The Clinic Marketing Podcast - Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers

SEO 101: How to Improve Your Clinic’s Online Rankings (and Stay Visible in the Age of AI Search) | Healthcare SEO | Ep. 136

• Darcy Sullivan • Episode 136

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When it comes to getting your clinic found online, one question always comes up: “How do I improve my website rankings on Google?”

Whether you’re a chiropractor, acupuncturist, physical therapist, or wellness practitioner, your potential patients are searching for your services right now. The key is making sure your website actually shows up when they do.

That’s where SEO — search engine optimization — comes in.

And today, SEO looks a little different than it used to. With AI-powered search tools like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and xAI’s Grok now summarizing results directly in search, visibility means more than just ranking #1. It’s about making sure your clinic is included in those intelligent, conversational answers that patients trust.

Let’s explore how to do that.

🎇Episode webpage, blog & show notes: https://propelyourcompany.com/seo-101-improve-your-clinic-rankings/

Send in your questions. ❤ We'd love to hear from you!

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In this 1-Hour SEO Planning Session, you’ll learn what it takes to thrive online and convert online traffic into foot traffic.

Plus, Get a Free Patient-Centered SEO Action Plan to Kickstart Your Strategy!

🎉 NEW Webinar: How to dominate Google Search, Google Maps, AI-driven search results, and get more new patients without spending a dime on ads

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📞Book a discovery call - Book a discovery call with Propel to see how smart SEO and website design can help your clinic get found online.

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to the Clinic Marketing Podcast. In fact, if you're new here, this is a perfect episode for you. Hi, I'm Darcy Sullivan from Propel Marketing and Design, where we help clinic owners improve their visibility and attract more of the right patients through SEO and smart website strategies. Today we're diving into one of the biggest questions I get over and over again. How do I improve my position on Google and the other search engines? In fact, this question comes in many forms. How do I get more free organic website traffic? How do I make sure that I'm showing up in AI searches? How do I optimize for search? Where do I even start when it comes to SEO? And here's the thing: it all falls under the same umbrella. And that's what we're covering today. We're revisiting SEO basics, but with a modern twist, one that reflects how AI-powered search is changing the game. We'll talk about how you can show up not only in traditional Google search results, but also in AI overviews, AI searches, Google Maps, and those AI tools like ChatGPT and Grok, which now pull data directly from live web results. Before we dive in, I want to mention that some of what we're covering today comes straight from my free SEO training. It walks you through how to build a complete SEO and content marketing plan for your clinic, from optimizing your Google Business Profile listing to boosting your site's performance and integrating AI tools. You can check it out by visiting propelyourcompany.com slash learn or grab the link in the show notes. All right, let's jump in. So what exactly is SEO? SEO, search engine optimization, is the process of improving your online visibility so that your website and company show up higher in organic. Those are the non-paid search results. When done right, Google helps you attract more potential patients through free search traffic from Google, from Bing, and now AI-powered search tools that summarize results directly on the page. And here's why SEO is more important than ever. Social media reach continues to decline. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok are rented space. They can change algorithms, remove reach, or even go down. Paid ads work sometimes. But the second you stop paying, that traffic disappears. When you invest in optimizing your website and local online presence, those efforts can pay off for months, even years. And I'm sure you've seen this. Maybe you got a blog post from five years ago that's still driving traffic. And you're like, what the heck? Why can't other pages and other posts drive this much traffic? And now with AI transforming search results, producing conversational answers and summaries like Google's AI overviews, the goal isn't just to rank number one anymore. It's to be featured within those answers too. So patients see your name and expertise before they even click through to your website. Now I've got a sweet way for you to think about SEO. And if you've been with me for a while, you've probably heard this, but years ago I compared SEO to an Oreo cookie. And honestly, it still works perfectly. If you think about an Oreo cookie, it has two wafers, a bottom wafer, a top wafer, and the sweet stuff in the middle that holds it all together. Well, SEO is similar. You can think of the top wafer as your on-page SEO. These are actions you take on your website to improve your online visibility. You can think of the bottom wafer as off-page SEO. These are actions you take outside of your website to improve your overall online presence. And then that delicious sweet stuff in the middle. That is your strategy and your audience connection. That's what holds everything together. Let's start with that sweet stuff in the middle. So the sweet stuff in the middle, targeting your audience and targeting the keywords that your audience uses. Before you touch a single line on your website, you have to know who. This means identifying your ideal patient, understanding what brings them in to see you, and learning how they describe their pains and what solutions they're searching for. Here's where things have evolved. People aren't just typing short keywords like chiropractor near me anymore. They're also, and I do say also because some still are searching that way, but they are also asking conversational questions like who's the best chiropractor for athletes in my area? What's the difference between acupuncture and dry needling? Who is the closest acupuncturist to me that accepts my insurance? Those are different types of searches. And AI search tools are listening to that natural language and pulling results from websites that answer those questions clearly. So your goal isn't just to sprinkle keywords on your web page, it's to create helpful content that mirrors how your ideal patients actually speak. Ooh, that's so important. I think it needs to be repeated. Your goal isn't just to sprinkle keywords on your pages. It's to create helpful content that mirrors how your ideal patients actually speak. For example, you might be using keyword phrases like best chiropractic treatments for site attica near Memouth City, or should I see a physical therapist or a chiropractor for shoulder pain? AI tools like ChatGPT, Grok, and even Google use built-in keyword insights that can help you brainstorm long-tail conversational search phrases your audience uses. Once you've nailed down your audience and their keywords, you want to make sure that you weave those phrases in naturally into your content, your blogs, your service pages, and even your Google Business Profile post. And don't forget to include location-based terms because someone might even drive 20 to 30 minutes to see the right provider. Now that we've covered that sweet stuff in the middle, let's dive into that top wafer on the SEO comparison to the Oreo cookie, and that is your on-page SEO. This is everything that happens on your website. And the good news is that you don't need to be a tech whiz to get it right. Modern platforms like WordPress, Squarespace, Wix make it easier than ever for you to optimize your content. Here are the things that are essential: speed and making sure that your website's mobile friendly, title tags and meta descriptions, using header tags, using internal links, optimizing images, and creating clear calls to action. Also think about your user intent, not just keywords. When someone searches back pain relief, they're probably looking for both education and next steps. So give them both. Helpful info and a way to take action. And if you want to increase your visibility in AI summaries or featured snippets, structure your content to answer questions directly. You can do this using bullet points, lists, short paragraphs that are easy for search engines to read and quote. Now, if you're just saying, oh my gosh, Darcy, this is so much. Wow. Some of these terms I've never even heard of. Please, please, please go check out that free training. Visit propellyourcompany.com slash learn. And we walk through all of this in so much more detail on that training. I just want to give you a little bit of a snippet of inside of what is in that training for you. Okay, now let's talk about off-page SEO. That would be the other wafer, or the bottom wafer, if you will, of the SEO Oreo. Off-page SEO is everything that happens outside of your website to boost your visibility. The first and most important step is your Google Business Profile. That's what controls your Google Maps listing and what used to be called your Google My Business listing. We talk about that listing so much on this podcast. There's tons of resources we'll include in the show notes and episode webpage where you can dive deeper into your Google Business Profile listing. That listing, again, controls how you show up on Google Maps, which is a major traffic driver for local clinics. So you want to make sure your listing is verified and claimed and that all of your information is completely felt out, that you've got photos, QA, and that you post regularly. Encourage patients to leave reviews. They're one of the most powerful local SEO signals. You can even use automated tools or follow-up emails to streamline that process. Beyond that, you want to make sure that your NAP, your name, address, and phone number is consistent everywhere online, including all online directories, insurance sites, Yelp, Health Grades, and so on. Consistency builds trust with Google and with patients. Other off-page SEO boosters include building backlinks from local organizations or partnerships to your website, submitting press releases or showing up for news stories about your clinic, sharing educational content across social platforms and email lists. And yes, AI can help you here too, from tracking your reviews to identifying trends to distributing content on multiple platforms automatically. The big takeaway here though is don't rely solely on AI. We've had tons of content that we've shared about this and we'll include more in the show notes, but do not rely solely on AI to put together your content. When your on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and audience strategy all work together, you create a powerful digital presence that helps new patients find and trust you. SEO isn't about triggering algorithms anymore, it's about showing real expertise, being consistent, and helping people find solutions through your content. And as search continues to evolve with AI, those fundamentals only become more important. So again, if you're ready to take things to the next level, I strongly suggest that you visit propelyourcompany.com/slash learn and sign up for our brand new webinar. And if you feel like you want somebody to take over your SEO for you, please visit propelyourcompany.com and from there you can book a discovery call. Until next time, I'm Darcy from Propel Marketing and Design, helping you attract more of your ideal patients through smart, sustainable SEO. Thanks for listening.

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Darcy Sullivan

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