SEO in digital marketing helps improve website visibility for relevant searches and will increase your local search results and popularity
You’ve got a great looking website, engaging content, and a presence across multiple social media platforms. You’ve done paid advertising, run online promotions, offered products through your website, and even added an online booking system to make scheduling appointments more convenient for your patients. All of these improvements to your SEO in digital marketing campaigns seem to be paying off, in terms of retaining your current patient base, as well as netting you some referrals via word of mouth.
However, the one thing missing from your practice is a reliable source of new, local patients finding you online.
Although you may think you’ve hit all the key elements needed for a successful digital marketing campaign, you may have forgotten the most important one of all – search engine optimization, or SEO – if you want to grow a local, loyal patient base as one of your big digital marketing campaign goals. Why is local SEO so important? What are the best ways you can use SEO to get the most “bang for your buck”?
SEO in digital marketing and local user stats
As you likely already know, SEO in digital marketing helps improve website visibility for relevant searches. There are countless ways that SEO can be used to do this, depending on the goals of the user.
In your case, focusing your SEO toward local users also means thinking in terms of those who will be accessing your website on their mobile devices. According to stats from Google:
- Almost one in three of all mobile searches are related to location
- Two in three of smartphone users are more likely to patronize businesses whose mobile sites or apps customize information to their location
- More than 75% of smartphone users who search for a nearby business will visit it within a day.
Additionally, you should look into making your website mobile-device friendly. If a prospective patient has difficulty navigating your website on their smartphone or tablet, it won’t matter how many stars you have on Yelp or how close you are to their home or place of work. You will have lost that opportunity to convert them to an actual patient.
Keywords are the key for local SEO success
Given the Google stats about local users, it is clear that you will want to customize your SEO in digital marketing toward local searches, preferably from users with mobile devices. First, look up the keywords you should use to go after local users who may be interested in your services.
Google offers a keyword tool that lets you see the traffic each keyword gets so that you can find the best combination of high traffic keywords without competition. Those keywords should be incorporated into your website’s name, tags, and content.
Making the list
If you have not already done so, claim your local online business listings. This will greatly increase your chances of having your practice come up when a local user types in a search for local chiropractors. Since most people use Google, it should be the first place to set up an online business listing. This will allow your practice show up on Google’s local map results.
Rave reviews
If you are looking for the best pizza place nearest you, do you turn to online review sites, such as Yelp? You can use that same local SEO in digital marketing to boost visibility for your practice.
Start by signing up with both local online review sites and major ones such as Yelp. Once you are set up, you can ask your current patients to leave you a review online. The combination of good reviews and local contact information will not only make it easier for prospective patients to find you, but also boost your local SEO visibility.
Of course, once you have captured the attention of local prospective patients by using effective SEO techniques, your next task is to keep them engaged on your website so that they will then take the next step of making that initial appointment via your online scheduling app. The best way to do this is with fresh content that speaks to the needs of prospective patients. Combining compelling content with effective local SEO will help your bottom line and get your practice to the next level.
