SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This translates into the activities that help optimize your online presence so you can show up higher in the Google search results.
Showing up at the top of Google is extremely valuable. Google is the number one place people go to find answers to questions, products, and services. This is no exception when it comes to Chiropractic care. When patients have a need for care, they go to Google to find the solution.
So for Chiropractors that want to grow their practice, it’s extremely valuable to rank at the top. When a patient is online looking for care, you want to be there so they can find you. This is low-hanging fruit because these patients are already actively looking for you, you just have to show up.
To rank higher on Google, you have to understand the signals that Google uses to establish your ranking position. There are hundreds of factors that go into this, and we’re going to break down the most important items to pay attention to.
The organic listings on a Google Search Results page is broken down into two sections:
These are all verified local businesses that have a claimed profile on Google. The listings are small marks on Google Maps, but have a huge impact on your business.
These are the organic listings of websites that Google lists out on the page that they try to match what you’re looking for.
Each of these result setions on Google require their own activities in order to boost rankings. So let’s dive into each of these sections to look at the most important activities for you to focus on.
About 52% of local searches end with a click on a Google Map listing. These listings are severely underutilized by local businesses. There is a huge opportunity here to position yourself at the top of search results just by optimizing your Google My Business listing.
If you haven’t already claimed your listing, you can create one by going to the Google My Business website. Once your listing is claimed, you’ll want to fill out all the information on your profile:
Be thorough. The more you fill out here, the better. Listings that are more complete and have more valuable information tend to rank higher on the lists of businesses.
Google puts a lot of weight into your reputation, so you want to gather a lot of reviews for your listing. Google gives you a direct link that you can share with your patients so they can easily leave a review. After every appointment, text that link to your patients (or email it to them).
Better yet, automate the review collection process so that you don’t have to do it manually. Tools like CHIROPIPE will help you set up review automation and reputation management so you can greatly increase the number of reviews you collect at your office.
The more reviews you have, the better. You can never have enough reviews. Business listings on Google that have the most reviews typically rank higher. But it also gives potential new patients great confidence if you have a lot of reviews. This greatly increases the likelihood they’ll choose you as their provider.
Google crawls the web to find your business to make sure it’s legitimate and reputable. The more places you can have your business information, the better. There are hundreds of websites out there for business directories that list out local businesses. Websites like Yelp, Yellow Pages, Foursquare, etc. are all places you want to be listed.
When Google is crawling the web, the more places you show up, the better. They also want to see your business information be accurate across all your listings. That means the same exact spelling of your business name, address, and phone number. If you’ve moved addresses or changed phone numbers, you probably have some bad listing data out there that is holding you back from ranking higher.
On your Google Maps listing, you can “post” content on it, just like you would on Facebook. Make sure to post on here regularly. We post on our client’s listings weekly to make sure that new content is constantly being published on Google. This helps Google see that you’re active and engaging with your audience. This helps boost your online reputation which translates into your ranking position.
You should be posting new photos on your Google Maps listing on a regular basis. When you post them, make sure to tag your images properly. First, make sure that you’re using a good keyword-focused name for the image file, but also make sure to use a Geotagging tool for your photo. In the file of the photo, there is metadata that stores information. Using a Geotagging tool helps tag your photos with the latitude and longitude of your practice. Google will see this information and correlate the photo with your location.
If you want more details on optimizing your Google My Business listing, check out this guide.
On a Google Search Results page, below the map listings, you’re going to find the website results. This is where Google lists out all the websites it thinks match to your search query. It’s important for your website to rank high on this list because the vast majority of searchers do not move past page 1. In fact, most are actually clicking on a listing in the top 3 – 5 websites that are listed.
The higher you can rank, the more clicks you’ll get over to your website which means more patients for you. So, let’s dive into the prime activities you should be focused on to get your website ranking high on Google.
First off, your website should have an individual page for every major symptom and service that you help with at your practice. Having a dedicated page for each symptom and service is going to three things for you:
So you are going to want to go through your website and build out each of these pages. Make sure to include a lot of educational information on these pages as well as how your practice can help treat those problems and the impact it has on people’s overall health.
Beyond your individual pages, you’ll want to provide additional education through the form of blog articles. Educational articles is going to help further build your authority with Google, target long-tail search terms, and give patients more material that helps build their trust with you.
These articles are going to give you so much opportunity to build more content around Chiropractic symptoms, care options, and the overall health impact. There are people driving by your office every day who need it is what you do, but they just don’t know it. Think of these articles as an opportunity to teach more people about the power of Chiropractic care.
The way your website is coded matters a lot. Using the correct coding markup across your pages helps Google understand what your website is about. Page Titles and Page Header Tags are primary code snippets on your pages that play a huge role in your rankings.
Your Page Titles and your Header Tags should include the primary keywords that you’re trying to rank for. Make each Page Title and Header Tag unique so you can use several variations of keywords within your tags.
Web site schema is a set of markup languages to provide semantic signals that will show search engines what your website’s content is about. It also helps them understand the information on your site and how it relates to what a user is looking for.
Including local schema markup allows Google to recognize your chiropractic practice’s physical location, phone number, business hours, and overall address. It also helps with SEO for SEO ranking in search engines when someone enters an address in the search box. In other words, it creates a hyperlink from your website that directly links back to your contact page which then helps increase click-through rates from organic searches.
To help create schema for your website, you can use this Schema Markup Generator.
Backlinks are when other websites around the web link over to your website. They can be hard to get, but they go a long way in improving your search engine ranking. Google crawls the web and they can see how many other websites are linking over to you. The more quality backlinks you have pointing at your site, the more reputable your own website becomes. Google sees these links and believes that you have a strong website that people want to see.
Here are some ways to get more backlinks for your site:
When building your content, you’ll want to consider the keywords to focus on. Research this ahead of time so you can base your efforts around ranking for the keywords that actually matter. Create a spreadsheet to track all the keywords you want to focus on, and build out all the variations that you want to use as well (including location modifiers).
Here are some great general keywords to focus on as a Chiropractic office:
| Keyword | Near Me | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Chiropractor | Chiropractor near me | Chiropractor {insert your city} |
| Chiropractor | Chiropractor near me | Chiropractor {insert your city} |
| Chiropractor | Chiropractor near me | Chiropractor {insert your city} |
| Chiropractic care | Chiropractic care near me | Chiropractic care {insert your city} |
| Chiropractic massage | Chiropractic massage near me | Chiropractic massage {insert your city} |
| Sports Chiropractor | Sports Chiropractor near me | Sports Chiropractor {insert your city} |
| Prenatal Chiropractor | Prenatal Chiropractor near me | Prenatal Chiropractor {insert your city} |
| Pregnancy Chiropractor | Pregnancy Chiropractor near me | Pregnancy Chiropractor {insert your city} |
| Pediatric Chiropractor | Pediatric Chiropractor near me | Pediatric Chiropractor {insert your city} |
| Chiropractor for kids | Chiropractor for kids near me | Chiropractor for kids {insert your city} |
| Family Chiropractor | Family Chiropractor near me | Family Chiropractor {insert your city} |
| Upper Cervical Chiropractor | Upper Cervical Chiropractor near me | Upper Cervical Chiropractor {insert your city} |
| Local Chiropractor | Local Chiropractor near me | Local Chiropractor {insert your city} |
| Wellness Chiropractor | Wellness Chiropractor near me | Wellness Chiropractor {insert your city} |
You can also focus on keywords for specific symptoms:
| Keyword | Near Me | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Back pain treatment | Back pain treatment near me | Back pain treatment {insert your city} |
| Hip pain treatment | Hip pain treatment near me | Hip pain treatment {insert your city} |
| Knee pain treatment | Knee pain treatment near me | Knee pain treatment {insert your city} |
| Neck pain treatment | Neck pain treatment near me | Neck pain treatment {insert your city} |
| Headache treatment | Headache treatment near me | Headache treatment {insert your city} |
| Migraine treatment | Migraine treatment near me | Migraine treatment {insert your city} |
| Carpal tunnel treatment | Carpal tunnel treatment near me | Carpal tunnel treatment {insert your city} |
| Sciatica treatment | Sciatica treatment near me | Sciatica treatment {insert your city} |
Use SEO tools out there to research the keywords that have the highest search volume so you can target the keywords that are going to have the biggest impact for your practice. Then build lots of content with different variations of those keywords so you can start building your rankings.
There are a ton of SEO tools for reporting and research that can help you with your planning, optimization, and content generation. Below, we’ll list out some of the tools that we use with our clients for several different use cases.
One of the most important things that Chiropractors can do to grow their practice is to rank high on Google. Patients are already actively looking for Chiropractic care on Google and ranking high means more patients will find your practice online. The more people who see your practice, the more patient leads you’ll have to work with. If you need assistance ranking higher on Google or would just like someone else to handle your SEO, we’re here for you.
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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