Keywords are words and (more often) phrases that people use when conducting searches on Google and other search engines. The foundation of SEO campaigns is keyword selection, so many people ask: Why are keywords so important for your medical website? Well, to have a solid healthcare SEO foundation, you need to be able to be found by new patients..and constantly! To do that, you’ll want your medical website to rank highly (i.e on the first page) in search results. Which means you need to put serious effort into your SEO plan which includes researching and choosing the best SEO keywords for your medical website.

But we’re getting a head of ourselves here. The importance of keywords to SEO is huge on several fronts and choosing the best SEO keywords is a whole process in itself. So to help you out we broke down how to choose the best SEO keywords for your website in this blog. Let’s take a look! 

What is keyword research?

Keyword research and selection is a crucial component of every SEO strategy. It’s where you have to come up with an extensive list of keywords that you would like your medical website to rank for. 

To obtain such a list there are 3 basic steps. 

• First: Website owners need to dig into their target audience and search engines. 

• Second: You’ll need to research what search terms your prospective patients will type into Google when they’re looking for a particular product or service in your niche. 

• Third: Write down what you’ve found and then use this list as a basis to create content that will attract more high-quality traffic to your  website. From there, you can choose the best SEO keywords for your medical website.

Keyword research is never finished: repeating it regularly is essential to keeping your SEO and website strategy up-to-date, and ensures that you’re ranking high over your competitors. If you need help with any of this, Modfxmedia is a premier medical marketing agency that can help take the stress away! 

Why you should be thoughtful when choosing the best SEO keywords for your medical website.

1. To rank highly in search engines

SEO for medical takes work! More than half (61 percent) of marketers cite improving SEO and growing their organic presence — i.e., search results based on keyword relevance — as their top inbound marketing strategy according to HubSpot.

Chances are when you conduct a Google search, you don’t look past results on the first page. Well, prospective patients take the same approach when looking for a provider. So if your practice does not rank high enough, they’ll never even come across your website.

2. To properly market your practice

You can’t expect your medical practice to show up in search results for terms not included in your healthcare SEO strategy. Therefore, it’s important to really think about what you want your practice to be known for and choose your SEO keywords accordingly.

Keywords do not need to perfectly align with search terms — i.e., [cosmetic dentistry jacksonville, fl] — in order to rank. Focus on readability. As long as they include where you’re located, what you treat, and what makes your practice unique, you’re golden!

3. To attract your target patient base

The keywords you choose are going to be what draws prospective patients to your doctor website. When a prospective patient needs a provider who offers certain services in their area, there’s a good chance they’re going to get online and search for someone. To get those prospective patients you’ll want to tailor your selections to fit your ideal audience- that way your practice appears in their search results. 

Questions doctors should to ask themselves when choosing their SEO keywords 

To dig a little more into “how” to research and choose the best SEO keywords for your medical practice, here’s some questions you should be asking yourself. 

Hint: Don’t think like a business owner, think like a prospective patient!

Which services are most performed or requested?

Your patients should always come first, and that includes when you’re optimizing your practice website. Think about the symptoms, conditions, and needs of those who seek your care, and use this to create a robust healthcare SEO strategy.

Choose keywords that fit these syntactic formats:

I do/perform ____.

I provide _____ service(s).

I treat _______ symptom(s).

Your practice will be displayed to patients searching for these keywords, related keywords, or questions containing these keywords, making prospective patients more likely to find and contact you over your competitors.

Which services are most profitable?

As a doctor, your goal is to help people, but your practice is also a business that needs to remain profitable to stay open. Keep this in mind when choosing your target SEO keywords for your website for doctor services.

From a business standpoint, it makes sense to dedicate extra space on your website to services that add the most to your bottom line. When searching online for providers, prospective patients seeking these services will come across your practice and are likely to reach out to make an appointment.

Which services do you want your practice to be known for?

You provide a myriad of services, but a select few are the cornerstone of your practice. Choosing the right healthcare SEO terms will help patients seeking these services and search engines find you.

Before selecting keywords for your SEO strategy, think long and hard about the niche you aim to carve out. When you’ve decided on your SEO strategy and the direction you’d like to take your practice, you’ll be equipped to choose keywords that support your mission.

Need help carving out a robust SEO strategy for your medical practice? Reach out to ModFXMedia for a quote! 

Are your healthcare SEO terms patient-friendly?

After spending years in the medical field, you use clinical terms in conversation without thinking twice. The problem is, most patients don’t speak doctor lingo.

Remember this when choosing SEO keywords for your website, because complex terms probably won’t get you much traffic. For example, patients are more likely to search for [high blood pressure] than [hypertension].

Of course, some patients are more informed than others. If your target patient base is familiar with high-level medical terms, it’s perfectly fine to incorporate them into your keyword strategy.

Final thoughts

Everyone strives to be at the top of any search result, and though SEO, and the right keywords will definitely help to establish your ranking, it is not a set-it-and-forget-it situation. Constant attention to your audience, refreshment of your content, and the implementation of some established technical guidelines are the only way to increase your visibility and rank high. That’s why you need to work with professionals instead of trying to do all this yourself!

If you don’t have the time or expertise to handle this initiative on your own, consider working with external healthcare SEO experts at Modfxmedia. We have a proven track record of elevating doctor websites in search results and helping them smoke their competition!

We provide SEO solutions for businesses wanting to expand their online presence, increase leads and grow their revenue. So when you’re ready to work with an agency who has the very best search marketers using the most cutting edge techniques and technology, then schedule your FREE strategy call with us by clicking here or call us directly at (904)673-7587.

From carefully selected keywords, to on page and off page SEO, content creation, and everything in between, ModFXMedia has got what you need! 

While you’re here check out another one of our blogs about “How Hiring A Medical Marketing Agency Can Help Your Practice”.

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If you’re sitting here reading this it’s because your practice may be trying to solve the single-biggest problem to anyone who has worked in a medical office: helping to address the ever vexing problem of predicting and addressing patient no-shows. 

Studies have found that no-shows cost the U.S. healthcare system more than $150 billion a year and individual physicians an average of $200 per unused time slot. After all, whether or not patients show up, medical practices still have to pay their staff and cover expenses like rent and the cost of equipment. 

So how can you reduce these no-show rates? Well, just give us a couple more minutes of your time and keep reading, because we’ve listed 8 ways that just may help reduce your medical practices no-show rates- and fast!  

1) Use automated patient appointment reminders

If you’re not already doing this, it’s time to! Perhaps the most effective and simplest strategy for reducing patient no-show rates, is sending appointment reminders. 

Automated appointment reminders help bring down patient no-show rates and boost appointment confirmations. And by leveraging automated text reminders, it will ultimately increase patient attendance via better scheduling and slot utilization.

While email outreach is successful on its own, when paired with text appointment reminders it makes your strategy that much more bidirectional — meaning patients can text you back — which gives patients a chance to confirm their appointment, get directions, ask questions, and adequately prepare for their appointment.

2) Use the patient’s preferred method of contact  

Now this seems like an obvious one right? Well, you’d be surprised to know that this is one that is overlooked often. 

Patients of all ages now use technology in every facet of their lives and expect more than robo-dialers, or one-way email and text systems from their providers. They want the convenience of choosing their preferred channel to communicate whether it be text messaging, phone, or email. 

Always ask your patients their preferred method of contact for appointment reminders and other patient outreach. 

By using both text, email and phone call reminders you cross all your t’s and dot all your i’s to make sure the individual is receiving and responding to the messages your practice sends out. 

3) Text patients to reschedule

Sometimes patients do have to miss an appointment whether it’s due to work, family life, or an emergency. Life happens! The important thing is to be proactive about it right away. 

If a patient misses an appointment, reach out to these individuals right away with an invitation to reschedule. Encourage them to text back or contact the office staff. 

There are software features available that allow patients the ability to reschedule a medical appointment at their convenience. 

Professional marketing agencies like ModFXMedia come in handy because they use software features and other services bundled together to streamline and constantly monitor the lead generation process, which greatly helps to reduce and eliminate patient no-shows.

4) Offer digital check-in and updates on scheduling issues

Healthcare consumers are busy people, so asking them to repeatedly wait long periods of time before an appointment may turn them into no-shows. Eventually, they may also become a lost patient if they find another provider who they perceive values their time more. To save administrative time, many providers are continuing virtual waiting rooms options that were created during the COVID pandemic. Or some practices are now turning to a hybrid version of this. 

By offering patients a touchless or digital check-in process, this will allow patients to pre-register and complete any screenings or paperwork before their appointments. 

For up-to-date information, bidirectional texting allows patients and the medical staff to quickly communicate if there are any scheduling or time issues.

It’s also important for staff to be constantly trained on how to interact with patients in the office while the individual is waiting. 

Simply keeping a patient updated if their appointment is running behind shows the patient that your office cares enough about their time. If they do have to leave, ask to reschedule their appointment right away or send out a text reminder the following day to have the patient call to reschedule as soon as possible.

5) Reduce the time between scheduling an appointment and the actual appointment

How else can your practice improve no-show rates? You have to cut down on the waiting time for your patients to get an appointment. Whether it’s reducing no-show rates in primary care or in specialized practice, patients want faster access to doctors, information, and medical services. 

Spending a significant amount of time in between appointments waiting to see their doctor can be a frustrating experience to say the least. So if a practice wants to reduce these no-show appointments, that means providers need to keep the waiting time short for their patients. Unfortunately, the problem is a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario. Long wait times to see a provider increases no-shows, and no-shows contribute to longer wait times for other patients.

It is possible to reduce the time between patient scheduling and appointments for an entire practice if delays are identified and the scheduling process is optimized. You can do this by working with a professional medical marketing agency like ModFXMedia to help optimize the appointment and scheduling process. While also using software to help pinpoint the causes of these delays. 

After using those resources a practice can then revamp their scheduling procedure and successfully cut down their average waiting time significantly. 

If wait times are significantly reduced, it will result in a positive experience for patients and significantly contribute to reducing patient no-show rates. 

If a practice is dealing with habitual no-show patients, try offering same-day or next-day appointments.

6) Help patients understand the need for the appointment

One reason patient no-show rates remain high is that patients don’t understand the purpose of the visit. Only 12 percent of US adults have proficient health literacy, and a staggering 77 million adults have basic or below basic health literacy. This results in patients not adhering to treatment plans — including attending their scheduled visits. 

One of the effective strategies to reduce no-show rates is to make information and health education accessible to patients, particularly in complex medical situations. 

In addition, providers can also communicate instructions and information prior to a visit or procedure to help patients prepare and empower them to show up to their doctor’s office. 

Research published in the journal Medscape General Medicine recommended five steps for changing patient beliefs and behavior as they relate to following treatment plans and attending appointments which we’ve listed for you below.

Educate your patients so they:

• Recognize the risk of not adopting a healthy behavior
• Educate them on the Price of Health and all fees before the appointment
• Perceive their condition as serious
• Believe in the positive effects of the suggested treatment
• Can address their fears and concerns
• Believe they can complete the treatment plan

7) Calm patient fears

Another way to reduce no-show appointments is to calm your patients and address their fears. 

Fear fuels patient no-show rates since patients may fear bad test results, getting on the scale, or uncomfortable procedures. Whatever the reason, fear keeps patients from following through with their scheduled appointments. 

A lot of people feel anxious because they fear the unknown, and this lets their imagination run wild. 

It’s not uncommon for a no-show to be due to someone imagining a worst-case scenario, when in fact going for an annual check-up is the best prevention.

By addressing this fear factor with new patients it’s a big step towards reducing no-show appointments. A provider can do this before a patient’s visit. Give new patients the option to speak with someone at the office about their anxiety before a visit. 

Having a live representative on your website can also help with this. 

If providers can initiate this type of conversation by asking patients how they feel about an upcoming test or visit, they can reinforce their role as not only a provider but also as an advocate and an ally. This can vastly help decrease no-show rates.

8) Send follow-up messages

Automating thank you messages to show your patients appreciation for keeping their appointments acknowledges their time is valuable and helps build patient loyalty. 

You can also include additional information in the post-appointment thank-you message for referrals, medication, and any other types of follow-up.

If all this seems like a lot, that’s because it is! But the practices that take the time to incorporate these suggestions will greatly reduce no-shows, build loyalty, receive more 5 star online reviews, and get more word of mouth referrals. But you don’t have to put forth this complex strategy all on your own! 

ModFXMedia

Practices aspire to dominate their local market so ModFXMedia works closely with each provider to help with lead generation, no-show solutions, determine your practice’s niche and areas of opportunity. We also work hard with your practice to promote your expertise to an audience that is trying to find your services. 

With our proven experience executing medical marketing strategies, your practice will receive a boost in website traffic, in new patient visits, a decrease in no-shows and an increase in revenue.

If that sounds like a strategy you’d show up for then contact ModFXMedia for a FREE strategy call session today! Or call us directly at (904)664-3160.

While you’re here check out another one of our blogs about How Hiring A Medical Marketing Agency Can Help Your Practice
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