Help Your Medical Practice Reach More People With These 4 Tips

Providing care to the people who need it is the goal of most physicians. If patients can’t find your practice, though, fulfilling your calling as a physician can be difficult. Here are four tips that will help prospective patients find your medical practice so that you can provide care to your community.

Embrace Reviews

If your medical website doesn’t have a page dedicated to reviews, you may be missing out on some positive, (and free!) advertising. Nothing beats word of mouth when it comes to endorsing a positive experience, and a good review might be all it takes to encourage a prospective patient to schedule an appointment. Facebook, Yelp, and Google My Business all have their own system for leaving reviews which can influence the placement your medical practice receives in search engine rankings. A high rating directly correlates to a practice being ranked at the top of local search results. While it’s true that negative reviews can also decrease your search engine ranking, the upside to positive reviews is enormous. By connecting your practice to these external rating sites, you can leverage positive experiences into a higher search rank, which will improve your SEO findability and place your practice in front of more patients.

Claim Your Google My Business Listing

When people are searching for medical care, one of the most important pieces of information they’re looking for is which practices are closest to them. By claiming your Google My Business Listing, you place your practice on the map – literally. When people search for medical practices in their area, your practice will show up as an option based on their location, which is an important step to being found. Without this listing, some searchers might never know your practice exists. Make sure to link your practice website and contact number to your My Business account as well. Prospective patients will likely check your website before reaching out to get an idea of your services and professionalism. Having a website that is up to date and well-designed can be the difference between a scheduled appointment and moving on to the next search result.

Focus on Location-Specific Content

When it comes to SEO for medical websites, content is king. Content that is specific to your practice’s location will help to attract local patients and is a great way to display your expertise on certain subjects. If you are a pediatrician who provides behavioral health services, for example, a post explaining your service and the external support groups available to parents and children will center you in a community and show your patients that you have the knowledge to provide them with the care they need. By creating informative content, you may generate links to your practice, which is a great way to increase your authority on a topic in the eyes of the search engines. 

Don’t Forget the Human Experience

SEO focuses a lot on making algorithms happy. However, a positive human experience goes hand-in-hand with creating a search engine optimized page. Instead of thinking only of the algorithm in isolation, consider, “is this useful to a current or prospective patient?” Chances are, if your website is liked and used by people, a search engine will rank it highly. For example, while creating long-form content pieces may be a positive thing, remember that many people are reading your website content on their phones. Your content should be skimmable and it shouldn’t take too much effort for a visitor to find the information they are looking for. 

Providing a quality experience is key to both medical care and SEO. Keep these tips in mind as you improve your practice’s findability and you’ll be well on your way to providing your patients with both.