When someone types dentist near me or best physical therapist in [city], they’re not just browsing. These are people who intend to book their appointment right now. 76% of local searchers on smartphones visit a business they find within 24 hours—in your case, they schedule their appointment.
But this search visibility isn’t a given. You have competition. And if your practice isn’t in the top 3, it’s more or less invisible. Fortunately, you can influence this visibility.
Understanding and aligning with local search intent is how you can get more patients and the ideal patients—those who schedule now, show up on time, and want to keep coming back. In this article, we’ll share the steps you can take right now.
1. Localize Your Healthcare Brand with Local SEO
Google and other search engines prioritize local businesses. This gives you a tremendous advantage over national healthcare systems in your area—if you accentuate your localness.
Use local keyword research tools to better understand how patients in your area find your services.
What questions are they asking? How can you leverage this on your website, social media, and PPC ads to bring the best patients through your doors?
Show you’re part of your community and that locals value your people and practice, and you’ll elevate your local search intent visibility.
2. Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Why does it matter? Google continues to hold nearly 90% of search traffic. Your Google Business profile showcases your most crucial practice information and lets people schedule, then and there.
It strengthens the confidence of both patients and Google in your practice and directly impacts local search visibility on Maps, local search results, and more.
Steps to Optimize Your GBP:
- Claim and Verify Your Listing: Begin by claiming your practice’s GBP listing through Google’s verification process. This step is vital to managing and updating your business information accurately.
- Complete Your Profile Thoroughly: Provide comprehensive details, including your practice’s name, address, phone number (NAP), website URL, business hours, and a brief description of services offered.
- Select Appropriate Categories: Choose categories that accurately represent your practice, such as “Dentist,” “Pediatrician,” or “Physical Therapist,” to help Google match your services with relevant searches.
- Upload High-Quality Photos: Add professional images of your office, staff, and services to create a welcoming impression and give potential patients a glimpse into your practice environment.
- Encourage and Respond to Reviews: Actively seek patient reviews and respond promptly to feedback. Positive reviews enhance credibility and can influence potential patients’ decisions.
- Post Practice Updates: They don’t have to take much time. Just posting simple updates 1-2 times a week will make your page feel active and connected.
We could obviously go into more detail here, but if you just do these 6 things, you can substantially improve your visibility to bring in the ideal patients.
The best way to attract dental, dermatology, or orthopedic patients is to strengthen this pillar of your local search presence.
3. Ensure Consistent NAP Information Across Online Platforms
Being consistent in your practice’s Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) across all online platforms is crucial for local SEO. Discrepancies can confuse search engines and potential patients, negatively impacting your search rankings and credibility.
Strategies for NAP Consistency:
- Audit Existing Listings: Regularly review all online mentions of your practice to identify and correct any inconsistencies in your NAP information.
- Update All Platforms: Ensure uniform NAP details across your website, social media profiles, local directories, and healthcare-specific platforms.
- Monitor for Duplicates: Check for and resolve any duplicate listings, as they can dilute your online presence and confuse search engines.
And when you’re ready to streamline this process to attract new patients to your medical office in droves, use directory automation software: Track and update your information across directories from one place. These marketing tools save hundreds of hours while expanding the number of key directories you appear in. This can enhance Google’s confidence, leading to better visibility.
4. Utilize Schema Markup
Schema markup is specialized code that all major search engines understand. This code turns what looks like strings of data to a search engine into organized and user-friendly information that can appear directly in the search results.
For example, using schema, you can display hours, services, price ranges, directions, specials, star rating, and other helpful, clickable facts that help someone choose your practice from the search results.
Before they even reach your website, they’ve already decided you’re the one. This is the best way to attract new patients.
5. Encourage and Manage Patient Reviews
Patient reviews from people in your area become hundreds of little localized arrows pointing toward your practice. These local signals improve both your search visibility and patient perception when they do see your practice in search.
And that’s a powerful duo to get more patients, more frequent patients, and higher-paying patients, too.
Having a 5-star reputation isn’t just about getting all 5-star reviews. It’s about ensuring that reviews are recent, relevant, and in enough quantity to build trust.
Best Practices for Managing Reviews:
After appointments, encourage satisfied patients to leave positive feedback on platforms like Google, Healthgrades, or Yelp. Why not stick exclusively with Google? iPhone’s Siri prefers Yelp, which matters if your patients tend to use iPhones.
Acknowledge positive reviews with gratitude and address negative feedback professionally, demonstrating your commitment to patient satisfaction. Try to personalize responses (HIPAA-compliantly) to show you care. And when possible, resolve complaints.
Often, if you’re nice, patients will change their opinion of you and perhaps the perceptions of others who see that review.
Highlight testimonials and include them in key decision-making areas like scheduling features. Feature positive patient testimonials on your website and social media to build trust with prospective patients.
Utilize reputation management software to automate review requests, alert you about new reviews, and track overall sentiment. AI review tools can even help you quickly craft personalized responses, saving you time while helping you get the most out of your 5-star reputation.
This isn’t about letting AI do it for you. It’s about using it effectively to create more meaningful responses faster.
6. Build Local Citations and Backlinks
Citations and backlinks from reputable local websites create more arrows to your practice. You can acquire these by networking in your community and ensuring key local directories have your information.
Identify local organizations and community websites that showcase local businesses and happenings.
Participate in community events or sponsor local initiatives, leading to mentions and backlinks from local organizations’ websites.
Partner with complementary local businesses for cross-promotional opportunities. You can achieve mutual backlinks and increased exposure among each other’s patients/customers.
You could even work with non-competing but related businesses, such as a mom-and-pop pharmacy, health club, or nutrition coaching services, to share the costs of a live event that brings in more patients/clients for all of you.
This could earn local news coverage, leading to more citations and backlinks.
7. Optimize for Mobile Users
Over 60% of web traffic is now mobile, with rates even higher for local searches. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, people bounce. And that bounced traffic suggests to search engines that you don’t have what people need. Rankings suffer.
Now, more than ever, it’s essential to have a website that’s easy to use on mobile devices. Everything from scheduling to choosing a doctor to getting directions should be effortless on a phone.
Implement a responsive website design that adapts seamlessly to various screen sizes and devices. View your website on mobile to make sure it appears as you intend.
Many platforms will allow you to remove troublesome elements from your mobile pages to simplify the experience so you can bring in more patients.
8. Run Cost-Effective PPC Campaigns
PPC campaigns alone can cost a lot of money. But when combined with the power of local SEO, you can amplify your reach and increase new patient appointments quickly and cost-efficiently.
Invest in local pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns targeting specific services and demographics. Platforms like Google Ads allow you to appear in search results for queries like “pediatrician accepting new patients in [city].” Or “get a brow lift in [city]” for some highly-targeted local advertising that works.
9. Reactivate Former Patients
Don’t overlook the value of re-engaging past patients. Identify patients who haven’t visited in over six months or a year, depending on your specialty. Send tailored emails or messages reminding them of due appointments or new services.
Consider providing special offers or discounts to encourage return visits, demonstrating you value loyalty. These savings are worth every penny because it costs much less to bring a former patient back than to attract a new one. You grow your practice by keeping patients coming back.
Want to learn more ways to attract ideal patients to your office with the best local marketing software? Schedule a free demo of our all-in-one marketing platform.