According to studies, the majority of Americans search the Internet for local healthcare facilities. It is uncommon to see a patient from Chicago scheduling an appointment with a doctor in Boston. Healthcare is primarily a local industry with the majority of patients preferring a local physician so that they do not have to travel. This makes it critical for medical practitioners that their website shows up in local searches by their target audience. Being visible on the search results page increases the chance that a potential patient will book an appointment with you, and he or she could end up being a repeat patient.
Regardless of the size of your medical practice, focusing on local SEO is key to attracting new patients and growing your revenue. If you are looking to attract more patients to your healthcare practice, it is important to consider local SEO strategies for not only increasing your visibility but also for building your brand image.
Local SEO can offer numerous benefits to your healthcare practice. One of the top benefits is potential patients can easily find your website when conducting an online search. A highly targeted local SEO strategy can help you market your services and attract the right kind of patients to your practice. Here is how local SEO can benefit your medical practice:
- More leads: Lead generation is a common local SEO goal for many healthcare facilities. You must include relevant keywords in your content strategy. The more people who read your online articles and blog posts, the higher your website will rank in search engine results. This will help generate new leads and attract more patients.
- Grow your practice: More than 50 percent of patients perform local searches in order to find a suitable healthcare practitioner in their area. Therefore, medical practices that develop localized online presence are more likely to attract potential patients in a local market. It gets easier for people to find your medical practice online if you have a local SEO strategy tailored to your specialty.
- Connect with local patients: Many medical practices believe that if they target larger communities, they will attract more patients from these areas as well as from their local area. On the contrary, practices that aim at bigger areas and neglect the potential patients in their local area often fail to attract patients. By providing potential patients with locally relevant content and information, you will be able to connect with people in your community before they contact your practice.
- Local online visibility: If you have listed your medical practice on local online directories, there is a higher chance for you to appear on search engine results pages. As a result, people in your area may learn more about your practice and try to get in touch with you.
- Improve online reputation: A local SEO campaign can increase the number of targeted visitors to your practice website. Increased traffic means a higher conversion rate, which is essential for improving brand image and local online reputation. In addition, by claiming social media pages, directory listings and third-party review sites, you gain significant control over your online reputation. Local SEO will also help you convey your message to the target audience. You will be able to build long-term relationships with patients by offering online promotions and customer support services.
Local SEO for healthcare is here to stay. People will always be looking for local healthcare practitioners to get what they need, and Google will ensure only the most relevant medical practices get noticed on search results. So, put aside the Yellow Pages and make sure potential patients find you online and your listing shows up in the first few results.