How to write medical website content that performs in local search

Sure, your medical website looks nice, but can new patients find it using local search? Keep reading for 5 tips for writing content for your medical website that performs.

There are nearly 200 million active websites on the internet as of August 2023, according to Netcraft, a UK-based internet services company. You took the time to create a medical website, but due to the sheer volume of competition, its presence alone doesn’t guarantee traffic.

When patients in your area conduct an online search, your practice needs to be one of the top results. Read on to learn how to outrank your competition in local search.

Unlike retail brands with a national reach, your medical website isn’t effective unless it generates local traffic. Capture the attention of potential patients by understanding what they want and writing copy that meets their needs.

Accomplish this by creating patient personas that represent both your current patient base and those who fit into any additional segments you’re trying to enter. Taking your white coat off and viewing your website from your patients’ perspective will allow you to craft the kind of content they want to read.

Localize the copy even further by highlighting any issues specific to your local area. This will increase engagement from patients in your community, thus boosting search results.

After selecting keywords for your practice, it’s important to actually incorporate them into your medical website copy. This will help your site appear in searches conducted by prospective patients in your key demographic.

Weaving those words and phrases into the content organically is essential. If keywords are awkwardly stuffed into the copy, prospective patients will find it difficult to read. Skilled SEO copywriters know how to insert these terms in an effortless manner that flows naturally.

Get help: Here’s how to optimize categories and keywords for medical marketing — Free SEO for medical practices checklist

If your practice website has nothing unique to offer, you won’t be able to engage prospective patients. Therefore, you need to fill the pages with helpful, distinctive content they can’t find anywhere else.

The content posted on your site is a direct reflection of your practice, so make sure you’re writing content for your medical website that’s high-quality, relevant, and interesting. If you don’t have the capacity or skills to handle this yourself, hire a professional content writer to do it for you.

Don’t even think about trying to cheat the system by deliberately posting duplicate content across your domains. Not only does this create a poor user experience, it can also negatively impact your Google indexing and ranking.

Prospective patients visit your website for a specific reason. Create a site that’s easy to navigate. If the pages are filled with an excessive amount of unnecessary information, making finding what they’re looking for difficult, they will give up and head elsewhere.

Ultimately, you want your content for your medical website to show up in search results and bring in new patients. Focusing on too many priorities at once can hinder this initiative.

Before writing content, create a detailed outline that covers the main points you want to include on each page. This will help you stay on topic, so you don’t inadvertently crowd the page with irrelevant details.

Check out: 11 medical practice website must-haves

You want your website content to secure a high search engine ranking, but don’t do it at the expense of sounding robotic. If it sounds cold and sterile, prospective patients will think twice about reaching out for treatment.

When writing content, think about the people who will be reading it. Use a warm and inviting tone that personifies your practice and makes them feel welcome. If written properly, the content should evoke an emotional response, prompting the reader to reach out and make an appointment.

Having a practice website is great, but if it barely ranks in search engines, it’s not an effective content marketing tool for doctors. Content for your medical website will either make or break your performance in local search, so choose your words carefully.

Want more information on local search? Find additional tips here: 8 medical website best practices for doctors and dentists.