding potential patients' needs is essential for creating a successful healthcare marketing strategy. Conducting community needs assessments can help healthcare practices identify the specific healthcare services that are in demand in their local area. By tailoring your local SEO for healthcare efforts to meet potential patients' needs, you can attract more new patients and be able to help more people every day.
For example, suppose you live in an area with a high concentration of people dealing with heart disease. In that case, you may tailor your content to provide insight into how to live a healthy life with heart disease, what causes it, and what common diseases occur alongside heart disease.
Community needs assessments can bolster your SEO, providing insights into the healthcare services that are most sought-after in your local community. By aligning your SEO strategy with these needs, you can better position your practice to attract new patients and grow your patient base.
I love this resource by the CDC on Community Health Needs Assessments.
“ SEO generates high-quality leads because it lets you target a specific bracket of patients interested in your health services. So, the majority of patients who see your medical practice on SERPs most likely need your medical services.” - Forbes
8 Tips for Attracting More Patients Through Local SEO
If you haven’t caught the gist of this article yet, implementing effective local SEO for healthcare is essential for attracting more patients to your healthcare practice - and you’re leaving a LOT of money on the table if you don’t have a comprehensive SEO strategy.
It’s not that online search is the only way people find doctors anymore, but they do use search at least twice as much as they use referrals now.
With that in mind, here are 8 tips to help you enhance your local SEO efforts and attract new patients:
Local keyword research
Conduct thorough local keyword research to identify the most relevant and high-traffic keywords for your healthcare services and local area. Incorporating these keywords into your website content can improve your search engine rankings and attract more local patients.
Example: If you’re a primary care physician in Brooklyn, NYC, keywords may look like: “primary care near me” “primary care physicians in Brooklyn” and “primary care physicians in NYC”. My favorite keyword research tool is Semrush, but you may find it easier to start with a tool like Keywords Everywhere.
Schema markups
Utilize schema markups to provide search engines with additional information about your healthcare services, location, reviews, and business hours. This can help search engines better understand your content and improve your chances of appearing in local search results, particularly in rich snippets(which show up above even the #1 search result). Schema markups can get a bit technical, so check out Schema.org or enlist the help of a web developer or technical SEO to make sure your business is getting noticed by Google.
Encourage client reviews and engage with them
Encourage satisfied patients to leave positive reviews on your Google Business profile and other review platforms. Respond to reviews promptly(even the ones that aren’t that nice)and engage with patients to show that you value their feedback and provide excellent patient care.
You may not feel like every review is fair. I saw the best example of this the other day - a doctor who got a four-star rating with the comment, “Dr. X saved my life!”. The doctor said, “I don’t know what I could have done better.”
You can’t force five-star reviews, but you can uphold your reputation by responding politely to every comment.
Partner with local medical businesses
Collaborate with local medical businesses, such as pharmacies or diagnostic centers, to create mutual referral networks and gain some backlinks. Business partnerships have been a way to grow clientele since before the Internet, and they can help grow your visibility online and through old-fashioned referrals.
Optimize Google My Business
Optimize your Google My Business profile with accurate information about your healthcare practice, including your address, phone number, business hours, and services offered. Keeping this information current can improve your local search rankings and make contacting you easier for potential patients.
Create landing pages for each location you're in
Create separate landing pages for each location in which your healthcare practice operates. This can help you target local patients more effectively and improve your chances of ranking in local search results for each area. On a similar note, ensure you include all your locations in your local keywords. If you have locations in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan, you want to use keywords with all those locations in it.
For example, “primary care physician Brooklyn,” “primary care physician Queens,” and “primary care physician Manhattan” are all keywords you should be targeting.
Use social media to your advantage
Utilize social media platforms to engage with your local community, share accurate healthcare information, and promote your practice. By maintaining an active presence on social media, you can build trust with potential patients and begin to feel more accessible, too. In 2024, many people have a large mistrust of their care providers. Social media can be a way to mitigate this(aside from debunking misinformation, although this is important, too).
When you do employee spotlights, “day-in-the-life” posts, or fun videos sharing a healthcare tip, you have a better chance of connecting with potential patients in a human-to-human way. How can you make it local? Use local hashtags, like #brooklynprimarycareprovider #brooklynpcp #healthcaretipsbrooklyn.
Local directories
Listing your healthcare practice on local directories - yes, Whitepages still exists online - is an easy way to get backlinks to your website and increase overall visibility. Most communities have local, industry-specific directories. You could just search “healthcare provider NYC directories” and list your business. Ensure your business information is consistent across all platforms to enhance your credibility with search engines and potential patients.
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Frequently Asked Questions
These local SEO steps don’t seem drastic - do they matter?
Yes! They do. Local SEO is woven throughout everything an agency or freelancer will do for you, from writing blogs that use local keywords to ensuring you have a strong Google My Business Profile and accurate schema markups. I don’t recommend piecemeal SEO because each element of SEO is truly designed to work together to help you stand out online.
Another way to think about local SEO is this – if your practice or business isn’t optimized for your area, most people who see it may not live near you. Who will that help when your work needs to be done in person?
How long does it take for medical SEO to work?
The time it takes for medical SEO to show results can vary depending on various factors, such as the competitiveness of your local market, the quality of your content, and the effectiveness of your SEO strategies. Most people may tell you at least 3 months, but given just how competitive it is to rank on Google now, I say give it at least six months to see significant improvements in your search engine rankings. This should be leading to an influx of more patients from your area.
What are some common mistakes I should avoid in local SEO?
The most common mistakes I see my clients make are:
Not setting up a Google My Business profile
Ignoring client reviews
Not starting a blog with content optimized for local search
Content matters in an age when people are doing significant research to decide who should be their healthcare provider. Most people look at 3 to 5 pieces of content before enlisting your services.
Having a Google My Business profile and engaging with client reviews are essential for establishing yourself as a trusted local business. As a healthcare business trying to attract clients from your community, there’s simply no point in doing SEO if it’s not optimized for local clientele.
Enjoy Personalized SEO Services Designed to Help Your Business Grow
When you work with Camille Prairie Creative Co., you’ll get tailored support for your SEO needs from professionals who work with small businesses to increase organic traffic and online visibility and turn first-time website visitors into lifelong patients.
We’ll work with you to create a customized SEO strategy to meet your goals and boost your online presence. Learn more when you book a 30-minute meeting with us today.
