The Best SEO for Medical Spas

The Best SEO for Medical Spas

The Best SEO for Medical Spas

SEO can provide your med spa with a steady stream of customers. SEO strategies put you in front of customers who are actively looking for your services.

Medical spas can also use paid advertising and social media. However, an SEO strategy adds the icing to the cake.

SEO marketing puts medical spas in front of search engine users. People may find your med spa by searching on Google. They may look for nearby medical spas and see yours.

Many medical spas optimize their websites and content to rank higher. Google only has a few spots on their first page. How can your medical spa rank above the others?

We work with several medical spas and can help yours rise above the competition. We’ll share some SEO marketing best practices to boost your medical spa’s visibility.

Make Your Website User-Friendly

Google continuously works to optimize the user experience. Low-performing websites get removed from the first page.

A user-friendly website gets you on Google’s good side. User-friendly websites contain clear navigation and calls to action.

Load time influences your website’s user-friendliness. Users will not wait for a website to load for 10 seconds. People want quick access to web pages.

You can use a website loading speed test to see your current status. Strive for a load time under five seconds.

Shorter load times don’t only help with search engines. They also increase retention. People will spend more time on your site.

Search engines also look at your website’s mobile experience. Some medical spas only focus on the desktop version of their sites.

A friendly desktop setup will get derailed by a poorly designed mobile site. Many people use their smartphones to browse the web. Search engines don’t want to show poorly optimized pages on mobile devices.

Produce Content with the Right Keywords

Creating content helps you rank on search engines. People can type phrases and find your blog posts.

Blog posts also help promote your services. You can invite readers to schedule an appointment at the end of your blog posts.

You can also explain why patients should get specific procedures. Answering common questions will make customers feel more confident about your services.

Your content can also clear up objections. Business owners should determine common pain points and objections. Addressing these concerns in your content will warm up prospects.

Content boosts sales and visibility. However, you must use the right keywords for your content. Failing to conduct keyword research will significantly limit your content’s reach.

You can use a resource like SEMrush to conduct your research. This tool provides vital data about keyword volume, competition, trends, and CPC numbers.

Free SEO tools such as Yoast, Google Trends, and UberSuggest also help with research.

Once you find keywords, start incorporating them into your content. Sprinkle the keywords into your content while avoiding keyword stuffing.

You can create articles around individual keywords. Writing more blog posts lets you spread your efforts instead of relying on a single piece.

Use Meta Titles and Descriptions

The Google algorithm isn’t as smart as business owners think. An algorithm won’t know what your blog post or page covers.

You must inform the algorithm about your blog post’s topic. Meta titles and descriptions achieve this goal.

Search engines will look at your meta titles and descriptions for guidance. These features tell Google what your site covers.

You can use a meta title and description for each blog post. If you do not provide a custom meta title, Google will look at your title header.

Without a custom description, Google will review your blog post’s first 155-160 characters. These initial characters may not include the keyword. Your initial 155-160 characters may not draw potential visitors.

Custom meta titles and descriptions do a better job of drawing visitors to your site.

Google heavily weighs backlinks when ranking websites. When another website links to yours, it’s a backlink. These links indicate trust and authority.

Over a decade ago, companies would buy backlinks in bulk. However, Google shut down this strategy and penalized companies with spammy backlinks.

This practice kept out bad actors. However, many people misinterpreted this event as the death of backlinks.

Backlinks remain a vital way to gain traction, but only if you get them naturally. Writing guest posts is a common strategy to get backlinks. You can write for other sites and include a link to your med spa in the byline.

Capitalize on Local SEO

Most medical spas don’t want international traffic. They can only provide services on-site. These medical spas need a local SEO strategy to get new customers.

Your med spa must have a Google My Business account. This account lets your company rank for local search terms.

You should mention all of your locations on your website. This information will help prospects find the best location to receive your services. You may even want to create a page on your website for each location.

Get Professional Help for Your SEO

Medical spas around the world compete for a few spots on Google’s first page. Med spas in your area compete to get a share of the local market.

Enhancing your website’s SEO will increase your reach and lead to new customers. However, SEO can get complicated. Even if you know what you’re doing, it takes time to implement and see results.

Small businesses use our SEO services to reach customers and expand revenue. Get in touch with us today to see how we can improve your SEO results.

Chiropractors Step-By-Step Guide to Achieving SEO Success

Chiropractors Step-By-Step Guide to Achieving SEO Success

Studies show that less than 1 percent of Google searchers click on sites beyond the first page of results. That means you need to get listed on that first page if you want to get any new patients from web searches.

Search engine optimization (SEO) will help you get your website ranked in the top results. Let’s look at how you can use SEO techniques to drive more patients to your practice.

It’s All About Keywords

The foundation of all SEO work is keywords. Those are the words and phrases that someone looking for a chiropractor would likely type into the Google search box.

Terms like “chiropractor near me” or “chiropractor in city name” are logical searches for someone looking for a local chiropractor. On the other hand, a search like “what does a chiropractor do” probably isn’t someone looking for your services.

You can use tools like Ahrefs and the Google Keyword Planner to develop a list of keywords to target. Once you have those, work them into the content on your website to help it rank higher.

Focus on Local SEO First

Your chiropractic practice likely serves local clients for the most part. If that’s the case, it doesn’t matter how you rank for someone searching for a chiropractor in another part of the country.

Focusing on local SEO will help you reach the people who are close to you and most likely to become patients.

There are several important steps to optimize your website for local searches, including:

  • Complete your Google My Business profile
  • Use a consistent NAP (name, address, and phone number) everywhere on your site and other pages like Facebook and Twitter
  • Create a separate page on your site for each service you offer
  • Get reviews from your existing clients

The local search results in Google show a map with your location, review ratings, and other details right in the listing so it’s important to make sure it’s all available to Google.

Your Website’s Performance Is Critical

How quickly your website loads is important for a couple of reasons. First, studies show that people will click away from your site within a few seconds if it doesn’t load immediately (known as a bounce).

A slow website means you’ll lose a lot of potential patients before you even have a chance to connect with them.

Second, a high bounce rate will negatively affect your search rankings in Google. If someone clicks on your site in the results and almost immediately clicks back to try another one, Google can see this happen. If it happens often, it tells Google your site isn’t a good solution for searchers and it will stop showing it in the top results.

Make sure you use a high-performance web hosting service. It might mean paying a bit more but it’s worth the cost if it helps you get more patients.

Another fundamental component of chiropractic website SEO is what’s known as backlinks. These are links from other sites pointing to yours.

The original PageRank algorithm that was the basis for Google’s search engine used backlinks as the primary way of determining a website’s value. The idea was that links pointing to a web page were like votes — more links meant the page must be more valuable.

Google’s algorithm has evolved to consider far more than just links but they’re still an important part of the calculation. Getting links from local websites like Chambers of Commerce, community pages, and other businesses will help your site rank higher.

Use Social Media

Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are a great way to connect directly with your current and potential patients. You can use these websites to answer questions, share your knowledge, and drive traffic to your website.

Google doesn’t give links from those sites as much credit as links from other places but they are still backlinks. And having more people commenting and sharing on your posts there helps create “buzz” which Google does take into account in its ranking algorithm.

Create a Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing is one of the most effective long-term SEO strategies. This is the process of sharing information, both on your website and through other channels like social media and other blogs.

Content is usually text-based, such as blog posts or articles written for other websites, but it also includes things like YouTube videos, Instagram and Snapchat posts, and podcasts or other audio.

There are lots of ways to come up with ideas for things to create content about, such as:

  • Answer common questions from your patients
  • Write about health-related topics in the news
  • Weigh in on local news or events

If you publish new content on a consistent schedule, it helps “train” Google to check your site more often. Fresh, valuable content is another factor that Google considers in its algorithm.

Track Your Results

Once you start optimizing your website for better rankings, you’ll start to see your traffic increase. But unless you’re tracking the results, it’s hard to know exactly what’s working and what isn’t.

Use a tool like Google Analytics to track the visitors coming to your website. It provides details like:

  • Where visitors are coming from
  • What pages they visit once they land on your site
  • Which pages have the highest and lowest bounce rates

When you change something on your website, give it enough time to gather some data and then compare the results with the numbers before the change. This type of A/B testing will tell you what’s working and what isn’t so you don’t have to guess.

Where to Get Help With Your SEO Strategy

Healthcare SEO isn’t a complicated process but it does take some time to implement. And Google is constantly tweaking its algorithm so you need to stay on top of the latest changes if you want to keep your rankings.

If you’d rather focus on your practice and leave the SEO work to experts, Harris and Ward is here to help. We offer a range of SEO services to help improve your search engine rankings and bring more patients into your practice.

Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help your practice grow.

3 Reasons to Care About Local Business Listings

3 Reasons to Care About Local Business Listings

Written by Lesley Goodaker, Digital Marketing Manager

Local SEO efforts directly correlate to your business’ reputation, rankings, and revenue. That’s why its vital to understand the purpose of local business listings and citations.

As the name might suggest, local SEO is intended to attract customers in concentrated areas such as a specific town or city. Greater search visibility for small businesses often means more foot traffic, more service opportunities, and ultimately, more revenue.

To this end, Local SEO is all about increasing search visibility for businesses that rely on face-to-face interactions with their customers. These can be brick-and-mortar businesses with physical office space, like a law or dental office, or businesses like electricians and construction companies that services specific geographic areas.

Much like traditional search optimization, local SEO is designed to improve your visibility on Google and other search engines. This is largely done by creating content using keywords that are relevant to searches your target audience is looking for.

Examples of a local search query include phrases such as “lawyers near me,” “dentist in Lexington,” and even, “best Lexington eye doctor.”

What is the role of business listings in local SEO?

Not that long ago, businesses had a plethora of options for publicizing their business locally through phone book listings, newspaper advertisements, mailers, and even telemarketing.

Unfortunately, as marketing has taken a turn towards digital channels, many of these mediums have become all but obsolete either due to cost alone or a general lack of disinterest on the part of consumers.

In this way, internet marketing has become as much of a necessity for the mom and pop shop down the street as it is for the likes of Starbucks and Aspen Dental.

With over 90% of consumers searching for local businesses online, local citations are quickly replacing traditional offline advertising. As a result, more businesses are turning to local business directories online for an accessible way to publish their business information.

Here are 3 important reasons your business should care about local directory listings.

1. Gain visibility.

Many online directories (including Google My Business) allow businesses to submit their information for publication for free. This is a cost-effective way to boost brand awareness and increase online visibility for brands that can’t or don’t want to turn to paid advertising.

That aside, published online listings offer businesses an automatic boost in search visibility. Though you won’t get to the first position result simply by submitting your business information, you will gain favor over businesses that have not submitted their own information for publication.

Building citations on sites like Google, Facebook, and within relevant online directories such as Angie’s List or Healthgrades ultimately gives your business more online visibility. This in turn helps your business to be found by the right people at the right time.

2. Control your brand.

A pleasant side effect of creating citations for your business is that you get more control over your brand. Submitting and/or claiming your online business listings allows you to determine how your business is displayed in the search results. Instead of merely pulling information about businesses from multiple sources (i.e. Facebook, websites, etc.), search engines will rely on the information presented in your verified listing.

3. Secure consumer trust.

It’s no secret that reviews are a vital part of your business’ reputation. Even so, digital reviews are increasingly referenced by consumers as a make or break factor in their buying decisions. This makes your business’ ability to receive and display reviews crucial to securing consumer trust.

Publishing/claiming your business listings on reputable review sites like Yelp or the Better Business Bureau makes it easy for existing customers to leave feedback and even easier for prospects to find this information. At the end of the day, word-of-mouth reviews will get out there so you may as well make the most of it!

Find a marketing agency to help with your local business listings.

The importance of local listings can’t be overstated.

Think about how often people, yourself included, search for businesses near them? Searching for local businesses online is becoming easier with each passing day, so the importance of having listings online is growing, as well.

If you own a local business, it is imperative that you are not only represented online but that your representation is accurate as well. This is growing even more important during the ongoing health crisis.

If you’re unsure where to begin, consider enlisting the help of a local marketing agency!