Do your keyword and competitor research, write your metadata, and produce high-quality content to engage customers at every stage of the sales funnel.
So those rules still apply here, but one tip applies specifically to health (and finance) related websites: the YMYL rules, also known as Your Money or Your Life.
We'll discuss that later, but suffice it to say that Google has a closer eye on money and health content, so content creators for your health site must be incredibly conscientious.
If you're looking for general SEO basics to optimize your practice website for organic search, check out the top tips below!
Quality control
Many healthcare professionals believe that pay-per-click, or PPC, ads are enough to attract the visitors they seek.
However, getting started with PPC is like putting a band-aid over your problem; it will only be good in the short term.
As a medical or healthcare business, you must incorporate SEO into your digital marketing to attract potential patients to your website.
The Most Important SEO Strategies in Healthcare
You may never outgrow a site like WebMD.
However, focusing on longer keywords and location-based content gives you a moderately good performance here.
By implementing the right kind of SEO to put your medicalpractice in the eyes of the right users, your website will be better positioned to outperform your competitors.
The following six strategies are the most important regarding healthcare SEO.
Use appropriate medical keywords
When optimizing your content, you want to target the right keywords for your industry.
Your starting point should be the medical services you offer, as this is what most users will be looking for.
Tools like Google's Keyword Planner can help you find the best keywords for your industry by comparing what's searched for and what isn't.
As in all cases, avoid placing keywords in the content.
Google quickly notices this spammy tactic and will penalize your website. Instead, insert specific long-tail keywords into your content in a relevant, readable, and natural way.
Not only will this separate you from WebMDs, but you'll also start attracting the patients you want - those who live in your geographic area and are looking for the specialist skills you offer.
Add many content pages
Your content pages should be filled with high-quality information optimized for your keywords.
For the medical industry, you want your content to help make life better or more accessible for your audience.
High-quality content is essential for healthcare businesses, whether it's a detailed description of your services or blog posts targeting their specific search query.
Google places a much higher standard on medical web pages than other industries.
Indeed, these pages can potentially affect users' health, happiness or future financial stability.
Poor quality content on these pages could lead to dangerous or undesirable medical consequences.
Optimize visuals
Video is one of the most popular ways to consume content.
Web pages with videos can drive more organic traffic.
And people are spending more time on those pages because they're watching the video.
This increases a user's time on the page and tells search engines that there is something of value for users.
When optimizing your website for SEO, include relevant, high-quality videos alongside your content wherever possible.
Whether a virtual facility tour or an informational video about a medical condition, many users will be drawn to this 600+ word plain text content.