How Long Does It Take For Medical SEO To Work?

Common Question From Doctors: How Long Does It Take to Improve Medical SEO? or How Long Does It Take For Medical SEO To Work?

Answer: 4 Months to 1 Year (according to Google)

(for a brand new medical website)

If you already have a website, let’s say you have a podiatrist practice for 2 years.  You have had a website, with minimum information and the SEO and other performance like conversions are in a bad shape, then within 1 months to 2 months, you will start seeing improvements.

This is common question asked by doctors and medical practice managers.

There is no set or specific answer for this question.  It can take  from a few weeks to several months before you will see any improvements. The true benefit of SEO is long term.  According to Google SEO staff, medical marketing companies and agencies should set proper expectations for healthcare customers.

It takes 4 months to 1 year to start seeing benefits of medical SEO and improvements in rankings. Watch this video from Google.  

How long does it take to get top medical SEO rankings? 

This is very difficult question to answer. Short answer is “it depends” on many factors. Among the factors, include but not limited to:

0) Domain authority. If a domain has domain authority of 50 or above, it is much easier to improve the rankings – Check domain authority using this tool. SO if your domain is less than 2 years old, and domain authority is ver low, it will take much longer to see the improvement in SEO results
1) Your competition and their own SEO
2) Mobile site page load – should be less than 4 seconds
3) Content of the website – Quality of information on your website – does it add value to the reader – reader can be a patient or a search engine – both are equally important
4) Structure of the website
5) Links inbound and outbound
6) Website quality and E-A-T score
7) Technical website structure
8) Structured information within your website – Schema.org implementation
9) User experience
10) Images & videos tagging
11) Service being offered – every service and keyword has different competition – detailed information
12) Location VS virtual – If you are local business it is much easier to improve your SEO, if you are a virtual, telemedicine practice, it will take a very long time to get high SEO rankings
13) there are additional 200+ factors, according to Google’s CEO

Use Case:  New website, new URL – with no previous history.

We will divide medical practices website into three broad areas: 

1) Low competition – will start seeing improved results in first 2 to 3 months.
2) Medium competition – will start seeing improved results in first 3 to 7 months.
3) High competition – will start seeing improved results in first 6 or more months.

Use Case: Existing website, existing URL – with previous history.

We will divide medical practices website into three broad areas: 

1) Low competition – will start seeing improved results in first 1 to 2 months.
2) Medium competition – will start seeing improved results in first 1 to 3 months.
3) High competition – will start seeing improved results in first 2 to 4 months.

Medical SEO optimization for higher rankings is a constant process, and not a one time “job”. 

In addition, SEO for doctors depends on:

1) Clinic Industry Knowledge and Content Writing Skills

2) Expertise in Search Engine Algorithms, Digital Best Practices, and Patient Behavior

3) Your Competition. Everyone Wants Top SEO Rankings.

4) A Dynamic Software Platform Designed to Adapt to Changes with Trends and Technology

5) World Class Support behind Your Technology System

Achieving top SEO rankings for medical practices and physicians is a process and not a simple one-time setup. It is time-intensive, requires deep knowledge about your own medical practice and Search Engine technology, costs both money and time to get real results, and it never stops for your medical practice.

So for Medical SEO rankings think about a marathon, not a sprint. 

Promoting Your Medical Practice Getting Listed In Important Directories

Your website is not the only place where the name of your business should be found. You need to create business listings on several essential websites with direct links back to your site. The most important directories to create a business listing on are:

How Long Does It Take For Medical SEO To Work?
How Long Does It Take For Medical SEO To Work?