Optimizing your medical office’s website for search engines can be a complicated and overwhelming endeavor if you try to accomplish everything at once. However, if you examine each component individually and understand how they all fit together, it can be much easier to build a strategically optimized website that ranks well organically and helps your Google Business Profile secure higher positions in Google’s 3-pack map listings. Here is a basic medical SEO checklist that can help you streamline your content creation process and reap the benefits more efficiently. For more information, check out our Free Consultation and get a complete audit.

1. Start with Mobile SEO in Mind

Most people are more likely to find new businesses to purchase goods and services from through mobile search than desktop search. This is especially true for prospective patients looking for information about elective medical procedures like plastic surgery, med spa treatments and local providers. In fact, nearly 70% of health-related searches on Google use a mobile device (Hitwise).

Consequently, Google currently takes a mobile-first approach and prioritizes the mobile performance of websites over desktop versions during its internal indexing process. This includes website and page load speeds and user engagement signals, which can be very different on mobile versus desktop. In short, mobile-optimized sites often rank higher than ones purely built for desktop browsing.

2. Identify Short-Tail and Long-Tail Keywords

Keywords are central to any search-optimized website, as they tell Google what your site or pages are about and what relevant searches your content would be useful for its users. Your SEO strategy should consider short-tail keywords, which cover broad topics like plastic surgery and cosmetic dentistry or procedures such as breast augmentation or porcelain veneers and can include related details about cost and healing time. Key locations also need to part of your keyword strategy, particularly for short-tail or “vanity” searches. In addition, you should also incorporate long-tail keywords that cover more specific questions and search queries about a particular treatment or operation. Not only do users trust Google to find general information, but they trust it to deliver results.

3. Create Compact, Consistent, and Specific Title Tags and URLs

URLs and title tags are like two sides of the same coin that work together to improve SEO results. URLs are the actual addresses of a website or pages that displays in your browser. These are what search engine algorithms will read to determine how organized a website is on the back end, while title tags can provide extra information for the algorithms to decide the relevancy of a page to a particular searcher’s interests. Making sure both these elements are clear, consistent, and tailored to your business needs is vital to effective medical SEO.

4. Structure Pages with Good Header Tags

Page titles, section headings, and sub-headings will enhance overall readability and provide crucial information to readers about what they can expect each webpage to cover. The markers on your website’s back end—H1s, H2s, and H3s—will tell search engine algorithms that your on-page content is organized in a way that is easily accessible and useful to searchers.

5. Provide Visitors with Useful Content

On-page content should have a consistent sitewide structure, include short-tail and long-tail keywords relevant to each specific page’s subject matter, and provide information that is both relevant and accurate. The more specific your website can be in addressing a customer’s unique needs, the more likely they are to contact your business and request services—and the more likely Google is to recognize your site as user-friendly and reflect that in search engine rankings.

6. Add Internal Links and Social Media Connections

Last but not least, you should make sure each page on your website has hyperlinks embedded in relevant page content. These should link to the parent page in your site’s structure and other pages covering directly related content. Providing links and embedded share buttons that connect to your social medial platforms can be helpful in this regard as well.

For more information or to go over the medical SEO checklist with an experienced professional, call us today and set up a comprehensive consultation.

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