When exploring options for your medical practice growth, your online reach is sure to come up. More than ever, medical practices need to meet patients the moment they search for healthcare services online. One digital marketing term you will run into as you learn about digital strategies is search engine marketing (SEM), leading to the question, “What is search engine optimization (SEO)?” In this blog, you will become familiar with SEO meaning in marketing and how it can help medical practices reach potential patients online.
The Essence of SEO: Definition and Its Business Significance
When you do a Google search, you will usually see a mix of paid search (sponsored listings) and unpaid search results (organic). SEO are those strategic efforts that increase the chances of your medical practice website being found in online search. The idea is that the more your medical practice is found in search engine results, the more likely it is that those searching will become new patients or recommend your services to a friend.
Medical practices who put into motion a solid SEO strategy stand to reap the benefits over time. As you gain rank for more search terms, you have more opportunities to pull potential patients to your website and grow your practice throughout the year.
Distinguishing SEO from SEM and PPC
What is search engine optimization compared to other search engine tactics? As you encounter more industry jargon, the effects of these digital strategy tools can be understood through anyone’s casual use of Google search.
Search engine marketing (or SEM) is a facet of digital marketing that focuses on how to help websites gain more visibility for the search terms that will help them reach a target audience. As mentioned earlier, what you see on a search engine results page (SERP) can be categorized into organic and paid.
Pay-per-click (or PPC) are those listings that Google prioritizes because a brand is paying for an active campaign. SEO online marketing appears as those website listings that have met Google’s quality criteria. While PPC is considered the dominant component of SEM strategy, SEO is technically part of the drive to be found in search results.
Ideally, PPC and SEO work synergistically to help healthcare brands achieve greater online visibility, but as mentioned before, PPC gains are short-lived compared to organic ranking.
SEO’s Role in Digital Marketing
What is search engine optimization’s role in online marketing? SEO is ruled by a set of best practices that coincide with digital marketing best practices. When you make those improvements that propel your SEO goals, this also presents an opportunity to optimize your website for conversions. This elevates your digital marketing strategy overall because any web page copy, blog content, social media, and email marketing will have the backing of a well-performing website to nurture potential patient leads.
Demystifying How SEO Works
Search engine optimization is not as highly technical as it sounds. While it does call for an experienced digital marketer who understands how to interpret performance data, understanding how it works is rather straightforward. But like other aspects of digital marketing, it can change just as you come to understand it. However, some principles have been steadfast along the way, such as a user-friendly approach. The next few sections will simplify use of SEO for medical practices.
Unpacking Search Engine Mechanics
It is virtually impossible for humans to evaluate every single website on the internet for quality, so automations running on algorithms are set in place to handle the massive volume of online content.
These web crawlers absorb the contents of websites to crawl, index, and rank web pages based on factors like keyword relevance, site structure, and user experience. The more “hospitable” a website is to bots scanning for algorithms, the more SEO results will match efforts made based on strategy.
The SEO Process: From Research to Reporting
What is search engine optimization as a process? At the core of SEO strategy is keyword research. To reach your target audience, you must first know what they are searching for. Research tactics include using SEO tools to get suggestions for popular keywords, plus competitor performance data to better understand which phrases are worth pursuing.
SEO tools can also help you understand how your keywords are performing. You can see where you have climbed in search rank, but also where you have lost ground. The more valuable that keyword is, the more you will want to act upon the findings of performance tracking.
Exploring the Types and Aspects of SEO
So, the more you learn about digital marketing, the more you uncover new concepts. And of course, SEO splinters off into subsets: on page, off page, technical, and local SEO. The following sections explain SEO types.
Technical SEO: Optimizing Website Architecture
While appearance and functionality of websites are important, how a website is structured impacts your ability to reach potential patients with your website through SEO. As mentioned earlier, websites must be “hospitable” to Google’s automated crawlers. Technical SEO ensures that the crawlers can get an accurate read of your website quality including site speed, mobile-friendliness, security, structured data, and more.
Content Optimization: Aligning with User Intent
For any given keyword, Google has thousands of websites to choose from to place at the top of search results. To provide the best search engine experience, Google sources internet content that best serves the user. For that reason, content that ranks high is backed by solid keyword planning, relevance, and quality.
Behind every Google search is a user’s need. The better your content matches what the user is looking for, the more valuable and relevant it becomes. This not only serves the user well but also increases the likelihood of your content ranking higher in search results, ultimately improving the overall user experience. Accuracy in keyword usage, using wording that is easy to understand, and making content easy to read all help satisfy the goal to meet the immediate needs of the Google user.
Off-Site Optimization Strategies
While Google favors user-friendly websites with top notch content, it looks outside the website for more context. This means that your medical practice website should have other websites that acknowledge and endorse your brand and your services. Backlinks to quality websites, social media presence (including sharing links to your site on social media), and consumer reviews all confirm that you have a legitimate medical practice. Sources outside your medical practice website that reinforce your brand are called off-page SEO.
The Significance of Local Search for Medical Practices
There is contrast between digital marketing for telehealth-based services and in-person medical services. For medical practices serving a local community, SEO strategy must consider how services are found locally.
For search terms that indicate products or services are being sought locally, Google will usually produce a list of local businesses. This list is hard to miss as it takes up quite a bit of space in the search engine results page (SERP). For medical practices to gain local visibility, they will need optimized Google Business Profiles that reach the entire territory. Google reviews and keyword strategy in your website also strengthen local SEO for medical practices.
Implementing Effective SEO Strategies
What is search engine optimization in a practical sense? A patient turns to Google to find solutions to a physical problem. They come across your website (on-page SEO), see positive reviews from others (off-page SEO), and find a fast and user-friendly site (technical SEO). In digital marketing, this is known as a “funnel.” By covering each aspect of the online search experience, your practice is poised to be the top choice for healthcare services.
Providing an excellent digital experience for patients aligns with Google’s search optimization goal to create a great search engine experience. By managing SEO on all fronts—on page, off page, and technical—you tap the full strength of SEO to attract new patients. The following sections will provide more of a detailed SEO explanation.
Content Quality and Website Usability
When the goal is to bring in new patients to your medical practice, what happens after a website visitor clicks the link is just as important as being found in search. Quality content, ease of navigation, quick loading of pages, and mobile friendliness all help your digital strategy.
By providing engaging content that serves as a valuable resource for patients, and a user experience that encourages patients to stay on the website, you not only leave a favorable impression on patients, but you also keep your bounce rate low. A high bounce rate indicates a poor user experience and should be remedied as soon as possible.
Building Website Authority and Trust
Anyone can build a quality website on any given day, but no matter how well it is built, or how much quality content it contains, this is not enough to build “authority.” Some websites are granted more merit than others. For example, WebMD and the Mayo Clinic are going to have a stronger influence in search results than an individual medical provider’s blog.
It takes time to build trust and authority in a healthcare brand. Creating content that people want to share, being mentioned or linked to on other websites, having a strong presence on social media, and having reviews online all build credibility for your medical practice brand. In addition to building patient trust, this also helps your search visibility.
Mastering SEO: Learning Resources and Tools
As soon as you learn all the basics of SEO online marketing, you discover that aspects of it are subject to change. Google controls the search engine world, so any time it rolls out an update for the algorithms, things will shift accordingly. Digital marketers keep up on these changes, but as time goes on, those in the trenches of SEO find that maintaining a quality user experience and great content helps many websites weather any abrupt changes.
As you monitor your SEO performance, you may see a reversal of many of your search rankings. This can happen after Google rolls out a major update. Staying current on Google updates provides the context necessary to understand what is going on with plummeting performance. With the guidance of a digital marketing expert, you can better understand the impact of algorithms, what will bounce back after the dust settles, and what tweaks need to happen to rebound from abrupt changes.
SEO Educational Resources
SEO has several moving parts and multiple layers. Thankfully, digital marketing gurus have taken the time to grasp how it all works and relay their knowledge back to the general public. These are the most recommended SEO industry content for staying up to date with SEO:
- Semrush
- Ahrefs
- Moz
- Backlinko
- Niel Patel
- Internet Marketing Gold
- Matt Diggity
Mini courses are also available to provide an SEO overview on platforms like LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda).
Essential SEO Tools for Optimization
Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, and SpyFu are premiere tools for content strategy, competitor analysis, and performance tracking. It’s not always clear how your website is performing, but these sophisticated tools capture all the data needed to direct your SEO strategy. With these platforms in competition with one another, they are motivated to provide the best features and user experience so that anyone can participate in SEO in digital marketing.
Summary: What Is Search Engine Optimization?
Search engine optimization (SEO) for medical practices is a powerful digital strategy for long-term patient recruitment. The essence of SEO is to increase the visibility of medical practice websites. Both “organic” search (SEO) and paid search (Google Ads) can work together to maximize search engine marketing (SEM) results. But paid search gains are lost when campaigns stop while SEO gains remain.
To fully answer the question, “What is search engine optimization?” an accurate response must include on page, off page, technical, and local SEO. On- page SEO focuses on the quality of the website with its helpful, keyword-rich content and ease of use. Off- page SEO contextualizes the brand being represented by the website so that both humans and Google web crawlers can verify its legitimacy and relevance. Technical SEO makes sure that Google’s automated bots can read the website accurately. Local SEO is all about optimizing search results for patients looking for healthcare services in your local community.
Digital tools help inform SEO strategy and track performance. Digital marketers can stay on top of Google’s algorithm changes and other trends by staying up to date with industry leader SEO information sources such as Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, Backlinko, Niel Patel, Internet Marketing Gold, Matt Diggity, and more.
Maximize Your Patient Attraction Factor on Google with SEO Experts at Your Side
Navigating the intricacies of SEO might feel like taking on a second job, and rightfully so—it demands substantial time and effort. The effectiveness of your healthcare digital marketing hinges on maintaining a dedicated and continuous approach that adapts to the latest best practices. Our team of digital marketing experts is committed to handling both on and off-page SEO tasks. From optimizing your website to managing your social media presence and safeguarding your online reputation, we work on a competitive online presence from multiple angles. Connect with us to explore how we can elevate your medical practice’s online appeal and drive meaningful engagement.
