This is a fast-growing industry, and no healthcare business can stand on its own without customers, however, a trend is that many of these businesses are not attracting patients as much as they can because of avoidable healthcare SEO mistakes. If you’re not ranking well in search engines, then it probably has to do with basic problems that can be solved. The perfect SEO can enhance your presence and attract clients who require your services. But what about those missteps which are pulling you back? Today, I want to discuss three outrageous healthcare SEO mistakes which potentially negatively affect your website rankings.
1. Ignoring Local SEO
A lot of healthcare businesses believe general SEO will attract local patients into their business which is one of the very expensive healthcare SEO mistakes. Local SEO essentially means having theses patients find your services without having to look far away, and if you are not doing it, you are missing out big time. Google provides a local bias in the search results mainly in the field of health because people tend to search for doctors, hospitals or clinics in their vicinity.
Local SEO encompasses factors related to optimization of web resource with respect to location searches. For instance, if you are a dental clinic, you should have it ranking for a keyword that includes “Dallas dentist”, or “dentist near me. When you do not add in local keywords to your site then your site will not come up when such terms are used to search for anything even when there is a person offering a specific service.
However, some of the simplest and most effective ways of optimizing for local SEO is to include a Google My Business listing. Check the correctness of the address, phone, services, schedules, and other information you may publish. Second, please invite your patients to write about your clinic/company on Google. These reviews are really one of the significant aspects that determine ranking for any local SEO strategy. Failure to pay attention to local Healthcare SEO mistake is perhaps the worst misjudgment in healthcare SEO that will lead to loss of patients and traffic.
2. Engaging medical language and long words to some cases confuse the audience.
They insisted such arguments are unconvincing because your audience is not made of doctors. Of course, it is always helpful to sound professional, but constant use of medical terms in the articles will simply disorient the readers. What people cannot understand them in words they will not linger on the site thus increasing the sites bounce rate which is a bad sign to Google.
This is one of the biggest healthcare SEO mistakes because many healthcare-related websites use the complexity of the material as their key advantage. However, your potential patients are ordinary people, they do not have extensive knowledge in the medical niche. It is written that persuaders should avoid technical language while writing but you must endeavor to write in plain language.
For instance, instead of referring your readers to ‘otorhinolaryngology’ simply say ‘ENT’ or ‘doctor of ears, nose, and throat’. Emphasize the fact of segmenting and compiling-entity issues into simple and digestible parts and units of knowledge. One common healthcare SEO mistake is that sometimes such content is rife with complicated words that are used frequently in medical practice.
Important to remember here are that while optimizing for Google you should not forget that real people will be reading it too. If the content you develop is not easily understandable to them, they will be out of your site, and your SEO is off the track. This is why the issue of readability is so important when it comes it and healthcare SEO mistake.
3. Who is not adopting or optimizing for mobile?
About 53% of total internet searches are made through mobile devices, here are some more facts. If the healthcare website you are running is not mobile friendly, then you are missing out on a gigantic market. Poor usability retribution, complicated, or slow mobile site layout will help users to leave your site and this also influences your rankings.
It may sound a bit incredulous but this is among the most basic healthcare SEO mistake made and it is easily avoidable. Ensure your website is accessible from both PC’s and mobile devices by using a responsive design. This helps your website to be well designed with good readability on any device including a mobile, tablet or a computer. Try it on different browsers and make sure the functionality is intact across you website regardless the size of the screen used to view it.
It is also important that the website should load fairly fast in the mobile version. In fact current research has shown that users will leave a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. The fact that site speed is one of the biggest ranking factors means that if your site is slow, your SEO will suffer.
4. Not Having Fresh Content
It’s especially important for the healthcare businesses to remember that content is a king in the field of SEO. If your website has been stagnant for months, years even, Google will consider this information irrelevant and your rankings will suffer.
Another outrageous healthcare SEO mistake Professionals commit is copying past content. You have to do this as often as possible while ensuring the compiled material is both timely and meaningful. Get creative by posting regular blog articles, videos, the use of patients’ success stories, and informative publications. It also benefits from the fact that whenever you are putting out new content, Google crawls through your site more frequently.
Besides, old articles can also be rewrote, incorporated with new information as well as relevant keywords to help your SEO. It will keep your audience interested and boost your search engine rankings should your SEO professionals or webmasters review and update your pages at least once a week so as to avoid healthcare SEO mistakes.
5. Ways and opportunities for internal linking are also left unmet.
Most healthcare websites do not focus on internal linking strategies which is a very great healthcare SEO mistake. Relating links work within your site and help Google to understand how your site is constructed. They also establish user value since they guide users to additional information on your site.
Failing to do this is one of the common healthcare SEO mistakes which can be easily rectified if you incorporate links in your writing. For example, if you are creating a blog about symptoms of colds, then you should include links to a page containing information about treats for cold or when one should seek the services of a doctor. Such internal links assist in spreading out link equity of your site and this in turn will act as an advantage for SEO.
6. Not Using Long-Tail Keywords
A common healthcare SEO mistake of many websites related to healthcare is that they simply use short keywords that are fiercely competitive. But long tail keywords are usually much more efficient as more people search this keywords plus they are less competitive.
For instance, instead of searching for “doctor” keyword, go for “family doctor in [city]”, “cheap healthcare services for the elderly etc. These phrases are more specific, so the people typing them into the search bar are probably going to be the people that you are going to serve. Another healthcare SEO mistake that you should avoid is not utilizing any long-tail keywords.
7. Overlooking On-Page SEO
In their pursuit for content creation, many healthcare businesses overlook simple on-page SEO factors having assumed that they are well covered. Your focus keyword, meta description and images should also be optimized on every page of your site. This is a well-known information healthcare SEO mistake that can negatively impact your healthcare website.
Ensuring the right title tags and Meta descriptions are enhancing. These elements appear in the search results and may influence whether that person will click through to your site. Also be sure to make your primary keyword appear within your headings/titles/subtitles & within the content, though don’t overdo it.
8. Ignoring Analytics
Most healthcare SEO mistakes based businesses fail to monitor their SEO strategies adequately and this results in time and money being wasted. The first one is lack of attention to analytics, and you shouldn’t make such a mistake – set Google Analytics and Google Search Console right away. These tools enables you to monitor, evaluate and make necessary amends with regard to your website success.
9. Not Using Alt Text for Images
Another healthcare SEO mistake that tends to be made on healthcare websites is that image alt-texts are rarely thought about and even if provided are sometimes inadequate. When using images it assist in the identification by the search engine on what the image represents, thereby increasing rankings. One of the easiest healthcare SEO mistake that can result in a boost in your rankings is this one.
10. Lack of a secure link or Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)
Finally, if your website isn’t secure (HTTPS), you are sending incorrect signals to Google and returning patients. Users are more comfortable with secure sites, and Google favors them. Safe website is one of the small but important factors of healthcare SEO.
Due to this fact, at Madavi Agency services, we have taken time and come up with a website that is well optimized and has a high ranking . Many of our team members can be classified as digital marketers and SEO experts in healthcare, helping doctors, hospitals, clinics, dentists, chiropractors, physiotherapists, and other healthcare providers to increase their new patients and revenue. Contact us now to learn more about how our team can assist you in avoiding these issues, as well as quickly enhancing your performance!
