Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important part of marketing medical practices now that many patients are using Google to research health issues, treatments, and physicians who can help them with these things. Google states that 7% of the billion searches that are conducted each day are healthcare-related.
5 Medical SEO Myths
There are some common myths that medical practices have encountered. It’s important to know what these are and why they’re a myth. Doing so will help you stay focused on your marketing efforts here.
Myth 1: You need to rank #1.
The biggest myth regarding medical SEO is that as long as you rank on the first page in the search engine results pages (SERPs), you’ll still get a lot of traffic. The truth is, even if you rank #1 for a keyword, if it doesn’t generate a lot of traffic or interest, you won’t get a lot of traffic. At the same time, it’s also true that you can rank #15 for a high-volume, high-intent keyword and still receive a lot of high-quality traffic and leads. The bottom line here is that you don’t want to become fixated on rankings.
Myth 2: Your practice will be successful when it gets more SEO traffic.
Not all SEO traffic is the same. Searches from outside your medical practice’s geographic area aren’t qualified because they can’t come into your office. So, if you drive thousands of monthly visits for relevant search terms, but only a small percentage come from within an area where they could get to your office, the traffic is worthless. Therefore, it’s important to have a targeted keyword list and a strategy to localize your SEO efforts.
Myth 3: The most important part of your SEO strategy is posting blogs.
While most practices use blog posting as their primary SEO strategy, the foundation of your medical SEO marketing should be your website and local listings. These are what will drive SEO traffic and leads that are specific to your geographic area. Once you have this foundation, you can start creating blog content.
Myth 4: It’ll only take a few months before you start seeing SEO results.
Although you can use Google Ads to immediately start driving traffic, SEO is a long-term marketing strategy that takes time. Studies show that only about 6% of web pages will rank in the Top 10 search results within their first year. So, while you’ll see some traffic within the first 6 months, for significant results, it’ll take a lot longer.
Myth 5: You get ‘free’ traffic from SEO.
Many people believe that medical SEO will bring “free” traffic to their medical practice. While it’s true that you don’t have to pay for clicks, you’ll still need to invest a lot of time. Nevertheless, the cost is worth it for many medical practices because when the work is done correctly, you can drive a lot of qualified traffic to your practice for years to come.
Doing Medical SEO Right
There are many SEO myths that medical professionals fall into when they’re building a strategy for their practice. The one thing you need to focus on is finding the right keywords and then using them to help you create content and build a digital marketing strategy that’ll help you rank well. As you can see with many of these medical SEO myths, sometimes you must adjust your expectations about how to approach your practice’s SEO work. With the right strategy and the right perspective, you’ll see your SEO make a huge impact on helping you attract new patients. For help with your SEO campaign, contact us at the Local SEO Tampa Company in Tampa, FL, today.
