Good SEO isn’t just about achieving high overall search results.
In fact, for orthopedic surgeons and other medical practitioners, where you fall in local search results is a lot more important.
The majority of your patients are going to be coming from your local area—within 20 miles of your office, so those are the patients searching online that you really want to reach.
So ranking in local searches matters a lot, and it’s something that a lot of orthopedic practices overlook.
Google Knows Local Results Matter
Google knows when local results matter, too, even when people don’t use local keywords in their searches.
If you’re in Houston when you search for “knee replacement surgeons,” you’ll get local Houston results right at the top of the page, with a map showing you where the location of the three surgeons who snagged the top rankings in local search results.
Do the same exact search in Chicago, you get the Chicago-area orthopedic surgeons.
So ranking in local searches matters a lot, and it’s something that a lot of orthopedic practices overlook.
That means with a little bit of effort—and maybe these three tricks—you can snag some major marketing benefits with improved local rankings.
3 Ways to Improve Your Local Orthopedic Search Rankings
1. Use More Local Keywords in Your Orthopedic Practice’s Website
Keyword optimization is still a big part of SEO, and that’s not going to change any time soon.
The right keywords can have an outsized effect on your local results to, so make sure your website’s content is chock full of local references (but as with all keywording, don’t overdo it).
For example, make sure your practice’s name, address and phone number appear on every page of your website.
Photos, Blog Posts, Local Events
Another way to make your site more localized is to take photos from around the office or when you’re out on a stroll, and use location tags when you put them on your site.
Craft blog posts about local events, work you did at an area hospital, or your thoughts about the happenings around town.
There are plenty of ways to create natural opportunities for local keyword inclusion, and they can see you straight to the top of local orthopedic surgeon search results.
2. Make Sure Your Surgical Practice Has Consistent Online Listings
It isn’t just Google’s search engine that you need to be thinking about.
Not only should the address on your Google+ page match your Google My Business (GMB) listing (and yes, you should have both of those), but you also need to make sure your business is properly listed on Google Maps.
Search Engines and Directories
Then there’s Yahoo and Bing, Yellow.com (formelry the Yellow Pages), your local BBB, Yelp…there are literally hundreds of different websites that, like it or not, probably have a listing for you and your clinic that includes an address.
Making sure your address is consistently—and correctly!—listed across all of these sites is key to climbing in local search results.
3. Get Better Inbound Links for Real Local Power
Inbound links from reputable websites are SEO gold.
When those links come from websites run by local authorities like the BBB, newspaper or TV news sites, other established local businesses, hospitals, and so on, they’ll give you more local power.
Anchor Text
Inbound links that use an anchor text with your targeted local keywords always add some extra oomph.
Anchor text is the highlighted text that you see in a hyperlinked word or phrase – this is the text that you click on to open a web page.
Ideally, your anchor text is relatively succinct and strongly related to the target web page you’re directing people to.
Get Started
Unless you’re already at the top of your local results, chances are you need to be working on at least one of these, and maybe all three.
Go get started, or let us help take you to the top of the rankings!
Click here to get a Practice Marketing Checkup to diagnose your website or, call us at 800-818-7199.
