Is your website in need of a facelift to better connect with your discerning clientele? In the fast-evolving world of online search—and digital marketing as a whole—voice search is becoming as essential as a scalpel in the O.R. It’s critical that your website adapts to this new reality to continue to reach your community.
Just imagine a future where securing a new patient is as easy as someone saying, “Hey Google, who is the best plastic surgeon near me?” The voice assistant says, “Of course. It’s Dr. [Your Name Here].”
We really are reaching this point. And that decision to boldly say your name isn’t by chance. Voice search engines use several data points to choose who or what location they deliver up. Our local voice SEO tips for plastic surgeons help you hack their decision-making process so that when people in your areas ask Voice for recommendations, your name is at the top of the list.
Local Voice Search: Be Found Where You Are
Voice search isn’t just a passing trend. It’s quickly becoming the preferred method for potential patients to find doctors.
62% of people use voice search now, and 36% own a home smart speaker (other than their phone).
We know having a voice assistant “choose” a surgeon for you sounds a little scary. What’s to stop a search engine from offering up the name of the local hack job doctor for whom you’ve had to fix one too many lop-sided brow lifts?
Fortunately, search engine companies take this responsibility seriously. Voice search ranking is largely dependent on factors like:
- Positive, frequent, and recent patient reviews
- Authentic patient interactions
- Overall strong online reputation
- Local signals (in the case of local professional service providers like you)
Local voice SEO tips for plastic surgeons take this a step further by making your website highly visible—we mean “speakable”— in your local community, even down to the zip code.
Major Voice Assistants Leading the Voice Search Revolution
Several key technologies have emerged as the leaders in voice search. Those include:
- Google Assistant: Dominating the market with its integration in Android devices and Google Home speakers.
- Siri: Apple’s pioneer in voice search, integrated into all its devices, offering a seamless experience for iOS users.
- Alexa: Amazon’s contribution to voice is prevalent in homes via Echo devices.
- Cortana: Although less popular, Microsoft’s Cortana still plays a role in the voice search ecosystem, especially among Windows or Microsoft Edge users.
The Vital Role of Voice Search
Imagine a patient sitting on their couch watching TV when they see an actress they love just got lip filler and looks amazing. All they have to do is ask Siri “where can I get lip filler?” and Siri will show 2-3 options on the phone screen or speak an answer.
Search engines are locally driven, so even though this future patient of yours didn’t say “near me”, Siri shows doctors in their area.
And who it shows depends on how well they have:
A) optimized for voice search
B) localized their online presence
So, let’s get to that!
Local Voice SEO Tips for Plastic Surgeons
1. Target Real Searches
In order to appear in voice search, you need to design content around real local searches. At the end of the day, every search is a query from a person. Someone wants to know something.
Sometimes, that something is “Who’s the best plastic surgeon in my town?” and sometimes, that query is more like “Facelift vs. mini facelift” with the latter still leading them to your website where you can turn a visitor into a patient.
Local keyword research will help you discover the questions people are asking specific to your local area. You can then build pages and content around those searches.
It’s important to focus on long-tail, conversational phrases like “where can I get a tummy tuck” rather than broad terms like “tummy tuck” or worse technical words everyday people don’t use like “Abdominoplasty” because you want voice assistants to realize that your page or section is answering this person’s question.
2. Fine Tune Your Online Presence
Voice search uses local business directories to verify that the practice you are performing is in relation to the person asking and to establish your credibility.
So, it’s vital to completely fill out your online business profiles.
- Google Business is the most important because this is the one that Android devices and Google Home Assistants use in addition to being the No. 1 search engine for non-voice.
- Apple Maps and Bing Places will be second and third priorities for most practices—unless your target audience is a heavy user of iPhone or Cortana voice search on laptops, desktops, or the Edge browser on their phone. You’ll need to create an Apple ID to manage your Apple listing even if you’re not an Apple user.
- Yelp is vital, too, because it further localizes your presence.
While you may not know which devices and browsers your audience uses right now, you’ll learn this as you begin tracking where your website traffic is coming from and what devices your visitors are using.
Don’t miss out on ensuring your practice appears accurately on all major platforms.
Claim and optimize your listing to include comprehensive service details, operating hours, helpful content, and mentions of local landmarks, festivals, events, trends, and businesses near you. You’re localizing your presence so that search engines recognize where you are.
Start getting patient reviews, which will largely come from users that voice search engines can see are from the local area/ This further localizes your brand.
3. Be Mobile First
Your website must be fast, responsive and aesthetically pleasing on mobile devices. It may even be more important than your desktop site when it comes to voice SEO.
Here’s why.
Globally 27% of voice searches happen on mobile devices.
May not sound like much, but when you compare it to the fact that 82% of people use mobile phones for local searches and often from right around the corner, the picture becomes a whole lot clearer.
One ranking factor among search engines is user engagement. If voice search sees people on mobile fleeing your website, it will stop choosing to show your practice in the top spots.
4. Venture Into Structured Data
Structured data has become the backbone of SEO as it clarifies for search engines what information is and how best to communicate it to a searcher. Schema Markup is a specialized code that search engines use for this purpose, and you can place information inside this code to allow the voice assistant to relay that information in its most useful form.
Imagine if a hardware store listed its weekly office hours as a string of text that includes days of the week and times but no punctuation. You’d have some difficulty understanding whether they open at 8 AM on Sunday or what days they close early. It’s even more confusing to a search engine, but this is often how pages are set up visually.
Patients will ask voice searches things like “Is Dr. [Your Name Here] open?” If that information is within structured data, the voice assistant can check the patient’s current time zone and then answer the question based on the days and times listed.
Here’s the thing. Search engines hate being wrong. They will go out of their way to try to avoid it, even if that means ignoring the website of a reputable plastic surgeon’s office that’s just one block away from the patient because the technology can’t fully understand the website. The better search engines understand the information on your website, the more likely you are to become their favorite during patient requests.
And hours of operation only go skin deep. You can use structured data to improve search’s understanding of:
- Location
- Services offered
- Price ranges
- Insurances accepted (for that medically-necessary nose reconstructions)
- Facilities where you have permissions
- Credentials, specialties, awards, and affiliations
- Upcoming events
- Reviews
- And more
5. Consistency is Key
Maintain uniformity in your practice’s Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) across all online platforms. Inconsistencies here are akin to mixed messages in patient care—confusing and unprofessional. Incongruous information may lead search engines to misunderstand that you have multiple locations or send a patient to the wrong address or phone. Automating your directory management is one of the local voice SEO tips for plastic surgeons that we can definitely get behind.
Sculpt Your Online Presence with Local Voice SEO Strategies for Plastic Surgeons
More patients than ever before are using their voices to find out about plastic surgeons and procedures. It’s vital to build an online presence that makes it easy for voice assistants to choose your brand as a source of reliable information.
Surefire Local is here to ensure your presence if optimized for voice. As the leading all-in-one marketing platform for small local businesses, we have the tools you need to establish a trustworthy and memorable online brand. By attending a Surefire Local demo, you’ll see firsthand how this platform can simplify the management of all aspects of voice SEO strategies, seamlessly integrating them into one user-friendly interface. So be sure to sign up for a demo.