As a physical therapist, you have to think about the people who look for your services. Your potential patients might be doing some household chores while having a bad knee pain, or sitting for nine long hours in an office with a backache. Many of them would take out their phones and type “physical therapists near me”. If you want your website to pop up at the top of the search engine ranking, you need physical therapy SEO backing up your website.
SEO for physical therapists is more than just a buzzword. A proper optimization can direct immense traffic to your website, while a poorly optimized website would be hurled back to Google’s limbo. Hence, it is imperative that you get the basics right to be anywhere near the first page. A good level of optimization can earn you the first position in the search results.
Search engine optimization can work wonders for your physical therapy website’s ranking on the search engine results pages. Let’s discuss how you can skyrocket your website’s organic search engine results;
What is Physical Therapy SEO?
SEO for physical therapists entails a set of practice that aims at boosting the organic ranking of physiotherapists’ websites. It involves a set of complex practices that aims to bolster footfall and skyrocket conversions through earned traffic. There are three main segments— on-page, off-page, and technical SEO.
SEO can help physical therapists in varied ways. Proper implementation of SEO can help in brand positioning, online reputation building, and bolstering conversion rate.
4 Benefits of Physical Therapy SEO
- Higher Website Traffic: A good physical therapy SEO optimization helps you get a higher volume of organic traffic. A higher traffic automatically translates to a better conversion rate.
- Better Online Visibility: A good level of search engine optimization positions your website toward the front of the search results. SEO is immensely helpful in throwing the necessary limelight that businesses need to thrive.
- More Clients: As a physiotherapist, you can get more patients with the help of search engine optimization. With better online visibility, more potential patients would come to your website seeking your service, which boosts the chances of a higher conversion rate.
- Affordable Solutions: SEO is one of the most affordable ways for a physical therapist to bolster their online visibility. All you need is some time in hand and some SEO knowledge.
Physical Therapy SEO: A Step-by-Step Guide
Earning your livelihood through physical therapy services can be challenging if you don’t have a steady flow of clients. A dearth in the inflow can be caused by people not knowing about your services. To fix that, you need some of the best SEO strategies to back you up.
Here are some of the SEO strategies that physical therapists can use to boost.
- Run a Website Audit to Inspect Website Health
Anything good starts with introspection. And PT Seo is no different. As a physical therapist who wants to transcend the periphery of traditional marketing, a website audit should be the first step towards the journey of online marketing of your physical therapy services.
A website audit of the physical therapy website will lay bare the reasons for your website’s performance. You should be able to look into the core web vitals, keyword rankings, website security issues, website traffic volume, and more.
Running a website audit should not be tough. Get your hands on a quality website audit tool, paste your website URL on it, and hit run. This is an easy step, and you should be able to do it without any help.
- Keyword Research Equals Gold Mining
Keyword research refers to the practice of finding relevant search queries that people are looking for. Keyword searching is similar to mining for gold. The right set of keywords for each webpage should take you ten steps closer to ranking on the first page of the SERPs.
The good news is SEO is an untapped zone for 29% of small businesses. With a chunk businesses under-utilizing SEO, your services should thrive with some effort.
Whether you have a small physical therapy business or offer individual services, finding the right keywords is crucial to website optimization. Some of the common keywords physical therapists use are;
- Physical therapy
- Best physical therapy
- Knee pain
- Back pain
- Stiff neck
- Sciatica help
- Arthritic pain relief
- Natural pain relief
While optimizing the website with the above keywords can help you stay in the race, you have to do more to win it. The key is using keywords with high search volume and low keyword ranking difficulty. Optimizing web pages for long tail keywords like “best physical therapy services for joint pain” is a superb idea as well. Although long tail keyword research takes a while, it is worth it.
Incorporate keywords naturally in your content. One of the worst on page seo practices is the cluttered usage of keywords. Instead, use keywords throughout the content. Use secondary keywords and LSI to rank better.
Although using keywords in the title tag and meta description is an essential part of on page SEO, many skip it. Hence, creating keyword-dense title tags and meta descriptions can help you score brownie points in the Google search results.
Mark one thing, under-optimizing web pages is a lesser crime than over-optimization. Keyword stuffing comes under the black hat technique. Avoid it at any cost if you want sustainable SEO optimization.
- Powerful Content Marketing to Strikes the Right Chord
Impeccable and relevant content is one of the primary factors for good organic rankings. Resultantly, physical therapy SEO heavily depends on it. It is an on page SEO element that occupies top priorities among Google’s Quality Rater.
Everything you write on the website, off the website, and about the website is considered by search engine algorithms. While you cannot control what is written about your services to a certain extent, your website content is within your grip. Hence, keep website content unique, relevant and brilliant.
Matching content with the search intent is the key to organic ranking. Keyword intent has a crucial role to play in this.
Suppose you write a web page for physical therapy service booking. But instead of optimizing it with a call to action, you optimize it with the keyword “manual therapy procedure.” Now patients looking for the therapy procedure will immediately bounce from the page on seeing a commercial page.
Will it serve the purpose?
No.
Now, in place of targeting an informative keyword, had you targeted a transactional keyword like “book manual therapy near you”, it would have fetched better results.
Google, along with other search engines, prioritizes slightly lengthy, wholesome content. Also, if you have older content lying on your website, do not forget to update it for better organic ranking on the search engines.
- Boost Domain Authority & EEAT Signals
Domain authority is a strong ranking factor in organic searches. The equation is straight, the older your domain, the better EEAT signals it sends, and the higher are the chances of ranking.
EEAT became a part of Google’s ranking factor back in 2015. However, it was called EAT back then and stood for experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. In 2022, Google added an extra ‘E,’ which stands for expertise, making it EEAT.
As a physical therapist, even if you are starting off now with a relatively newer domain, there is no reason to lose hope. You can strengthen EEAT this signal by creating high-quality content, increasing instances of user-generated content and social shares, building authoritative backlinks, providing author information on each page, and maintaining transparency.
Once you have checked all the boxes, you should be on your way to ranking better than previously on the search engines.
- Leverage Google My Business to Target Local Audience
Google Business Profile is an important medium that can help you reach the target audience as a physical therapist. It is a free tool that lets you take charge of how your business appears on Google searches.
A study says, 79% local businesses think local SEO to be important, only 46% optimize websites for local search. This gives you a wide scope to boost your local visibility on Google search.
Optimizing a Google Business Profile is rather easy. Open the platform and select the most accurate category, which in this case should be ‘Physiotherapist.’ This is a way of telling the search engine the type of business you are running. The GBP also lets you choose up to 8 subcategories to further define your physical therapy practice.
Choosing categories like Physical Therapy Clinic, Manual Therapist, orthopedics therapist, or sports therapist would be wise. Of course, the choice stands only if you practice these.
Optimizing GBP doesn’t end here. There is NAP SEO, too. Updating your NAME, ADDRESS, and PHONE NUMBER is crucial for prospective patients to find you. Also, there is Google Maps optimization. Updating Google Maps helps customers reach your clinic with ease and comfort while being directed by Google Navigation.
Write a compelling business description describing what you do. You can also include prices for your services and add high-quality images to power up the optimization.
- Local Directories Help Reach More Prospects
Many potential clients prefer consulting directories over visiting websites directly. In fact, 34% of internet users consult local directories daily to look for products and services.
Don’t underestimate this particular local SEO strategy, as it can make a wide difference in client acquisition. Local directories are not a stand-alone element. In 2015, Google rolled out the Pigeon Algorithm, enabling the search engine giant to suggest local directory pages for relevant local searches.
For instance, if a person in Manhattan types “best physical therapist near me,” Google can pick up your directory listing and point prospective clients in your direction.
As a result, leveraging local directories for business listings is a wise move in the journey of search engine optimization of physical therapy websites.
- Local Link Building Earns Search Engines’ Trust
Link Building is no joke while optimizing physical therapy websites for better organic web traffic. Getting high quality local links to add to your backlink portfolio comes with its own challenges. As a newbie starting your journey on this path can have a few hurdles.
You have two ways. The first is to optimize your website in a manner that it charts up the SERPs. This attracts natural links as people in your industry will be automatically allured to link to a top-ranking site.
If the above method proves difficult, you can engage in guest posting. It is an important local SEO strategy that helps build relations within your own industry. You can approach a webmaster of a relevant website with a post and related anchor text. Next, you have to monitor the guest blog postings and add the link to the backlink profile.
If this proves to be a hassle for you, certainly you have a third option, i.e. Approaching guest posting agency. These agencies have experts who can do all the hard work at an affordable price. You can also opt for a wholesome local SEO package that offers much more than just link building.
- Technical Optimization Enhances User Experience (UX)
Technical optimization for any physical therapy website involves an array of optimization activities to boost user experience. There are over a hundred individual elements in this segment. However, the two major elements you can’t do without are mobile optimization and page speed optimization.
Mobile optimization and minimum page loading time are two major pillars on which UX stands. Of course, there are factors like navigation, design, etc, which are equally vital. However, let’s shed light on the first two factors;
Always optimize your website for mobiles. There are two main reasons for this. First, mobile users make up for 58.54% of global internet traffic. Second, Google, the search engine titan prioritizes websites with good mobile optimization.
An easy solution would be to settle for a responsive website design. This type of web design adjusts the site elements automatically to screen size of the device.
Hence, rest assured that all the images of client services, video thumbnail of physiotherapy sessions, website content will adjust to any device if you use a responsive design. However, it gives lesser control over your website.
The alternative is adaptive design is more customizable. However, with little time in your hand from offering stellar physiotherapies, you might want a web designing company to do this optimization for you.
The second is page speed optimization. Try to aim for your physical therapy website to load under 2.5 seconds. Anything more than that, and you are willfully sending off prospective clients to your competitors. Remember, the lesser the loading time, the lower the bounce rate, and vice versa.
- Social Media Marketing Brings You Closer to Patients
More than half the globe is on social media. Statistics suggest that an average human spends about 141 minutes on social media. As a physical therapist, you can leverage this number to your advantage by finding prospects in your service area.
Social media is where you can be the closest to your prospective clients in the digital sphere. A Forbes survey found that 41% small businesses depend on social media to drive revenue.
So, create a page on all social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Upload service details and images and keep posting regularly to find them. Be active on these platforms and interact with prospects to awaken interest in your services. Highlight your USPs while interacting, and, most importantly, deal with negative comments with poise and composure.
Social media management can be time consuming. You can share the load with a social media marketing company if you think this task to be burdensome.
- Create Some Buzz with PR Services
It takes years to build a brand, and a small misstep to ruin one!
Studies suggest that 90% of customers trust online reviews. This is why a series of positive online reviews from genuine patients. You can set up automated messages or emails for this purpose, ask the clients personally, or entrust a public relations company with it. The choice is yours.
You can also have an in-house PR team. It does more than get positive reviews. Good public relations management helps you get the limelight. It highlights your USPs as physiotherapy providers and establishes you as the best in your area. With its help, you can get new clients and retain the old ones with ease.
Why Choose Physical Therapy SEO Agency?
You can certainly do physical therapy SEO on your own. It will save some money and help you learn the ropes.
However, hiring professionals has its own benefits. A good physical therapy SEO agency can help you get quicker traction on search rankings, acquire new patients, and become the best physiotherapist in the area.
Let’s look at the benefits of hiring a healthcare SEO company.
- Acquire More Patients
SEO agencies for physiotherapists can help you acquire more patients by directing organic traffic to your website. They will optimize your website and GBP and create a solid backlink portfolio. Not only that, a good comapny will also take care of all social media profiles and directory listings. With their help, you can even land up on Google 3 pack.
- Quicker Results
If you are an SEO novice, it will take some time for you to optimize your website. On the contrary, an SEO company that specializes in physical therapy website optimization will offer quicker results. They have experts who can create tailored SEO strategies to help boost your website indexing and ranking.
- Cost-Effective Strategy in the Long Run
Search engine optimization for physical therapy websites is an ongoing process. You need the help of several SEO tools. Some of which can be pretty exorbitant. However, SEO companies can offer you faster results and will cost less in the long run.
- Faster Crisis Dealing
Google has strict guidelines when it comes to websites. So, without your knowledge, you can face a crisis. If you are on your own, the task of resolving website issues can be a challenge. However, with SEO experts by your side, it will be no hassle. These are professionals adept at dealing with and resolving SEO crises faster than you can think of. In no time, they can fish your website out of troublesome situations.
- Sustainable Results
A good SEO company uses ethical SEO tactics to attain results. They follow webmasters guidelines and optimize your website for sustainable results. We agree that SEO is an ongoing process. But with professional help, your physical therapy SEO will only go from good to better.
FAQs
If you are working on SEO for physical therapists, there are some really simple tricks to get started. Do some intensive keyword research and optimize website content with these words. Follow Google Search Essentials (previously webmaster guidelines) to adhere to SEO best practices. Go by their technical and spam policies to gain traction on the website.
The cost for SEO for physical therapists does not cost much. If you are on the DIY track of optimizing it yourself, you can limit your total spend to purchasing the domain and cost of hosting. If you want to splurge a bit and think that a first-page rank is essential, taking the help of premium online tools can cost some money.
Taking the assistance of a professional can always be of use. A good SEO agency can help you get better online exposure. They have the resources and expertise to create a solid SEO strategy for your website that actually works. There are many SEO hubs that charge an affordable price and offer excellent services.
Some physical therapists take keyword density too seriously. However, stuffing keywords in your web content can count as a black hat technique. While other physical therapists do not pay heed to content strategy formation, which can be a blunder. Also, many of them do not pay heed to technical optimization and high quality link building. These common SEO mistakes can hinder a good rank on the search results.
Conclusion
Physical therapy SEO is easy and yet it is difficult because of the array of factors that require optimization. If you have decided to do SEO yourself, we are with you. We hope that this blog is of help to you in giving you a thorough idea regarding the most important ranking factors.
However, if you are thinking about hiring an SEO agency for this purpose, do so with care and caution. Ensure that the SEO provider is experienced and offers transparency. It should be within your budget as well. You can even ask them to craft a tailored SEO package to suit your requirements.
