When you’re a small, local business, it’s important to acknowledge that your competition isn’t “anyone and everyone.” Your biggest competitors are the same organizations that operate within about a 50-mile radius of your primary location. These are the physical therapists who will be vying for the attention of people who are actually likely to become your ideal patient, and there are only so many people who fall into that category.
Thankfully, having optimized written content on your website, blog, social media channels, and elsewhere can have an enormous impact on these efforts. Well-crafted content boosts search visibility while fostering better customer engagement as well.
So while this is certainly an aspect of your business that you want to pay attention to, it’s also not one that is as daunting as it necessarily sounds. This is true for a wide range of different reasons, all of which are worth a closer look.
Understanding Local SEO
Believe it or not, Google still makes the majority of its money from ad revenue. The only way it continues to do that is if people turn to Google more than other search engines to meet their needs. To guarantee that, Google’s search results need to be as helpful and as relevant as humanly possible.
Google uses more than 200 different factors to determine these rankings. SEO best practices help you use some of those factors to your advantage, allowing you to strategically rank higher than any of your competitors.
Of those 200 factors that influence your position in local search results specifically, many of them are not known. But some of them certainly are – like the localized keywords and content available on your website. How locally-driven the content you’re posting on your blog will also play a big role, as will your presence on locally focused business directories.
The key takeaway is that there is no “one right way” to go about optimizing your written content for local SEO. It’s more about a series of smaller ones that might not seem like much on their own, but that really does add up to something enormous. When you consider that about 98% of consumers say they used the Internet to find information about local businesses in 2022 alone, it’s easy to see why this is an effort worth making.
Local Search-Optimized Content Strategy for Physical Therapists
Website Content Optimization
In terms of the day-to-day mechanics of your website, one of the biggest steps you can take involves using localized keywords and phrases. If there are any location-specific references you can make or terms you can use that are a hallmark of your area, include them wherever possible.
Make sure your content structure is accounted for by including local information and context. Utilize location-based metadata wherever you can and always write in a way that resonates with local audiences as naturally as possible. Don’t force those references in – but don’t neglect them, either.
Blog Localization Strategies
As you create more blog posts, try to focus on topics that will resonate with a local audience. Lean into local events, news, and trends wherever you can. You don’t have to overdo it – just enough to establish that you’re not just a physical therapist, but a local physical therapist.
Directory Listings Optimization
Directories are another big resource to lean into when optimizing your written content – just make sure you choose relevant directories for your area. As you fill out your profiles on each, make sure that your name, address, and phone number (otherwise known as your NAP) are consistent across all listings.
As you work with more satisfied clients, encourage them to post reviews on these directories and other review platforms. Even a little bit of social proof goes a long way.
Google Business Profile Optimization
Of course, no discussion of directories would be complete without a reference to perhaps the most important one of all: your Google Business profile. It’s the first thing people see when they search for your business on Google and, as the old saying goes, you can only make one first impression.
Fill out all the sections of your Google Business profile and make sure everything, including your business hours, are accurate. If anything changes, make sure that it is reflected here immediately. Use photos, Q&A sessions, and other techniques to keep people engaged and coming back. Responding to reviews as people will leave them will largely accomplish the same thing.
Social Media Localization
If your physical therapy practice has some type of social media presence (and it should), make sure that you’re crafting your social media content for your local audience. Someone in California doesn’t care about a physical therapist who only practices in Ohio. Craft for a local audience.
While you’re doing that, be sure to interact with local followers and local businesses to try to attract as much positive attention from the right audience as you can. Highlight local events and partnerships whenever you have the opportunity to do so – you’d be stunned by what an impact a seemingly small gesture can make.
Online Advertising Localization
You may think that paid online ads are the most general form of outreach you can have – but they certainly don’t have to be. Even when you’re writing copy for a PPC (pay-per-click) ad, you should still be trying to appeal to your local community with the right keywords and phrases.
You can also use ad extensions on many of these platforms to boost your local credibility. While you’re at it, be sure to display a local phone number in your ads so that people who live and work in your area know that you’re the real deal.
Measuring Success
Finally, you should always be measuring your success so that you can attempt to build upon it in the future. Never assume that you’ve “done enough” to optimize your written content for local SEO. There is always more work that can be done.
Monitor your local search rankings and make sure that things are always headed in the right direction whenever possible. Pay attention to the story that website analytics are trying to tell you.
Don’t just pay attention to engagement – look at how people are interacting with your content. There should be a direct relationship between the level of engagement and the level of conversions.
Tweak your approach based on performance data as you uncover it. Don’t wait for a problem to grow into a bigger one so that you can react to it. Monitor often and make adjustments just as frequently to avoid those major issues in the first place.
Surefire Local: The Local SEO Partner You’ve Been Waiting For
More than anything, you need to see the process of optimizing written content for local SEO for what it really is – an ongoing set of steps that you execute again and again, rather than something you “do once and forget about.”
Website content optimization is all about localized keywords. Everything from the meta tags to the descriptions to the content structure itself plays a role in how successful your efforts will be. Directory listings optimization, Google Business profile optimization – you name it, and it all has a major impact on how easy you are to find on search engines.
We understand that this can take a tremendous amount of time and effort away from your physical therapy patients, which is why Surefire Local is here to help. Since our inception, we’ve made it a point to support small businesses with the localized marketing they need in a time when competition could not be heavier.
Surefire Local is an all-in-one marketing platform that lets you easily create geotagged content for your site, blog, and social media – core ingredients of any website/local SEO optimization campaign. We also offer advanced features like:
- The ability to request and respond to reviews, and analyze brand sentiment, through robust online review management.
- You can claim and update your directory listings, including adding new content across multiple platforms.
- We put the tools needed for effective content marketing at your fingertips, allowing you to create locally targeted content across various channels.
- Our social media management capabilities help you schedule posts, track engagement, respond to comments, and more.
- Local online advertising has never been easier thanks to how we help create ads that are tailored to attract customers within your service area.
- Analytics and reporting unlock key performance insights and AI-driven recommendations even let you know exactly what you should be doing to see improvement.
All this, and we even offer webinars, blogs, and other educational resources that help you become the local online marketing expert you were meant to be.
If you’d like to get even more local search-optimized content strategy tips for physical therapists, or if you’d just like to discuss your practice’s own needs with a team of dedicated professionals in a bit more detail, please don’t hesitate to contact us today. You can also click here to attend a Surefire Local demo to see what our platform can do in all its glory.