The typical healthcare consumer’s journey often begins with extensive research. In fact, search engines drive 3 times more hospital visits than nonsearch visitors.1
Therefore, if you are not getting enough patients through your door, there is a good chance that your company has a poor local online presence. Not enough patients are coming—they are going to your competitors instead simply because they found them first while doing a local search.
But all is not lost.
With a well-designed health care search engine optimization (SEO) campaign, you can improve your medical practice’s digital presence and attract more patients.
Below are some of the best ways to leverage local SEO and get more patients through your door.
1. Claim and optimize your Google My Business listing
All local businesses, including health care providers, should claim their Google My Business (GMB) listing. Not only does GMB significantly influence search engine rankings, but it is also one of the first things that potential patients see (Google’s Local Pack) after conducting a local search query.
Fortunately, claiming your GMB account is easy and free.2 After signing up and claiming your listing, you will need to provide the following information:
• Name of practice
• Address
• Phone number
• Email address
• Hours of operation
• Photos of the practice
• Short description about the practice
The idea is to bring the GMB listing to life by providing complete information about the practice to potential patients. To optimize a GMB listing, make sure that you frequently update it and answer questions that people may have.
What about multiple locations?
Even if you have a main phone line for answering calls and booking patient appointments, all office locations should have their own Google My Business listing.
Otherwise, when a patient searches for your secondary locations (satellite offices), they are likely to end up finding the Google listing for the main location. This can result in patients