The right healthcare SEO keywords will generate leads that turn to customers 14.6 percent of the time. That statistic is a sharp contrast to the 1.7 percent conversion rate of print and direct mail ads.

A study by The ONS found out that 98 percent of income earners with more than $41,600 in annual income use the internet. Another study says that 91 percent of internet users use the search engines.

The right healthcare SEO keywords immediately expose your business to the right people. Back in 2012, Google said that 44 percent of the patients who found a hospital on the search engines booked an appointment. In a 2013 report by Pew Research, that number has gone up to 77 percent!

So how do you get search engine juicy for your healthcare SEO?

Compile a List of Search Terms

Start your research by brainstorming relevant terms. List possible keywords you think your patients, customers or clients will be searching for on search engines. Recruit your staff to help; ask them to come up with more search terms.

Your goal here is to have a comprehensive compilation of search terms that your audience uses for finding solutions to their problems.

Keep your keywords relevant to your customers and business. Think of keywords that customers with an intention to buy would be searching for, not search terms that have only informational value.

For example, keywords that have phrases like “get treatment for,” “find a doctor in,” or “book specialist,” expresses more commercial intent than keywords with “what symptoms,” or “why is,” or “what causes.”

Think of local searchers too. People within your locality are likely to add the name of your city or town or country in their search terms. Visitors might want to find out if this clinic offers a particular service or if that pharmacy opens on weekends.

Research and Test Your Search Terms

Now, verify what keywords from your list are most profitable and what other keywords searchers use that you mightn’t have included. This step also helps you get a sense of the keyword competition against advertisers.

Use credible SEO resources to research your topic deeply. A keyword ranking tool comes handy here. You’ll use the tool to plan out your keywords based on what your potential customers want.

Here’s a checklist to follow when researching and testing your keywords:

• Reduce competition.Research the websites ranking tops for any of the keywords on your list to know who might be up against.
• Find relevant keywords only. 

  Use only keywords that are most relevant to your service offerings. Ranking for broad keywords negatively impacts your conversions. You’re less likely to convert if you ranked for “doctor” or “fruits” than if you ranked for more specific keywords like “southern Omaha pediatrician.”

• Optimize for keywords with buyer intent.Focus on finding keywords that significantly shows that searchers are ready to buy. While you’ll have educational and informational content, you want to focus on buyers, not researchers.
• Focus on keywords with high search volume.For best results, focus on keyword phrases that get 200 to 10,000 monthly searches from local searchers.
• Include local keywords.Buyers will eventually leave their computer and mobile screens to find you, make sure they know you are locally accessible. Also, provide information that resonates with their local experiences.
• Use superlativesWhen you finally want to apply these keywords to your website, make sure they can accommodate some superlatives. For example, if a keyword is “southern Omaha pediatrician,” then you can use “best southern Omaha pediatrician” or “top southern Omaha pediatrician.”

Blend Healthcare SEO Keywords into Your Pages

Do not target too many healthcare SEO keywords per page. A page should focus on one keyword or a maximum of five keywords. Stuffing your pages with too many keywords attracts penalties from the search engines.

If you already have a website, know where your SEO stands by using SiteReportCard’s free site audit tool.