Today, digital marketing is both a powerful and cost-effective tool for plastic surgery practices to build their brand. More than 70% of global desktop search traffic is performed on Google and nearly half of all Google searches are local, which paint a clear picture of the power of the importance of local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for any business.
For plastic surgeons who primarily provide elective procedures, attracting more patients and building relationships are vital to building a successful practice for the long-term.
About Local SEO
Nowadays, the large majority of prospective clients make their decisions based on what they’ve researched on the web. A strong local SEO strategy aims to position your brand at the right place at the right time for when those millions of searches are taking place. For growing plastic surgery practices that need to make the most of every available marketing dollar, there is no better investment than an effective local SEO strategy.
The numbers at a glance:
- Nearly a quarter of organic search traffic converts to a lead.
- Over 70% of potential consumers searching for local businesses will choose one within five miles of their location.
- At least half of “near me” searches eventually lead to an in-store visitation.
- About 70% of consumers favor businesses that have marketed to their location directly.
- On average, searchers will read at least six reviews on a business before reaching a decision
Despite the data, more than 50% of small businesses have not claimed their local Google listing! Within the next five years, about $1.5 trillion in sales will be influenced by local mobile searches and every metric indicates the trend is going to continue. Practices large or small that do not take advantage of local search will inevitably fall further and further behind.
Choosing a marketing plan that fits your practice is an understandably daunting task.
Marketing strategies for plastic surgeons are unique compared to other sectors of the medical industry. With plastic surgery practices, the plastic surgeon is central to the strength of the brand. The relationship between the client and the brand is essentially a relationship between the client and the physician.
At GrowthMed, we’ve made it our purpose to keep in stride with the best practices for plastic surgery SEO and local SEO.
Plastic Surgery Best Local SEO Practices
Local SEO on Mobile
By now, many professionals in the medical industry are seeing how effective good local SEO strategy can be for their business. However, one regularly overlooked, but essential aspect of local SEO is mobile SEO. Nearly all mobile users conduct their searches using Google, spending an average of four hours each day on their smartphones using search functions such as address confirmation and browsing reviews.
Mobile Optimization
With more than half of all Google searches taking place on a mobile device (we’re talking hundreds of billions), the mobile version of your website is just as important as your desktop site if not moreso. If the explosive growth of mobile search continues, then your mobile site will only become more and more important.
Local mobile searches are where all of these strategies play their most important role in your business.
Test your site using Google’s mobile-friendly test tool!
We’ve worked with many of the most prominent doctors in the industry and through our experience, we’ve developed a tried-and-tested checklist for SEO best practices.
Plastic Surgery SEO Checklist
Strong Homepage Content
As the public “face” of your practice, your homepage must be structured efficiently and contain strong content that communicates what your brand is about. Beautifully structured design and clean, well-placed copy that describes your services, practitioners and locations are essential.
Good structure and compelling content are highly rewarded by Google’s AI.
Rich Formatted Content
Even with the increasing popularity of video, written content will continue to be the lifeblood of your site and a cornerstone of your local SEO strategy. Google is constantly updating its algorithms to provide searchers with the best content possible. The Google engine today is leaps and bounds smarter than Google just five years ago.
That said, many of the principles of strong content creation remain as true as ever.
- In-depth Content is King: In Google’s eyes, there are a variety of characteristics that can make content top-ranked.
- If one of your primary services are liposuction, be sure your liposuction page is 100% focused on liposuction with at least 1500 words.
- Include Frequently Asked Questions, which are a great way to target relevant keywords.
- Optimize content for Mobile: short paragraphs, legible color contrast between background and text, and short line lengths.
Your Practice’s Google Business Page
Implementing good habits for your Google Business Page is an important aspect of local SEO strategy and mobile SEO strategy.
The following guidelines are simple steps your practice can employ without much investment. Though they are easy steps, they must be followed with consistency.
Match NAP with Your Google Business Listing
NAP simply stands for Name, Address and Phone Number on a Google Business Listing. Be sure that your NAP is consistently listed and matched across your site and Business Listing. Additionally, marking up NAP along schema.org guidelines will tell search engines where to find your business location information. This also applies to the way your business hours are listed on your site.
Single Listing
Check to see you only have a single listing. Many businesses will have multiple listings whether it be from old locations or brand changes. You must delete these because they will dilute the power of your primary listing.
Verification
Verify your Business page with Google or it is less likely to show up in Searches.
These are quick first step that you can implement right away to build your practice’s local SEO profile. Your local SEO strategy will be crucial to building your brand and reaching high-value clients in your area.
Click here to see our in-depth breakdown and learn more about SEO
Looking ahead – Voice Search
Devices like Google Home, Amazon Echo, Siri, and Cortana are growing in popularity and with them, so is the importance of optimization for voice search.
As many as 40% of adults will perform one voice search daily. The number of voice searches performed are up more than thirty-five times in the last decade.
Taking advantage of voice search will only help your practice.
Voice Search SEO
Developing a strong SEO strategy for voice will require some work and planning. Here are a few key factors that are especially important for voice search:
- Google voice results typically pull from results that are ranked in the top three.
- Voice results are heavily favored towards content that appears in Featured Snippets.
- Voice search answers are often question-based, I.E How is liposuction performed?
Which SEO strategy will best fit my practice?
Much like plastic surgery, the SEO strategy that is best will be tailored to the specific goals and concerns relevant to your practice.
If you have further questions about plastic surgery digital marketing, contact us anytime and we’ll be more than happy to help!