Healthcare SEO: How to Improve Your Website Organic Search

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an indispensable part of any digital business, including healthcare. By understanding medically-focused audiences and following best marketing practices, pharma managers can provide a solid foundation for growing their businesses. What's more, by knowing the basics of SEO and masterfully applying advanced optimization techniques to healthcare websites, you make it easier for your potential clients to find your services among all the competition.

What is SEO in healthcare, and how to optimize your website according to the most up-to-date practices? This recap guide can help you befriend Google and make its guidelines work for your business.

Before getting down to business, let's briefly explore the concept of SEO.

In a nutshell, search engine optimization in healthcare is the process of streamlining a medical website to enhance its visibility and ranking in Google. The more often your content reaches readers, the more likely it is to achieve good rankings, i.e., top positions in search results.

Your site is well optimized if your response to a user query (search for a service, treatment, medicine, etc.) ranks among the first. How to achieve this?

68% of online journeys begin with a search engine [1].

Once you analyze the searches and keywords your audience uses to find this or that information, your potential customer is more likely to open your pharma business website in a new tab.

How to start streamlining your site's content? It is recommended to focus first on the main site pages (homepage, contacts, etc.) and then move on to the blog and social media profiles. What’s more, the main pages of your site should indicate who you are, how you can be useful, and how to find you. Meanwhile, the blog and social media are about your brand image and expertise beyond the "service page".

A healthcare blog should be guided by the “EAT” rule: Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. The EAT is considered one of the most important factors for Google in determining your overall Page Quality (PQ) rating. To get a high EAT score, your content should be prepared by medical experts: pharma specialists, clinicians, HCPs, medical students, etc. Read more about reaching HCPs on social media in our latest article.

Here are a few more tips to make sure your content hits the mark:

By the way, according to Hubspot, in 2023, short-time videos (Reels, YouTube Shorts, etc.) are the number one trend marketers will invest in [2].

Don't let your page load for more than 2 seconds [3]. Otherwise, you provide a poor user experience that today's digitally savvy users are unlikely to appreciate. In the best-case scenario, they might give your site a second chance, citing bad Internet. At worst — the user won't come back to you.

ProTip: Start by checking that your site is indexed in Google Search Console (GSC). If your site is not indexed at all, none of your content will rank.

Therefore, firstly, check that your site is technically correct. In this case, you may need developers’ involvement. According to Steve Souders [4], former Google Performance Engineer, "80-90% of the end-user response time comes from the frontend".

Secondly, your site has to point the user towards the solution. Consequently, UX architecture has a big part to play. Site architecture is how you structure information on each site page. Proper UX & UI hierarchy in the medical site architecture will keep a new user from getting lost in the range of services and timely find the needed “call to action”.

No strategy will have a long-lasting effect without proper results tracking. Although there are basics of SEO applying to any site, do not forget that your site is primarily designed for people. Obviously, the audiences of pharmaceutical and financial businesses require different engagement approaches.

A successful pharma business is impossible to develop without the involvement of medical specialists. Whether you're a marketer or a copywriter, knowing the medical field is a "must-have".

If you want to kickstart your website or build a product from the ground up, Brandmed is your go-to partner. For 8+ years, we've been helping medical companies to get an edge over their competitors. All thanks to a full team of developers, marketers, designers, copywriters, and medical professionals. How about making medicine more accessible with digital products? Contact us, and we'll discuss the details!

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