Nowadays more and more patients are searching for their next doctor and medical facility online. For example, patients searching for a hospital in Chicago will likely Google “hospital Chicago”. They are then likely to conctact one of the hospitals on the first page of results.
This is where SEO comes in. If your hospital is to succeed in the modern healthcare arena, your website needs to appear on the first page of Google search results for relevant searches. In order to do this, you need to optimize your hospital's site for relevant keywords, such as “hospital + your city".
SEO can also increase your share of private pay patients. Private pay patients are not restricted by their Managed Care Organization (MCO). They are free to choose whichever hospital they want. This is why—instead of going to their MCO’s website to choose a medical facility—they will likely use Google instead.
If you want your hospital to get a share of this private pay business in today’s competitive marketing environment—and definitely in tomorrow’s—then seo for hospitals is a must.
In order to answer this question, let us just clarify the difference between Organic SEO and Google Ads. Google Ads is when you pay Google for your hospital’s website to appear as one of the advertisements at the top of the Google search results page.
By contrast, Organic SEO is positioning your website to appear in the real search results (as one of the 10 search results below the ads). Now to answer the question: The short answer is that both of them have their advantages. Google Ads allows your practice to immediately be at the top of the page, however it comes at a cost.
First, it can be very expensive—especially if the keywords you are targeting have high levels of competition. Second, as soon as you stop paying Google, your ads will stop appearing. Organic SEO, on the other hand, is a more affordable and more long-term strategy. Your hospital's website can be positioned to be top of the real search results on Google so that patients are genuinely finding the most relevant hospital for their needs.
Furthermore, organic SEO is longer lasting than Google Ads. Once at the top of Google, it will likely stay there for several months (and if SEO services are continued then it can stay there indefinitely). Plus—best of all—it is more affordable. Our SEO for hospitals services are very affordable and have proven to be very cost-effective in terms of providing many more patients than the monthly cost of services.
If you are interested in strategically positioning your hospital for the long-term trend (that more and more patients will find their next hospital online), then organic SEO is something you should seriously consider.
Red Castle Services typically includes 20—60 keywords in our hospital SEO campaigns. But how do we decide which keywords to select?
First, we make sure that the keywords are actually being used. After all, there is no point in being top of Google for keywords that patients are not searching for!
Second, we select keywords that correctly identify the hospital services you offer. For example, if your hospital specializes in pediatrics, then we may include keywords for the particular specialties and procedures for which you would like to increase your volume of patients.
Furthermore, to avoid competing with other hospitals across the world, we recommend that keywords include your geographical area (usually the nearest city and/or county). Here is a set of example keywords below:
Of course, this is just a sample list and any real list of keywords for hospitals should be tailored to your hospital's specific marketing goals.
Red Castle Services provides monthly reports so the hospitals we work with can clearly track the performance of the SEO campaign. Most importantly, the reports include the position of the keywords and the position change over time.
For example, perhaps at the beginning your keyword “hospital Chicago’ was in 32nd position on Google, but 3 months later it is in 3rd place.
We also include other useful data, such as website traffic and the source of this traffic. Tracking the traffic source is important, as it allows us to see where prospective patients are finding your website. Is it via social media? Or Google? Or from other sources?
By closely monitoring this we can demonstrate how positioning your hospital on the first page of Google greatly increases traffic to your website via Google.
SEO for hospitals can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Red Castle Services, however, believes in charging a modest monthly fee, because we believe in helping our clients in the long term. Plus, we always want our services to cost less than the money they generate. This is why all of our SEO services are month-to-month. We want our clients to stay with us because they want to—not because they are locked into an agreement.
We know that our monthly fee has an excellent Return On Investment, which we can back up with monthly reports. View our SEO Pricing and Packages.
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