How To Win Google Over As A Medical Professional

Google has a bad rep for the “diagnostics” it gives.

And perhaps that’s for the better – you do want people getting medical opinions in real life, from specialists.

But that doesn’t mean there’s not a huge potential for medical professionals to dominate the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) on medical queries.

In fact, because of YMYL (Your Money or Your Life), which is the name Google gives keywords that can have a big impact for someone’s life, not everyone can compete for medical queries.

If you’re not a medical professional, Google won’t rank you for “do I have cancer” “back ache” or any other similar keywords.

So as a Medical Professional, you’re already ahead.

You just need to learn how to win Google over.
Employ SEO Best Practices Regardless Of Your Niche

There are a few medical – specific things that matter more when compared to other sites.

But the truth is that you still need to cover your basics by employing Medical SEO best practices.
Flawless User Experience

The first thing you’ll want to take care of is your website’s design.

You can’t rely on a template from 5 years ago and hope to conquer the SERP. Since chances are you’re not a part time web designer besides being a medical professional, we recommend working with a designer to bring your website into 2020.

And while a designer is great, you should also have someone working on improving your navigation.

Like any other website, you want to avoid broken links, missing pages or not having meta descriptions for your pages.

And all of that is part of SEO Health.

SEO Health is a term coined by ahrefs to summarize how well your site’s user experience is, as seen by Google’s bots.

And if you want to improve that, go to ahrefs and run a site crawl.

Their report will show you all the underlying problems that prevent you from winning Google over, but how to solve them as well.

It’s usually something you can knock out in a few days, even if you’re not an experienced developer.

For example, if you’re lacking meta descriptions on your pages, just install YoastSEO.

And use it to fill in the details about your pages.

PS: This is especially important for blog posts.

Another important metric in User Experience is loading time.

In 2020, you can’t have patients waiting around too long for your site to load. This will drive them to your competition, and it will make Google rank you lower.

To solve that, go to GTMetrix and run a website crawl.

The platform will show you what parts of your website are problematic, and how to solve all loading time issues as well.

Again, most people can easily take care of these fixes without expert input, although we do recommend working with an experienced developer if you have loading time issues that involve parsing Javascript.

The reason all of these fixes are important is twofold.

First, fixing these issues ensures you get more clients calling and scheduling an appointment.

Second, Google uses these metrics to measure user experience on your website. The better you fare, the more likely you are to win Google over.

If you want to get inspired on how to improve your website’s user experience, check these successful affiliate websites examples.
Keyword Optimization Of Pages

But user experience is not the only thing that matters for Google.

The search engine decides where to rank your pages based on the keywords you use on them.

So let’s say you have a services page for pediatrics and you live in New York. If you want to show up on the SERP whenever people search for “pediatrics New York”

You need to use the word pediatrics New York on the page, as well as semantically similar words like “pediatrician” or “child care”.

Don’t rush into it however.

There is a slight chance that way more people google “pediatrician New York” instead of “pediatrics New York”.

So you want to optimize your pages based on the most searched for term, and ideally, the most searched term with the least competition.

For that purpose, you need a keyword research tool.

And for this demo, we’re going to use Ubersuggest.

Just paste your ideal keyword (like pediatrics New York) into their search bar:

And browse the list of keyword suggestions to find keywords with a lot of volume, and little competition.

This is the keyword research process simplified.

And you’ll need to optimize all of your pages according to the keywords you’re most likely to rank for. This works for both services or about us pages, and blog posts too.

However, you can’t just count on keywords.

You also need…
Backlinks

Backlinks are references from other sites to your pages, showing Google that you’re an authoritative source that’s worthy of a top position on the SERP.

But backlinks shouldn’t come from any website.

They’re only valuable if they come from sites with a high authority, in your niche.

To see how authoritative a site is, install the Moz Bar, which will display that information whenever you navigate to a site.

On top, aim to get backlinks from sites in your industry, because that’s the only way Google knows you’re trustworthy.

If you get 30-40 backlinks from spamming the comments section of Youtube videos or forum threads, it might actually hurt your rankings.

So how do you obtain backlinks as a medical professional?

At Authority Hacker, we believe in the shotgun skyscraper formula, and this is how it works:

You create a killer piece of content in your niche, and then you contact sites that are likely to reference it.

Ok, it’s a bit more complex than that, and you can read all about it in our piece on link building techniques.

But mainly, there are a few ways to find backlink opportunities:

● Write guest posts for sites in your niche (just like the one you’re reading right now)
● Find broken links of other websites referencing content similar to yours
● Browse backlinks leading to your competitors on ahrefs

And never, ever pay for a backlink.
Master Google My Business

Besides classic SEO techniques, you should have a strong presence with your Google My Business listing.

First, claim your business from google search results, or Google maps.

Second, make sure you provide clear information for all visitors like:

● What your medical office is focused on
● Where you’re located
● When you’re open for business
● Links to all of your platforms

These will all be featured here:

And they help clients find your page whenever they Google a location specific keyword like “pediatrician New York”.

Third, incentivize reviews and respond to given reviews.

Reviews are one of the most important metrics when Google decides whether or not to display you at the top of search results.

So urge your happy customers to leave a review.

And always respond to reviews, whether they’re positive or negative.

Here’s a side note: this doesn’t have a lot to do with Google, but if you want to schedule more patients, repeat the same process for other third party platforms like Facebook or medical listing sites in your area.
Create Content For Potential Patients

Some queries have nothing to do with My Business listings or your services page, but they could help you land more clients.

As a medical professional, you’re best positioned to answer medical questions with long-form articles that help you convert visitors into potential clients.

But how do you go about it?

Think about your area of expertise.

Think about the afflictions you most often see in your patients, and use them as seed keywords to research the best keywords you could turn into long-form articles.

Then go ahead and write content, just like the article you’re reading now, and employ all the SEO best practices we outlined above.

Publish it, drive backlinks to it and when you start seeing traffic from that article make sure you have CTAs (Calls To Action) in place to convert those visitors into visiting patients or email subscribers.

And To Maximize Your Chance of Success:

Make sure your name and title is displayed all over your articles.

This helps you build authority in the eyes of Google as a medical professional, allowing you in turn to compete on YMYL queries.
In Conclusion

We hope this article helped you understand how to win Google over as a medical professional.

For a quick recap:

● Employ SEO best practices like improving user experience, researching the right keywords and obtaining backlinks from sites in your niche.

● Master Google My Business and incentivize patients to leave reviews.

● Create A Content Plan to educate your audience and leverage your position as a medical professional.

And of course, don’t forget to drop any question in the comments section down below!