medical web pages
How many medical web pages do I need?
Google loves content and looks at it as a combination of web pages. On healthcare websites the big question is often about the size of your ideal website. If your goal is to have a clean professional profile, a one-pager website might do. If you want visibility for several treatments, stay with us for this article about the number of medical web pages you need for Google visibility.
medical web pages
How many medical web pages do I need?
Kris Borgraeve
May 10, 2022
How long is a piece of string?
make your website rank
It’s a cliche expression that applies to the search for the right number of pages. It depends.
If you want to make your website rank high on Google, as a doctor in private practice, the key element to remember is ‘content pages’.
A quick demo about what exactly we are talking about when we discuss your content pages or medical website pages. And then we will dive into the importance of ongoing monitoring and website updates to grow your private practice.
Why medical web pages often miss a key element
strategy for doctors
Marketing strategy for doctors is not part of the Medical School curriculum. That is why medical web pages and websites for doctors are often seen as a commodity. In the bigger scheme of the medical practice, online marketing often ends up right next to carpet cleaning or kitchen amenities. I am not only referring to the priority list you may have, but also to the way you might research the providers.
"Web developers who don’t have a full focus on the business mechanics of the private health system will not be able to document the number of pages you need to grow your practice. The data involved in medical content marketing require advanced monitoring of patient search behaviour and that is why we thrive on creating data-driven results."
The missing key element on many medical websites is keyword strategy. What we are talking about is organising your information around essential key questions that patients type into Google, so you become visible.
Across our Grow! Magazine for doctors, you will find multiple articles about the work our team does in patient search behaviour, mapping the common Google search topics for almost any medical specialty.
A quick starter kit with recommended articles would be this shortlist:
- SEO For doctors: Everything you’ve always wanted to know to get your practice to the top of Google.
- Local SEO for doctors in a nutshell
- SEO ranking factors: Power tips
If your current website is not built to create organic Google visibility, book a free 1:1 Strategy Session to discuss the growth potential for your practice.
Why it is critical to update your medical website
website updates
We have covered the essential first step, which is to make sure your medical web pages are built to the highest standards. Content written for the patient and organised for Google’s crawling bots, that assess the simple question whether your web content is worth being displayed when your next ideal patient turns to Google to research essential information about the specialists in their area, the condition they think they may have, or the treatment their family physician has suggested they look into.
So let’s move on to the next step, once you have a decent website with an absolute minimum of 10 fully optimised Google-friendly content pages. What Google loves – and a more rational way to describe it would be saying that Google prioritises this type of content when displaying Google Search results – is fresh content.
"Who wants to browse through last year’s Mother’s Day menu when we are approaching this year’s Mother’s Day? Just like a restaurant benefits from updating their menu, doctors benefit from having updates on their website. Updates increase relevance when it comes to health."
We know that the Google algorithms are extra critical for health and money related topics.
We also know that regular updates mark your website as being fresh or in other words, the updates validate the fact that you are still in business.
How often? Again, it depends on resources and what you have to gain when you are in a position to double your capacity or turnover.
Quarterly updates with a solid new optimised content page or blog article are an absolute minimum to flag that you are there.
Monthly is better, because you will now also have new data to measure the compound effect of your new content. In other words, new pages or articles all work together to increase the relevance of your medical web pages and your entire website as a doctor.
Measure-Publish-Measure: The success cycle for doctors
seo monitoring
Now is probably the best time to talk about your SEO monitoring. Many doctors tell me they get overly technical reports that seem to roll out of an automated system. In other words, they miss the custom data that are essential to making business decisions.
"Automated SEO reports is like sending blood reports to patients without telling them what these bloods mean and what condition they have, let alone taking action to start treatment. SEO monitoring is the combined regular effort of executing the right tests and interpreting them, to make a comparison with your line of work."
SEO monitoring looks at predefined goals that are specific for your clinic. The key treatments that are your income avenues, the competitive situation in our market, and the content that you have in place to generate traffic and conversions, should be the starting point.
The custom SEO monitoring should also take into account where you want to be in 6 or 12 months’ time. If we want to double a specific business activity, we will need predictable traffic growth for a specific set of keywords.
That is where the cycle, or the Digital Practice programs come into play: Grow, Nurture or Accelerate is what we have called them and they all use the same method, each at their own pace.
- Step 1: We measure how you rank organically for the main business goals and their associated keywords, in your area, compared to your competitors.
- Step 2: We craft additional content pages or blogs that cover one or more of these associated keywords, your location and the variations that patients use in their Google searches.
- Step 3: We measure again the next month, to map the additional visibility and to map the next steps with other variations or similar patient searches, so we benefit from compound visibility month after month.
The bells and whistles that convert and create ROI
social media marketing
What is the role of medical social media marketing in this framework? Your medical web pages are the core and the foundation of your online presence. Simply because they are the tools you own and control, and because you are able to measure and predict their impact over time.
Social media content is more volatile and has a timestamp. It shows up in your follower’s feed and it has a short lifecycle of potential: the potential to amplify word-of-mouth in the digital realm and to send connections of your followers to your practice.
That is why strategic choices around social media marketing for doctors – in our experience – should always be seen in conjunction with the performance of your organic content.
"If your socials are great, and your content is not optimal, you are sending large groups of amazing customers to an amazing shop, but the shelves are empty. In the digital world, what your shelves need is great Google-optimised content that converts followers and visitors into bums on seats at your practice."
Social media users will tell you that these extra conversations on Facebook or Instagram are worth the investment and for cosmetics, dentistry, obesity surgery and women’s health there is a lot of truth in that.
But across all medical specialties, the real impact on a clinic’s turnover happens when we double or triple the number of monthly website visitors, based on relevant searches and data-driven content.
Let’s talk about content
content creation for doctors
You could say that we are passionate about content creation for doctors because it is such a high-impact activity. It helps people understand health. It helps hospitals promote their top surgeons. It helps entrepreneurial doctors create their own successful businesses. So if you are new to the realm of medial web pages and healthcare SEO, book your free 1:1 Strategy Session and let’s talk about your growth.
