SEO for chiropractors can sound a bit intimidating. What is SEO? How do you do SEO? What will SEO do for my chiropractic clinic? There are loads of questions. And you’re a chiropractor, not an SEO professional, so can you do it correctly? What’s the learning curve?
So, yeah, SEO for chiropractors is a lot. But it’s vital to your business. And because we know it inside and out, we want to help you grow your clinic using SEO strategies that will work like a charm.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. When you type your query into Google’s search bar, Google provides results based on how well a page matches the answers to your question. Each of those pages has been optimized so the search engines understand that they should be chosen. So you gotta do that too.
To show up on the SERPs (search engine results pages), your SEO campaign must incorporate a few notable strategies:
- Local SEO
- Keywords
- Great content
- Link building
- User experience (UX)
Why does my chiropractic clinic need SEO?
Millions upon millions of web visitors use Google (and the other search engines) to look for businesses online every day. You do it, and so does everyone else.
You know when you’re driving through town and decide you don’t want to make dinner and open your phone (after you pull over, of course) and type into Google “best pizza near me”? And you get a bunch of pizza places as a result? Those pizza spots have either paid to get to the first page of Google (non-organic), have completed stellar local SEO practices, and/or are highly recognizable based on their SEO campaign and their name within the area.
If you want your chiropractic clinic to be like the “best pizza near me,” SEO is how you do it. Finding your clinic organically (unpaid) on the top of Google is likely your goal, which means SEO for chiropractors is a massive win for you and your patients when done correctly. Because, after all, you are the “best chiropractor near me.”
Why You Need Local SEO to Get Patients
Local SEO is super important. Most of your patients live close to you, so you must be visible in local search results. This means you need your clinic to show up on Google Maps and on the first page of the results.
How do you do it?
Optimize your Google Business Profile (GBP)
Your GBP is free, and if you haven’t created it, you’ll need to get on that ASAP. It’s a great way to give Google and your users a load of information as you establish credibility. Once you’ve created your listing, you’ll need to verify it, and this takes a bit because it’s done by snail mail.
Here’s what to provide:
- Your NAP- name, address, phone (Pro tip: keep these consistent with your GBP wherever you have them- if you use Main St. on GBP, don’t use Main Street somewhere else)
- Your physical locations
- All contact information and social channels
- Hours of operation (Pro tip: consistently update your hours so these are always correct and current)
- Your chiropractic services
- A description of what you do using your keywords and keyword phrases
- Optimized images of your building, your staff, as you perform services, etc. (Pro tip: your images should be real, not stock photos)
After all of this is verified, you can really get cooking with this listing and add:
- Promotions
- Sales, discounts, specials, etc.
- Testimonials and reviews
- Events
- Posts
- Videos
Doing this can seriously help you stand out against your competition. Plus, your GBP is easy to update, so we suggest adding a new post at least once a week so you stay current.
You should also create an Apple Business Connect Placecard and a Bing Places listing and get into any online directories that make sense for you. And don’t forget to keep your NAP consistent in each place, and put it in the footer of each of your web pages, too.
Create a webpage for each of your locations
If you have numerous clinics, be sure you have a page dedicated to each specific location. And NEVER just copy and paste between them; they must be unique pages with unique content. Even if each location offers the same exact services, the content cannot be the same. Google doesn’t like copied content, and you’ll get flagged.
When possible, provide local content consistent with the area using verbiage, events, stories, etc. And always provide the cities, towns, regions, neighborhoods, etc., you cater to within the page. This is super helpful for local SEO (and for your visitors).
On your homepage, you should include a list of all the places you do business with and have a clinic and link to those location pages. Each location page should have its own contact information and ability to book.
Get and show your reviews
Online reviews are critical to your reputation; more importantly, people rely on them to make an educated decision about working with you. This is a staple for chiropractic SEO!
Here’s what to do:
- Make it easy for your patients to leave you a review
- Post reviews throughout your website (on your Back Pain Page, provide a testimonial from a patient with back pain, etc.)
- Create a page dedicated to your reviews
- Make sure your patients can leave a review on your GBP listing
- When you get a great review, show it off on your social channels
There’s a lot that goes into local SEO, but the good news is that many of those efforts overlap with your overall SEO campaign.
Why You Need a Content & Keyword Strategy for SEO
Keywords
Keywords are how your audience finds you. That’s the best way to say it and why you need them. Without the keywords you want your patients to use to find you, Google will have a super challenging time ensuring they do.
So, figure out the keywords important to your brand, and put them in your content, headers, meta titles, meta descriptions, images, GBP, Bing Places listing… you get the idea.
That said, do it right. Don’t just go stuffing them in. Make the words flow naturally. Google doesn’t appreciate keyword stuffing and will consider you spam if you do it.
Not sure where to start? Don’t worry; there’s a tool for that. Several, actually. And many are free.
We recommend these free keyword tools:
To choose your keywords, you really just need to put yourself in the patient’s shoes. Ask:
- What problems are my potential patients facing?
- What are the solutions I offer?
- What are the goals of my patients?
- What will help my potential patients?
Using keywords with high search volume and low competition is the best way to do this because it increases your chances of ranking higher on Google.
Content
Now that you have your keywords, you can start generating excellent, unique, informative, entertaining, educational, relevant, and valuable content around the needs of your ideal patients.
Again, ask yourself what kind of patients you want, and provide content for them. If you don’t want to work with high school athletes, don’t write blog posts about doing that. If you love working with prenatal women, write blog posts, social media posts, newsletters, etc., about how chiropractic care can help with pregnancy comfort.
Remember, content isn’t just copy; your content is everything within your pages:
- Images
- Videos
- Infographics
- Whitepapers
- Other resources
All of these things can be optimized for SEO and can have your keywords associated with them.
The backend of content:
- All images should have Alt text, which typically details (shortly and sweetly) what’s in the image and appears when the image is hovered over
- Meta titles are the clickable links provided to show the name of a webpage, blog post, etc., when they show up on the SERPs (your keyword must be in the header, and it’s better if it’s at the beginning of the title)
- Meta descriptions are the descriptions that sum up what the page is about and are shown directly under the meta title in the SERPs (your keyword must be in this, too)
If you don’t write these yourself, Google will take a guess and could get it wrong, so take the time to do this.
Building Links
Links are another element that Google looks for and judges on your pages. Linking to other pages that are relevant and authoritative gives you more credibility. Poor link-building, on the other hand, will reduce your credibility.
The best ways for you to get great backlinks on your page:
- Provide links to businesses you partner with (have them return the favor), so if you work with your local yoga studio, college, or nutrition spot, tell your users and give them easy access to get to their page (always make sure pages you send your users to open in a new tab, so Google sees that they haven’t left your page)
- Have guest bloggers on your site (again, return the favor on theirs)
- When you participate in community events, give a link to relevant places and people (ask that they do it back)
Quality backlinks are a huge factor for Google, so start building this up as soon as possible. Note that paying businesses or influencers to link to you is not a good plan. Relevant link exchanging works because it’s organic and unforced. Paying can become a big problem if Google finds out.
Also important, link throughout your own website when appropriate. If you’re talking about chiropractic and its relationship to athletic performance on your Back Pain Page, but have a page dedicated to Sports Chiropractic, link to it.
The longer your visitors stay on and travel around your website, the better for you and them.
The User Experience (UX)
Your users’ experience cannot go undervalued. No matter how amazing your website, how much perfect content, your online connections, or how fabulous your services are, if your website has a poor UX, it’s doomed- and so are you.
For a great UX, you must have the following:
- A mobile-friendly experience
- Fast page load times
- An easy navigation
- Links that take users where they promise to
- Scannability and readability (headers, bullet points, images, etc.)
- Personality that aligns with your brand
- The information your target audience wants to see
- CTAs (Calls to action) that stand out
To learn how your users are affected by your pages, you need to read the data. If users are coming to your site only to leave within seconds, it’s not good. You’re not giving them what they came to find.
They’re looking for quick, easy, understandable, and relevant information. ALL of those things. So if the information is there, but they can’t find it quickly, that’s bad. And if they can navigate your pages quickly, but the information is lacking, that’s also bad.
Start with the free Google tool: Google Analytics, and if you need more insight into your customer journey, there are several tools to provide those metrics.
The SEO for Chiropractors Takeaway
Online searches are the number one way people find new businesses and healthcare providers to work with, and most don’t move on to page two of the SERPs.
Like it or not, SEO will play a huge role in your clinic’s performance. Your authoritative and trusted online presence is so telling to Google and your potential patients. SEO is a long-game strategy, so the sooner you start, the sooner it starts paying off.
If you’re waiting for your SEO to magically take care of itself, you may be in for a long wait. Book your free discovery call with our chiropractic SEO professionals today. Let’s get your clinic the traffic it deserves.