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www.patientpop.com

The Healthcare Provider’s Guide to

Optimizing Their Local Search Ranking

| PRACTICE SOLUTION

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When your patients perform a local search for a provider in their community

— as more than 77% of prospective patients will do this year — you want your

practice to be one of the first they see.

It’s common sense, but it’s also been proven: Studies show local and organic

search delivers more ROI than any other marketing channel with the highest

number of clicks and best quality of leads.

The Healthcare Provider’s Guide to Optimizing Their Local Search Ranking

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Check it out:

In this whitepaper, we’ll tell you how Google determines local search rankings and

what you can start doing today to get to the top of the page.

How Google Determines Local Search Rankings

While Google is protective of exactly how they determine local search rankings, they

do release recommendations. Recently they revealed that local search rankings are

based on three factors:

1. Relevance

2. Distance

3. Prominence

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1. Relevance

Google is 100% on the side of the user, which is how they’ve become, and

remain, the leading search engine. Google’s algorithm is intended to find the

best answer for each query.

To optimize your relevance, anticipate the ways that prospective patients look

for a provider like you. Are they searching for a particular service you offer?

Searching for a provider who takes their specific insurance plan? Searching for

a provider affiliated with a particular hospital?

If you put up a site with generic content, you’re missing out on local search

opportunities. (More about practice website must-haves here.)

Your Website and Review Sites Should Feature:

• A list of all providers along with bios that include schools,

professional associations, career highlights.

• If you have one, a list of all members of the advisory board

and their bios.

• Surgery centers or other facilities which your practice

affiliates with.

• Insurance providers you accept.

• All Services: (e.g., Botox injections, gastric bypass surgery,

ViPeel)

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Dr. Amersi’s Services Page

Dr. Amersi gives herself an SEO advantage by listing all her services (this isn’t even

the full list!). If a patient is searching for, say, a local OB-GYN that performs the

MonaLisa Touch procedure, Dr. Amersi ensures they’ll find her.

She goes one step further, as each specific service links to an informational page

for that service: this one for Dyspareunia. This page educates prospective patients,

provides more rich content, and adds extra SEO benefits by utilizing strategic

keywords.

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Adding a Frequently Asked Questions page gives providers an opportunity to

be thought leaders and add SEO weight.

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2. Distance

Google wants to highlight the most relevant businesses that are also closest to the

user’s location. If you want to take advantage of their focus on proximity, ensure

that your practice address is accurate on your site… and everywhere else you’re

mentioned online, including local business directories, business review sites,

and healthcare directories.

Finding each place you’re listed online takes quite a bit of scouring, but if they list

an outdated — or just plain wrong — address, phone number, or hours could affect

how close you appear to the user.

List your practice’s correct business hours, and ensure they’re accurate across

the sites listed above. This is important especially for mobile search, where a user

can filter for businesses close to them which are open at the time of search or at a

particular time.

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Maximize your search rankings by claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing

— you’ll show up on Google maps as well as search results.

If you want to see how your practice appears across the web, you can use our free practice

scan tool to find any inconsistencies.

3. Prominence

Google plays its algorithm pretty close to the chest, but this last pillar of local search

factors in how well-known a business is. Prominence takes into account how much

information Google can find about your practice — the more the better. It also takes into

account your organic search rankings. To build prominence, build your presence on the

web.

Ensure you have links back to your site from:

• Articles about your practice.

• If you find a piece written about you and it doesn’t link to your site, contact the

author and ask if they’ll add one.

• Online business directory listings on sites like Google, Better Business Bureau,

yp.com, etc.

• Healthcare sites listings like Healthgrades and Vitals.com.

• Review site listings like Yelp and Angie’s List.

- The quantity and quality of reviews factor into your ranking.

Remember the Basics

The ABCs of SEO still apply. Ensure your content is well-written and includes pertinent

keywords, your page loads quickly, and your site is responsive to different devices. And

always stay up to date on changes and Google recommendations.

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Optimization for local search takes time and effort, but remember that it

provides the highest ROI of any other marketing tactic.

If you don’t have the time or resources to focus on local SEO, PatientPop

provides everything you need to build your practice’s online visibility, your

digital reputation, and your patient base. From launching your new search

engine optimized website to claiming and enhancing 70+ online business and

healthcare directories to integrating seamlessly with your office operations,

we’ve helped thousands of healthcare providers take their practices to the next

level.

See how your practice is performing online today with our free practice scan!

www.patientpop.com

We hope you’ve enjoyed learning all about the basics of Local Search.

As a busy healthcare provider, though, do you wish someone else could just create,

optimize and maintain your digital presence?

If so, check out PatientPop. We’re the first all-in-one practice growth platform

designed for healthcare providers — and, among many other robust features, we’ll

take your SEO to the next level.

How Are Your Local Search Rankings Today?

Diagnose your practice’s online performance today with our free practice scan.

This powerful diagnostic tool scours the internet for your practice’s online visibility,

reputation, and directory profiles to show you how you’re performing and where you

can improve.

If you’re interested in seeing how our platform can transform your marketing and

practice growth, request a demo or contact our sales department.

Contact Us

1-844-487-8399

sales@patientpop.com

www.patientpop.com