Healthcare is changing faster than ever. First private hospitals expanded their presence. To compete with public healthcare, they offered a vast range of services. Administratives spent vast amounts of funds on heavy advertising and brand image to increase trustworthiness. Then, trends again changed. Now, not only organizations, like hospitals, advertise. Individual doctors also separated their images from the organizations and created their brands. Hence, the need for healthcare advertising, especially Medical SEO, increased considerably. In the era of technology, if you do not utilize SEO services in your medical website, you start the competition several steps behind. Therefore, optimizing your website is not a luxury anymore; it became a necessity to survive your business.

SEO strategies apply to any industry and sector. E-commerce or development companies widely use it. However, people have not still get used to their usage in the healthcare industry. That is why, in this post, I am going to explain why you need this service and how to make your website visible.

Why Medical SEO?

First, let me explain some points for those of you who do not know the exact meaning of Medical SEO. Though the name seems different, it is the same with regular Search Engine Optimization. My team optimizes your website in a way that it appears among the top results. When people search for healthcare services, your site pops up on the first page. Thus it becomes more visible. 

Some of you might not value SEO optimized medical sites. You might stick to the traditional type of advertising or Pay-per-Clicks. However, let me be brutally honest. Ignoring SEO services is like using out-dated medical tools. There exist better and more productive ways. Why avoid technological advances? 

You might prefer PPC ads. But this method is not effective. The reason is that people rely on algorithms of search engines. As a result, they believe organic search results are more trustworthy. Hence, approximately 75% of people avoid paid advertising. Whether you agree or not, it looks like you do not offer anything valuable. Otherwise, the algorithm would have brought you among the top results. So, you have to pay to advertise your low-quality service. 

Benefits of SEO Optimized Website

No matter how challenging it is, there are many advantages of Search Engine Optimization. 

• SEO has higher conversion rates. People come across your website many times, hence the awareness of your services increases.

• SEO is less costly. Once you rank among the top search results, you do not need to pay to keep your place. It is also not easy to lose your rank in the short term.

• SEO increases your reliability. People believe the fairness of the algorithms of search engines. They think that as other visitors chose your website, you must be trustworthy. 

• SEO makes your website process faster. As people wait only 2 seconds to load the site, you need to be as quick as possible.

• SEO advances User Interface. Your visitors can easily navigate through the pages and enjoy better design.

• SEO is your best partner in the competition. Your competitors use optimization. Now, it is your turn to outrank them in related keywords.

Search Engine Optimization is better than any other methods of traditional and digital marketing. If your competitors use this strategy, you should not lose time. If they do not, then Medical SEO will be your unique tool to beat the competition. In all cases, SEO is not an easy process. However, you can get familiar with a few tips in the below section.  

The Best Strategy to Raise Your Ranking

Some people understand optimization like only inputting related keywords. This strategy worked a few years ago. However, nowadays, randomly stuffing the content with keywords can even get you banned. The algorithm that Google uses changes many times during the year. Go to the search engine now and Pdo a search. You will see paid advertisements appear on the top. Then there is a “People also ask” section. Besides, the snippet section pops with further distractions. Hence, it is challenging to catch attention and maintain your ranking. Therefore, in this section, I will share some up-to-date tips to guide you for Medical SEO. 

1. Keyword Research

When I say keyword stuffing will not work, it does not mean keywords are powerless. Even the opposite; keywords are your best partners in an SEO optimized website. However, there exist many steps before choosing the game-changing one. First, you can analyze the click rates and general position of results based on your desired keyword. For this aim, you can use tools like Ahrefs. If you input your keyword, you will notice the search volume and click rate. The higher the click rate, the more chance you have that the client will enter your website.

2. Long-Tail Keywords

Long Tail Keywords consist of more than three words. The data indicates that people make a few long-tail keywords compared to shorter ones. However, the conversion optimization generated by long keywords is higher than in short keywords. The reason is that when people use more words in the search, they try to be specific. Those people already know what they want and what they are looking for. Hence, when your service pops up, it is highly probable that they will click it.

Another benefit of these keywords is that it reduces competition. There is an excellent chance that you will rank higher when people enter long keywords. For short and general keywords, there exist a fierce competition. However, when you are specific, only several competitors will appear.

3. Be Better or Different

When you enter the keyword on a search engine, analyze the results. Check your competitors’ links. Do they use images or videos heavily? Do they provide any facts or reviews? How long is the content? Does the language of material include medical jargon? All types of information you acquire from those competitors are valuable. After you understand their SEO strategies, you are aware of what people like. However, now you should decide whether to create better content or a completely different one.

Let me give you an example to make it more understandable. If you see that there are many “X facts about Medical SEO” type of links, you can prolong the list. This strategy means you try to provide better material for the consumers. On the other hand, instead of a number of facts, you can use more informational methods and explain why they need your services. In both cases, you have a chance to outrank the competitors. All you need to do is come up with creative and high-quality content. 

4. Fast Loading Time

The development of technology decreased the waiting time. We do not like spending time on loadings anymore. People expect that as soon as they click the link, it will open. Statistically, if your website does not open in 3 seconds, your SEO traffic will leave. When they leave, your bounce rate increases. As a result, the algorithm marks your website as low-quality. Hence, having fast loading time is essential for ranking high on search results. 

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There are several ways of Medical SEO tips to make your website work faster. One of those ways is dealing with images. Image sizes affect processing speed considerably. Some might think to eliminate pictures at all. However, then your content might look very dull. Instead, try to change the resolution, compress, or crop the images. Another element that aids faster loading is caching. Caching stores static files like images. In this way, when a user enters the website again, these images take no time to open. This benefit happens because images do not need to retrieve again. The only issue is that page caching only works for repeat visitors. The first time users need to wait for images anyway. However, there are different tools to reduce this processing time, too. 

5. Mobile-Friendly Website

Analyzing the search trends, we can notice that 58% of them are done via mobile devices. Though this rate is very high, companies tend to ignore the mobile version of their websites. The ones that develop mobile-friendly websites might view it as a “Nice Gest” for SEO traffic. However, you should know that your website ranks high if you pay attention to its mobile version. Since 2015, Google has been giving priority to sites that are compatible with mobile devices. Google itself provides a Mobile-Friendly Test for you to check the current situation of your website.

While you create content as a part of Medical SEO, you need to consider its formatting for mobile devices. There are several points to consider:

• Texts should be easily readable on small screens. Keep paragraphs short as it is challenging to read long sections on the go without losing it. 

• Images should load quickly. Try to crop all the unnecessary details. As a result, the small screen will be enough to show the main details in the images.

• Next, navigation through and within the pages must be convenient. Hence, scrolling is a better option than clicking the next page to continue reading.

• Another element to consider is the buttons. It is essential to make them easy to use. None likes to click wrong buttons that waste their time. 

6. Medical SEO Content 

Content is the building block of SEO optimized website. You need to provide different content on your website to attract visitors and to rank higher. However, high-quality content creation is not an easy piece of cake. First, you need to do some research to identify which topics people are interested in. Do not only create content to describe your services. Explain some illnesses, analyze the drugs, or describe surgery operations. In all your materials, try to create empathy with the visitor. 

The content needs to be extended. Writing 300-word long paragraphs with keywords stuffed is not possible anymore. You should craft long posts with images, subheadings, or checklists. Besides, you should regularly add new posts as an essential part of Medical SEO. Try to stay up-to-date. Follow healthcare industry trends and offer your opinion, review, or advice. However, do not include too many jargons. People might not be fully aware of the definitions of many medical terms. So, keep it simple to make your content more engaging. 

7. Optimize for Snippet

Sometimes when you search, a small box with the answer to your question appears on the top. This box comes before the top search results and includes a small part of the information, as well as the link to the website. It is a great function to showcase the usefulness of your material and attract visitors. The algorithm for snippet box works differently from the usual one. However, there are some tricks to optimize your website for this aim.

The first tip is creating the content in the form of question and answer. You can add those questions in H2 headings or the title. Snippet feature usually provides information in short paragraphs, lists, or tables. Therefore, keep your answers short. For instance, you can make a list of drugs that calms headaches. Besides, including bull points, or numbers in front of the listings will be very helpful. In some cases, the snippet box includes an image, too. There is no exact pattern of how Google chooses the photos. Hence, try to make all your images catchy and attention-grabbing within the page.

8. Video Content

Search Engines try to provide users with most engaging website results. Therefore, it is common that top results have video content inside the page. In addition to locating a video within the website, it is essential to engage in Youtube SEO, too. It should not be surprising if we consider that more than 80% of video results come from Youtube. Hence, you need to pay more attention to videos in your Medical SEO strategy, too. For example, you can craft short, informative, and animated videos for your users to understand medical terms better. It will also be very beneficial if you upload longer videos- more than 15 minutes. 

To give you some idea, you can include interviews with the doctors. In all cases, try to keep the title simple and understandable. Including the keyword in it will increase your chances further. Besides, pay attention to the description part of the video. Other than inputting keywords, clearly explain the essence of the video. It will help visitors decide if that video is the one they are looking for. Lastly, use attractive thumbnails for doubling site traffic. I am not sure if the algorithm considers it. However, this strategy will attract more visitors. The more they click the video, the higher your rank gets. 

9. Social Media Presence

Putting your website in the center of your Medical SEO strategy is effective. However, your website should not be the only place the visitors can get information about your services. Hence, you should manage your social media accounts, too. This tip includes adding your offerings to any business listings available to your network.

The benefit of having social media activity is vast. Firstly, it increases reliability. If you have an active account on Facebook or Instagram, people will instantly perceive your brand reputation. After all, it shows you are not some fraud. Besides, these accounts increase your chance of being visible. Instead of only the website, you can attack your customers through different pages. Also, do not forget to add all the details, address, contact numbers, or description of services in all your accounts. You never know where the potential customer is searching for you. 

Outsourcing SEO

These tips that I shared above are only the visible part of the iceberg. I tried to share the strategies that anyone with a minimum background in Search Engine Optimization could get the idea. If you are a small startup, you can use these steps. However, if you want to be successful in the healthcare industry, you need to put more effort. There exist many other strategies of Medical SEO that only experts in this field could deal with. For creating a positive brand image and ranking among the top search results, you need to work with specialists in SEO. Depending on your provider, this process might be costly, time-consuming, or confusing; however, the results will be worth it. Keep in mind that, Webzool Creative team is ready to create bespoke SEO services tailored to your needs at affordable prices. Contact us now to have a short chat on the possibilities we offer to you.