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Plastic Surgery SEO: A Guide For Plastic Surgeons

Why Surgeons Need SEO

As a plastic surgeon, do you really need an SEO strategy to make your business thrive?

The truth: yes.

SEO is instrumental when it comes to the success of your plastic surgery business. Just like surgery, this type of online marketing is a delicate process with many moving parts. But with the right tools, skills, and effort, you can achieve your dream results, skyrocketing your growth.

We can help you get there. With 18 years of SEO experience, we have generated over $74M through organic search with an investment of $5k-$10k monthly (varies by location count).

See your practice's SEO potential - Book your private consultation.

So, What is SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a set of practices that help search engines connect content with users by giving them valuable and relevant results based on their search queries. Put simply: people are searching for something, and SEO helps them find it.

To master SEO and attract your ideal clients, the goal is to rank highly on search engine results pages (SERPs). A good SEO strategy can do just that, as well as helping you:

  • Improve your brand’s visibility.
  • Bring more organic traffic to your plastic surgery practice's website.
  • Place you as an authority in your niche.
  • Boost the growth of your business.
  • Bring in more revenue.

No One Knows About Your Plastic Surgery Services if They're Not Visible

Picture this. Your perfect client is in desperate need of your services. You provide all the packages and procedures they need, and you know you can do it better than anyone else. But when your client searches for the best plastic surgery services, you don't come up. You're not on the first page of the results. You're not even on the second or third. Your client chooses to go with one of your competitors instead.

It's not because you don't provide the services they need. It's because you're not visible. They don't even know who you are.

Incorporating SEO into your marketing strategy will ensure you start to rank on the first page of the search results, which will bring more organic traffic to your website. More specifically - clients in need of a plastic surgeon.

Become an Authority in the Plastic Surgery Niche

A fantastic SEO strategy will place your plastic surgery company as a trusted authority in your niche and ensure you stand out from your competitors. It will make you the one that clients go to. This will drive more profits and boost the growth of your business.

But how?

How to Optimize Your Plastic Surgery Website for SEO: Our Step-By-Step Guide

As we mentioned above, an effective SEO strategy is so important for the success of your plastic surgery business. It'll ensure you rank higher when it comes to Google search engine results, drive organic traffic to your website, and boost revenue.

Here's a step-by-step guide you can use to harness SEO, improve your online visibility, and become an authority within the world of plastic surgery.

Understanding ROSI

When it comes to SEO, you need to know your ROSI (return on SEO investment.) As a company, you may be familiar with ROAS (return on ad spend). ROSI is similar, allowing you to quantify the value of your SEO campaigns and make data-driven decisions about your digital marketing strategy. 

Our SEO ROI calculator will help you calculate your ROSI.

Step One: Tackle Website Optimization and Technical SEO

Technical SEO is the foundation of any effective SEO strategy. It doesn't matter how good your content is or how high-quality your backlinks are (more on that later); your SEO strategy simply won't be as effective if you miss this step.

Before you come up with a good Search Engine Optimization strategy, you need to complete a full audit of your website. This will highlight all the technical things that could be impacting your ability to rank.

Why Do So Many Businesses Overlook Technical SEO?

Many businesses believe their e-commerce platform (like Shopify) handles all the technical SEO side of things. However, some themes simply aren’t optimized for SEO. Often, they’re missing common elements that help Google understand what your page is about. Not to mention, as you install apps and hire developers to work on your website, more and more errors can pop up.

To ensure your website is optimized fully and performing as it should be, a full audit is essential.

Here are some things to review.

  • URLS: If they aren't SEO-friendly, Google can potentially index the same service under multiple URLs. On top of that, if your URLs are too long, Google can find it difficult to understand what the page is about, which means it might even rank for the wrong keyword and bring in the world audience.
  • Product and Blog Post Tags: Shopify automatically turns tags into pages. Google can index low-value pages that can harm your SEO strategy. Creating collection pages instead will help you rank for specific services without hurting your SEO.
  • Check Internal Links: Links are essential. They power up pages and help them perform better. However, broken links can have the opposite effect. This means that when Google is reading your page and trying to understand what it links to, it hits a dead end. Not only does Google hate this, but it’s also terrible for user experience. An audit can help you find which links need updating or fixing.
  • Update Title Tags on Key Pages: Title tags, sometimes known as meta titles, are designed to help Google understand what a page is about.
  • Add in Missing Meta Descriptions: This is your chance to persuade users to click on your page.
  • 301 Directs: When you delete a service or product, this creates a dead page. Users will see a "Page Not Found (404 error), which is terrible for Google and user experience. Redirecting them to another page will improve SEO and give your searchers a nice, seamless experience. It’s a win-win.
  • Website Load Speed: Check how fast your page loads. If your website is loading too slowly, this will create a bad user experience, meaning users will leave and seek out a competitor's website instead. The less time people stay on your website, the more alarm bells this will send to Google, letting them know that users don’t like your website. This means lower rankings.
  • Content: Google understands your website through the text on a page. What pages are already ranking? Which pages aren't ranking at all? They may be in desperate need of updating. Make sure you have text on each page and that’s it’s unique and gives the reader valuable information.
  • Large Images: This is a super common issue that can slow down your page speed, meaning a poor user experience.

Identifying Issues

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many other issues that could be impacting your SEO. Using websites like Sitebulb will help you do a full crawl of your website, helping you identify issues such as:

  • Broken links
  • Orphan pages
  • Schema errors
  • Indexing issues
  • Broken images
  • Large images
  • Duplicate content
  • Missing title/meta tags
  • Missing meta descriptions
  • Missing alt tags

Updating the Structure of Your Website

Potential patients need to be able to navigate your website to find what they need. Ensure your services and cosmetic procedures are visible so clients can click on what they're looking for.

The easier your key pages are to find, the higher they'll rank in the Google Search results. This will convert potentially interested searchers into clear clients for your plastic surgery company.

Tackling Technical SEO

Once you've completed an audit of your website, you might be left with hundreds of issues. If this is the case, try not to get overwhelmed. Work on tackling the most important issues first, and then work your way through the rest.

Addressing the biggest issues quickly will dramatically improve your SEO performance and give you the best foundation for the rest of your SEO strategy.

Here are some common issues and how to resolve them:

  • 404 Errors: If your technical audit revealed many 404 errors, you're not alone. This is a common issue that comes up. Start by using 301 redirects to take your traffic elsewhere. This will help you recover any lost traffic and preserve link equity (otherwise known as "link juice.")
  • Nonindexed Pages: If you have a bunch of pages that shouldn't be indexed, remove them from the sitemap. Noindexly is a Shopify app that will help you easily manage your sitemap.
Keyword Research for Plastic Surgeons in Ahrefs.

Step Two: Conduct Keyword Research

A well-thought-out keyword strategy is essential to succeed in SEO. Keyword research helps you understand what terms your market is searching for, as well as offering you additional information such as the search volume and the competitiveness. This will give you an idea of what services your clients are in need of.

Not only that, it gives you valuable information about where your clients are at in their plastic surgery journey.

  • Are your clients looking to get their first procedure done?
  • Are they in need of more information, or are their sights set on a specific procedure?
  • Do they know which procedure can solve their problem?
  • Do they need the procedure due to medical reasons?

You can use keywords to help you create valuable, targeted content that directly addresses your potential client's problem. Or you can add them to existing content that still isn't ranking – since this means your content isn’t optimized for the right keyword.

Finding the Best Keywords and Search Terms

It's important to be smart about your SEO keyword research strategy. It may be tempting to go for high-traffic, high-volume keywords such as "plastic surgeon" or "cosmetic surgeons," but they are hugely competitive. Although your target demographic is searching for these keywords, you're unlikely to rank for them.

Instead, choose long-tail keywords that are more specific to what potential clients may be searching for. These keywords are 3 - 5 words long, encompassing a more direct and specific query. Examples include:

  • Best tummy tuck plastic surgeon
  • Mole removal plastic surgeon
  • Best facial plastic surgeon

These types of keywords are often not as competitive as their short-tail counterparts, which makes them a lot easier to rank for.

Once you've started to rank higher for long tail keywords and Google is beginning to recognize you as an authority, you can start to rank for more competitive keywords.

There are a range of online tools you can use to find keywords your clients are looking for. These include Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Keyword Finder, and more. Some offer free trials or versions that offer basic searches and information. However, for a deeper and more comprehensive dive into which keywords are best for your business, it's worth paying for a plan.

Common Plastic Surgery Procedures To Rank For

Here are some common plastic surgery procedures that can help you create valuable, well-ranking content.

Face Procedures:

  • Blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery)
  • Otoplasty (ear surgery)
  • Facelift/Rhytidectomy
  • Genioplasty (chin augmentation)
  • Lip augmentation

Body Procedures:

  • Abdominoplasty (tummy tuck)
  • Brachioplasty (arm lift)
  • Gynecomastia surgery
  • Mastopexy (breast lift)
  • Mommy makeover

Reconstructive Procedures:

  • Septoplasty
  • Skin cancer reconstruction
  • Scar revision
  • Hand surgery
  • Microsurgery

Less Common Procedures:

  • Dimpleplasty
  • Buccal fat removal
  • Thigh lift
  • Labiaplasty
  • Neck lift
  • Body contouring after weight loss
  • Fat transfer
  • Canthoplasty (eye corner lift)
  • Jawline contouring
  • Thread lifts

Non-Surgical Procedures:

  • Dermal fillers
  • Chemical peels
  • Microneedling
  • Kybella
  • PRP therapy
  • Laser treatments
  • CoolSculpting
  • Ultherapy

The Simple Content Funnel: A Step-by-Step Guide to SEO Success

Step Three: Create High-Ranking Content

Once you've decided to move forward with a specific keyword strategy, you can turn your attention to content creation. Creating new content (and updating existing pages) will help bring in more searchers to your website.

Do I Need a Blog for Plastic Surgery SEO?

The short answer - yes.

Google’s algorithm is looking for your knowledge on the topic. If you can demonstrate your expertise in your niche through blog content, you’ll rank better.

Furthermore, Google rewards websites that are frequently updated with fresh new content, which means each page you update or article you post will put you in Google's good books. You can target keywords with lots of search traffic that you wouldn't be able to use for your service pages. This will drive traffic to your website, turning searchers into paying clients.

For example, the keyword "How long does plastic surgery take to heal?" can easily be turned into an in-depth guide on different procedures and their healing times. This will:

  1. Show Google you know what you’re talking about.
  2. Show your users they can trust you.
  3. Help you provide fresh, new content.

Blogs are also a great way to share news about your practice - from new treatments you're offering to new developments in the area.

Content Should Be Valuable

You need to create high-quality content that aligns with the keywords and terms your clients are searching for. By posting consistently, you can also build up an audience of readers who trust your judgment. They're likely to share on social media and extend the digital reach of your article, recommend it to someone else via word of mouth, and like or comment on the post, which will show Google people are engaging with your content.

For example, if you're a plastic surgery clinic that specializes in rhinoplasty, you could write articles on the following topics:

  • What is rhinoplasty?
  • How long is the healing time for rhinoplasty?
  • Do I need rhinoplasty?

From these pages, you could link internally to your rhinoplasty service page, which will send potential patients directly to your services, show Google you have even more expertise on the topic, and power up your key pages.

Here are some of our best practices for creating engaging content that will help your website rank:

  • Quality Over Quantity: The key here is to provide value for the reader. Going into depth on a subject within the realm of plastic surgery will show users and Google that you're an authority in your niche.
  • Offer Solutions to Problems: Your content should answer questions potential clients have and provide a solution - ideally, the service you offer. For example, if you've created a guide on "How Do I Make My Lips Plump," you could then show clients your lip filler services.
  • A Clear Heading Structure: The title of the page should be formatted as an H1, and the rest of the page should be split into H2s, H3s, and H4s. This will help readers navigate your content and break it down into easy-to-read chunks.
  • Internal Linking: Link to other blog posts and collection pages where it makes sense within the content.
  • Avoid Keyword Stuffing: It may be tempting to add in as many keywords as possible, but only add keywords that make sense and read naturally within the content.
  • Incorporate Visuals: They don't just look good - they actually improve user experience and reduce bounce rate. Include images, videos, infographics, and charts within your blog content to break up big pieces of text and make your article easier to digest.
  • Ensure the Content is Free From Errors: This includes typos, punctuation, grammar issues, and spelling mistakes. Readers are more likely to trust high-quality content that is free from issues.
  • Incorporate Product CTAs: Add links to your products or other pages whenever it fits, or include a section at the end to drive revenue.

Analysing Competitor Pages

Whenever it comes to creating a new piece of content, make sure to check out what your competitors are doing. Pay attention to what headings they're using, how their content is structured, and what topics they're talking about in their article.

The goal here is to take what they've done and make it better for the user. Improve user experience by including information they're missing or getting rid of the fluff. Make the content concise, easy to consume, and even more helpful. The idea is to create high-quality articles that outrank and outperform your competitors.

Collection Page Content

Collection pages are something all plastic surgery practices should be implementing into their SEO strategy. Unlike product pages, which are very specific and have a lower search volume, collection pages automatically have a larger search volume, meaning more traffic.

Collection pages drive growth. They have different products or services, which means you never have to redirect the searcher elsewhere. They’re less specific than product pages, which means they have higher keyword volumes.

Collection pages are great because:

  • They’re logically structured. You can set them up so a client can navigate through them easily to find the exact thing they’re looking for.
  • You can feature the same products and services in multiple collections. This won't harm your SEO and will, instead, improve usability for a potential client.

When optimizing your collection page content for SEO, make sure to target the following areas:

  • Title Tag: Your target keyword should always be at the start of your title tag. You can use up to 60 characters within the title tag.
  • Heading 1: Your H1 should be your target keyword. For example, if the keyword for your collection page is "cosmetic surgery procedures," then that should also be your title.
  • URL: Your URL should also be your target keyword, formatted like this: cosmetic-surgery-procedures.
  • Internal Linking: Your internal links should direct clients to other relevant collection pages.
  • Service/Product Information: Include important information and points within the collection page content so users don't have to click on individual products to see it.
  • High-Quality Content: The more content you have on your collection pages, the easier it is for search engines to understand what the page is about, and the better it will rank. This is essential to outranking your competitors. Add product descriptions, frequently asked questions, and reviews to help rank and provide value.

Creating content for your plastic surgery business may seem like a lot of work and, you're right - it is. We can help you with your plastic surgery SEO strategy, creating valuable content for your website while you work on doing what you do best: looking after your patients.

Want to outrank competitors? Schedule your strategy call today.

Step Four: Incorporate Link Building and Digital PR

Link building is the process of getting other high-authority websites within your niche to link back to yours. Link-building and digital PR is essential for any plastic surgery SEO strategy, mainly because it does a few things:

  1. Increase your online visibility.
  2. Tells search engines that your website is trustworthy.
  3. Tells search engines that your website is valuable.
  4. Places you as an authority in your niche.

Each backlink is like a vote of confidence, and the more you have, the faster you'll reach the top of the search results.

Types of Backlinks

When acquiring backlinks for your website, there are a few different ways of getting them.

  • Guest Posting and Niche Edits: This involves writing for other websites that include a link back to your website. For example, as part of a plastic surgery SEO strategy, it would be good to target other medical and fitness websites.
  • Foundational Links: These are basic links that are easy to obtain and will help signal to search engines that your website can be trusted. Examples include social media profiles, business directories, and industry-specific directories.
  • Callout Services: Callout services are where journalists request quotes and insights for their articles from experts. You can share valuable knowledge in return for a backlink. This is particularly effective for plastic surgeon SEO, as your practice is likely to have specialist knowledge in your area of expertise.
  • Linkable Assets: This is where high-quality content obtains backlinks naturally, as other websites and outlets choose to share. This includes guides, infographics, studies, and reports.
  • Digital PR: These high-quality backlinks come from well-known and trusted publications and are used to build brand awareness and authority. You obtain these by pitching press releases and newsworthy stories to high-authority media outlets.

Link Quality

Not all links are created equal or suitable for your website.

Here are a few other things you should keep in mind when adopting backlinks into your SEO strategy.

  • Anchor Text: This is the clickable text that hyperlinks to your website or page. The anchor text is a small but important part, as it helps search engines work out whether the link is relevant. An example of this is "plastic surgery online quote," which links to your plastic surgery website. It’s important to avoid over-optimization; otherwise, you can get penalized by Google. Include a mix of targeted, branded, and general anchor text to be safe.
  • DR or DA: The Domain Rating or Domain Authority of a website will help you gauge how high-quality the backlink is. The lower the DA, the lower the quality of the backlink. Always find websites with a high DR or DA for your guest post.
  • Linked Pages: The backlinks should link to pages you want to rank.
  • Website Relevance: It's important that each of the links you manage to obtain are relevant to your website. For example, it wouldn't make sense for a plastic surgery business to target finance, video games, or technology. Health and beauty would be much more effective.
Traffic Spike to Zero: The Rise and Fall of a Spammy Website

Stay Away From Spam Links

Spam links won't contribute to the authority and trustworthiness of your website. They'll likely do nothing, meaning they're a wasted link. They can also harm your authority, which can be detrimental to your plastic surgery SEO strategy.

You'll usually find spam links from unsolicited emails or websites like Fiverr. Once you know how to identify them, you can stay away from them. If you're unsure about a link, ask yourself the following questions: Is this site relevant to my page? Is this a real website that other people care about? Does the website have real, organic traffic that's trending upward? These will help you determine if you can trust the site.

When it comes to backlinks, it's always better to prioritize quality over quantity. A website with a few high-quality backlinks will be more successful than one with hundreds or thousands of spammy, low-quality backlinks.

Sounds like a lot? Our agency is well-versed in earning real backlinks for plastic surgery practices. With thousands of trusted connections under our belt, we can place you as an authority in your niche in no time, helping you outrank your competitors.

Step Five: Embrace Local SEO

Local SEO is where you optimize your business' visibility using location. With this strategy, search results become more personalized based on the user's location. This is an essential part of plastic surgery SEO, as you may have a practice located in a specific country.

However, local SEO goes even deeper than that, helping you target more specific locations such as cities and districts.

Local SEO can:

  • Help your Google Business Profile rank higher.
  • Boost your website’s rankings when it comes to standard search results.
  • Target nearby clients and skyrocket sales.

How Local SEO Works

Local SEO can boost your plastic surgery website's rankings by helping Google understand what your business offers and where it's located. When it comes to ranking businesses in Google Maps and Google Local Park, these are the things it takes into account:

  • Your business's relevance to what the user is searching for.
  • How far your business is from the location.
  • Reviews from other users.
  • How well-known the business is.

How to Incorporate Local SEO Into Your Digital Marketing Strategy

With local SEO, you need to find what keywords your prospective patients could be looking for. This could include terms such as:

  • plastic surgery near me
  • best plastic surgeon in michigan
  • plastic surgeon texas

These types of terms will drive high-targeted organic traffic directly to your website, which will help convert searchers into real, paying clients.

Here's what appears when you search "plastic surgeon texas."

Like with traditional SEO, it's also important to keep in mind search volume and keyword difficulty. If one search term is getting thousands and thousands of searches but the keyword difficulty is extremely high, you're better off trying to rank for a keyword or term that's less competitive.

Optimizing Your Google Business Profile

If you're choosing to adopt local SEO into your marketing strategy, it's important to optimize your Google Business Profile. When optimized effectively, this listing can appear in Google results, increasing the chance of your business ranking for specific search terms.

Update your profile with important details such as your opening and closing hours, business information (Wi-Fi, seating, etc), photos of your business, and all your contact information. Ensure to update your profile during the Holidays or on other closing periods.

Keeping your business profile active and up to date will ensure searchers have accurate information at all times.

The Importance of Reviews For Your Plastic Surgery Clinic

Reviews will help keep your business profile active and also show Google that you're a trustworthy and relevant business, which will improve your rankings. You can add these attributes through scheme markups.

Make sure to respond to reviews, as this will show clients and Google that you value feedback. You can also address any negative comments or concerns which may have an impact on your ratings.

Getting the Right Plastic Surgery SEO Services For Your Business

There are many moving parts to a well-thought-out, effective SEO strategy, and if you don't know where to start, it can be hugely overwhelming.

Whether you're completely new to Search Engine Optimization or you have a little bit of experience, we can help. We specialize in SEO for plastic surgeons, creating a thorough plan that targets all areas of search engine optimization.

We work iteratively in sprints, which means we can adjust our strategy to help you get the highest return. 

Work with us, and we will:

  • Optimize your website, removing errors and ensuring everything runs smoothly.
  • Create a comprehensive content plan based on keyword research.
  • Optimize existing content and create new, valuable content designed to outrank competitors.
  • Use digital PR and high-quality backlinks to improve online visibility and place you as the authority within your niche.
  • Drive organic traffic directly to your website pages and boost your revenue.

Ready to boost your practice visibility? Book your 1-on-1 consultation (Limited spots).

Plastic Surgery SEO Company: Frequently Asked Questions

Can I (Or My Staff) Do Our Own SEO?

Sure, anyone can create their own SEO strategy. But whether it will be effective is another matter entirely. SEO comprises of many moving parts - from keyword research and content creation to technical website audits.

Not to mention, SEO is a long-term strategy. If you're committed to ranking higher, driving traffic, and securing potential patients, only consistent work will bring consistent results.

It's for that reason that many plastic surgery practices choose to hire someone like us to handle SEO. We can take care of your plastic surgery practice's SEO while you take care of what matters most: your patients.

What Does SEO for Plastic Surgeons Entail?

SEO, or search engine optimization, for plastic and cosmetic surgery businesses, entails the same basic SEO principles as SEO for any other company. However, the devil is in the details. Each SEO strategy is tailored to meet the needs of your own plastic surgery clinic.

Some businesses may need more of a focus on backlinks, whereas others will need more attention given to keyword research with a detailed content creation plan. Experts like us can help you highlight where to focus your SEO efforts.

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