For many brands, getting their medical website to rank at the top of Google’s search results is their number one marketing priority. Why is SEO so important for brands in the medicine and medical industry? Many medical products and services are not allowed to be advertised on popular paid platforms, like Facebook and Google Ads.

The majority of traffic and consumer attention is found on Facebook and Google, and without the option to even leverage those platforms it makes medical SEO and organic rankings the next best option due to these limitations.

With medical search engine optimization the main source of generating inbound website traffic for many brands within the industry it takes an already competitive niche and makes it even more difficult to compete for page one results.

If you want to be competitive and achieve organic exposure it will require an aggressive SEO plan, and the smallest of details will be the differentiating factor between sitting on page two and breaking into the top ten results on page one.

Google’s search algorithm considers many different factors to display the results it feels best satisfy its users’ search queries. Here are five medicine marketing SEO tips to help improve your organic website traffic.

1. Identify the Best Medical and Medicine Keywords to Target

It’s important to be sure the keywords your medical SEO campaign targets will attract and convert sales. With search engine optimization so competitive in this industry you need to make sure the traffic you attract is high quality and relevant to your products or services.

If your business is selling a service, be sure that the search terms are what a typical patient would be entering into Google if they have the intention of locating a service provider for that specific service.

For example, if someone was interested in a doctor-monitored weight loss program, it would be important to target specific terms that indicate an intention to sign up, rather than just generic keywords related to the service that are more related to information-seeking.

If your product or service isn’t prohibited on Google PPC, test keywords that way and once you determine they are profitable you can apply your SEO efforts towards ranking for them. If you don’t have the luxury of gathering valuable testing data this way you will have to use common sense and start by targeting the search terms you know undoubtedly will attract traffic that converts.

2. Publish Quality Blog Content Optimized for Medicine Keywords

Once you begin to create your keyword list it’s time to create content built specifically for each term you want to rank for. You will want to create one high-quality piece of content for each keyword and optimize it specifically for that term.

Google’s algorithm is designed to show its users the best information relevant to their search, so it’s important to create high-quality blog posts. What is Google going to deem more valuable and informative – a 500-word blog with no substance or a 2,500-word blog post with references, in-depth content, images, video, etc.?

It’s better to take your time and create long-form content assets that Google will view as authoritative rather than pump out a bunch of blogs with very little to no substance. If you look at the top search results for any medical-related keyword you will see that they feature a lot of detailed information, link out to trusted medicine and medical resources, and structure the content in a way that makes it easy to read and understand.

Google’s algorithm is constantly changing and getting more advanced, scanning content with human-like precision. Your medical blog is something that can be grown into a valuable asset so be sure to take the time to write well-researched blog posts or hire a writer with the knowledge to create informative resources optimized for your desired search terms.

3. Perfect Your On-Page Optimization

For the best medical SEO results, you will need to optimize every piece of blog content specifically for its target keyword. The reason we suggest only targeting one search term per blog post is to be able to optimize every on-page factor specifically for that one term.

Doing this positions the content to succeed, giving you the strongest starting point. While on-page optimization alone can help you rank low competition terms, the more competitive terms will require an aggressive link building effort off-site, but it’s the foundational on-page optimization that many ignore.

Some key on-page optimization factors to consider include:

• Including the target keyword in the post title as close to the beginning as naturally possible
• Manually edit your URL structure to include the keyword as the end string of the post. Example: www.yourwebsite.com/target-keyword
• Naturally use the keyword in the first sentence of the blog post
• Include the keyword in H2 tag (and H3 if possible)
• Use the keyword naturally throughout the post’s content, including multiple variations of the term to help Google understand what the post is about
• Use the keyword as the alt-image tag on at least one image on the page and if there is more than one image use long descriptive tags on the other images that include variants of the keyword
• Include the keyword in the meta description to help attract attention ion the search results

4. Deploy a Link Building Campaign to Boost Your Medicine Website’s Authority

With medical SEO being so competitive, it requires a very aggressive link building effort to increase your website’s authority. When you increase the authority of your website it passes that authority to every post and page you create.

This is why a lot of the big players in the medical space, like WebMD, show up at the top of the search results for a large number of searches relevant to medicine and medical questions. Their website’s authority is high, giving them a major advantage each time they publish content targeting new search phrases and terms.

There is no shortcut to high authority status – it requires consistent content publishing and link building. Earning links from medical websites is not an easy task, as these sites are very cautious when it comes to linking out. Circling back to point number two above highlights the importance of publishing high-quality content – your link targets are never going to point back to a content resource that isn’t full of quality information from a trusted source.

Use quality content assets when performing outreach pitches. For example, an animated infographic that visually explains a medical procedure is going to be more interesting than a boring graph. Furthermore, a website is more likely to link out to content that provides extra value apart from the information.

Pitch acceptance rates in the medical industry are lower than others, simply because the competition is higher and the topic is very sensitive – no blog or website is going to link back to content that isn’t trustworthy. So, be prepared for a numbers game – getting two pitches accepted for every 100 outreach attempts is highly successful.

5. Focus on PR to Secure Additional Trust Signals

As mentioned above, it’s difficult to secure links for medical SEO efforts because of the trust factor. Linking out to a resource is a signal of trust – a virtual vouch. You need to make a serious effort to appear extremely trustworthy to receive positive replies to your link building outreach effort.

One strategy that works well is PR, which can help get your business and brand featured on trustworthy medical publications. Not only does this help to build your credibility, but many PR opportunities also earn you a backlink, so this also directly benefits your SEO.

Aside from helping you secure more links, it also will help you convert more visitors, whether you are selling a medical supplement direct-to-consumer or generating consultation leads for a medical procedure. Including your press mentions and features in proximity to your calls-to-action instill additional trust, helping you convert at a higher percentage.

Final Thoughts

SEO is no easy task regardless of the industry, but when we are talking about an industry that cannot always take advantage of paid opportunities like Facebook ads and Google pay-per-click, it makes the competition for organic rankings incredibly difficult.

Every single optimization task and challenge needs to be evaluated under a microscope – finding every possible way to gain improved results. This can be an immense challenge to handle on your own, especially with limited medical SEO knowledge and experience.

If you would like to learn more about our fully managed medicine search marketing campaigns, contact us today to schedule a free consultation. Our team of medical marketing experts will help explain the process and walk you through the typical steps, from initial campaign setup to maintenance and ongoing efforts to improve your website’s authority and traffic.

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