Just because you have a medical website, doesn’t mean you are reaching all potential patients or connecting with as many users as possible. Medical SEO is more important now than ever before. It is also one of the hardest industries to target in terms of search engine optimization. But it doesn’t have to be difficult. There are many digital marketing experts who specialize in medical SEO. They can help your online presence soar with customized, tailored content marketing strategies.
Medical SEO – Reach More Patients
Targeting the medical industry requires a rigorous, in-depth SEO strategy to be successful. It has to be unique because Google’s algorithm treats medical terms differently in search engines (we will review this later). It’s harder for medical businesses to reach patients in person because our world is digitally based (i.e. mobile, desktop, and tablets as the main sources to gather information). But many users searching online for medical attention are often skeptical about what they read. There is not an easy way out, but optimizing your site can make a huge difference to target the right leads.
80% of Internet users in America have searched for a health-related topic online, according to a study by Pew Internet & American Life Project. Being present online is extremely important if you want to help more people in need of medical attention. Deciding on a health practitioner is a difficult decision to make for many. It’s crucial your website has high-quality content that connects with potential patients, no matter their situation.
5 Benefits of Medical SEO
- Reduces new patient costs.
- Niche-specific medical keywords.
- SEO Optimizations leads to higher conversions.
- Quality content patients can relate to.
- Quality calls-to-action (CTAs) with clear information about the next steps.
Medical Website Optimized for Mobile-First Indexing
Between 2016 to 2018, mobile traffic increased from 43.6% to 52.2%. The high spike in mobile usage in 2018 has created new challenges for Medical SEO. Many people use the Internet to search for medical terms, find practitioners, and discover new health-related information, such as from blogs. In order for patients to find your site, your entire website should be optimized to truly stand out as a premium grade SEO medical platform. Since more than half of Americans use mobile devices to search for medical information, it is crucial for your medical website to include a mobile-friendly version of the desktop version. If a mobile website has low page speed and isn’t built with a “mobile-first” mindset, it will negatively impact your medical SEO greatly.
“Medic Update” Google’s New Algorithm – What To Know
On August 1, 2018, Google’s New Algorithm took a prominent hit to health, wellness, and medical sites in terms of SEO. It was coined the “Medic Update” because it primarily targeted one particular industry, rather than impacting other fields outside of medicine. A week after the algorithm hit, many sites posted articles with mixed feelings about why this happened. Did Google likely target Medical SEO on purpose? Or was it a coincidence? It’s hard to say. Here is what you should know about the “Medic Update” and why it’s important to stay on top of Medical SEO if you are in the industry:
- Who Was Impacted? Google said the August 1 algorithm was a “global” update and any field, industry or niche could have been impacted. Although, many professional surveys from SEO agencies and data companies showed the algorithm affected medical, health, and wellness websites. “Your Money Your Life” sites also seemed to be targeted, but less than those in the medical field. Gaming, gambling, and the entertainment & art industries were slightly impacted as well.
- How To Deal With It? There is no definite answer as to why the medical industry was targeted. A tweet by Google on March 12, 2018, said, “There’s no ‘fix’ for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content. Over time, it may be that your content may rise relative to other pages.” The best answer for why medical websites were targeted is because they are harder to optimize in terms of SEO. Writing high-quality content with expert knowledge, reliable resources, and ensuring the content fits the goal of your website, can keep you from being impacted by Google’s algorithm updates in the future.
Medical SEO Requires Expert-Level Strategies
Medical businesses must take extra precautions when it comes to SEO and content marketing. As mentioned before, the medical industry is hard to optimize on search engines because writing content requires expert-level knowledge. The use of keywords, linking, and blog topics have to be thought about in-depth and with a unique strategy to back it up. This may lead to a long uphill battle for many medical businesses in terms of SEO, but with the right search engine expert who has experience in the medical industry, you’ll succeed faster!
Every website, even outside of the medical field, needs to have high-quality content to be considered for Google’s rankings. Content marketing is the main component of SEO, especially in terms of Medical SEO. Websites with low-quality content will be given the lowest PQ rating. To satisfy Google’s SEO requirements today, content should cater to what patients want to read, backed up by accurate research, original statistics, and expert information from practitioners. Google will crawl your medical website to ensure it is all premium quality, or your website will likely not stand out. Not only does content marketing matter in SEO, but web design, user experience, strong optimized blog posts, and brand authority are key factors in your online presence.
Medical SEO Done Right
Peaks Digital Marketing has experience creating SEO campaigns for businesses in the medical industry. We can help bring your website to light on Google and increase conversions with quality content, strong link profiling, and web design. To read more about how high-quality content marketing impacts your website’s SEO, read the article, “8 SEO Experiments to Test On Your Website".
