SEO Guide for Plastic Surgeons

As a plastic surgeon, you are probably constantly facing the challenge to acquire new clients. While getting referrals from your existing happy customers, it is very important to reach new patients. In order to achieve this, you need to be very accessible and easily discovered online. At 23e2 Digital, our team of experts will develop SEO strategy tailor to cosmetic surgery and ultimately improve your online presence.

What is SEO?

SEO is done by revamping your website on the surface rather than from deep within.  The Goal of SEO is to improve the ranking of your website on search engines like Google.  The way Google provides search results to searchers is based on over 200 factors.  But the very first factor is relevance.  How relevant is the content you have posted to the searchers search queries?  A big mistake people make when they are trying to rank higher on google is that they only change one thing.  In many cases, ranking higher is not a one and done solution.  Instead it is a combination of adjusting 2 or more ranking factors.  With plastic surgery SEO , we aim to target key components that influence rankings.  The use of keywords, layout, and writing style of articles on your site are all components of SEO, but they aren’t the only ones.  

google analytics metrics

SEO components for plastic surgery online

One common misconception about SEO is that one factor is always more important than the others.  That simply isn’t true, all components hold equal importance.  Just like many other situations, if you overload on one aspect, you can do more harm than good.  For example, if you focus on content keywords too much, you could be sacrificing the content quality in an effort to jam as many keywords in as you can.  With that being said, consider all the following components of SEO:

Keywords

Keywords in online content should match keywords in search queries.  Generally, it is a good idea to remain focused on a few select keywords than try to blanket as many keywords as you can.  As previously mentioned, SEO does not benefit from an overload of keywords.  Focus on quality content rather than using your keyword as much as you can.

Layout

The website and article layout is crucial to SEO.  If your website is hard to navigate, your business is suffering.  A difficult to navigate site can confuse and frustrated customers.  A consumer wants to be able to spend a fairly short time navigating to the information they want.  Laying out your site along with your articles in a user friendly way can keep consumers on your page for longer, increase the likelihood of them sharing articles, and following through with purchases.

User experience

Hand in hand with layout is user experience.  What kind of experience do your customers have while on your website?  Can they clearly read all the content? Can they find the menus? Take a second look at the fonts, colours, and size of the content on your pages; do they improve or hinder your users’ experience?  These are all questions you need to ask yourself when revamping for SEO.  For more tips on making a website user friendly check out this article.

Writing Style

The writing style of your content is very important to seo as well.  Don’t try to complicate your content, make it easy to read and understand.  Unless you are writing a scholarly article, refrain from using words beyond a 9th grade level or confusing layouts.

Images

To keep things simple, and break up what would be large chunks of wordy information, use images.  Images can provide readers a visual learning dynamic, or a break from traditional reading, not to mention add colour to an otherwise colourless webpage.

Article length

Contrary to my initial thoughts, longer articles tend to do much better in search engines than short ones.  By long i mean, the average number one ranking website on google is over 2000 words.  That doesnt mean go and write a bunch of fluff in your articles though.  Instead of just filling your articles, go further in depth, add details and examples, all while maintaining relevance to the article objective.

Backlinks

Think of the internet as a series of channels, there’s a reason it’s called the web!  It is extremely beneficial to SEO, if your article contains links to other webpages be it on your site or not.  Try to link other pages to your site as well to increase the internet reach.  With any site, and especially a plastic surgery clinic, it is essential that the links on your page or to your page, are credible.  Anywhere that you are linking to should have a strong and credible background to it 

Snippet optimization

Appearing at the top of a google page doesn’t only come from ads and top ranking websites, it comes from snippets as well.  Optimizing your webpages to hit for a featured snippet can do more for SEO than keywords can.  That’s because these snippets feature actual content from your web page rather than just a url.  Read more about snippet optimization here.

Mobile friendly

Since 60% of searches are done with a mobile device.  Not having a mobile version of your site is extremely inefficient.  You are providing a less than super experience to over half of consumers.  Ensuring your mobile site is functioning and up to date will benefit more than just your SEO.  Having a mobile friendly site can increase online sales. Users will be able purchase just as easily on mobile as they are on desktop.

Content Age

Keep content up to date! It isn’t enough to just write your content down once and then forget about it.  You don’t have to rewrite entire articles either.  It is as simple as adding internal links to newer content or updating data.  This shows Google algorithms that you are an active website staying up to date; this improves relevance and reliability.

Social media

Social media’s impact on SEO is critically underrated!  Social media in itself is a kind of search engine, by focusing some of your time on social media, you are extending your reach into different search engines.  Your reach is likely reaching different people on social media than it would on say Google alone.  By expanding onto a platform that caters to different audiences, social media in many cases will bring new traffic to your website.  Finally, social media attention will positively impact your presence in local listings.  When it comes to plastic surgery, you can use social media to provide consumers even more visual additions to back up your sites claims.

seo strategy plan

What makes SEO for a plastic surgery clinic different from other businesses?

A plastic surgery clinic is different from other industries. Your clients are heavily reliant on visual information. Seeing that dramatic change will convert a consumer on the fence, into a customer. Online the focus will be much different than say a book store or a plumbing company. Your goal on your website is to embed interest in the reader’s mind. Even if they don’t call right on the spot, good SEO and content can mean you now reside in their mind. When the time comes and they are choosing which surgeon to see, they will undoubtedly think about you.
plastic surgery operation

Positive words carry a different weight in plastic surgery than in other businesses.  For this reason, you will want to be mindful about the ways that visuals are described online.  While yes, the job of a plastic surgery clinic is in many cases to make people feel better about their bodies, you definitely do not want to be putting people down with the words you use.  A great way to do this is avoid using negative language in any way you can!

Next, connect with readers!  Plastic surgery is lucky in the sense that they have a specific niche already.  Many plastic surgery clinics are well known for their different procedures.  Capitalize on this and push out more content to connect with that niche.  For example, if you specialize in “Mommy Makeovers”, publish more articles to connect with that audience, maybe even something like “How to recover from a mommy makeover with kids at home”.  Something to keep in mind when connecting with site visitors is to keep your writings playful.  A common misconception about surgeons is that they aren’t friendly.  That is rarely the case, so showcase your personality in the writings.  Keep things fun and avoid using the overly scientific vocabulary on the site whenever you can (unless it is in an informative piece).

However, keep your site looking professional.  Online visitors are not seeing your clinic in person so the way you portray your business online is the impression it will leave on them.  While it is extremely important to let personality shine through, you are still a medical profession with patients.  The design and layout of your website should reflect the professionalism.  Keep things concise and decluttered.  When it comes to a plastic surgery website, clean is the way to go.

Finally, the actual content.  When it comes to content, your site needs to be informative.  On your landing pages, include information about the surgeon.  Do they have any achievements? How many surgeries have they had a hand in?  Where are their credentials from?  All of this is important information to share.  When it comes to the blogging portion, educate on current events taking place in plastic surgery.  Is there a new technique? A new service? Load up your blog with consistent, important, and updated information.  A tip to grab the reader’s attention is to be different and controversial.  Is there a method you don’t use? Why not? Is there a method you do use? Why?  The blog is your time to shine with original content. You can choose to introduce your staff, write on healthy lifestyle choices, or cover case studies.  Remember though, this is not something that you have to write yourself.  Your career is in the medical field rather than the writing one.  Let us write your pristine content to allow you to focus on your patients and clients.

The wrong kind of SEO can fail to take in crucial aspects of a plastic surgery clinic and do more harm than good.  So let’s work together to create amazing content on your site.  At 23e2 your input matters to us, and we want you to be involved in the process so we accurately portray your sites philosophies!

man holding implants

How long does an SEO for a plastic surgery clinic take?

Unlike an actual plastic surgery that can take as little as an hour, plastic surgery SEO is a gradual process. Think of SEO as the recovery period from real plastic surgery. This time can span from as soon a few days all the way up to many months. Generally, the time is usually anywhere from three to six months. Don’t let this length deter you; after revamping your site with keywords and phrases, you undoubtedly will notice a difference in website traffic. Additionally, the glorious effects of SEO can be tracked. Using your website’s traffic tracker, you can monitor the increase in visitors to your site. WIth this you can see what works and maybe what could be changed further.

What can I Expect?

What you can expect from SEO improvements is entirely in your control.  The amount of time and effort you put into your site, and site’s content determines the outcome.  When you invest a good chunk of time the experience a user will have on your site, your return will be much better than if you put in the bare minimum amount of work. 

Immediately what can you expect?  After publishing content, your site will receive an initial ranking; a good initial ranking will appear on the first page of Google.  But don’t be worried if you spend all your time on  SEO and don’t see results immediately; the benefits of SEO usually peak during the 8th month.  Additionally, the initial ranking is not as important as the overall outcome.  Patience is key with SEO and while it can be frustrating, it is certainly worth it.  If everything goes smoothly, you should see an increasing amount of visitors to your site, as well as increases in sales.

time is money

Conclusion

Now that you know what SEO is like for your plastic surgery clinic, the components of SEO, how long a SEO session will take, and what you can expect, what are you waiting for? SEO is a proven digital marketing strategy. If your site isn’t meeting your own standards, it might be time for some SEO plastic surgery. Let us at 23e2 Digital take your website to new levels when it comes to online presence. Call, email, or fill out a form for more information on how we can help you out!
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