Most patients never scroll past the map. This is the work that decides whether your practice is one of the three they see when they search for a doctor near them.
A steady flow of fresh and returning patients who seek treatment is required for any medical practice to succeed. A medical practice, just like any other business attempting to broaden its reach by attracting more customers, faces numerous challenges when trying to acquire new patients.
To differentiate yourself from the hundreds of thousands of healthcare practitioners, SEO can prove to be incredibly useful. SEO for doctors is one of several methods for promoting your practice. You will not have to worry about learning new tricks because we at Next Gen Digital specialise in developing SEO strategies for medical practices.
As a dermatologist, for example, SEO can propel you to the top of search results whenever someone types “dermatologist near me” into Google or some other search engine. Anybody searching for that term is probably thinking about seeing a dermatologist and correct optimisation helps to put your practice right on the radar.
Get A Free AuditWhen somebody searches for a doctor near them, Google shows three businesses on a map before it shows a single website. Those three are chosen mostly by your Google Business Profile, not your site, and that is a completely different piece of work. Get it right and you can outrank practices with far better websites.
The single highest-leverage field on the whole profile, and the one most practices get wrong. “Doctor” and “Medical Clinic” and “Dermatologist” return different results. Choosing the specific one you actually are, and adding the rest as secondary, moves rankings faster than months of content.
A profile without accurate hours loses every after-hours and weekend search. Special hours over public holidays matter more for a practice than almost any other business, because that is exactly when people search urgently.
Volume, recency and rating all count, and so does replying. For a health service, replies have to stay inside the privacy rules: you cannot confirm somebody was a patient. We set up a reply approach that keeps the signal without the risk.
The profile is a page in its own right. Practices that post, keep photos current and seed the questions patients actually ask outrank those treating it as a directory entry they filled in once.
We will check your Google Business Profile, your directory listings and the practices ranking above you, then tell you straight what is holding you out of the top three.
Four steps. Most of the movement comes in the first two, because most practices have never had them done at all.
Categories, services, hours, service areas, description, photos and the booking link. We also claim and merge any duplicate profiles, which are more common than people expect and quietly split your reviews and your ranking signal between two listings.
Your name, address and phone number have to match exactly across every listing that mentions you. Health has more of those than any other sector: Healthdirect, HotDoc, HealthEngine, Whitecoat, the private health fund directories, the college and association listings, plus the general ones. A practice that moved suite numbers five years ago is usually still listed at the old one somewhere.
A location page per site with its own address markup and opening hours, and suburb-level pages where the surrounding areas are worth chasing. These are what convert the click once the map has done its job, and they are what let a second or third clinic rank on its own rather than competing with the first.
A practice with eleven reviews from 2019 loses to one with a steady trickle, even at the same rating. We set up a request flow that fits how your reception actually works, and stays the right side of the rules about soliciting testimonials.
If you want to get more patients online, you must improve your Google Search visibility. That is why you must engage in SEO. Don’t be concerned. We can handle all of your SEO issues while you focus on providing the best possible care to your patients.
We work with doctors to help them grow their businesses by providing proven medical SEO services. Please contact us today to learn more about us.
Get A Free Quote TodayThis page covers local search only, so it does not repeat what is answered better elsewhere.
Multi-practitioner and multi-location structure, AHPRA advertising rules, and analytics that do not leak health information to third parties.
Healthcare SEODental practices search differently. Treatment-led pages for implants, aligners, veneers and emergency appointments.
Dental SEOPricing, what is always included and how we quote against a scope rather than a package. The same answer everywhere, so it lives in one place.
Pricing and inclusionsNex Gen Digital Agency has been an absolute game changer for our business. From the very beginning, the team has been professional, responsive and genuinely invested in helping us grow rather than simply delivering a service and moving on for us at Unmatched Support Services. A special mention has to go to Paul Sera, who has honestly been a godsend and a saviour throughout the whole process. His knowledge, patience and willingness to go above and beyond have made a huge difference.
Second to none! Unbelievable service and could not recommend enough. They did incredible work in relation to our website and have always been readily available for any further assistance. Thank you Paul and team
Paul has always worked hard and gone above and beyond, seo working well, very happy with his service.
We prioritise results across all digital channels, delivering the best strategy to achieve your goals and increase sales.
Contact Us TodayThe questions we get asked most often, answered straight.
The map pack is the block of three businesses Google shows on a map above the ordinary results for a local search. For “doctor near me” or “GP in Cheltenham” that block takes most of the clicks, and which three appear is decided largely by your Google Business Profile rather than your website. That is why a practice with an ordinary site and a well-run profile regularly beats a practice with an excellent site and a neglected one.
Because almost every patient search has a location attached to it, whether they type one or not. People choose a practice they can get to, and Google knows where they are. Ranking nationally for “dermatologist” is worth very little; being one of the three results for people within a few suburbs of your rooms is worth a great deal.
A citation is any listing that mentions your practice name, address and phone number. Health has far more of these than most sectors: Healthdirect, HotDoc, HealthEngine, Whitecoat, private health fund directories, and your college or association listings, on top of the general business directories. They still count, mostly as a consistency signal. If your details disagree across listings, or you moved and the old address is still out there, that ambiguity holds you back.
You can invite feedback, but there are two lines to stay inside. You cannot offer an inducement for a review, and you cannot use reviews about clinical care as testimonials in your own advertising, which includes republishing them on your website. Reviews sitting on Google are treated differently because you do not control that platform. Replies also need care, since acknowledging that someone was a patient can breach their privacy. We set the flow up so reception can run it without thinking about any of that.
Yes, and its own Google Business Profile. Two clinics sharing one contact page will compete with each other for the same suburb searches and typically neither ranks. Each location needs its own page with its own address markup, opening hours and practitioners, so each profile has somewhere relevant to send people. The structural side of that is covered in more detail on our Healthcare SEO page.
Profile fixes can move things within weeks, sometimes days, because you are correcting information rather than building authority. Citation clean-up takes longer, since each directory updates on its own schedule. Competitive suburbs with several established practices take months. Anyone promising the top three in thirty days is either targeting a search nobody makes or has not looked at who you are competing with.
Tell us where you are stuck. We will come back with a straight answer, a timeline and a fixed price. No jargon, no pressure.
