The Basics of SEO for Physiotherapists

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the process of optimizing a website’s structure, content, and data in an effort to rank for specific terms in search engines such as Google. By utilizing both on-page and off-page strategies you can hope to grow your online presence, increase website traffic, improve bookings, and grow your clinic. SEO can help you grow your business through organic (unpaid) traffic from Google in your area.

WHAT ARE SOME ON-PAGE OPTIMIZATION STRATEGIES FOR PHYSIO CLINICS?

• On-Page Copy

  • Headings: Typically styled in descending order of importance H1, H2, H3 – these are ways of highlighting the headings or main points of a page. Typically, you will want only one H1 tag – the main service of the page (Ex: Vestibular Rehab Vancouver). Then use H2’s and lower to highlight as needed.

  • Copy: The text on your webpage is a major factor in how Google sees your website. Think of your entire website as a word cloud and the more words are there and the more you use certain words and phrases the more likely Google is to see your website as eligible for those search terms. When looking at your website, if the information is not in plain text on the page, Google likely cannot read it. When trying to rank for specific keywords make sure you use these words frequently while still writing for the users.

• Meta Data

  • Utilize keyword placement and effective sales copy to target your pages to search engines and customers alike. Typically broken into Title & Description, but there are many types of Meta Data

    • Meta Title: This is how the website will show up in Search Results so make sure it includes your keywords – ex: Calgary Physio Clinic | Sports Rehab Center

    • Meta Description: This is the small descriptive text that is used in search results. You should specify your own however Google may choose its own description based on your website content – ex: Visit Calgary Physio Clinic with over 35 years of providing award-winning Sports Rehab for professional and amateur athletes alike.

• Structured Data

  • Structured Data (such as microdata or JSON LD) helps to hand specific information to Google and makes you eligible for additional features in the search results.

    • Try Business Markup to create a full business profile including logo, phone number, name, links to social pages etc.

    • Try Product Markup to highlight each of your services

    • Try Review Markup to showcase your star ratings and be eligible for stars in the search results.

  • Try this simple JSON LD script generator to help you create the code needed for your Business and Product scripts. You can then add the product scripts onto each of your service pages and the business script on every page of your website by adding them to the footer of your website.

  • Here is a sample script that you would paste into the footer of your Sports Rehab Product Page (it may not look complicated but trust me it is very straightforward and can easily be generated at website like the one mentioned above!)

<script type='application/ld+json'> 
{
  "@context": "http://www.schema.org",
  "@type": "product",
  "brand": "Calgary Physio",
  "name": "Sports Rehab",
  "description": "over 35 years of providing award winning Sports Rehab for professional and amateur athletes alike",
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "aggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": "4.8",
    "reviewCount": "25"
  }
}

• Content Addition

  • Add more content targeted at answering customer intent, questions, and discussing your products/services to broaden your total keyword footprint.

  • Typically, this is done through writing blog posts about different topics, ways to keep healthy, easy at-home exercises to fix common injuries etc. If you are able to anticipate and answer peoples questions you will see consistent traffic coming to your blog from Google, where you can then convert those visitors into appointments.

WHAT ARE SOME OFF-PAGE OPTIMIZATION STRATEGIES FOR PHYSIOTHERAPY CLINICS?

BUSINESS LISTING OPTIMIZATION

Business listings (or citations) are any records of your business online. Whether on Google, Yelp, or some obscure listing site you will want to make sure that your Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) are all consistent. The more consistent your NAP the more trustworthy your information is deemed by search engines and the more likely they are to display your business in Search and Map results. Focus on the big listings first – Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook Maps, and Apple Maps then move into more industry-specific listing sites.

TOP PHYSIOTHERAPY CLINIC CITATION WEBSITES

If you run a physiotherapy clinic in Canada or the USA you should make sure your business is listed on most, if not all, of the following business, listing websites.

• zocdoc.com

• wellness.com

• doctor.com

• healthsoul.com

• stghealth.com

• caredash.com

Note: Software such as Yext allows you to manage your local listings in a single platform instead of having to log in to 10+ individual websites.

LINK BUILDING & OUTREACH

Link building is a process of off-page SEO that requires writing a piece of content and reaching out to other websites and industry-adjacent websites that have a higher Domain Authority than yourself to link to your article. Links help give credibility to a website and if someone whose website is seen as more credible links to you it is seen as a way for vouching for your physio business.

While Domain Authority is not an official Google metric the majority of SEO’s believe it plays a significant role in ranking one website over another. To see how your physio practice ranks compared to your competition you can compare your Domain Authority on Moz.com.

Please note that Domain Authority is a relative metric and not an absolute so it’s useful for comparing two competing websites. Ex. Brian’s Physio has a DA of 27 and Vancouver Coastal Physiotherapy has a DA of 35. All things being equal if Brian’s Physio and Vancouver Coastal Physiotherapy are competing for the same search result VCP would likely be ranked higher than Brian’s.

Please Note: When it comes to links for small businesses think quality over quantity. A single link from strong websites is likely to provide more value to your credibility than ten links from spammy websites.

15 Minute SEO Optimization for Physio Clinics

If you are busy running your clinic and only have 15 minutes to quickly make changes to your website, you will want to do the following tasks to get the most bang for your buck:

·      Update Title Tags of key pages to include “Town + Physio Clinic” and “Physio Type + Town” – Ex: Vancouver Physio Clinic or Vestibular Rehab Vancouver

·      Update the Headings on each of the above pages to match your Title Tag

·      Add a few instances of the main keywords you are targeting to the copy on each page (making sure it is natural and not forced)

·      Quickly review your Google My Business page and use the posting feature to update what is happening at your clinic – any promotions or are you taking new clients? Promote it right on the search results with Google My Business Posts.

·      Write for users but keep search engines in mind. You will want to use your keywords as much as you can but at the end of the day your customers will be seeing and reading the content so make sure it makes sense. SEO is about being able to find the delicate balance between optimization and usability.

Remember: SEO takes time – sometimes it can take as much as a year or more to really start seeing significant increases in website traffic, be patient it is a marathon not a sprint – keep adding content, optimizing as you go, markup your website and eventually you will get there; no matter how competitive the market is in your town.

WHAT IS A YMYL WEBSITE?

A YMYL website is any website that pertains to Your Money or Your Life. These are a particular category of websites that Google treats with extra care as promoting false information or inaccurate information can cause direct harm to someone. Healthcare, and by association Physiotherapy, falls squarely in the YMYL category. This means any content that is being served from the website, i.e. blogs or videos, will be placed under extra scrutiny with extra algorithmic attention being paid to the truthfulness of the information presented.