SEO leads, per the Search Engine Journal, have a close rate of around 14.6%; whereas, outbound leads (i.e. direct mail) only musters a close rate of around 1.7%. Given the number of US adults who use smartphones has grown to steadily 56%, having a high search engine ranking has become more and more important when it comes to attracting patients for your medical practice.
Here are 4 SEO-based ways your practice can attract new patients.
Content
Having high-quality, original content on your medical practice’s website can be the best way to stand out from your competitors. Well-written content will not only educate your viewers, but it will also establish you as an expert in your field—both of which can translate into new and returning patients.
Keywords
Now that you have high-quality content, you should ensure you also have the appropriate keywords embedded within the content so that search engines will rank your website high. To start, make a list of every word that you can think could be used in a search for your practice. After you’ve finalized the list, test them. Run searches using Google Keyword Planner and analyze the results. What you’re looking for is decently high monthly traffic (somewhere between 200 and 10,000 monthly searches) and relatively low competition.
Marketing
Given that roughly half of all searches are made on mobile devices today, it’s important to make use of mobile friendly content as well as ensure you’re providing a local search experience for your patients. Due to the high rate of local searches, you should ensure that your practice’s search ranking is high and that all of your pertinent information (address, phone number, practice name, hours of operation) shows up on your Google+ Local Page.
Social Media
Social media has become an invaluable tool for medical SEO, especially when it comes to link building. Once you have created high-quality content for your practice’s website, you can utilize social networking sites to share your content. Through networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, you can inform the public about what your medical practice offers and gradually build a following.