Every second, Google processes over 40,000 searches for people all around the world. To break that down, that’s about 3.5 billion searches a day, or 1.2 trillion a year. Keep reading to find out some best practices of SEO for plastic surgeons.
Many of these searches are completed by consumers looking for a business nearby.
Search engine optimization (SEO) helps businesses appear higher on search engines like Google. The higher your website ranks, the more clients will see your brand. As your brand awareness improves, you can attract more people to your practice and continue growing your business.
If you want to attract more people to your plastic surgery practice, SEO is the way to go. With these 12 tips, you can use SEO for plastic surgeons to boost your brand.
As part of your overall SEO strategy, you can also use local SEO to attract locals to your website. Once they realize your practice is close by, you can attract more people to your practice, too.
Keep reading to discover the 12 localized SEO tips you need for success!
1. Know Your Audience
The first step for a successful local SEO strategy is to know your customers. After all, you’re creating content to attract the people most likely to become paying customers.
Google’s latest algorithm update, BERT, is prioritizing hyper-targeted content.
In order to create hyper-targeted content, you need to know who you’re targeting. Who are your customers? Try to determine specific demographics, including:
- Age
- Gender
- Household income
- Marital status
You should also consider their buying behavior and interests. What other brands do your customers trust? What problems do they face every day?
Then, determine how you can make their everyday lives easier.
The better you know your audience, the more likely you’ll create content that will attract them to your site.
For example, you’ll want to know what questions your customers are asking online. Then, you can create long-tail keywords based on their questions. Long-tail keywords make it easier for you to hyper-target your content.
You might need to separate your audience into segmented buyer personas. Crafting personas can help you differentiate your customers. That way, you won’t neglect to target each customer type.
Keep track of the trends your customers care about as well.
One of the best ways to keep in contact with your customers is through social media. By keeping track of their interests and concerns, you can use SEO for plastic surgeons tactics that work for your specific customers in mind.
2. Complete Keyword Research
Once you know who your customers are, you need to know what they’re searching for. Google’s BERT update now considers user intent when displaying search results.
Since Google is becoming smarter, your local SEO strategy needs to adapt, too.
Google is using machine learning and artificial intelligence to further understand your customers. Google’s goal is to improve the user experience. For that, Google wants to understand what your customers want by using:
- Neural Matching, which determines a search query’s intended meaning
- RankBrain, which adjusts search engine pages based on a user’s unique data
- BERT, which analyzes the structure of a person’s search
Each mechanism can impact whether or not your website appears on a search engine results page (SERP). The best way to appeal to the algorithm is to create strong content and use the right keywords.
First, use Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, and SEMRush to create a list of keywords. Choose long-tail keywords that relate to your plastic surgery practice.
Consider what your customers are looking for when they search online. Google determines search results based on the:
- User intent
- Context of the search
- Relationship between the words in a search
The better you understand your customers, the more likely you’ll choose keywords that align with their intent. You can also use secondary keywords to align your posts to intent.
3. Start Optimizing
In order to optimize your website for localized SEO, you need to structure your site properly. Make sure to assess each page on your website. Give each page a single purpose along with a focus keyword.
Then, optimize your pages by including your focus keyword in the:
- URL
- Page title
- Opening paragraph
- Body text
- Header
- Alt text
- Meta description
Optimizing your page content will help your website appear on SERPs for your target keywords. Make sure to optimize new pages and content before publishing them in the future.
Featured Snippets
You should also optimize your content for featured snippets.
Snippets appear in “position zero” at the top of a SERP. The growing popularity of featured snippets has led to zero-click searches. Instead of clicking on a website, more people are looking at featured snippets for the answers they need.
Featured snippets provide users with quick, convenient results. Snippets appear as:
- Paragraphs
- Q&As
- Lists
- Tables
- Charts or graphs
- Images
- Videos
To optimize your content for featured snippets, focus on the keywords your content already ranks for. Then, take a look at the featured snippet for that keyword.
Reorganize your content so it appeals to that featured snippet. For example, if the featured snippet is a Q&A, create a Q&A post about one of your plastic surgery procedures. You can use headers and bullet points to improve your content’s readability.
Try repeating the search query question within your content. Then, provide a short, clear answer in the opening paragraph. You can use the rest of the post to provide additional information.
Remember, featured snippets appear at the very top of a search page. Gaining this prominent space will help you attract more people to your site.
It can also help you build credibility as a thought leader in your industry.
4. Collect Citations and Links
Link building is an important component of SEO for plastic surgeons. In order to appear higher on search engines, you need to use internal and external links within your content.
Internal links will encourage readers to explore other pages on your site. As people click around, you can boost your clickthrough rate and decrease your bounce rate. A lower bounce rate and higher clickthrough rate will help you rank higher on SERP.
External links, on the other hand, send readers to other websites. You’ll want to use external links from websites that have authority in your industry.
Keep “EAT” in mind as you implement your local SEO strategy.
EAT stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. You can strengthen your EAT by becoming a go-to resource for your clients. Show them your expertise with industry knowledge.
Then, use relevant, authoritative websites to back up your claims.
To improve brand trust, you’ll need to add social proof, including reviews (more on this below). In addition to building brand trust, here are a few ways SEO can benefit your business.
5. Update Your Google My Business Listing
To improve your localized SEO, make sure people can find your business online. First, update your Google My Business listing. Make sure your information is accurate, including your:
- Business name
- Location
- Phone number
- Hours
- Website
You can also use your Google My Business listing to display customer reviews. Your listing will take up prominent space on SERPs, helping you attract more people to your site.
Keep your listing up-to-date to appear on Google Maps among other local plastic surgeons. Improving your Google My Business listing with photos and reviews will help you improve your SEO ranking.
Once people start reviewing your business, make sure to reply back to improve engagement.
6. Localize Your Page Content
According to Google, 69% of smartphone users are more likely to trust a company if their mobile site can quickly answer their questions. 90% of users will consult their phones before making a decision.
Local SEO can help attract people to your business. There are a few tactics you can use to craft an effective localized SEO strategy.
First, use your keyword research to create fresh content for your local customers. Try including a location-based keyword (such as a city and/or state) to the end of a short-tail keyword.
Make sure the content is helpful and informative. Remember, you want to show people you’re an authoritative, trustworthy expert in your industry. Keep search intent in mind, too.
Then, start adding location-specific pages to your website.
There was a 500% increase in mobile searches that included the phrase “near me” in the past two years. In addition to using “near me,” you can also write about local events and your practice’s involvement in the computer. Adding location pages to your website will help you attract locals to your business.
Discover the complete guide to local SEO for more tips!
7. Ramp Up Reviews
Reviews can help strengthen brand authority and trust.
Ask your happy clients to post their reviews on your Google My Business listing. Then, feature these reviews on your website as well.
Most people choose to trust businesses based on word of mouth. Online reviews are the digital version! By gathering reviews throughout the year, you can build trust with patients who are somewhat apprehensive about choosing your practice.
Encourage your patients to post reviews. If the review is negative, make sure to respond in a timely manner.
You can also gather brand advocates or use influencer marketing to boost your brand. Influencers can spread the word about your plastic surgery practice and help encourage others to trust your business.
8. Make Sure You’re Mobile
If your website isn’t optimized for mobile devices, you’re likely losing potential clients. More people are relying on their phones to find the answers they need.
Make sure to optimize your website for smaller screens. Mobile-optimization will help you improve the user experience (UX). A stronger UX will keep people on your website, which will help boost your local SEO ranking.
Google uses mobile-first indexing to determine rankings. If your site isn’t optimized, your site will appear below your competitors’. People are less likely to find your website as a result.
9. Speed Up Your Site
Improving your site speed can boost your ranking and improve UX.
You can use Google PageSpeed Insights to determine what’s slowing your site down. For example, you might need to compress your images. Certain plugins can cause your site to lag as well.
People won’t wait around for a slow site to load. If your site lags, you could lose valuable clients.
10. Keep Track of the Trends
Google’s algorithm changes throughout the year. If you’re not up-to-date with the latest trends, your ranking might support. Keeping track of the trends can help you improve your SEO for plastic surgeons throughout the year.
For example, 50% of all searches will occur through a voice assistant like Siri or Alexa this year. You’ll need to adapt your content for voice search in order to appeal to these searches. To appeal to voice searches, make sure to double-check keyword trends.
How are your clients posing their questions? Write the question out within your post. Then, answer the question in the opening paragraph.
You can also improve your site for voice searches by:
- Speeding up your site
- Optimizing images
- Compressing files
- Creating a responsive site
- Writing the way your clients speak
- Optimizing your content for featured snippets
- Focusing on local searches
Other trends for 2020 include video content and blockchain technologies.
11. Continue Crafting Content
BERT prioritizes high-quality content. Make sure your content is valuable to your target audience by focusing on user intent. Don’t forget to implement EAT throughout your content.
You don’t have to stick to blog posts, either. Instead, consider adding variety by creating infographics, white papers, quizzes, and more.
By the end of this year, video content will account for 85% of all internet traffic in the company. At the same time, YouTube reports video consumption continues to rise by 100% annually.
Try adding helpful, informative videos to your website to keep people engaged.
As people linger on your pages, their dwell time will further improve your localized SEO ranking.
12. Hire a Specialist to Help
If the 11 tips above seem timing-consuming or complicated, that’s okay! Consider hiring a local SEO specialist to help. They can complete your customer and keyword research for you.
Then, they’ll create a local SEO strategy to help boost your rankings throughout the year. They can also keep track of trends and algorithm changes, allowing you to stay ahead of the competition!
SEO for Plastic Surgeons: 12 Practices for Boosting Your Brand
Don’t fall behind your competitors. By using SEO for plastic surgeons, you can boost your site to the top of SERPs. That top-of-the-page ranking will help you attract more people to your practice!
Ready to boost your ranking? Contact us today to get started!
