“Near me” searches have grown consistently since 2013, according to Think With Google,
Your website is the hub of your digital efforts. You want your site to be optimized for search keywords, usability, and content. Doing so will help your website appear further up Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for the services you offer, and help increase the likelihood that users will remain on your site and get to know you better.
In the current digital age, most people find the services they are looking for, including healthcare, through search engines. If you want more people to find you online, you need to optimize your website through good search engine optimization practices.
And if you want to attract new patients, your website also needs to be optimized for your local area. When someone uses the internet to locate a Medical Practice nearby, it’s critical that your website appears in those results (searches on mobile devices containing the phrase “near me” has skyrocketed in recent years).
In recent research carried out by BrightLocal, consumers were asked how they used voice assistants and voice search for local business. The top three most demanded voice search functions involve finding restaurants, grocery stores, and food delivery, with clothing, accommodation, and medicine following closely behind.
The Voice Search for Local Business Study also revealed that 46% of voice search users use voice search to find local businesses daily.
There are a few ways you can drive local engagement via digital channels. Here are a few tactics you should consider integrating into your local marketing strategy:
1. Create targeted advertising campaigns
Digital search or display ads offer you an excellent opportunity to target your audience using various parameters. You can leverage digital ad networks, such as Google Ads, and serve ads only to people within a specific geographic location, such as your town/city.
2. Develop a local SEO strategy
When creating content for your website, it’s useful to include long-tail keywords with your geographic location. Make sure your meta descriptions and keywords include location information. Include your location information on every page of your website, either in the header, footer, or elsewhere on the page. If you have more than one office location, have a separate webpage for each site and include the address and location for each. Finally, include Google maps and/or directions to your office
2. Claim Your Google My Business Listing
Google My Business (GMB) is a free, simple to use tool that allows small business owners to increase their online visibility and promote their business information on Google Search.According to Google “Providing and updating business information in Google My Business can help your business’s local ranking on Google and enhance your presence in Search and Maps.”
GMB appears on desktop – just to the right of the organic and paid search results. If you’re on mobile, it appears as a top result before the organic results. If you haven’t set up your GMB listing, it’s time to do so. Follow these step-by-step instructions to get started right away.
Once you’ve set up your account, it’s time to optimise it. An optimised page helps Google understand more about your business: who you are, what services/products you sell, where you’re located, etc. The more Google knows about you, the more types of searches your GMB listing can appear in.
Conclusion
Your website is pivotal to your digital marketing strategy. And with more patients than ever searching online for you via mobile devices, it’s imperative that your website is optimized for them to find you. It takes time and resources to optimize your site to deliver the best experience possible, but if you are serious about how your business performs, you need to get serious about the performance of your website too.
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Further Reading:
Health Care Social Media 