Why Local SEO Matters for Doctors
So you’ve just taken the leap to launch your own practice and even set up your own website, Amazing! Maybe you’ve started your own neurology clinic in Toronto. But there’s only one problem – you don’t show up when someone searches ‘Neurologist in Toronto’ on Google…
Why? Because you haven’t optimized your website for local SEO!
Mastering Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is pivotal for ensuring that your medical practice appears in local search results for relevant Google searches. Let’s explore proven strategies that doctors’ offices around the world use to improve their search ranking results and get more website traffic!
1. Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Claim & Verify Your GMB Profile
Setting up a Google Business Profile (GBP) is one of the best ways to drastically improve your local search visibility. If you haven’t claimed your listing yet, do it now! You can get started here to setup your Google Business Profile and verify your practice. This step ensures that Google recognizes your business as legitimate and trustworthy.
Filling Out Your Google Business Profile
There’s various steps you can take while creating your GBP to optimize your profile and try to increase your rankings.
Firstly, selecting the right business category can be crucial. For example, if you’re a cardiologist, don’t just select “Doctor” – choose “Cardiologist” as your category and be sure to add relevant services as well.
Additionally, you should also aim to optimize your business description by including relevant keywords to your practice that users would search to find you. Your description should be compelling & patient-friendly.
Check out this article for more tips on setting up your Google Business Profile to maximize results.
Get More Google Reviews
Google reviews are one of the biggest ranking factors in local SEO and ranking above other businesses. The more authentic 5-star reviews you collect over time, not only signals to potential patients and other practitioners that you are running a great, trustworthy clinic, it signals to Google as well and will help to improve your rankings.
Why it is important
There are two ways a website/company can appear in search results on Google. The first is the more-known search results method where you see website pages/titles/description listed out in a row.
The other way is as part of Google Map results. You may see when you search for a service on Google, before the regular search results appear, there is typically 3 businesses from Google Maps. This is called the Google Map Pack and you can only show up here if you have a Google Business Profile. This is incredibly important as these businesses will show up even before regular search results. As there’s only 3 business that display by default, if you can get into the top 3 in your local area, then it will be extremely lucrative to your practice.
On top of that, when someone searches for your business name on Google and you have a Google Business Profile – it will appear on the right hand-side of the page results. Here, users will see your business name/reviews/description and even be able to click to your website or give you a call directly.
2. Optimize Your Website for Local Searches
Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly
The majority of web searches happen on mobile devices these days. Even if your particular practice has mostly desktop visitors, Google still penalizes websites that are not mobile-friendly. Therefore, if you want to rank well for search results and compete against other Doctors’ offices, it is imperative to ensure your website is mobile-friendly.
Some tips for creating a mobile-friendly website include resizing text to fit the mobile screen, changing the layout & direction of sections to fit the mobile design, and making sure elements are re-sized so that they can be easily found and accessed on mobile devices as well. Consider hiring a web design agency to ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices.
Content & Keywords
Make sure that you select proper keywords to base your website content around. For help researching keywords you can use tools like Ubersuggest or Ahrefs. For most doctors offices, you would likely want to base your keywords around your service (ie – paediatrician) and city (ie – Boston) as that is likely what most users would be searching for.
Then it’s key to ensure that you properly use these keywords throughout your website content in order to rank for them. However, you need to fit these in naturally to avoid “spammy” language which Google would instead penalize for.
Meta Titles & Descriptions
Another aspect of making sure your clinic ranks well for local search terms is to use appropriate keywords in your meta titles & descriptions. For example, if you are a dermatologist in New York – consider making your H1 Title and Meta Title on your website – “Dermatology Clinic New York”. This is a commons search term for your business, and will signal both to users and Google what your website is about. Similarly, you would want to include similar keywords related to your service & location in your meta description as well. Check out the following article to learn more about the importance of meta descriptions. You can use tools like Rank Math or Yoast SEO in order to set up meta titles & descriptions and other SEO elements on your website.
3. Build Local Citations & Listings
A citation is any online mention of your business’s name, address, and phone number. Consider it like an online directory for your business. Having several, relevant online citations can help increase your organic ranking and show up on more search and Google Map results. The more accurate and consistent these are, the more credibility you gain with Google.
Where to List Your Medical Practice
- Google Business Profile (already covered)
- Healthgrades
- Zocdoc
- WebMD
- Yelp
- Better Business Bureau (BBB)
Keep Your Listings Consistent
One thing to keep in mind when creating your citations online is to ensure your listings are consistent and information is identical across all your citations. For example, If your clinic’s name is “Johnson Cardiology” on Google, don’t list it as “Johnson Cardiology Center” somewhere else. Inconsistent listings confuse Google and hurt rankings.
4. Build Backlinks & Authority
A backlink is when another website links to yours. Google sees backlinks as a “vote of confidence” that your website is trustworthy and can improve your own rankings. More quality backlinks = higher rankings. However, not all backlinks are created equal. You want to ensure that the websites that link to your website are relevant to your industry, and respected, safe websites. Engaging in “black hat” backlink techniques where you get poor quality links in bulk quantity will do much more harm than good to your search rankings!
How to Earn Backlinks For Your Medical Practice
- Write guest posts for medical blogs.
- Partner with local businesses (pharmacies, gyms, wellness centers).
- Get featured in local news (sponsor events, share expert medical opinions).
- Submit to medical directories (Healthgrades, WebMD, Zocdoc).
Conclusion: Take Action & Win in Local Search
Local SEO is the secret weapon that smart doctors use to get found on Google, attract more patients, and grow their practice. What good is having a beautiful, optimized website for your medical clinic if nobody can find it online?
Feeling overwhelmed with creating your website and optimizing it for SEO? Mendel Sites specializes in web design and SEO for doctors & medical clinics. Reach out today to set up a discovery call or get an audit of your current website to see how we can help you!