How to Rank Physician Websites on Google
Here are our favorite tips to optimize the online presence of physicians, divided into technical, on-page, and off-page suggestions.
These SEO strategies apply to pediatricians, family physicians, internal medicine physicians, cardiologists, dermatologists, gastroenterologists, neurologists, obstetricians / gynecologists, oncologists, ophthalmologists, orthopedic surgeons, psychiatrists, and other physicians.
1.) Technical SEO Tips for Physicians
Technical SEO refers to optimizing your doctor's office website's infrastructure so it can be properly crawled and indexed by search engines, which includes aspects like site speed, mobile optimization, XML sitemaps, and structured data markup. This ensures search engines can easily access, understand, and rank the website's content.
We can help out with all of these items and more, or you can handle them on your own:
- Ensure your physician website has a responsive design that works well desktop, small laptop, tablet, and mobile devices. There are a lot of screen sizes out there to accomodate. On a desktop computer, you can resize your browser window from large to small to see how different layout elements adjust for smaller screen sizes.
- Evaluate your website's loading speed using a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights. Don't get caught up trying to pass Core Web Vitals. It isn't always possible on complex websites and might not be worth the investment. Instead, try to fix simple things to get a score of 60+.
- Utilize HTTPS encryption to secure your physician website. Most hosting providers offer free SSL certificates.
- Create and submit a sitemap of your physician website to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to aid search engines in indexing your website.
- Implement schema markup to assist search engines in better comprehending your content.
- Use canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues, particularly if you have identical content available on multiple URLs.
- Monitor your physician website's crawl errors and promptly resolve them. You can find such errors in Google Search Console.
2.) On-Page SEO Tips for Physicians
On-page SEO involves optimizing each page of your physician website to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. This often focuses on elements like keyword presence, meta tags, quality of content, user experience, page organization, and internal linking.
We can help out with all of these items and more, or you can handle them on your own:
- Create original and high-quality content that targets your audience's search intent. While ChatGTP is a popular content writing tool, don't rely solely on AI content. It is often generic, repetitive, and/or inaccurate. Be sure to proofread content before you post it.
- Incorporate relevant physician keywords in your website's page titles and meta descriptions.
- Optimize your website's headings and subheadings with target physician keywords.
- Include keywords in image alt tags to help search engines comprehend the context of your images.
- Use internal linking on your physician website to aid search engines in comprehending the structure and hierarchy of your content.
- Use descriptive URLs with relevant physician keywords.
- Display patient testimonials prominently on your physician website.
- Scan your physician website for broken links and repair them immediately. You can use this free tool from Ahrefs to scan for broken links.
3.) Off-Page SEO Tips for Physicians
Off-page SEO involves all the actions taken outside of your doctor's office website to impact your rankings within search engine results pages (SERPs). This includes strategies like link building, social media marketing, and reputation management. Such efforts help increase your website's reputation, authority, and visibility online.
We can help out with all of these items and more, or you can handle them on your own:
- Build high-quality backlinks from relevant physician websites, such as health and medical blogs.
- Establish and maintain a strong presence on social media platforms to interact with patients and promote your services.
- Encourage satisfied patients to leave reviews on Google My Business and other review sites.
- Collaborate with other local businesses, particularly those in the healthcare industry, to cross-promote services and build backlinks.
- Create listings in physician-related directories and citation sites to increase visibility.
- Create informative and shareable physician infographics related to health and medical topics.
- Make videos to showcase your expertise and build engagement with potential patients.
- Monitor your online reputation and respond promptly to feedback and reviews. Be sure to respond to all reviews, even negative feedback.
We can review your website and rankings, then provide a recommendation on which areas of technical, on-page, and off-page search engine optimization need the most attention. This will help establish a budget and scope for ranking you higher in search results!
Alternatively, if you don't need help improving your rankings, check out this guide on DIY SEO!
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Top Keywords for Physician SEO
Looking for suggested keywords to target within the SEO campaign for your physician practice? Whether you plan to hire us, or optimize the site yourself, we've got you covered!
Before starting an SEO service for a physician practice, we like to scan the website and see what you've got to work with for content and link authority.
From there, we'll check to see what types of medical services you'd like to promote in your area. Maybe you specialize in cardiology and want to attract more patients. Perhaps you just don't feel like you are getting enough traffic to your website or social media channels.
Having this information helps us determine what types of keywords to focus on for content writing and link building.
Focus Keywords for Physicians
- Physician practice [city/area]
- Cardiology [city/area]
- Dermatology [city/area]
- Pediatrics [city/area]
- Oncology [city/area]
- Endocrinology [city/area]
- Gastroenterology [city/area]
- Family medicine [city/area]
- Internal medicine [city/area]
- OB-GYN [city/area]
- Orthopedics [city/area]
- Urology [city/area]
- Neurology [city/area]
- Primary care [city/area]
- Walk-in clinic [city/area]
- Telemedicine [city/area]
Keyword Tip #1: Physicians often target keywords related to their medical specialty, expertise, and location. This helps you attract potential patients who are searching for medical services or expertise nearby.
Keyword Tip #2: You should consider targeting long-tail keywords, which are more specific and less competitive. For example, "pediatrician for newborns in San Francisco" may be easier to rank for than just "pediatrician".
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