SEO for Healthcare Industry Strategies and Keywords by Healthcare SEO Experts

Clinics often struggle to rank locally, and patients tend to distrust healthcare ads, making paid campaigns costly and less effective without solid organic visibility.

Most providers still depend on referrals, hardly enough in a market of 3+ million competitors. Add education gaps, insurance delays, and compliance hurdles, and marketing often gets sidelined.

Healthcare SEO fixes that. The right strategy builds local visibility, trust, and qualified leads. Below, we’ll share the exact framework our medical SEO agency used to help 150+ medical centers and healthcare companies rank higher and drive real patients, even under strict Your Money, Your Life (YMYL) rules.

Why Do Healthcare Companies Need to Invest in SEO?

• With healthcare clicks often topping $130, ranking organically helps you attract patients without overspending.
• Local SEO puts your clinic in “near me” searches, bringing steady walk-ins without paid ads.
• Clear calls to action and optimized pages turn site traffic into booked consultations.
• Healthcare SEO highlights your expertise, reviews, and specialties, helping patients trust you over competitors.
• Optimized content clearly explains treatments and insurance, improving satisfaction and loyalty.
• Strong medical website SEO EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) signals help healthcare sites rank despite Google’s strict YMYL standards.
• A unified SEO framework drives consistent growth for multi-site practices.

Before you can attract patients, you need to understand what they’re searching for: their health concerns and the exact terms they use to find care. Let’s understand how to find and use those keywords. 

Do Keyword Research and Competitive Analysis for Your Healthcare Website

Start by listing your core services, such as:

• behavioral health care
• cancer care
• diabetes care
• rehabilitation
• maternity care
• urgent care
• emergency care

Then use tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Keyword Planner to see how often these terms are searched and how competitive they are. Prioritize keywords with substantial search volume and realistic ranking potential.

Don’t stop at your main terms. Expand into related searches, phrases like “healthcare system,” “healthcare company,” or “healthcare services,” to reach patients who may be comparing providers or exploring treatment options.

Because most patients search locally, narrow your research by region. 

In Ahrefs, for example, search “urgent care”, apply a location filter, and exclude “near me” to uncover which states or cities have the highest demand.

Finally, study what’s already working for your competitors’ medical SEO. Check:

• Keywords in their titles and meta descriptions.
• Related searches suggested by Google.

These insights help you craft content that matches patient intent and positions your clinic above the competition. The result is improved SEO for healthcare providers.

Top 30 Real Keywords for Healthcare and Medical Centers

Transactional Keywords

1. health care provider
2. home healthcare 
3. health care company 
4. dental care
5. emergency dental care
6. emergency eye care
7. pediatric care
8. urgent care
9. behavioral healthcare services
10. urgent care pediatrics
11. family healthcare
12. maternity care
13. digestive disease care 
14. digestive care center 
15. diabetes care

Informational Keywords

1. how to manage chronic pain
2. tips for better sleep health
3. how to lower blood pressure
4. benefits of regular checkups
5. how to boost immune system
6. healthy diet for heart
7. exercises for back pain
8. warning signs of diabetes
9. how to manage stress
10. ways to prevent infections
11. importance of mental health
12. early signs of depression
13. how to maintain hydration
14. common symptoms of flu
15. how to improve digestion

The first 15 keywords work best for promoting your services, while the last 15 focus on patient education. Both support medical search engine optimization. 

If you’d like a list of keywords your patients search and a tailored plan for each, reach out to our healthcare SEO agency. We’ll help you turn searches into real results.

Outline Your Healthcare Website Hierarchy and Menu Structure

Once you’ve gathered your service and location keywords, move to the next stage of medical SEO: organize them into a clear website structure. This hierarchy defines how your pages connect, how keywords are distributed, and how both Google and patients navigate your site.

Every healthcare website should include three key static pages:

• Home Page: The central hub for your main keywords, terms like “healthcare services,” “medical center,” or “healthcare system.” It tells Google what your practice offers and sets the tone for your entire site.
• About Us Page: Builds trust and credibility by highlighting your team, certifications, awards, and commitment to patient care.
• Contact Us Page: Makes it easy for patients to reach you. Include phone numbers, email addresses, office locations, and a short inquiry form.

Keep these pages in your top navigation for faster, easier access, improved SEO for healthcare providers, and better UX.

Service Pages

If your healthcare organization offers multiple treatments or specialties, create a dedicated page for each service. Each page should target keywords that include both the service name and location. For example:

• Behavioral Health: “behavioral health services,” “behavioral health clinic”
• Heart and Vascular Care: “heart and vascular care,” “heart and vascular center”
• Primary Care: “primary care services,” “primary care clinic”
• Urgent Care: “urgent care services,” “urgent care clinic”

Add these pages under a “Services” tab in your main navigation so visitors can easily explore all offerings.

If you provide too many services to list individually, create a single services overview page that links to each detailed service page.

Both ways you’re helping your medical search engine optimization. 

Pages for Doctors and Physicians 

If your clinic has multiple providers, create a dedicated page for each one. These pages serve two main goals:

• Build Patient Trust: Patients want to know who will treat them. Include details about each doctor’s credentials, specialties, and experience to help visitors feel confident choosing your practice.
• Boost Search Visibility: People often search for specific providers, like “dermatologist in [city]” or “pediatric doctor near me.” Some even search by name. Individual pages ensure those searches lead straight to your site, not a third-party directory.

Each provider page should feature:

• Full name and title (MD, DO, RN, etc.)
• Professional headshot
• Specialty and services offered
• Credentials and experience
• Patient reviews or testimonials
• (Optional) Educational background and affiliations

Local Pages

Patients search for care close to home, so create dedicated local pages for each location. This helps your clinic appear in city-specific searches and makes it easier for patients to find you online. Let’s look at some examples of local service pages with keywords:

• Urgent Care: “urgent care [city]”
• Pediatrics Care: “pediatrics care [city]”
• Cancer Care: “cancer care [city]”

Include a location hub on your website that lists all your clinics, hospitals, or facilities. It helps patients quickly find the nearest care option while strengthening your local SEO for medical clinics across multiple areas.

Blog Pages

Patients don’t always search for a clinic first. They start with questions about symptoms or care. For example:

• Why does my child keep getting the flu?
• How can I manage chronic back pain at home?
• What insurance covers urgent care visits?

Publishing blog content that answers these questions helps patients discover your clinic while building trust and credibility. Your blogs should:

• Drive organic traffic by targeting the exact questions patients search online.
• Show medical expertise through clear, reliable information that builds confidence in your care.
• Support service pages through pillar clustering, linking related topics like treatments, preventive care, and insurance coverage to strengthen topical authority and combat misinformation.

Stop Guessing Your Healthcare Website Structure—We Will Show You Exactly What Pages You Need

SEO for the healthcare industry isn’t simple. You can’t just copy a competitor’s site structure and expect to outrank them.

Contact our healthcare SEO agency, and we’ll build a strategy tailored to your specific services, patients, and compliance needs, one that drives qualified leads.

How to Do Local SEO Marketing for Healthcare Centers and Clinics

Location pages are the backbone of local SEO for healthcare providers, but your approach should depend on whether you run a single-location clinic or a multi-location medical center. 

Let’s start with single-location practices.

Local Healthcare and Medical Centers

If your clinic serves a single city or region, include your target location in all key pages, especially your home and service pages.

For example, if your clinic is in Houston, optimize your keywords like this:

Home Page: “health care houston,” “medical center houston,” “houston health care”

Service pages:

• pediatric care houston
• cancer care houston
• urgent care houston
• maternity care houston
• digestive health care houston

Use these location-based terms throughout your content, headings (H1, H2), meta titles, and descriptions. 

Don’t forget to include them in image file names and alt text; every detail helps Google understand where you operate and who you serve.

Multi-Area Healthcare and Clinics

If your healthcare organization operates in multiple cities or states, your local SEO strategy should expand to target each area individually. Use keywords such as:

• healthcare services in texas
• healthcare centers in florida
• behavioral health care in houston

Create a location hub page that lists all your facilities in one place. Include an interactive map and links to each individual location page. This improves both user experience and local SEO performance.

Keep your URL structure clean and consistent to support healthcare search engine optimization. A logical structure helps search engines and users navigate your locations easily.

Note: Even if you offer telehealth services, you should still create dedicated pages for each physical location where your team delivers in-person care, treatment, or assessments. This will imporve your chances to rank and strengthen your general medical search engine optimization. 

Set up Your Google My Business Profile and Optimize it for Google Maps

When patients search “healthcare center near me” or “urgent care in houston,” Google highlights nearby clinics in Maps, not just regular results. 

With 77% of patients reading reviews before choosing a provider, an optimized Google Business Profile (GMB) is vital. Optimize it by following these steps:

• Use consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) across your website and listings.
• Add your website URL to strengthen credibility.
• List all services (e.g., urgent care, primary care, maternity care).
• Write a clear description mentioning specialties and locations (e.g., “Comprehensive pediatric and urgent care in Houston”).
• Link social media profiles for brand consistency.
• Respond to reviews and Q&A to show engagement.
• Encourage 5-star reviews; 84% of patients skip providers rated under 4 stars.
• Upload professional photos of your clinic, staff, and facilities to build trust.

After optimizing your healthcare GMB, you have improved SEO for medical clinics, and your profile will start showing up in local searches.

Build High Quality Content for Your Healthcare Website

Even with solid keyword research and a well-structured site, Google won’t rank your healthcare center without high-quality, patient-focused content. For proper medical SEO, every page must deliver real value, relevance, and trust. Here’s how to create it:

• Write Original Content: Avoid duplicating text across pages or copying competitors. Each service and location page should speak directly to its audience and care type.
• Use Keywords Naturally: Include them in your headings, meta tags, and image alt text, but focus on clarity and readability over density.
• Address Real Patient Needs: Write around conditions, questions, and recovery journeys to connect emotionally and practically with patients.
• Use Clear Structure and Visuals: Organize content with proper H1-H3 headings, and include optimized images of your doctors, staff, and facilities.
• Show Credibility and Expertise: Mention stats like the number of hospitals, patients served, or years in practice to reinforce EEAT and meet Google’s YMYL standards.

• Feature Your Doctors: Highlight key physicians on service pages and link their names to individual profile pages for more detail and trust.

• Showcase Affiliations: Include partnerships with hospitals, labs, or universities to validate your authority.

• Add Testimonials and Stories: Real patient feedback builds trust and drives conversions.

• Use Clear CTAs: Encourage actions like booking an appointment, calling your clinic, or learning more about services.‍
• Promote Your Patient App (If Available): Make it easy for patients to schedule visits, check results, or get virtual care directly from your website.

Blog Posts

As we discussed earlier, many patients begin their healthcare journey with questions. 

Creating educational blogs that answer these questions helps you reach patients early and build trust. It also strengthens your service pages and helps with healthcare search engine optimization through a pillar clustering strategy.

You choose a main service page (e.g., “urgent care houston”), and create supporting blogs around related patient questions, like: 

• How to treat minor injuries at home before visiting urgent care
• When to go to urgent care vs. the ER
• Top questions parents ask about pediatric urgent care

Then, link each blog back to the main service page to boost its SEO authority.

To find strong blog topics, use Ahrefs’ Questions tab.

Or check Google’s People Also Ask section to see what patients are searching for.

To make these blogs provide real value:

• Write unique, original content tailored to patient intent.
• Use keywords naturally in headings, meta titles, and descriptions.

‍

• Add quotes or insights from certified doctors to build authority.
• Include visuals like charts, diagrams, or condition explainers.

• Follow a clear heading structure (H1-H3).

• Link to reputable medical sources when citing data.
• Use lists, tables, or videos to make complex topics easy to understand.

Implement Technical SEO for Your Healthcare Company 

Even with great content and a strong site structure, your medical website SEO won’t perform without solid technical SEO for healthcare providers. You should focus on and optimize a few important metrics:

• Site Speed: Fast pages improve user experience and rankings.
• UI/UX Design: A clean, intuitive layout helps patients find what they need quickly.
• Crawlability and Indexability: Ensure Google can properly access and index your pages.

Let’s look at how to optimize each of these for your healthcare site.

XML Sitemap and Robots.txt

An XML sitemap helps Google identify which pages to crawl and rank. Include all key pages (your home, service, doctor, and location pages) and set clear crawl priorities:

• Homepage: High priority (1.0)
• Service Pages: Medium-high (0.9)
• Doctor Pages: Medium (0.8)
• Educational Blogs: Low-medium (0.7)

Also specify each page’s change frequency and last modified date to keep your site fresh in Google’s index.

A robots.txt file controls what search engines can and can’t crawl. Block low-value or duplicate pages, and allow only high-value sections (services, locations, and blog posts) to ensure efficient crawling and indexing.

Schema Markup and Structured Data

To help Google understand your site and display rich results, like ratings, FAQs, or services, you need to add structured data (schema markup). 

A proper schema helps Google:

• Show star ratings in search results.
• Highlight key services and FAQ sections.
• Recognize your site as a healthcare provider

Here are recommended schema types for healthcare websites:

• MedicalOrganization: For hospitals, clinics, or healthcare systems; defines name, logo, specialties, and contact information.
• MedicalClinic: For local branches or individual practices under a parent organization.
• Physician: For doctor profile pages to link staff to your clinic.
• MedicalCondition: For content explaining diseases, symptoms, and treatments.
• MedicalProcedure: For specific treatments or procedures (e.g., MRI, surgery).
• MedicalTest: For diagnostic or lab services (e.g., blood tests, x-rays).
• Article: For educational blogs or healthcare news, enhancing EEAT signals.

You can explore additional medical schemas at schema.org. 

After implementation, always verify your markup using Google’s Schema Validator Tool.

URL Structure

A clear, consistent URL structure helps medical SEO: Google starts understanding your pages. Here are the most essential best practices to keep for healthcare website URLs:

• Keep it short and descriptive. Avoid long URLs with random numbers or parameters.
• Use hyphens (-) to separate words; skip underscores or spaces.
• Include relevant keywords, such as service names and locations, without stuffing.
• Stick to lowercase letters for consistency.
• Reflect site hierarchy (main category → subpage).

Good Example: yourclinic.com/services/urgent-care-houston

Bad Example: yourclinic.com/Page?id=UrgentCareHoustonFinalVersion123

Internal Link Building for Healthcare Websites

Internal links strengthen your site’s structure for both search engines and patients. They:

• Pass authority between pages to signal importance.
• Make navigation easier for patients.
• Show Google your site covers topics thoroughly, improving indexing and relevance.

There are several types of internal links that can be used effectively. Here are the main ones with examples:

Here is an example of service-to-service links:

Mobile Optimization for a Healthcare Services Website

Over 50% of patients search for doctors or clinics on their mobile devices. To convert them, your site must load fast and display flawlessly on every device. Key steps for this healthcare search engine optimization:

• Use a responsive design for mobile, tablet, and desktop.
• Add tap-friendly buttons to prevent misclicks.
• Optimize images for speed without losing quality.
• Keep text readable (minimum body size of 16px).
• Use a hamburger menu for easy navigation.
• Add click-to-call buttons for instant contact.
• Ensure proper image sizing to boost load time and UX.

Website Speed & Performance (Core Web Vitals)

Patients searching for care are already stressed; they won’t wait for slow pages. Google also ranks fast websites higher, so the medical website SEO performance directly impacts visibility. Here’s how to improve speed:

• Enable caching to load pages faster for repeat visitors.
• Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML to reduce code size.
• Lazy-load only images below the fold; keep above-the-fold visuals immediate.
• Use high-quality hosting and a CDN for faster delivery.
• Implement server-side rendering for dynamic pages.
• Use lightweight photos, videos, and animations.

Check performance in PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix, and aim to meet Google’s Core Web Vitals benchmarks:

• LCP: under 3 seconds
• FCP: under 1 second
• CLS: close to 0

Passing all Core Web Vitals ensures a smooth, reliable experience for patients and stronger search rankings.

Frequent Technical Audits

As your healthcare site evolves, add or remove pages carefully. Changes can impact SEO. Run a monthly audit to stay optimized. Check:

• Broken links, redirects, and orphan pages (Screaming Frog, Ahrefs).
• Duplicate content (Copyscape, SEMrush).
• Indexing and mobile issues (Google Search Console).
• Page speed and Core Web Vitals (PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix).
• Schema and HTTPS security (Rich Results Test, SSL Labs).

Regular audits keep your site fast, secure, and ranking well. And if you need support from an experienced healthcare SEO agency, get in touch, and we’ll run a technical SEO audit for you.

Link Building for a Healthcare Website

Your website’s technical SEO is solid; the next step is building authority beyond your own domain. Google views backlinks from trusted, relevant sites as votes of confidence, its version of digital “word-of-mouth.”

To strengthen your credibility and search rankings, focus on three core backlink strategies tailored for healthcare websites.

Guest Posting and Link Insertion

Target relevant healthcare sites for backlinks, such as:

• Healthcare Blogs: Healthcare IT Today, Carestream
• Home Care and Nursing Sites: Senior Advice
• Health and Fitness Sites: Women Fitness

Within these platforms, you can use two main strategies:

Directory Listings for Medical Centers and Healthcare Companies

Patients often check more than Google Reviews. They also browse medical and business directories before choosing a provider. Listing your clinic on reputable directories boosts visibility and trust, making your medical SEO impeccable.

Recommended directories for healthcare providers:

• Business Listings: Neustar Localeze
• Healthcare Practitioners: HealthProfs
• Company Reputation: Glassdoor
• Doctors and Medical Centers: Vitals
• General Directory: Yelp

Include in your profile:

• Location, hours, and services
• Short, patient-friendly description
• Logo and staff photos
• Doctor credentials, certifications, and awards
• Website URL (the most crucial element for SEO)

For example, this is how well-optimized healthcare company profiles appear on Yelp.

Digital PR for Healthcare Websites 

Digital PR focuses on earning backlinks and media coverage from reputable publications like Forbes or health-focused outlets such as HealthTech Magazine. This is not a regular item in healthcare search engine optimization, but it helps strengthen your site’s authority and visibility through credible mentions.

Here’s how to run a digital PR campaign:

• Identify newsworthy topics. Highlight trends, innovations, or new treatments that appeal to journalists.
• Collect real data. Conduct surveys or studies to provide original insights.
• Add expert commentary. Include quotes from doctors or healthcare specialists to build credibility.
• Write a clear, data-driven article. Present findings in an engaging, factual format.
• Craft a strong pitch. Summarize the topic, key takeaways, and why it’s relevant.
• Contact journalists or editors. Send your pitch to relevant publications and follow up.

Each published feature earns a credible backlink, enhancing your healthcare site’s SEO and reputation.

How to Track the Success of Your Healthcare SEO Strategy

Once your on-site and off-site medical website SEO work is done, the real test begins: tracking how well it performs. Use these tools to measure what’s working and where to improve:

• Google Search Console: Track keyword rankings, impressions, and indexing status.
• Google Analytics (GA4): Monitor user behavior, traffic, and conversions.
• Ahrefs / SEMrush: Check backlinks, keyword rankings, and competitors.
• Screaming Frog / Sitebulb: Detect technical issues, broken links, and duplicate content.
• GTmetrix / PageSpeed Insights: Measure page speed and Core Web Vitals.
• Hotjar / Microsoft Clarity: Analyze user clicks, heatmaps, and session recordings.
• Google Tag Manager (GTM): Track events like form submissions and button clicks.
• Backlink Monitoring Tools: Watch backlink quality and new or lost links.

The Takeaway: Consistent tracking turns your SEO plan into a data-driven system that steadily increases patient visibility.

Partner with a Healthcare SEO Agency That Knows Your Industry

Patients are looking for healthcare services like yours. Let’s make sure they find you first. Contact us for tailored healthcare SEO that drives local traffic and boosts your visibility.