Skillful marketing is the key to attracting patients to a healthcare institution. Today, health services without a website are bound to be left behind. However, creating a high-quality website is just the first step toward becoming one of the most demanded health institutions in your area.
SEO is vital to getting your website to the top pages of the search engines, where your potential patients can see it. We asked medical SEO experts from MiroMind to share several tips to help healthcare providers improve their marketing efforts.
1. Optimized Keyword Density
When Google is deciding on the way to rank your website, the general keyword density is one of the most important considerations. The keyword density determines how often a keyword or a similar word/phrase appears on your website. For example, your potential patient is searching for “earache”. How many similar keywords do you have on your website?
This doesn’t mean that you have to stick “earache” in every text on every page to get the suffering patient to come to your clinic. Google will penalize you for it. The keywords must appear in a natural manner.
Before writing articles for your website, it’s important to conduct a thorough search for which keywords are important in your industry. There are numerous keyword research tools available online. However, it’s always better to hire an SEO expert to do the job.
2. Improving Local Presence
Healthcare institutions are focused on the local audience. That’s why they need to pay attention to local search optimization. Since local patients have the easiest access to your institution, they are the primary target audience.
In order to improve the local presence, it’s important to get the clinic on google maps, Yelp, and other services that simplify locating. The clinic must have a straightforward profile showing up. It should contain working hours, location, and service description. It’s also recommended to come up with a unique logo, which will help the locals identify your particular healthcare institution.
Considering the above point, the keywords with location names in them should be a priority. I.e. “earache Springfield”.
3. Mobile Gadget Adaptation
The website must be adapted for mobile phone use. Your SEO efforts may all be in vain unless your website caters to the audience which uses smartphones. Most likely, the majority of your patients are smartphone users. In fact, you may miss your spot on one of the top Google pages if your website is not mobile-friendly.
Today, many healthcare providers are offering their patients easy-to-use applications, which can be accessed from their mobile phones. These apps can be used to contact the doctor, find out test results, and even get an online consultation.
4. Review Collection
When searching for respectable healthcare providers, many patients rely on the reviews of others. Word of mouth is still a huge part of any marketing campaign. Healthcare institutions can achieve the word of mouth effect by collecting patient reviews.
It’s important to give patients incentives to write reviews on your website. People should rate your services and add their comments. Ask your patients to give you reviews using numerous approaches:
- Verbal request after the appointment
- Newsletter
- Patient portals
- FAQ section
- CTA on the website
The section on the website where you want to see the reviews must be easily accessible.
5. Social Media Marketing
A big part of the marketing efforts is done through social media. Social media allows you to interact with the patients, learn their concerns, and find your target audience. Working with social media can help you bring traffic to your website, thus making it more optimized for search.
You can also use social media to share interesting content with the link to your website. It’s easier to get a patient’s response to your articles on social media than on the website. So it’s a great place for interaction.
6. Write Guest Blogs
Writing guest blogs on other popular websites can help you bring patients to yours. The blogs should be original and highly informative. The topics for such articles require substantial research in order to find out what the readers would really like to read.
Sharing your posts on popular high authority websites can increase the credibility of your own site, thus making it achieve higher search ratings.