These days, it doesn’t matter what type of business you’re running – the vast majority of all people will discover you for the first time via a search engine. This means, in all likelihood, that they’ll turn to an engine like Google, type in “dermatologists near me,” and click on one of the first few results that they find.
That will take them directly to your website, which serves as the most important first impression you could ever make. According to one recent study, people often leave websites within just 10 to 20 seconds after arriving if they don’t immediately have a good experience that confirms that they’ve found what they’re looking for. If you needed a single statistic to underline how important it is to make sure that your dermatologist’s website is fully optimized and functioning properly, let it be that one.
But it can’t just stop with your main website. Your entire online presence needs to be fully optimized and localized, including your social media profiles, business directories, and more. Of course, this can quickly become a full-time job – which is an issue, as you already have one of those in your position as a medical professional. But if you don’t go to all this effort and pay the process the attention it deserves, you’re making it harder for new patients to find you (and are indirectly making it easier for them to find your competitors).
Thankfully, all hope is not lost. By making an effort to better understand local SEO website strategies for dermatologists, you can strategically apply these best practices to your own efforts moving forward.
Understanding Local SEO
People tend to overcomplicate the ideas at the heart of local SEO, but the reality is very simple.
“Search engine optimization” means that you’re taking certain steps that make it easy for as many people as possible to find an online channel like your website. Local SEO takes things one step further, making it as easy as possible for people in a specific geographic area to find that same channel.
Why does this matter? Because according to one recent study, about 1/3rd of people online are using the Internet to find information about not just businesses, but local businesses. Not only that, but about 76% of people tend to visit a business within just one day of discovering them via a search.
There are a lot of factors that influence local search rankings, but one of the most important of them is relevancy. If someone is looking for a dermatologist in a specific area, how relevant is the content found on your website, your social media profile, or your Google Business Profile to what they’re searching for? The more relevant you are, the more likely you are to get served to them as they search.
Reaching local customers through an optimized website is crucial, as the vast majority of all new patients that your dermatologist practice gets will arrive via a search engine. If they don’t find your business, they’re going to find one of your competitors – and that’s a position you don’t want to be in.
Keyword Research
One of the major factors that impact local SEO website strategies for dermatologists comes down to keyword research. Think about the types of words and phrases someone would use if they were searching for a dermatology practice like yours. Then, make sure those keywords and phrases are A) as local as possible, and B) presented organically in as many places as you can get them.
There are tools and techniques that you can use for effective keyword research, including using the Google Keyword Planner. When you create a new service page or write a blog post, be sure to incorporate those local keywords into your website content as strategically as you can.
On-Page SEO Optimization
Another best practice you’ll want to lean into involves optimizing your website’s meta tags. This includes taking care of elements like your title, description, and even your header tags. They should include local, relevant keywords whenever possible.
Again, integrate local keywords naturally into website content. Don’t stuff them in without thought, or you might find yourself on the receiving end of a penalty from Google.
While you’re at it, be sure to enhance your user experience through mobile optimizations and by creating fast-loading sites. If your site isn’t fast-loading and easy to use on a smartphone or tablet, you’re leaving a lot of potential money on the table.
Localized Content Creation
On an ongoing basis, work to develop location-specific content for your dermatologist website. Location pages and contact information are great examples of this.
Create dedicated location pages for every city or town that you serve, even if they’re all situated very close together. Make sure that your contact information isn’t just accurate, but also clear and easily accessible. Go the extra mile (no pun intended) and embed a Google map on your website for local familiarity.
As often as you can, create engaging blog posts with local relevance. Even something as seemingly simple as utilizing customer testimonials and success stories will go a long way towards building local credibility.
As an aside, be sure to capitalize on any opportunity you have to incorporate locally relevant imagery, too.
Building Local Citations
Local citations are any reference to your dermatology practice online that includes your basic contact information. The more of these you can build up, the stronger your local SEO game will be.
Make sure that your name, address, and phone number (otherwise known as your NAP) are always consistent across not just your website, but other platforms. Link your website to your business listings and vice versa. Pay special attention to review sites. Always include links to your social media profiles on your dermatology website, too.
Implement Structured Data Markup
Another part of all this that many people overlook involves understanding the role of schema markup for local businesses. Schema markup is otherwise known as structured data, and it is a great way to attract the right kind of attention from search engines. It’s also a way to rank highly via search result snippets. You can utilize local business markup to get traction in specific industries, too.
Monitor and Analyze Website Performance
Finally, be sure to monitor things so that you always know what is working and what isn’t moving forward. Set up Google Analytics at a bare minimum to track your dermatologist website activity. Analyze user behavior and traffic sources to understand how people are finding you and what they’re doing once they arrive.
Over the coming weeks and months, be prepared to make data-driven adjustments to improve your local SEO performance incrementally. You’d be shocked by what a difference even six months of perseverance can make.
Surefire Local: Website Localization Made Easy
Especially when you’re talking about a service-based business like a dermatologist, don’t forget that people aren’t just looking for general solutions to their problems. They want the right solution – which, in most cases, means the local one.
Localizing your online presence as a dermatologist not only helps to increase visibility in specific zip codes, but it also leads to better and more effective customer engagement and even stronger business growth. That’s why local SEO website strategies for dermatologists like those outlined above are well worth paying attention to.
They’re also exactly the type of thing we pride ourselves on our ability to help with here at Surefire Local. We assist organizations like yours as they work to establish their online presence by creating local signals across multiple platforms. This includes but is certainly not limited to your website, your social media profiles, and more – all to make it easier for customers to find you.
One of the major ways that we do this is through our website and local SEO optimization tools. We help create geo-tagged content that gets published on your website, your blog, and even in your social media profiles. This extends to our content marketing capabilities, too – we provide you with the tools you need to create locally targeted and hyper-relevant content for your blog, Google Business Profile, business directories, and social media channels.
As an all-in-one marketing platform, however, we also do so much more than that. Other features include ones like:
- Online review management. You can send review requests, write responses to the reviews you’ve already received, analyze your brand sentiment, and more – all to learn exactly what your customers think about your dermatology practice in real-time.
- Directories management. Claim, edit, and publish new content like photos or special offers to more than 80 directories, all in one easy place.
- Social media management. Take all the guesswork out of managing social media by scheduling posts, tracking engagement metrics, and even responding to comments.
- Local online advertising. We help create ads that attract only the attention of the potential customers who are within your dermatology practice’s service area.
- Analytics and reporting. You’ll get access to the type of campaign performance data you never had to see exactly how much revenue your marketing dollars are generating. You can even get AI-generated recommendations on the specific actions you can take to see whatever goals you’ve set out for yourself.
- Educational resources. To top it all off, we also provide webinars, blogs, and other materials that are designed to help small businesses like yours learn everything you need to know about local online marketing.
At Surefire Local, we’re happy to help you succeed online in any and all ways that we can. If all this sounds like exactly what you’ve been searching for, click here to attend a Surefire Local demo to get a better idea of exactly what our innovative platform can do for you. If you have any additional questions, or if you’d just like to talk to someone about your own needs in a bit more detail, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.