In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for any business, including medical practices. With the majority of patients turning to the internet to find and research doctors and dentists, it is essential for healthcare professionals to optimize their online presence.
This not only helps them attract new patients but also builds trust and credibility in their community. Local search engine optimization (SEO) plays a crucial role in ensuring that your practice’s website and online listings are easily discoverable by potential patients in your local area.
However, with constantly evolving algorithms and fierce competition, it can be challenging to know where to start.
In this article, we will discuss ten effective local SEO strategies specifically tailored for doctors and dentists to help you improve your online visibility and increase patient acquisition.
These strategies are not only easy to implement but have been proven to deliver significant results. So, if you want to stay ahead of the competition and attract more patients to your practice, keep reading to learn how to optimize your online presence for local search.
A Significant Role
Google plays a significant role in driving a substantial amount of traffic to numerous healthcare websites. A considerable 57% of patients initiate their doctor appointment bookings through online search, highlighting the importance of digital platforms in the healthcare industry. When patients search for healthcare facilities on Google, it signifies their genuine interest in obtaining medical assistance.
According to SimilarWeb’s research, a whopping 85% of the traffic to ClevelandClinic.org, 83% to HopkinsMedicine.org, and 87% to MayoClinic.org originates from organic search results on Google. However, achieving a high ranking on this search engine is not a straightforward task as it once was. The online landscape has evolved far beyond a mere website creation.
Presently, patients primarily conduct searches to find doctors located within their vicinity. Consequently, in order to generate significant traffic for your clinic, it is crucial to rank well among your local audience.
This necessitates the adoption of local SEO strategies for modern dental and medical practices aiming to leverage the internet’s potential to enhance profitability. In this informative article, we will explore ten effective local SEO techniques that can assist you in gaining visibility among the audience that matters most to your practice.
What Is Local SEO?
Local SEO is a specialized form of search engine optimization geared towards boosting your website’s prominence in location-specific search results. Its main objective is to elevate the visibility of your Nashville-based dental practice when users search for dentists in the area.
Additionally, when patients use phrases like “dentist near me,” search engines utilize their IP address or geolocation to connect them with relevant and nearby businesses.
Employing local healthcare SEO can be an incredibly effective strategy for enhancing the online presence of your medical practice. Through proper implementation, you can secure a spot among the top three businesses featured in search results, even if your website doesn’t initially appear on the first page.
This powerful tool provides an opportunity to gain significant visibility and ultimately thrive in the competitive online landscape.
The Importance of Local SEO for Doctors and Dentists
The internet has become the go-to resource for most patients when they feel the need to visit a doctor. It’s interesting how times have changed. Instead of flipping through the yellow pages to find a local dentist, people now turn to search engines like Google.
They simply type in keywords like “dentist near me” and easily book an appointment with the dentist of their choice.
In today’s digital age, this is the approach most patients take. And medical practices that want to maintain or even increase their number of satisfied patients need to adapt accordingly. They must ensure that they appear in location-specific and relevant searches.
This is where local SEO comes into play.
Expand Your Avenues
By optimizing your Google Business Profile to rank well in local searches, you can expand your avenues for acquiring new patients. You’ll be right there when your potential customers are looking for you.
Once you rank well in these local searches, patients will consider you as an option. And if other factors align, they’ll be more inclined to reach out and schedule an appointment with you.
Increasing foot traffic to your medical practice is just one of the many ways local SEO can boost your revenue.
It also helps you save on expensive online advertisements, reducing your marketing costs and ultimately improving your bottom line.
Moreover, local SEO allows you to compete on an equal footing with your peers. By appearing alongside your competitors in search results, you have a better chance of attracting their potential patients. This is far better than losing all your online patients to them simply because you couldn’t be found in local search results.
The benefits that local SEO brings to your practice are evident in the form of increased appointments and revenue. Now, let’s delve into some of the top strategies that can help you get started with local SEO.
10 Effective Approaches for Enhancing Local SEO
Upon reviewing the numerous advantages associated with local SEO, one might be tempted to believe that it is a costly, laborious, and tiresome process similar to regular SEO. However, this assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. While it is accurate that certain aspects of local SEO demand time and commitment to yield truly effective outcomes, embarking on this journey is actually much easier than anticipated.
Allow us to present the most effective local SEO strategies that can potentially enhance your online presence and drive substantial profits.
1. Increase Your Online Visibility By Showcasing Your Practice On Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business, serves as the primary platform for enhancing local online visibility.
With Google Business Profile, small businesses gain the opportunity to gain exposure and present their services or products to their target audience. It encompasses a comprehensive set of tools that enable the creation of an optimized, accurate, and detailed listing, allowing potential patients to access crucial information about your practice.
To fully capitalize on local SEO advantages, it is essential to have your practice listed on Google Business Profile.
Occasionally, Google automatically generates business listings on GBP. In such instances, it becomes imperative to claim these listings, verify their accuracy, and rectify any potential dissemination of incorrect information. This ensures that your prospective patients are not deterred by misleading details.
Furthermore, incorporating the appointment booking link within your Google Business Profile can yield instant results, as demonstrated by one of LoudGrowth’s clients, who witnessed a remarkable 44% increase in appointment bookings after implementing this feature.
2. Maximize the Potential of Keyword Research
Understanding the value of keyword research in local SEO is pivotal, as it guides you in optimizing your content with the right keywords. This, in turn, enables search engines to link relevant queries to your listing, potentially driving more patients to your practice.
What sets local keywords apart from regular ones are their distinct location-specific phrases such as “Dentist near me” or “Pediatrician Nashville.”
To embark on local keyword research, it is essential to tap into your patients’ mindset and think about what they consider when searching for a doctor. By brainstorming a variety of key phrases and compiling a comprehensive list, you lay the foundation for your research.
Once you have your list, leverage keyword research tools to search for these phrases. Evaluate the results and narrow down your selection to keywords that strike the right balance between search volume and competition.
It is worth noting that local key phrases typically have lower search volume. Therefore, don’t hesitate to prioritize relatively smaller search volume keywords when shortlisting.
Furthermore, you can utilize keyword tools to analyze the keywords your competitors are ranking for. These words have been proven to connect searching patients with practices like yours, making them instrumental in enhancing your visibility.
In summary, conducting thorough keyword research for local SEO is crucial in driving targeted traffic to your listing. By understanding your patients’ mindset and utilizing the right tools, you can optimize your online presence and attract the right audience to your practice.
3. Leveraging the Power of Google Posts
Google Posts presents local businesses with an incredible avenue to interact and connect with their target audience, all without any cost. This valuable tool allows you to showcase your ten most recent posts, typically remaining visible for an impressive duration of up to 7 days.
Within this space, you have the freedom to make announcements, share enticing offers, advertise your services, and effectively communicate the unique features your business offers.
Both text and image content can be incorporated into your Google Posts, allowing you to captivate your audience and ultimately guide them towards taking action through a compelling call-to-action (CTA) that directs them to your local landing pages.
To effectively measure the impact of your Google Posts, it is advisable to utilize UTM parameters, enabling you to track the amount of traffic generated from this platform.
The Desired Action
Google Posts are designed specifically to provide prospective customers with quick, concise information, influencing their decision-making process and encouraging them to take the desired action. This versatile tool can be leveraged for a variety of purposes, such as promoting special offers, highlighting products and services, announcing upcoming events, and sharing important business updates.
Based on a study conducted on 600 local business profiles, it was revealed that posts centered around services and discounts yield the highest conversion rates compared to other types of posts.
Maintaining a proactive Google Posts strategy is crucial, as it serves as a platform to communicate relevant and timely messages to prospective customers. It is essential not only to create and share Google Posts but also to regularly update them as circumstances change.
For instance, if your practice offers free flu shots during flu season and promotes this through Google Posts, it is important to replace this post with new content once flu season concludes. Outdated content can potentially harm your reputation and credibility.
The Full Potential
To harness the full potential of Google Posts and drive tangible results, it is imperative to craft concise, compelling, and impactful copy that effectively communicates the value your business brings to customers. Additionally, it is worth noting that although Google Posts have a character limit of 1500, only a few words are visible above the fold, necessitating the concentration of vital information within that limited space.
In summary, Google Posts provide an exceptional opportunity for businesses to engage with their audience, promote their services, and ultimately drive desired outcomes. However, it is essential to have a verified Google Business Profile in order to fully leverage the capabilities of this invaluable tool.
4. Characteristics of Health and Safety
In the wake of the ongoing pandemic, individuals now prioritize understanding the health and safety protocols of establishments before deciding to visit them. To cater to this growing need, Google has introduced health and safety attributes within GBP listings.
Alongside these crucial features, there exist supplementary details that can enhance intuition and provide prospective patients with the precise information they require.
In addition to the already included health and safety attributes such as temperature checks, mask requirements, and staff safety precautions, other noteworthy information can be incorporated. For instance, one can mention whether patients need to pre-book appointments or if walk-in appointments are available.
By incorporating these attributes directly into your listing via GBP, you not only instill a sense of peace and trust but also ensure that potential customers receive the vital information they seek without any hassle of searching for it elsewhere.
5. Ensuring Alignment between NAP and Office Hours for Optimal Efficiency
According to a recent survey, a significant 62% of individuals rely on GBP listings to discover contact numbers and addresses for businesses. This suggests that the primary motive behind people utilizing Google for local establishments is to obtain crucial information such as office hours, contact details, and addresses.
It is crucial to acknowledge the potential consequences if any of this vital information happens to be incorrect. In such instances, it is highly likely that prospective customers would feel frustrated and may even go on to leave negative reviews.
Consider a scenario where your office hours are mistakenly listed as 9 am to 5 pm from Monday to Friday, a default setting that occasionally occurs. However, in reality, your practice operates from 1 pm to 4 pm on alternate weekdays.
Just imagine the disappointment and annoyance someone would experience if they relied on the Google listing and visited your practice, only to discover that the timings were incorrect.
Similarly, picture the frustration someone would face if they dialed your practice’s contact number obtained from Google, only to spend hours attempting to reach you without any response.
In both cases, it is highly probable that these individuals would express their dissatisfaction through a negative review on your GBP listing, something that must be avoided at all costs.
Therefore, it is imperative that you ensure accurate listing of your office hours, name, address, and phone number (NAP) on your GBP. Furthermore, it is equally important to maintain consistency in this information across all your customer touchpoints, as even minor inconsistencies can lead to significant setbacks.
6. Enhance Your Online Presence with Local Landing Pages
Many individuals often find themselves unsure about the best approach for local SEO when it comes to linking the call to action (CTA). They question whether it is more effective to connect the CTA to the website home page or to create separate landing pages for each distinct keyword.
In this particular scenario, the most advantageous choice is to link the CTA on your GBP listing to a local landing page that is relevant to the keyword. This landing page can serve as the next step in your communication with potential patients, providing them with more comprehensive information related to the specific keyword.
For instance, let’s consider the keyword “Pediatrician Boston.” You can develop a landing page that directly addresses the common concerns and issues that people in Boston may have when it comes to finding a pediatrician. Clearly communicate how your services can effectively address these problems and offer solutions.
It is important to keep in mind the problems your target audience is facing and tailor your landing page accordingly. Use concise and attention-grabbing headlines, organizing your textual content in a way that captivates readers.
The Benefits Of Your Services
Focus on highlighting the benefits of your services rather than simply listing the features. Additionally, incorporating visually appealing images throughout your page can help hold the audience’s attention.
Ensure that your landing page is optimized with relevant keywords related to the specific service you are discussing. This will increase the likelihood of attracting the right audience.
Utilize social proof, such as testimonials and reviews, as well as trust signals like awards and certifications, to establish credibility and foster trust among your potential patients.
Strategically place a CTA on the landing page, choosing one specific action that you want your readers to take. For example, if you want them to book an appointment, make your CTA “Book Your Appointment” or something similar. It is important to avoid using a mix of CTAs and to avoid overwhelming visitors with too many choices.
Consider embedding a dynamic map at the bottom of your landing page to make it easier for searchers to locate your facility.
Lastly, do not overlook the importance of optimizing your landing pages for mobile users. Approximately half of all healthcare website visits come from mobile phones, so it is crucial to ensure a seamless and user-friendly experience for this significant portion of your audience.
7. Empowering Local Businesses through Link Building
Backlinks refer to the inclusion of your website’s URLs within the content of other websites. This process, known as link building, holds great importance for your website’s visibility and credibility.
Search engine giant Google particularly values websites with a substantial number of backlinks. Such websites are deemed trustworthy and authoritative in the eyes of Google. Consequently, it becomes crucial to actively seek and obtain backlinks from relevant websites with high authority, especially when it comes to regular SEO practices.
A Different Approach
However, local SEO requires a different approach. To establish your online presence within a specific locality and improve your website’s search rankings for searches originating from that area, you must focus on acquiring links from local entities.
This practice, aptly known as local link building, encompasses various strategies that can help you obtain backlinks from local websites.
Creating Informative and Helpful Content
One effective strategy involves creating informative, helpful and valuable content or high-quality content tailored specifically for doctors and dentists. By having this content published on your community blog posts and including a link back to your website, you can generate backlinks from local websites.
If your business boasts a sufficient revenue stream, you may consider sponsoring a local school team or supporting students from nearby educational institutions. This sponsorship can provide an opportunity to acquire backlinks from these establishments, further enhancing your local SEO efforts.
Obtain Valuable Backlinks
Additionally, joining your local chamber of commerce and contributing to their news section can enable you to obtain valuable backlinks. The credibility and authority of the chamber’s website can significantly benefit your own website’s rankings.
Most cities boast local newspapers that often hold considerable domain authority. By crafting press releases, providing advice, or even writing articles for these newspapers, you can secure backlinks to your website, thereby boosting its credibility and visibility on search engines.
Another avenue to explore is local business directories. Listing your practice in these directories can yield additional backlinks, further strengthening your local SEO strategy.
These examples merely scratch the surface of the numerous local backlinking strategies available to you. By employing creativity and resourcefulness, the possibilities for acquiring backlinks are boundless.
8. Maximize Utilization of GBP Telephone Calls and Text Messages
Businesses registered on GBP have the advantage of receiving direct phone calls from individuals searching on Google. It is essential for those who have listed their phone numbers on GBP with the intention of engaging with their online audience to ensure they have someone available to answer and respond to these calls and messages.
Neglecting to respond to calls and messages generated from the internet can result in a poor customer user experiences, potentially leading to negative reviews and ineffective promotion, which can adversely impact the success of your business.
9. The Local Reviews
Ensuring that the healthcare provider you choose is competent and that they maintain a reputable facility is of utmost importance to patients. This is evident in the fact that a staggering 98% of individuals rely on online reviews before making their decision.
Consequently, healthcare consumers emphasize the influence of these online reviews when selecting a service provider. As a result, it is crucial for your listing on the GBP to showcase a wide range of diverse reviews in order to earn the trust of potential patients.
However, obtaining reviews is not always a straightforward task. Surprisingly, only 74% of consumers actually take the time to write online reviews. While individuals may be more inclined to leave negative feedback, positive reviews are often neglected.
To ensure profitability, it is necessary to actively pursue positive reviews. One effective approach is to request feedback from every patient following their appointment, encouraging them to leave their thoughts on your GBP listing.
Additionally, it is essential to thoroughly review all feedback and remove any unintentionally shared personal information that may be present. Moreover, while it is important to acknowledge and respond to positive reviews, it is equally crucial to address any negative feedback. By doing so, you demonstrate to the world that you prioritize your patients’ experiences and strive to provide them with exceptional care.
10. Numerous Commercial Listings Present at a Singular Location
Google offers the capability to share your address with multiple businesses that are located in the same building, allowing each business to maintain its own unique identity with a separate Google Business Profile (GBP). This feature is particularly useful for businesses such as clinics situated within office buildings that house numerous other establishments.
However, if you operate a large hospital that encompasses various smaller clinics, it can present certain challenges when it comes to creating individual listings for each clinic. This is because the requirement for independent listings necessitates that each business operates as a distinct entity, with separate tax identification codes and phone numbers.
In summary, Google allows businesses sharing a physical location to share their address and create independent GBPs, as long as each business is distinct and possesses its own Tax Identification Code. While this is typically feasible for clinics within office buildings, it may become more complex for large hospitals with multiple smaller clinics.
The key factor is to ensure that each business maintains its unique identity and operates independently for the purpose of creating separate listings.
In Conclusion
Local SEO has the potential to open up a fresh avenue of traffic for your practice, offering a valuable opportunity to target local prospective patients. By achieving higher search engine rankings in local search results, you can effectively attract more bookings and ultimately boost your profits.
However, it is important to recognize that reaping the rewards of local SEO requires initial efforts in establishing and maintaining a robust Google Business Profile listing. This involves putting in the necessary groundwork to optimize your listing and ensure its relevance to your target audience.
Once you have successfully optimized your Google Business Profile listing, you will significantly enhance your chances of harnessing the full potential of SEO. As a result, you will be able to attract a greater number of appointments for your practice, ultimately driving your success forward.
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Moreover, if you looking for a Local SEO and Marketing Company to help you rank locally, we at Brian Zenarosa Digital can help you out. Book a discovery call today.
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