Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, provides the best return on investment in healthcare marketing. The object is to communicate well with search engines like Google, as well as with your human visitors, so that you will show up in the SERPS (search engine results page results) when people look for your services online. SEO for dermatologists is about making sure that people looking for your services online will be offered your website by the search engines.
Here are the steps to take to make sure your website shows up.
You need a good website
Unless you are the only dermatologist in town, you’ll need a good website to show up well in search. Google doesn’t just show local dermatologists for a search like “dermatologists near me.” That kind of search can also turn up sites like Healthgrades.com, Yelp, medical spas, and veterinarians. Google will even show sites from out of town before they’ll show a poorly ranked website. You can’t expect to show up well with a poor quality website.
A good website should have these characteristics:
- up to date technology
- clear navigation
- current design
- accurate information
- optimized content
If your office website doesn’t fit the bill, it makes sense to budget for a new website before you invest in other kinds of marketing. 97% of Americans look for local businesses online, compared with 11% who use the phone book. Which is more important?
Focus on local search
Chances are, most of your customers will be local. You don’t need to compete with dermatologists in the next state for your patients. So you must make sure that your website makes your location very clear.
However, you are in competition not only with local sites in local search but also with the broader online landscape for the general informational searches that people begin with. Because of the way people search for healthcare information, SEO for dermatologists requires a strong focus on local search, plus some attention to general search. We’ll discuss that point more in the next section.
Develop keywords
It’s essential that your website tells search engines that you are a dermatologist. This might seem obvious, but we see a lot of website that just don’t start out with a clear statement of what their owners have to offer. A website for Mountain Aesthetics that features a large, beautiful graphic and text limited to, “Make an appointment with Dr. Sandra today!” is not communicating clearly with the search engines.
People looking for healthcare services often search for phrases like “dermatologist near me,” but that’s not how they begin their searches. People usually start with their problems, searching for information about their eczema, acne, vitiligo, or psoriasis — or they may begin with “skin condition” or “itching.” Initial searches give people a better idea of the terminology that they need, and only after several general informational searches do they begin to seek a particular kind of doctor or a particular treatment.
If your website shows up with useful information during those early searches, you’ll already have a connection by the time the patient begins looking for “dermatologist near me.” While some people now may make those early informational searches with ChatGPT or social media, having great content on your website to answer their informational questions allows you to show up better throughout the online experience.
It therefore makes sense to include both kinds of searches in your first list of keywords to work on. We suggest beginning with about 10. Depending on your practice, your list could look something like this:
- dermatologist near me/ dermatologist in [location]
- skin specialist in [location]
- dermatology clinic
- dark spots on skin
- vitiligo
- skin problems
- acne treatment
- skin conditions
- eczema
- psoriasis
We recommend that you make a spreadsheet with your keywords and track rankings over time, adding more keywords to your list as you achieve top rankings.
Develop SEO content
For each keyword, identify the best landing page at your website and develop search engine optimized content to make that page the best possible result for a relevant search.
Your homepage should probably use “dermatologist in [location].” Blogging is the best way to build great landing pages for informational questions. Specific purpose-built landing pages for keywords you’re using in ads can get you the best results for ad campaigns. Each page should be strategically designed to meet specific goals, including effective local search, general search, and customer care.
Regular, fresh content is key to successful SEO for everyone, and that includes SEO for dermatologists. A well-optimized website is a wonderful thing, but new content encourages search engines as well as people to return to your website. Blogging is the easiest and most natural way to achieve that.
As you add content, develop content clusters to improve your site architecture and make your purpose clear to search engines. If you need help with this, Haden Interactive can build that kind of highly effective content for you.
Continue strategic action
Keep track of your results as you work on your website. Data-driven strategic action will keep your website useful for your practice.
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