SEO For Health Professionals: Yes or No?

Marketing For Health Practitioners
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When it comes to writing online, one thing trips up a lot of people: SEO. It's confusing and ever-changing. But is it something you need to worry about? Today, we look at SEO for health professionals, and what you should be doing.

The Truth About SEO For Health Professionals

A lot of practitioners ask me what I think about using SEO in website copy and blogs.

Here's the truth:

You do need to be aware of basic SEO. But you don't need to be perfectly optimised or use advanced techniques.

You're never going to be the top-ranked page for your modality across the globe. Only very few have the finances or skills needed to hit that level of SEO.

BUT you can be on the first page for your modality in your suburb. In fact, one of my VIP clients has achieved just that with a few tweaks to her website.

How to optimise SEO for health professionals

What you should do for your website and copy

Here are the things that I do recommend health professionals do for their SEO:

  • Have a keyword for each page and blog, and include it as 1-2% of the page content

  • Include the keyword in image names, titles and subheadings wherever possible and natural

  • Make each blog reader-friendly

  • Make each web page and blog post at least 300 words in length

  • Include internal links that are relevant whenever possible

  • Tweak the URL and meta description to include the keyword

  • Use a variety of keywords and phrases, so it's not all the same keyword over and over

  • If working out of a physical clinic, use the suburb name on any page when it's natural and appropriate

As you can see, each of these is easy to action, and doesn't require a lot of know-how. If you know your way around a post editor page, you can achieve all of these. But these are also the most effective strategies to make your website SEO-friendly.

What you don't have to do (but can if you want)

  • Hire an SEO specialist - especially if funds are tight

  • Do an SEO course for 100s or even 1000s of dollars

  • Have 100% optimised content all the time - especially if it comes across as difficult to read

  • Outsource writing and/or editing

  • Get 100% all green lights on your SEO plug-in all the time (my posts often have one or two orange or grey lights!)

At the end of the day, everything that you should be doing for SEO, you can do yourself. Some people completely DIY their web copy and content and do just fine! But if you want some support or to uplevel your site, that's completely your choice.

SEO for health professionals doesn't have to be super technical and difficult.

But if you are struggling, I offer 1:1 services including how to write for your website and social media. To learn more, head over here. 

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