Building Strategies for Healthcare SEO that Matter
The most famous phrase used in SEO is “it depends”. Everything depends on the type of content, the CMS on which the site is built, the industry you’re in, etc. But when it comes to SEO for healthcare organizations, “it depends” becomes “it matters”.
At Seer, we believe that the main driver of your SEO strategy is your audience. And when is there a more crucial time to be there for your users other than when they’re searching for something like whether or not they’re in labor?
Here are three things that I keep in mind when optimizing for a client in the healthcare space:
3 Important Considerations for Healthcare SEO:
1. Mobile First, Always
If you’re anything like one of Seer’s healthcare clients, almost 60% of the traffic to your site comes through mobile. Because of this, it is even more important to optimize your site for mobile users over desktop.
Optimizing for mobile is more than just site speed. It’s making sure that users have just as good of an experience on mobile as they do desktop. This could include adding on-page CTAs above the fold, ensuring that a search bar is present on the screen, and giving them the ability to switch between service lines with a simple menu. “Being there” for users means being wherever they are, on or off of your site.
2. Multilingual Capabilities
It doesn’t matter where we come from, we all need medical attention at some point. We, as humans, have questions around what it means to be diagnosed with an enlarged heart, how to prepare for a CT scan, and what the symptoms of poison ivy are.
If you’re looking to go the extra mile, your site should be able to accommodate users no matter their preferred language. Consider the demographics of your audience, and determine whether it would be valuable to leverage language targeting to create a new subdirectory of the site so that it’s accessible to all. Not only will this help you to reach a larger number of your audience, it will also instill trust and loyalty in users to your brand.
3. Optimize for Local
Every day, a person turns to Google for help identifying their closest urgent care, birth clinic, or hospital. It is our moral obligation as SEOs in the healthcare space to help them find what they’re looking for. Optimizing GMB citations for local users is one of the most sure-fire ways to support users (and conversions).
Not only can Google My Business location listings be optimized for local users, but so can provider listings. Taking the time to ensure that details like suite #s, hours, and services offered are up to date go a long way in a user’s decision of whether or not to visit your location.
Additionally, leverage Google Posts to let users know about special events coming up or promotions being run at a location. Is your urgent care facility giving away free flu shots? Is your medical practice offering sports physicals at just $25? Make sure users know by running Google Post events!
Connect Your Patients to Your Site
At the end of the day, serving up useful, strong content to users trumps all. Keep your values close to your heart in all that you do, and your future patients will thank you.
Are you a healthcare system looking to beef up your SEO chops? Let’s chat. Here at Seer, we have healthcare SEO, Analytics, and Paid Search experts ready to help you out.
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