2015-10-20
How important is Keyword Research for Your PT Clinic?

Keyword Research

How important is Keyword Research for Your PT Clinic?

Any physical therapist that takes on an active role in their online marketing strategy has heard about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and keywords. Unlike traditional advertising, such as in newspapers, magazines, and even ads in phone books, paying attention to the keywords used is essential for quality online marketing. If you want to know how to best optimize your website you and your marketing team need to do a keyword search to determine which words would be the most effective in drawing potential clients to your website when they are looking for a physical therapist.

Create a Keyword List

Creating a keyword list may sound simple but it can take a bit of time to ensure you write down all of the relevant words for your specific physical therapy clinic. Here is a list of the basics you want to include:

  • Your Name; Ex. Dr. Peter Jones or Dr. P. Jones Therapy
  • Your PT Clinic; Ex. Jones Physical Therapy
  • Location
  • Injuries treated: Back pain, car accident injuries/whiplash, sports related injuries.
  • Types of treatments utilized

The generation of the initial keyword list will help you to categorize them further into more specific injuries and services offered at your physical therapy clinic. It is important to note that using far-reaching, or generic terms has a place in your online marketing scheme however, you need to include things that are specific to your practice.

One example of how to use keywords that are brand specific is to incorporate on your website a testimonials page. In those testimonials might be included your name, Dr. Peter Jones, or your clinic, Jones Physical Therapy. Office events, promotions, as well as staff profiles are also great options for this type of more focused content related to your particular PT clinic.

If you need further assistance in narrowing down your ideal or most effective keywords, consider using one of the many research tools out there. This can help you narrow down your keywords and help you avoid using unnecessary keywords. There are free tools available that can help you with optimizing your keyword content.

Avoid Excessive Usage of Keywords

Once you have determined the best and most effective keywords for your online marketing strategy, it is important to remember to use them appropriately. Anyone can just copy and paste the list of words onto their blog posts related to your website. It is also easy to use the keywords to excess in blog posts or content on your website but this is counterproductive. If you overuse your keywords it is going to come across as very spam-like, which is a sure way to push away potential customers.

Furthermore, excessive use of your keywords (or keyword stuffing as it is known) can hurt your chances of having a good ranking when people conduct searches looking for your PT Clinic or the type of services you provide. Create unique yet relevant posts related to your keywords. An example would be taking care to avoid injuries when enjoying outdoor activities during the summer or winter. By promoting safety as well as including a nod to your keywords, “sports related injuries,” you will attract more traffic to your website.

When it comes to online marketing, it is essential to understand and utilize SEO and keywords. By doing a bit of keyword research you, or your marketing team, can determine the best words to implement that will help draw the most visitors, and therefore potential patients, to your clinic's website as well as your blog. Individuals drawn to your site are more likely to seek out your services.

Once you have your keywords pinned down, PatientSites can help you to utilize them in SEO and content marketing. Take a look at the many helpful features that we have to offer.