Understanding How Keywords Bring Patients to Your Alternative Medicine Practice

Have you done a Google search for keywords you think your website should rank for and you didn’t show up? Even if you aren’t on the first page for that specific search, it doesn’t mean your potential patients aren’t finding you through other related search terms. As an alternative medicine practice, you have the ability to rank for many different terms. 

Here are a few things you need to know about keywords.

Keyword Variations

Every variation of a keyword phrase can bring up different results. Maybe you’re not showing up for functional medicine doctor in the name of your city, but you are showing up for functional medicine practice in your city. Or maybe you’re showing up for functional medicine near me. 

As part of our keyword research, we look at the main keyword our practitioners want to rank for and then we find alternative keywords that meet these criteria: 

• High Search Volume
• Ad Value
• Easy to Rank For
• User Intent
• Accurate Description

These related variations usually have an extra word or two added onto the main keyword. For example, if you are a chiropractor, another variation could be “chiropractic office near me” or “chiropractic doctor”. Either of these words would be relevant for a chiropractor’s office. 

Customized Google Results

Another thing to consider is that Google tailors search results to the person that’s searching. When you do a keyword search versus someone else, your results are going to vary. That’s why we hook all of our practitioners into what’s called the Google Search Console. This gives us a look at the average position of what terms each page of your site ranks for. It gives us accurate data that we use to help with our SEO strategy. 

When you do a Google search for a keyword, you should go into an incognito browser to search. This will give you less biased results, because the incognito browser will cloak your search history.

Every Page On Your Site Has The Ability to Show Up in Searches

There are only so many keywords your home page can rank for. That’s why it is important to have a service page for everything you offer. Also, it’s important to add other content to your website that will allow you to target specific keywords. 

Since every page on your site has the ability to show up in search results, you don’t want to designate the same main keyword for each page. Instead, you want to create content around the different keyword variations and target them on different pages. 

One of the ways we do this for our clients is to write what we call areas served pages or city pages. We will create a page of content for the specific term, plus the city the practitioner serves. If they are a functional medicine doctor in Dallas, we will write a page of content about functional medicine and the city of Dallas. Every variation of functional medicine will get its own page. 

Contact us Today For SEO Services

If you are an alternative medicine practice, get in touch with us today. The team here at Functional Medicine SEO is ready to help you. Fill out our strategy session form and we’ll get back to you in 24-48 hours. We look forward to hearing from you!