Begin keyword research with a brainstorming session. Create a profile of your ideal patient and think about what words they may use to try to find your services. Then, find your competitors on Google’s search results pages and determine which keywords they’re using. Use the information you find to decide which keywords you want to rank for.
Remember that keyword research is an ongoing process. You’ll need to update yours periodically to remain at the top of your game.
Optimize Your HTML Tags
HTML tags provide a visual and technical structure that makes it easier for people to read your website and for Google to crawl it. Inserting your keywords and using proper coding ensures this happens. The H1 tag is your main title, so include your main keyword in it. Use H2 subheadings to break up the content on your page and include additional keywords in them.
Your meta description tags and alt tags are also important when it comes to a doctor’s SEO strategy. The meta description is a concise summary of what’s on the page and includes your main keyword. Alt tags describe the images on your page and contain keywords related to them. They make it easier for Google to understand what’s on your medical website.
Create Internal and External Links To Relevant Medical Content
Internal links are vital for helping prospective patients navigate your website. Creating internal links also improves SEO since it helps Google crawl your website more thoroughly.
To begin utilizing links in your SEO strategy for doctors, first establish your site’s architecture. A medical practice’s home page should include links to two to three subpages. Those pages should then have their own subpages as needed. This forms a well-organized pyramid of important pages.
Internal links outside of the navigation are important, too. One of the easiest ways to create these is to link from one blog post or piece of content to another within its text. For example, you might write a blog about a broad topic and then link to another blog that goes more in-depth about a particular part of the topic.
In addition to internal linking, backlinks (links to your website from other websites) are vital for building authority and climbing search engine rankings. There are many approaches doctors can take to build links on their site. However, the most important part of the process is creating resourceful content that people truly want to link back to. The more helpful your website is, the more likely it is that you’ll receive backlinks.
Many doctors and other medical professionals also gain backlinks by guest posting. Medical websites always need up-to-date content. If new treatments, technologies or other interesting information becomes available, write about it and submit your post to other websites. Just remember to include a link back to your own site within the post.
Build a More Strategic Medical Blog
The medical world is ever-changing, and you can use that to your advantage. As a knowledgeable doctor, blogging is a great opportunity to prove yourself to be an expert in your industry by providing readers with information about medical conditions, treatment options, trends in the healthcare field, and other cutting-edge topics.
Creating high-quality SEO blog posts calls for organized content, proper use of keywords and HTML, and relevant internal and external links. Linking to outside sources shows readers you’ve done your research and builds your reputation. Remember, blogging is an ongoing process. The best blogs add new content two to three times per week and update old content as needed to keep posts relevant.
Use Social Media to Your Advantage
Even the American Medical Association praises the use of social media by medical practitioners. It believes social media is important for building your brand, connecting with prospective or current patients, providing reputable information, and publicizing research.
Each social media platform has its benefits. Use LinkedIn to show off your achievements as a doctor in your field and to connect with other people who work in the healthcare industry. Create a Facebook page to provide information by linking to new blog posts on your website or sharing medical news stories. TikTok can be an excellent choice for a platform to educate via video format. Regardless of which platforms you use, remember to utilize relevant keywords and include visuals appropriate for the site. While this isn’t a core piece of an SEO strategy for doctors, it can still help to promote the hard work you’ve already put into your content marketing.
Audit Your Medical Website Often
SEO for doctors is an ongoing process. Information changes and needs updating, and trending keywords change, requiring you to remove old ones and add new ones.
Successful SEO strategy means regular website audits. Focus on improving accessibility and boosting engagement. There are two types of audits:
- Qualitative – These audits focus on specific content and their relevancy toward your established goals. For example, a qualitative SEO audit requires you to update keywords, change HTML tags, and remove broken links.
- Quantitative – These audits are comprehensive. They look through your entire website to ensure accessibility, determine popularity, and update page features.
Keep four goals in mind as you audit your website: consolidate, improve, keep, and remove. If you have content that’s too full of fluff and filler, consider whether you can consolidate it and add it to other content to create a better-performing piece. Sometimes content is valuable and well-written but isn’t performing well. In this case, you can improve it by adding better visuals, adding metadata and header tags, updating keywords, and creating a better call to action.
Some content is for keeping. Naturally, you don’t need to do anything to a piece that is SEO-compliant and performing well.
Finally, remove content that doesn’t get enough traffic or offer value. Remember to use 301 redirects for deleted content to keep viewers from seeing errors.
Contact Us for High-Performing SEO Strategy for Doctors
You’re a busy professional in a demanding field. Chances are you don’t have the time to maintain your SEO strategy regularly. Luckily, you don’t need to do it all alone.
BKA Content works behind the scenes to provide high-ranking SEO services for doctors and medical professionals while you stay on the frontlines of your field. Whether you need us to write regular blog posts with trending keywords or to develop a strong backlink campaign, we have you covered. Get in touch with us today to create your customized plan.
