If a patient is in need of a Chiropractor and they don’t have a family member or friend making a referral, the first thing that patient does is go to Google. Google is the #1 place people go to find local businesses. That includes healthcare needs. Patients will go to Google and search for things like “Chiropractor near me” or “chiropractor in X city”. By taking action with your online presence, you can position yourself at the very top of these search results.
The best part is, these patients are already looking for your service. That means they have already identified a health problem they are experiencing and actively making a decision that they need help. These types of leads are great because they are much more likely to actually show up and be committed to their health. This is low-hanging fruit because they have high intent to actually get care.
Ranking on the first page of Google results will have a huge impact on your practice. We pulled together 8 tips for ranking higher and generating more traffic to your site so you can get these patients coming to your office.
Create a profile for your business on Google My Business. This will give you the opportunity to include important details like hours of operation, location and contact information. You can also add photos from inside your office or clinic! These are all factors that potential patients use in their local search results when they need help.
This listing is absolutely key for your practice. Over 52% of local searches end with a click on Google business listings. Having a presence here, building your listing, and optimizing it is extremely valuable for driving traffic to your office. Ranking on Google My Business will help get more traffic to your website and more patients in your door.
We actually built a full guide specifically for Google My Business to take you through all the key elements so you can get yourself rolling with your Google listing.
Website SEO is a huge endeavor, and you’ll likely want to source help from your website developer. Some things to really keep in mind for your website include:
This is just skimming the surface of website optimization. There are a lot of SEO tools out there that will crawl your website and tell you exactly what can be done better to help you rank higher. Work with your Chiropractic website developer to find the weak spots and tackle them to make sure your site is SEO sound and can properly rank on Google.
When you are writing content for your website or blog, use words that your target audience is searching for. Google analyzes content and pays attention to what words are being focused on and used the most. You want to make sure that you use these keywords throughout your website to help Google understand what you’re talking about and put you in the search results accordingly.
Keyword research is one of the most important elements of SEO. It’s essential to know what words people are using when they’re searching for your services or products. You want to optimize your content so that it includes those words, but also provides valuable information on your topic.
You can use simple SEO tools to find out what people are looking for in your industry. Then, try ranking inside the top 3-5 results for a few keywords, and notice how it impacts your traffic.
One strategy for content generation is to write down common questions that people ask about symptoms or Chiropractic care. That becomes your headlines and the body is just you writing down in-depth answers to those questions.
Don’t forget to include these keywords in other elements of your website too! Headers, Title Tags, Images, and even video titles should all be optimized with appropriate keyword phrases.
Patients heavily rely on referrals and reviews on who they trust with their health care. 57% of consumers say that recommendations from family and friends are the most credible source for their decisions.
It’s important to get reviews in order to create that social proof for potential patients to lean on. Without a referral, it’s the only way for new patients to see if you’re actually trustworthy and great to work with. By generating reviews, you’re building trust with others that you haven’t met yet.
Reviews can be used in your social media marketing posts or strategically placed on your website. This is an easy way for potential patients to start getting to know you and trust you.
If you have satisfied patients already receiving chiropractic care, ask them if they’re willing to talk about what it was like working with you by providing a review. You can even set up marketing automation to streamline the review collection process. After each appointment, automatically text/email your patient and ask how their experience was. Give them a direct link to your Google listing so they can leave you a review online. This will take the manual work of review collection off your plate and drastically increase your ability to actually collect new reviews.
Having a strong social media presence is becoming more and more essential to grow any business. It’s important to not only post quality content consistently but also engage with your followers and fans. If you’re trying to spread the word about your Chiropractic services, it’s vital to be on social media in an authentic way.
Being authentic means to not use this channel as a way to oversell yourself. Instead, use this as a way to spread patient education. Create and post content that your community would find valuable for their overall health. Teach them about symptoms that they could be experiencing, why those symptoms occur, and how patients can treat these issues. Tackling social media this way will keep you authentic and build a following of patients that know, like, and trust you.
Google uses your social media pages as a way to establish authority in your industry and community. They use your activity here to identify how active you are in the community. Pages with large followings and consistent activity will help your brand in the search engine rankings.
You also want to make sure that your business is listed on all the other business directories out there like Yelp, Yellow Pages, Apple Maps, Alexa, and more. There are actually hundreds of local business directories that you can submit your business information to. Some of them are specific for just Chiropractors.
This puts your business on any platform that a patient might be searching for a Chiropractic clinic so you have more opportunities to pull in new patients. Just as important, Google is going to see if you’re listed on these 3rd party directories across the web. The more listings you have out there, the more positive impact it will have on your brand. Google will see all of these listings and give you more credit and authority for being listed everywhere.
Make sure that your listing is accurate in all directories. You want to have a consistent “NAP” (name, address, phone number). Keep your information accurate everywhere to avoid confusion for patients searching online and also Google trying to rank you properly.
There are several tools out there that can help you manage these directories like Yext and BrightLocal so you don’t have to try and do this all manually.
Google has another platform that has become the 2nd most popular search engine in the world. This is called YouTube. So there is a huge opportunity for you to pull in additional search volume by having a strong presence on YouTube. Plus, Google will actually put YouTube videos directly in the results of Google Search.
Getting on camera can be intimidating and the level of effort of creating videos can seem daunting. There are several ways you can take shortcuts to get good quality videos pulled together quickly that you can use on YouTube and your social accounts.
Usually, the first obstacle is to figure out what to make videos about. Coming up with content to turn into videos is actually a lot easier than you think. Put yourself in the same mindset as writing content for your website, or the content you publish on social media. Think about questions people have about symptoms they are experiencing or even chiropractic services that are available and answer those questions in detail. By answering questions, you position yourself as an expert as well as build trust with those looking for valuable information.
The next obstacle is how to physically get the recording completed that’s high quality and people will actually watch. You probably don’t have a fancy camera and lighting setup laying around the office. And that’s okay because you don’t need it. We actually wrote a guide on how to shoot great quality videos for your Chiropractic office that you can use for YouTube and your social media accounts.
Take these videos and publish them on YouTube. Then share them on your website and social channels for extra engagement. Building a presence on YouTube will send positive signals to Google and help build authority and rankings on the search results.
It’s not enough to just have a website these days. Patients want more information about what you offer and how it can help them. A blog is a great way to provide that information in an easy-to-read format with pictures, videos, and even podcasts!
A blog is also a perfect opportunity for you to showcase all the work that goes into running your office. It shows patients the dedication you have for your profession and inspires them with stories of success from other chiropractors who are living their best life because they took care of themselves. A blog can also be used as a tool for building trust by providing valuable content on everything from nutrition tips to natural remedies under one roof.
Use the same type of content generation ideas as you use for your videos and social educational content. Answer questions. Write something valuable that helps educate your patients about symptoms and treatments.
By building out this type of content, Google will see you as an authoritative figure and increase your page rankings. You’ll have all this educational content about the things that you do and it helps provide more value to your website. Plus, all the additional keywords embedded throughout your content will give your more opportunities to show up for different search terms in Google. If your content is valuable enough, you’ll even earn backlinks from other websites and people will share your content which further amplifies your reach and further builds your authority.
If you want to rank higher on Google and pull in more patients already looking for Chiropractic care, there are several things that you can do to position yourself to the top. To see how you’re performing on Google today, you can get a free rankings audit and report using our free SEO tool.
If you’re not sure how to use these principles or you want help implementing them into your marketing strategy, just drop us an email at hello@chirobasix.com. We have experts ready and waiting to partner with you in making sure that both your website content is optimized as well as any other digital marketing strategies that will drive traffic and conversions online.
Nick is the Founder of CHIROBASIX, a marketing agency that specializes in helping Chiropractors dominate their local markets and drive new patient acquisition.
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