When patients go to their doctors for a plastic surgery consultation, they are likely feeling many different emotions all at once: excitement, nervousness, curiosity. Although it’s normal to feel wary about a medical procedure, you wouldn’t want your patients (or future patients) to feel that way about your practice.

Plastic surgery SEOis an excellent way for you to reach patients who are looking for you and let them know that you’re an experienced and compassionate choice that they can trust for their plastic surgery needs.

1. Why Is Plastic Surgery SEO Necessary?

SEO or search engine optimization for plastic surgery may not be on your priority list, but it wouldn’t be wise to ignore it too. SEO for plastic surgery does two things, and they are:

• It helps plastic surgeons create a website that is easily understood by search engines (thus making them more visible)
• Creates valuable, helpful, and informative Content to help patients wherever they are on their journey.

If your prospective patient cannot find you, or once they do, there’s not enough information about you for them to consider, they’ll end up looking for a different surgeon instead.

Low are five causes why you should not ignore SEO for your plastic surgery practice:

• Approximately 94% of organic search traffic to your website is thanks to Google, so if you’re not visible on Google, then it’s highly likely that prospective clients can’t find you.
• According to statistics, 50% of people read or check out at least three to five types of Content (social media posts, blogs, reviews, or landing pages) before deciding on a service or making a purchase.
• Around 72% of searches are for local searches, with “near me” searches consistently and significantly increasing.
• Customers give websites at least two seconds to load before clicking away—the same applies to those browsing on their mobile devices.
• Study shows that 88% of consumers rely on online reviews much more than personal recommendations.

Lastly, the biggest reason to consider making plastic surgery SEO a priority is that the number one organic search result gets 33% of the clicks. The rest of the search results get over 75% of the clicks in total.

If your website is not on the first page of a Google search result, then it only means you’re not getting enough exposure or that you’re invisible. An excellent SEO strategy can get you to the number one spot.

2. What is Involved in SEO for Plastic Surgeons?

The same rules guide SEO for plastic surgeons as SEO for other industries. Pay attention to the following elements to attract more traffic to your site.

1. Get a Good Website–when we say ‘good,’ we do not mean a fancy website with a flashy design. A ‘good’ website means one that has fast loading times, its strategy has been well-thought-out, provides visitors with all the information they need, is easy to navigate, and features calls to action or prompts that keep visitors interested.
2. Expand Your Local Presence–local search is critical. Most prospective patients search for practices near them, so include your business address and contact information on your site and make sure they’re updated. Add your business listing with Google and try using Google My Business posts to engage with prospective customers uniquely.
3. Produce High-Quality Content–producing high-quality Content and link building are two of the most important things that Google looks at to see how they should rank your page. And as we have mentioned earlier, if you are on the second or third page, you might as well be invisible.
4. Organize Your Plastic Surgery Marketing Plan–if you plan to improve your SEO strategy, take all that good work and use it in a coordinated email or social media marketing campaign.

SEO is just the tip of the iceberg for digital marketing. Because most of your prospective clients are on social media, you need to meet them where they are and entice them with Content that catches their attention and sends them to your website for more.

3. How to Create a Plastic Surgery SEO Strategy

If you’re still new to SEO marketing, below are seven valuable tips to help get you started:

1. Website Speed–first things first: how fast does your website load? Nowadays, people are so impatient that they refuse to wait for a page to load, so if your page is running on average speed (or lower), consider updating its speed. Your site needs to be fast and reliable to generate better leads.
2. Keep Your Website Updated–after website speed, one of the most significant issues most websites have is the lack of contact information. If you have moved your office or have multiple locations, have hired new doctors, or have changed your contact information, update it as soon as possible.
3. Create Content Regularly–there are a lot of articles providing information on when the best time to post on social media is and the perfect amount of emails to send. But what you need to do is put out Content regularly and consistently. Why? Because your prospective patients can end up getting used to your blogs, social media posts, and emails and look forward to them. Consider using an automatic post scheduler and develop an editorial calendar you can organize yourself.
4. A/B Testing–A/B testing pertains to putting two pieces of Content together, each with a minor tweak, and testing which one performs the best.
5. Find Your Niche and Customize Your Marketing Strategy–this involves finding out exactly who your target market is. Are you focusing on cosmetic surgery? Rhinoplasty? Double-eyelid surgery? Whoever it is that you want to reach, make sure you speak to them in your Content.
6. Experiment with Different Marketing Channels–a website is just one among many different tools you can use to expand your presence online. Consider using other social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or even TikTok, especially if your target market is on those platforms.
7. Get Help from Professionals –last but not least, it might be a good idea to seek help from professionals who can manage all your digital marketing needs and reach new patients simultaneously.