Top Medical SEO Companies in USA & Canada Provide an Essential Service to Close to 974,000 Medical Physicians & Providers in USA & Canada

There are certain features you should look for in any modern Healthcare Medical SEO Company. There are 13 service areas and features you should look for. PatientGain.com Medical SEO Marketing system is used by the best medical practices in the USA & Canada – From Coast-to-Coast. Costs $699/mon to $1199/mon. Medical SEO is also known as Healthcare SEO. If you are a dental practice, then it is known as Dental SEO. Medical SEO companies should also focus on building on your brand. Brand building is an important component of your medical SEO.

Is investment into Medical SEO worth it?

Why should I spend time and money on medical search engine optimization? 

In the past, you could rely on word of mouth and your patients talking to friends and family about your medical practice. These traditional marketing practices, while still useful today, will not get the job done alone. Digital marketing is vital in this highly competitive healthcare industry. With the vast majority of current and potential patients getting their healthcare information online, you cannot ignore digital marketing efforts. If you do, you are losing likely patients to your competitors.

Some consultants may tell you that pay per click ads, also known as PPC ads, will help you get in front of patients. True, these ads will help when you are starting your medical practice and don’t have pages full of rich content available. However, this solution does not replace need for very SEO – both are important and require allocation of budget or time or both. You will get higher long-term value with the money spent on Medical SEO compared to what you would spend on PPC ads. However they do not replace each other. Medical SEO and Medical Advertising are both required.  This a very good page to read.

Example of a medical practice in the mid-west. The results are based on following good SEO practices, based content marketing.

How To Hire a Good Medical SEO Company – According to Google

Very good video by Google SEO staff, that SEO is not a black magic, it is based on algorithms and there are no human beings setting in the back rooms of Google trying to change the rankings of your medical website.  This video also covers what type of questions you can ask of medical SEO companies. How long does it take start seeing improvements from SEO efforts?  It can take  from a few weeks to several months before you will see any improvements. The true benefit if SEO is long term.  According to Google SEO staff, medical marketing companies and agencies should set proper expectations for healthcare customers.

According to Google SEO Staff – 4 Step Process

1. Conduct a 2 way meeting – meaning Q & A session – so you can ask questions and
2. Check references and actual work of the medical SEO company.  Check their own SEO – so if the company provides   “medical SEO”  or  “local seo for doctors” search this term on Google and see if they show up first page of Google search – You can also try “advertising for doctors“,  “Medical advertising examples etc.  This will help you determine if the medical seo company can help you.  Also ask them to show you the seo of some of their own customers – Stay away from pre-canned reports or rankings that show “how bad” your own rankings are.  These are sales techniques.
3. Have a 3rd party do a search audit ( usually you have to pay for this and costs $500 to $2000) one time cost. It works as follows.  Let’s suppose you have a medical practice that specializes in “allergy and asthma”  conditions.  Ask for a similar example – and have a 3rd party do an analysis of this existing website.  Ask the medical seo company – 1) how long it took them to get them on first page of Google 2) what specific steps do they typically take for seo improvements 3) make sure never sign-up with anyone who has more than a few months of contract – max 6 months.
4. Decision to hire.  We highly recommend, signing up with medical seo company, if their own SEO is excellent.

SEO Q & A  – How long does it take to start seeing results from medical SEO?

Answer: It takes 4 months to 1 year to start seeing benefits of SEO and improvements in rankings.  Read more.

13 Important Activities for Healthcare SEO Company

Medical SEO companies provide immense value to your medical practice. Companies add value in 13 key areas:

1. Reliable Digital Partner With Expertise in SEO for your medical online presence and several additional areas.

2. Technology Platform – Proven and Available Plus HIPAA Compliant

3. Support & Services to Support Growth of your Medical Practices

4. SEO Leadership and Experience in the Medical Marketing

5. Digital Advertising Experience and Data to Support ROI

6. Social Media For Medical Practices – Apps and Experience

7. Website Scalable Architecture and Secure Hosting

8. Reputation Management for Medical Practices – Apps & Experience on Best Practices

9. Email Marketing and Monthly Strategy

10. Design and Graphics Support for Brand-Management

11. Content Creation & Support for Social Media Posts

12. Professional Account Management

13. Ongoing Training and Support of Front-Desk and other medical staff.

6 Important Questions to Ask of a Medical SEO Company

1st Question To Ask : Is The Medical SEO Company Results Focused OR Marketing Focus

Is the Medical SEO Company focused on results or marketing & advertising and spending your $$$?  Does the Medical SEO Company provide you with monthly account reviews and clear to understand dashboards so you can login ANYTIME and see the performance of your marketing dollars and advertising dollars? Or do they simply send you a report?  Are there any hidden charges?

2nd Question To Ask : Is The Medical SEO Company Focused on Medical and Healthcare ONLY OR Do They Have “OTHER” Focus?

Is the Medical SEO Company focused on results for Medical Practices and Doctors?  Healthcare focus is indeed requires a LOT OF EDUCATION, and resources. We have found that without core focus, you simply cannot serve medical practices.  Ask them are they HIPAA compliant and will they provide you with a BAA (Business Associate Agreement). If not, don’t do business with them. You, as a medical service provider are at risk.

3rd Question To Ask : Is The Medical SEO Company Focused on Providing You Services or Software?  There are 2 Very Important Components  of Medical SEO Marketing, Service and Software.

Is the Medical SEO Company focused on providing services only for Medical Practices and Doctors?  Who will provide the Software?  Or if the company will provide Software – Who will provide the BAA for the Software or Service? Many Medical SEO Companies provide service only, like website design and SEO services, and you still need to buy Software in order to compete online.  On the other side, there are a lot of Reputation Management software companies who provide software, so you would still need to hire a service provider.  Same issue comes into play if you would need to send Monthly Newsletters, Call-Tracking, SMS-Texting, Lead-Capture, Patient CRM, Patient Surveys, Patient Reviews Marketing and several more areas.

4th Question To Ask : Is The Medical SEO Company Focused on Providing You With a Search Engine Optimization?

Is the Medical SEO Company focused on providing services so you show up very high for Search Engine Optimization for your targeted keywords for Medical Practices and Doctors?  So check to see if they show up number 1 or no 2, 3  for their OWN Search Results.  For Example, go to Google  and search for “Medical Marketing for Doctors”  and “Advertising for Doctors”, “Medical SEO for Doctors”   and see if they show up in the first 1, 2 or 3 results of the Organic Rankings on Google. If they don’t, they will not be able to help you.

5th Question To Ask : Is The Medical SEO Company Focused on Providing You With a Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

Is the Medical SEO Company focused on providing services so your online advertising dollars are not wasted. Majority of the advertising campaigns are not optimized.  For example, is the staff of the healthcare advertising company certified? Have they taken courses, and is there a system and data for running high quality advertising medical campaigns?

6th Question To Ask : Is The Medical SEO Company Focused on Providing You With a Medical Marketing Automation Apps?

Is the Medical Marketing Company focused on providing applications so your Medical Marketing is automated? For example How are phone calls tracked? How many phone calls should be generated per day, per week?  What should be the average length of each phone call at the front desk?  If there are leads (potential patients) generated from your Website or Facebook, are they automatically saved in a CRM ( Prospect Patient Database ) ?  Is this Database HIPAA Compliant?   Can your system automatically send “Auto-Responders” ?  Are there Facebook Apps available to capture the leads from facebook traffic?   Are there “Lead-Capture” and “Conversion” apps built into the medical marketing platform?

Why is this important?

Why is this important?  We have found that every medical practice goes through a development stage.  Let review these stages. In the end, you want best healthcare marketing ROI for your practice.

Results driven medical practice marketing plan should be easy to implement and must be automated. ROI should be the focus on any reputable medical marketing company.

Medical SEO companies take extra care of your website’s SEO. Key items for SEO evaluation of healthcare websites

Your dental or medical practice’s website is one of the most important marketing asset. Don’t ignore it.

The digital and marketing environment for a medical website is always changing. If you leave your website unattended and don’t evaluate it from time to time, you could quickly find a site that was fine a few years ago, out of step with current trends and standards. Below are ten things you should evaluate on your medical website. The following information applies to telemedicine physicians, dentists, surgeons, pediatrics, medical spas, pain management, functional medicine, primary & urgent care, cardiologists, podiatrists, addiction medicine, regenerative, wellness, therapy, OBGYN, integrative medicine, dentists, dermatologists, IVF & reproductive, pharma, bio-tech & many other medical practices.

1. Check Website Content Length

More than likely, you have more than one page on your website. Other pages likely detail the services you offer. How long are those pages? Best practices would suggest that any page you have on your website should have at least 500 words on it, if not close to 1,000. Content is King. The more you write about a service, the more authoritative it is, and you will increase your search rankings. Instead of having a page that says, “We have an x-ray machine on-site,” write up a page about the machine itself, the common reasons why someone would need an x-ray, and how they can then take those images with them. The more content rich and informative pages you have, the better you will rank online. Don’t stuff these pages with keywords, but write something a patient would find to be useful.

2. Check Internal Linking

Internal Linking refers to linking pages within your website to other pages on your website. If one service relates to another service you offer, link to it. Avoid linking every other word, as that will end up hurting your rankings in the long run, and it is aesthetically unappealing. Linking internally to your website makes your website easier to navigate for your patients, who do not need to use a menu bar to get to a page they are immediately curious about. By providing the link right there, they can click on it quickly, taking them to the information they need.

3. Check and Use H1 Tags

An H1 tag highlights the essential information on the website as the “Headline” of the website. It should be something that sums up the entire page in several words. So, if you have a page talking about x-rays, x-ray should be between the H1 tag in your content. For pages that are long and talk about several areas of a broad subject, use H2 tags to divide that content up into sections.

4. Check Duplicate Pages

Just as you don’t want to cut and paste from a competitor’s website to your website, avoid duplicate pages within your site as well. Duplicates pages lower the overall rankings of your keywords and dilute your overall SEO Power. Some medical practices use different landing pages for various campaigns. That is all fine and good, but they MUST be different and unique pages. If you find that is a lot of work to do, then create a single landing page that works for all of your marketing campaigns. Having a dozen or so pages with the same content hurt you and could become tough to keep up to date if information changes.

5. Check and Create Different Page Titles

A detail that is missed by many medical practices is not changing the title of their website pages. Many use the name of the practice as their title pages. Avoid this as it hurts your SEO potential. Ensure that every page has a unique title that differentiates it from other pages on your website.

6. Check For Keywords On Content

Do you have target keywords? They are likely included in your homepage content, but are they included on your other pages? Ensure your top priority keywords are added to the services pages on your website. The more these keywords are associated with your services, the higher you will rank as people search for you and your services. With this in mind, avoid keyword stuffing or awkward phrasing of your target keywords. Google’s search engine is becoming more conversational as they continue to improve it. Adding a keyword to your content has to make sense and read correctly, or it will not help you.

7. Check and Add Alt Tags To Images

Search Engines cannot read images, as of yet. While they are working on it, in the mean time, websites need to write a description of every picture they use on their website. The Alt Tag allows search engines to figure out what an image is about. You do not need to write 500 words for each of these tags, just a few words that describe the picture will be more than enough. Check to see your image have this tag, and if they do, that the description is accurate. 

8. Check Website Load Time

How quickly does your website take to load completely? Ideally, you want your website to be loaded entirely in 3.5 seconds or less. For every second longer it takes, you lose patients. The quicker it loads, the more likely you will capture a potential patient’s attention and get them to choose your medical practice as a healthcare choice. Load speed also weighs heavy in SEO rankings. Search engines will push other websites ahead of yours if your site has a slow load time. What could be slowing down your website? Often, graphics need to be optimized, so they load quicker. You could also have various tracking codes on your site that are all trying to load at the same time, slowing down your website.

9. Secure Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are crucial to a medical website’s SEO. When other sites link back to you, that adds authority to your website. If you can secure backlinks from other businesses, educational institutions, and governmental organizations, that will significantly boost your overall SEO rankings. It isn’t easy and takes a lot of footwork to get quality backlinks successfully. On the other side of that coin, avoid getting listed on a website that is a “link farm.” There are some websites out there that contain links after links with little or no content. Search engines generally penalize these links unless they are disavowed. If any questionable websites are linking to your medical practice, disavow them before they hurt your overall SEO Rankings.

10. Include Reviews On a Separate Page

Have you received a review lately? Create a page where you can post good reviews of your medical practice. This page can be marked up, and these reviews used as snippets in various searches. Just be sure to keep them up to date. Reading a positive reviews from 3 years ago has less of an impact than a review from 3 weeks ago.

PatientGain data shows that out of a sample of 3450 Medical Clinics in USA, only 148 clinics have a results driven online patient engagement marketing plan to gain a competitive advantage. If you are using software that is based on data mining & data driven results based strategies, then you are likely to benefit immensely. Majority of the medical clinics are simply using a static website with few links to patient portal, and may be a local web company managing non-intelligent but pretty website.