SEO For Healthcare
The search volumes on UK search engines relating to personal health and wellbeing are huge, from local GPs to specialised private health clinics. Here we take a deep dive into strategies that increase online visibility for your practice, and successfully boost appointments and signups via digital marketing.
Helping You Attract More Patients Online
As a leading healthcare SEO agency, we have years of experience in effective online lead generation for the healthcare sector.
View this Healthcare SEO case study to learn about the relatively quick results that are possible if you use the right SEO strategy, or read the comprehensive guide below to help you create a tailored plan of action for your own marketing requirements.
The SEO processes outlined here are for all types of medical practices, healthcare organisations and health-related businesses. Whether you are a local dental clinic, a large private healthcare provider, or an NHS-backed service, effective SEO in healthcare can help you reach more people, improve trust, and generate bookings.
The Importance of SEO in Healthcare
The healthcare industry is very competitive and is constantly evolving. From dental clinics and dermatology centres to private hospitals and therapy providers, every healthcare provider’s website needs to be easy to find and informative. Healthcare SEO is the process of optimising a medical website so that it appears higher in search results when people search for relevant services and phrases related to healthcare.
A robust healthcare SEO strategy ensures that healthcare providers are visible in local and national organic search results. SEO and the associated content writing helps healthcare professionals position themselves as credible authorities, improving both click-through rates and conversions.
Table of Contents
Step-by-Step: How to Do SEO for Healthcare:
1. Keyword Research
Healthcare SEO begins by identifying the right medical keywords. Think like your patients: what sort of phases would they type into Google? Phrases such as “private physiotherapist in London” or “children’s dentist near me” guides your content strategy and shapes your service pages. Don’t just target the high volume keywords which can be extremely competitive, but mix in some niche healthcare services and local search terms. See our guide on How To Do Keyword Research.
2. Competitor Analysis
Great insights can be gained through researching what competing health industry businesses are doing. This includes reviewing their keywords, backlink profile, and content. Understanding gaps in their SEO strategy gives you a competitive edge. Seeing where they’re currently doing well tells you what you need to catch up on. See our guide on Competitor SEO Analysis for information on how this is done.
3. On-Page SEO Optimisation
High-quality content and bug-free pages that offer great user experience is potentially the most significant factor for SEO in the healthcare sector; low-quality content isn’t really an option if you want to rank well in an industry where in-depth knowledge and attention-to-detail are so important. A page-by-page optimisation of all website pages will pay dividends both in the short term and the long term. Each service page should include relevant keywords, optimised headings, informative meta descriptions, and schema markup. Alt text for images and fast loading speeds are also essential for technical SEO. See our guide on On-Page SEO for information on how to do this.
4. Local SEO
Local SEO can be important for any healthcare provider, especially those with a physical location that clients visit. Many patients search for healthcare within their region, even if the service you provide is offered online and isn’t limited to a specific location. Your Google Business Profile, local citations, and consistent contact information across directories helps patients find you nearby. Information on your website about specific areas you serve, backed up by 1 landing page per area if competition is high, can make a big difference to your local search rankings. Local SEO ensures you are visible to the community in which you serve. See our guide on Local Keyword Research.
5. Content Creation
Quality healthcare content needs to answer patient queries and build trust in services. Blog posts, service descriptions, FAQs, and landing pages are all key parts of SEO. Publishing up-to-date, accurate healthcare information is key to successful healthcare SEO. Focus mainly on helpful and authoritative content that is insightful and not bland, and where relevant, back up your claims with links out to authoritative and highly trusted sources of information. See our guide on Content Writing For SEO.
6. Technical SEO
Even if your content is great, extensive ‘SEO errors’ such as broken links, duplicate content, not enough H2 sub-titles, too many H1 heading, etc, can reduce your chance of ranking. There are 100s of potential errors that SEO tools flag up, and the impact of each is different. To help you navigate this complex area, we’ve prepared a (very) in-depth technical SEO guide. From mobile responsiveness to page speed, crawlability and secure hosting, technical SEO ensures your site is straightforward for search engines to navigate and index. There are plenty of tools out there to assist with this, Semrush, Screaming Frog, Moz, SEO Powersuite, and SE Ranking are some of the better known examples that we would recommend.
7. Link Building
Earning backlinks from trusted healthcare directories, blogs, and professional associations boosts your SEO ranking. It shows search engines that your content is reliable and respected in the healthcare sector.
8. Monitoring and Reviewing Data
No matter how much you strategise in advance, there are some things you can only discover through trial and error.
Use 1 or more of the SEO tools outlined above (or at the very least, get set up on Google Search Console and Google Analytics), and then check your progress at least once a month, and attempt some quick wins where keywords are ranking just below the top spot and just need a few on-page SEO tweaks to propel them to #1, and also give some care and attention around keywords that are languishing in the depths of Google search, maybe indicating severe content or technical issues on the target landing pages for these keywords, or maybe they’re ultra-competitive and need much more effort in order to rank effectively.
Advanced SEO Tips for Healthcare
In recent years Google’s algorithms have become much more sophisticated, resulting in SEO making significant progress. In the past, focusing only on keyword density and backlinks was enough to get high google search rankings. Nowadays, Google’s algorithms are much more sophisticated, and look at lots of different aspects of a website such as the EEAT of a website, which stands for Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Ultimately, EEAT has become a very crucial ranking factor for getting high google search rankings, especially regarding Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) websites. Google uses the term YMYL to refer to web pages which could have a substantial impact on a user’s well-being in areas such as finances, health, safety, or happiness. These websites impact users health and well-being, which is why Google places a greater importance on those with strong EEAT compared to others.
The introduction of EEAT has radically changed SEO. The four principles of EEAT: Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness are crucial for websites that cover YMYL topics, particularly those with health-related information.
SEO Help For Healthcare
While this guide is designed to enable healthcare to optimise their own websites, our helpful team are always on hand to help you.
If you require extra support, or have any any queries about SEO for healthcare, please get in touch.
Audits and Quick Audit Tool
Our SEO audit tool below is capable of analysing any page on your website, regarding any particular keyword that you would like to rank higher. If you’ve got any questions, or would like a more comprehensive SEO audit throughout your entire website, please contact us today or view our audit packages:
Outsourced SEO Agency Options for Healthcare Providers
There are lots of different SEO providers, all with their different advantages and disadvantages and points of differences. Choosing a healthcare SEO specialist like UClimb can be helpful as you will understand what works best in your industry, and you will know the importance of Google EEAT guidelines when writing content on sensitive topics like personal health and wellbeing. We tailor our SEO techniques to your specific healthcare business, and we let you see the results live on a looker studio dashboard.
Every healthcare SEO campaign is bespoke, and perfectly crafted by our experienced SEO team to reflect your services, target audience, and your goals for success. Read more about our approach in our Healthcare SEO case study.
Whether you’re a start-up medical practice or an established healthcare organisation, we’ve got the best SEO expertise to help healthcare providers grow sustainably and ethically.
Benefits of Healthcare SEO Services
SEO for medical practices delivers a long-term value by:
- Attracting new patients consistently
- Increasing the visibility of healthcare providers in search results
- Establishing trust with high-quality healthcare content
- Gaining insights into what patients search for
- Outranking local competitors in the healthcare search space
If you are in a competitive sector, it is unlikely you will be able to outrank all your main competitors for all of your target keywords, without the support of a specialist and experienced healthcare SEO agency. Be free to contact us for a free discovery call today.
FAQs About SEO for Healthcare
SEO in healthcare is the process of improving the visibility of healthcare providers and medical websites on search engines such as Google. It helps attract new patients by making it easier for them to find relevant healthcare services online.
Healthcare SEO ensures your medical website is visible when people search for your service. In a competitive healthcare industry, it is imperative that your service is visible online so that you can attract patients and grow your practice.
Healthcare SEO is a long-term strategy. While some improvements can be seen within a few months, sustainable growth in SEO typically occurs over six to twelve months.
Our healthcare SEO agency delivers customised, ethical, and content-driven SEO solutions. Unlike other SEO companies, we understand compliance, tone of voice, and the trust needed in medical SEO services.
Yes, our healthcare SEO services cover dentists, physiotherapists, therapists, GPs, and more. We create strategies that work for specific healthcare sectors.
Local SEO is crucial for healthcare providers, as it ensures your clinic or practice shows up in local searches. This is where most patients begin their healthcare search online.
Further Help And Advice
Our blog also contains a wealth of helpful articles, where you can continue your learning journey. A selection of our most popular SEO help guides are shown below:
