11 Quick Tips to Help Doctors Find Patients Online

Imagine you're a patient who is suffering from a chronic illness that your doctors are having trouble diagnosing. You would be quick to take matters into your own hands, and begin scouring the web for any hints you can find. 

Now imagine you're a doctor, and you are one of the few specialists in your field who uses the latest technology to treat this particular chronic illness. Chances are you are looking for this patient, and they are looking for you, but you just haven't found each other yet. It sounds like the start of a feel good medical drama, but this happens every day. Luckily, there is a real world solution to help doctors and patients, it's called SEO. 

Nowadays, maintaining a relevant website is imperative for doctors and hospitals. It’s the factor that can set you apart and help people find you. Learning SEO, or search engine optimization, can raise your website’s position on popular search engines, like Google and Yahoo. That way, prospective patients and colleagues can find you, which is really a beautiful thing. 

Patients are trying to find the services they need online. 

The History of SEO

As the internet has grown, a need to sift through websites arose. Search engines met this need by developing algorithms to showcase relevant websites first. They catalog data across websites, relying heavily on keywords to identify and organize pages. Keywords are the bread and butter of SEO.

Optimizing searches became important when e-commerce was taking off in the mid-90s. Over time, SEO has become yet another arena of competition and it has been changing in pace with the internet. Every business wants to gain traffic to their website by making it appear relevant. In response, search engines have become more refined at filtering out spam. As the internet has become more complex and efficient, so has SEO. 

Making sure your website ranks well on search engines can make or break your website traffic, which can have a significant impact on your business. We know you're getting super curious about how your website is performing now. Here's your chance to get some sage wisdom from an expert:  Click here to get in touch. 

Let's get started on our 11 awesome tips about SEO.

Since keywords are the language of SEO, determining yours is the first step. You can pinpoint which exact phrases are most searched with one of the many easy tools, such as LSI Keyword Generator.

Once you have a few top hits chosen, use them. There are a number of places to include your keywords, which we will get to later.

Your website won’t have staying power with SEO if it’s not written well. Do some research to check out competition. Write even better than them and fill a specific niche of content. Use keywords in your content. Updating frequently will keep you relevant as well.

An interesting, descriptive title will encourage people to click, and will also inform search engines about your topic. Make sure your title offers value to your target audience. That way, they’ll be sure to check it out.

Use the same keywords your patients would to help them find you.

 4. Include keywords in your title 

Your title is the first place to make sure you include keywords. Since it introduces your topic, this should be easy. Just fit in a keyword and you're on our way to being on all the search engines’ radars.

Just like your title, the header is another place search engines will scan to find relevant information. Having keywords here will also draw more readership.

While readers might never notice this trick, search engines will. Rename the images you use to contain keywords. Search engines can only read words, not pictures. This is just one more way to sneak your keywords in.

This tip is a little more sneaky. If your image has trouble loading, the text that shows up instead is called the alt tag. If it includes keywords, you have one more base covered to boost your rankings.

 8. Use keywords in your URL 

An interesting, descriptive URL containing keywords will always stand out better than a mix of random numbers and letters. Search engines will take note, as well as readers.

Link building helps patients find the services they need.

Links are a great way to make your website appear important and respected to search engines. Even links to other pages of your own site show you know a lot about your topic. Make sure the pages you link to are relevant to the page at hand. And don’t forget, make sure they are equally well written.

Search engines will reward you greatly for this one. This isn’t the easiest technique, but it’s worthwhile. If other websites are linking your page, you appear to be respected in the community, since you are providing such valuable content.

Sometimes you can strike a win-win negotiation with other websites to get linked, but writing high quality, original content is the best way to get noticed and linked organically.

Search engines take note of load times. If you have bulky music players or plug ins, such as flash, consider removing them. This will speed up your time and in turn make you more favorable with search engines.

With these tips and techniques, you are ready to boost your website amongst growing competition! To review, use keywords in key locations. Maintain a high standard of content. Take advantage of links and keep your site loading quickly. With these steps in place, your website and practice are bound to draw more traffic.

And that’s the recipe for success when using SEO. 

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