Podiatry Clinic SEO | Podiatry Marketing 10

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Introduction

Tyson E. Franklin: Hi, I'm Tyson Franklin and welcome to this week's episode of podiatry marketing. I am joined again by my cohost, Jim McDannald over in Canada. Good morning slash evening. Jim, how you doing

Jim McDannald, DPM: things are good here on the other side of the world, Tyson. I was curious whether or not you've had a chance to see the, the new Matrix movie or not.

Tyson E. Franklin: No, I haven't

Jim McDannald, DPM: We'll have to do it before the next episode because I have not seen it either,

Tyson E. Franklin: yeah, it's one of those things I don't get a cinema very often. And because of, in Australia at the moment because of these COVID restrictions, and you used to have to wear a mask in, but once you were there, you were fine. But now you're supposed to wear it all the time, unless you're eating.

And I reckon I could make a carton of popcorn last a two hour movie easily. So it defeats the purpose. But, I don't know, it comes so quickly to either the streaming services. I reckon if I wait two months, it will probably be on Netflix.

Jim McDannald, DPM: sure. I just thought we'd check in. I'm sure the listeners are really curious whether we've watched it or not,

Tyson E. Franklin: Oh, I reckon they're just chewing at the bit. They're dying to [00:01:00] know what we do in our spare time. So today, Jim, I'm handing it over to you.

Introduction to Podiatry Clinic SEO

Tyson E. Franklin: You, we are talking about podiatry clinic SEO, that scary word.

Jim McDannald, DPM: yeah. The SEO thing is something that's a little, obtuse, a little what is that as far as, so the letters obviously stand for search engine optimization, and then what even is that right?

Tyson E. Franklin: I know. It's sometimes I think they just, some, like the, they come up with stuff just to confuse

Jim McDannald, DPM: It's confusing, but I think, now that we live in a search engine first world, people are Googling like everything known to man. what am I going to eat? how far away is the sun from earth? all kinds of random stuff on Google that Google has become that.

And I don't want to say a source of truth, but a source of answering all these questions that we used to ask mom and dad about or look in the encyclopedia about. So

Tyson E. Franklin: Yeah, remember that they had that shirt for a while that I don't need Google. My wife knows everything. But now Google, I Google is it, like [00:02:00] you said, it is the go to place for any question. And I would probably ask it three or four really obscure things every single day. They just pop

Jim McDannald, DPM: yeah, like I sometimes ask, what time is it in Carnes, Australia? so I get a general sense of

Tyson E. Franklin: cans, Australia

Jim McDannald, DPM: I'm bad,

Tyson E. Franklin: cans. Yeah, just think there's a can on the ground and you've kicked a whole pile of cans.

Jim McDannald, DPM: so can, so I'll, ask Siri or I'll ask Google sometimes, what time is it in cans and, it gives that back to me. But I think a lot of people these days as well are asking Dr. Google, right? If they have a problem with their foot, a problem with their ankle, any other kind of healthcare problem, they're asking that.

And what's happening is that people put in that search query into the brow, into the search box. They click search and and Google is trying to basically deliver the most relevant results, to a person. And that's what this kind of SEO is like how do you become, either in the local area of the search or in that, the first 10 links, how do you end up in that top three, for the, for [00:03:00] your clinic, for the care you wanna provide?

This is where that kind of search engine optimization comes into play.

Tyson E. Franklin: Yeah, didn't they say, oh do you know that joke, where's the best place to hide a dead

Jim McDannald, DPM: what page Two of Google results.

Tyson E. Franklin: Page two of Google, yes, because no one gets there. No, once you get through page one, you don't go to page two. What does a podiatrist need to do if they're in a particular area and there might be 10, 15, 20 podiatrists in the area?

What do they need to do to actually get on page one other than, uh, yeah, click on one of the links from the 150 emails I get every month from, someone who can get them on

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yeah, all those get on page one, all the cold calls, all of those work. So like you should just jump on top of those as soon as possible. No, but yes,

Tyson E. Franklin: Yeah. And budget for every one of

Jim McDannald, DPM: For sure. No, I would say that, it's important to break down that kind of what we call the search engine results page.

obviously when you type in. Podiatrist Cairns or podiatrist, Chicago, it's looking at that search engine results page and understanding the different [00:04:00] areas where your clinic or your services can be visible. The top area for most searches like that, is what we call, like it's basically the map or the kind of the local pack.

So there'll be a map that has the little pins where. It shows all those local podiatrists based off your geolocation, right? So if I'm in downtown Chicago, it's going to show me podiatrists in that area. You have a podiatrist near me, but if I'm looking, somewhere else, if I'm in Chicago and I'm looking podiatrist, New York.

It's obviously going to show me maps there, but

Tyson E. Franklin: Okay, so when you say geolocation, what

Jim McDannald, DPM: so like your computer, your cell phone has a unique what we call IP address. So your phone knows where in the world it is, and it relays that information to Google. So by typing in podiatrists near me, either your IP address through the GPS or just through the network you're currently on with your phone.

We'll tell Google this person is in downtown Chicago. So show them [00:05:00] podiatrists in downtown cause that's what they're asking for.

Tyson E. Franklin: Okay. Oh, just in case somebody was

Jim McDannald, DPM: No, I think it's important to realize that. And this is why this is sometimes what podiatrists run into problems with as well as that, not only does it know where you're located, but since you're searching on Google, it knows about all of your past searches and has a history of that in their database. So let's say you're like.

Tyson E. Franklin: Oh,

Jim McDannald, DPM: yeah, if you're vanity searching yourself, not only for podiatry reasons, but for other reasons probably as well, Tyson,

Tyson E. Franklin: ha.

Jim McDannald, DPM: you're always searching for Podiatry Chicago, and you are Podiatry Chicago, and then you click on your link, or you're clicking on certain things, Like you're going to get a skewed version of Google compared to someone who's never searched on that topic before and has never clicked on the links.

Google will show unique results to each different person, so it can be beneficial to turn on that private browser or the incognito mode if you're searching your local area so you can have kind of a fresh look as far as what's happening when those Google search [00:06:00] happens. but like I said, that first section is really that local area and the way you get in that local area is being.

It's usually by proximity, so if you are closer, to, let's say you're like on the border of Chicago, but you're in a suburb, you're probably not going to show up in the Chicago searches. if you want to be, in those searches, like being physically located, that, that can be helpful, but also sometimes building out pages on your website that show you take care of patients, who live in Chicago or you serve patients from that city can be one way of showing up higher, even in an area where you don't necessarily have a physical location.

Optimizing Your Website for SEO

Tyson E. Franklin: Okay, so what do people actually need to do on their, their website or is it in their, is it on certain pages? Is it in blog articles? What do they need to do to be more

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yeah, to be more, yeah, to be a little more optimized. like I said, so that local spot at top is the local one. And there's the general results, those kind of top 10 on the first page.

Understanding the Importance of Google Business Profile

Jim McDannald, DPM: So to show up in that first area, really having a built out, what used to be called [00:07:00] Google, my business profile, they've recently changed that to Google business profile, but this is where your Google reviews will live.

where you can put your hours, your contact information. When you search like the name of your clinic, this Google, my business, or what used to be called Google, my business now called Google business profile will show up in the bottom right hand of the results. So if you type in, back when you had a clinic, right?

Like the name of your clinic will, you type it exactly. It should show up there. and you control all that information based off of a good Google business profile listing. So either you, your staff or somebody you hire really needs to optimize that Google business profile listing to make sure you're showing up in the maps.

And that your, the information, the photos you have are relevant and engaging to the patients you want to bring into practice. The second part of it, or the kind of the organic section of Google, we haven't even talked about the ad section, which usually is at the very top. We're going to skip that for now.

We'll talk about that in a future [00:08:00] podcast, but the organic section or the area we care most about that top three or top 10, what's important there to realize is that Usually the top three results get about 80 percent of all the clicks. the first result would get about 50 percent of the clicks, spot two gets about 20, the next one gets about 10, and then it's less and less as you go down those top 10.

And the way you show up there is by having relevant content on your website. CANS podiatrists, Chicago podiatrists, having pages on your website that are optimized for those search terms. Are what's going to lead you to ranking high for those local based

Tyson E. Franklin: Can we get back one step? I just want to get back one step before we talk about, optimizing on the website, back to the Google business profile. How often should you, because there's a section there where you can add photos, you can add videos, you can change your business, a product or an event. How often should you be adding information into your Google

Jim McDannald, DPM: No, that's a great question.

Tyson E. Franklin: Because it's free. It's free. [00:09:00] It's just sitting there. So does Google give you a pat on the back if you keep adding stuff or does it

Jim McDannald, DPM: hugely important to make sure that it's real, that you have relevance, and updated materials there. And there's some different ways you can interact within that Google business profile kind of administrative section. What it's like you're talking about is that, you need to make sure that your holiday hours are accurate, right?

If someone has a bad user experience or complains to Google that you weren't. you didn't change it and you weren't open when you said you were, they can ding you for that. also like I said, the Google reviews lives within this Google business profile and making sure that you're providing, whether it be a positive or negative review, a personalized response to every single review that comes in, whether it's a one star or a five star, you need to respond to all those reviews that come in and that's the kind of freeway or the free area where you can do that as well.

and the third spot is what's called, they used to be called Google My Business posts, but you can actually post, offers that you have, your services, anything that's [00:10:00] relevant and maybe you're having a partnership with the physio clinic down the road. There's ways to highlight yourself and others in these Google posts, which Google sees as an important signal.

It's there's some question whether or not that's going to lead to higher rankings or not, but. playing well within the Google ecosystem is generally going to be rewarded by higher rankings and more visibility in Google search and other platforms.

Tyson E. Franklin: Okay. Once a week? I know because I asked you a question about how often. So it should just be weekly? You should just be posting something just to

Jim McDannald, DPM: I think definitely a week, being your eyes on the prize, like at least once a week can be helpful. you do have ways of setting up notifications when you do get new reviews. So that might be a nice trigger for you or for your staff or someone you work with. if you're actively.

requesting reviews, you should probably get, four to 10 a week, depending on like the kind of patients you have coming into practice. And then when you come in, to respond to those reviews, it's an opportunity to like, make sure your hours are updated, the contact information is good.

And then maybe they do [00:11:00] a, once a week or once every two week, Google post about something that's happening in your practice.

Tyson E. Franklin: Okay. That's good. That's what I wanted to hear. It's only because I actually have a Google Business Profile set up for myself. Just Tyson E Franklin, Podiatry Business Coach. And yeah, and I've been trying to remind myself to be active, to keep putting stuff on there. But I've noticed the more I've put on the Google Business Profile, The more often I've had people say, Oh, I was searching for something and I found

Jim McDannald, DPM: that's the thing. It's like Google. Google is a bit of a racket, right? they do, it's a very powerful platform to, to be on, but they want to keep people inside of their platform and they want people to interact with the different ways that they have available.

They don't want you to send traffic and send people away from Google. They want to keep everybody on their ecosystem and seeing ads to help, further their business model in a way.

Tyson E. Franklin: Yeah. It makes sense. Okay. Back onto the

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yeah, so back to that organic section. like we talked about, there's obviously different types of keywords, a different podiatry practice want to show up for. I think the first step before you just jump in and do [00:12:00] SEO or try to do it yourself, is obviously knowing where you're located at. Or knowing where your best patients come from and having, pages built out that speak directly to those patients and then those pages can be used both organically and also act as a landing page for ad campaigns in the future.

If you choose to. It's also like we talked about previously, what do you get the most excitement out of in your practice, right? depending on what type of area you live in, you want to make sure that the content you have on your website. whether if you want to treat heel pain, if you want to treat, if you want to be a forefoot surgery, you want to do bunion surgery, you need to have very authoritative pages and quality information.

Sometimes even video on those pages that will keep people on that page and viewing your content. Because when you install Google analytics on your website, what happens is that they, the information about people, having their web browser on this page on your website is being collected all the time by Google.[00:13:00]

And if they see that someone is going from google. com and it's a relevant result and they're staying for minutes or, five or 10 minutes on a page or on a website. They're much more likely to rank that page higher than someone that tricks them or isn't authentic or has a bad website and they spend 10 seconds, they don't like it, they go directly back to Google and do the next one.

That's a strong signal to Google that you are not worthy of being on the first page or even the top three. So you need to have engaging content that talks to your patients. and obviously the kind of patients you want to have come into your practice.

Tyson E. Franklin: Yeah. I've seen that when people have done Google ads, for example, and you'd be searching for something and there's an ad right at the top that says exactly what it is you were searching for and you go, awesome. You click on that, and it goes to something that's totally irrelevant to what it is that you were looking for.

And you very quickly, as soon as you get it, you get the shits, and you get straight off of it. So Google can see if people come to your site, your page, and bang, they get out there [00:14:00] within 5 seconds, then Google goes, ooh, that

Jim McDannald, DPM: it's like the magic like triad of Google. It's the words you type into Google have keywords or words that are relevant. What you're looking for, the link that pops up, for in the search results that is relevant based off the search you made and you click on it and you go to a page that is exactly what you look for.

So then the more time you spend on that page or in that website, Google has ways of tracking all of those signals. So it's going to reward, good content or good user experiences. They like to call it, and rank you higher over time in that way. but that's just, that's just the way it

Tyson E. Franklin: it makes sense. it just makes sense though. Yeah, it's no different to if somebody came to me and said, Oh, could you recommend an optometrist? And I said, this is where you need to go. And the person went there and had a great experience. Then that makes me feel good that I've actually helped that person.

And the next person asked me, I'll do it again. But if I referred someone to an optometrist, and the person came back to me and said, [00:15:00] Oh crap, they're rude, they smell, they, yeah, they had no teeth. I don't like them, then straight away, I'm not going to refer anybody else there. And that's exactly what happens with pages.

Google refers someone to a page. If someone leaves there very fast, Google's going, now I look bad that I actually, I sent you to

Jim McDannald, DPM: it's a feedback loop, exactly like you're saying, right? It's either a positive feedback loop or it's a negative feedback loop that Google will measure and then make those ranking adjustments as needed. And so that's really important. like I said, they're like. The words matter, but also, like I said, video having images that are engaging because even if you have the most keywords and you see this a lot, sometimes you'll see businesses or even clinics sometimes try to what they call keyword stuff, right?

They'll put it won't even make sense reading it. There's just so many keywords like Podiatrist, foot doctor, name of city, and there's no relevant information that helps the user or the person and they're going to bounce from that even though maybe you have amazing keywords. So it has to be, it has to what they call user intent.

It has to [00:16:00] meet that intent and be relevant to what they're looking for. and there's different ways of incorporating that. Like some of it is that written video or, the kind of layers you can see. And there's almost an invisible layer of SEO that you don't see. Called schema markup and what this is basically like there's all this stuff that on WordPress or I use a plugin called, Yoast, which is helpful to help build out some of the schema markup and the kind of invisible signals that you can also send to Google to say, this page is about this thing, or this page is about this podiatrist in this city.

And it just sends more signals to them to make you more relevant to help you rank higher. There's a lot of like they call black hat or kind of scammy ways in the past to try to get people to come to your website. let's build out 10 different websites and I'll link, to this one central website and that's going to work.

And it used to work back in the day. I still see sometimes people using this to this day, call like a private virtual network of sites, but. it's really [00:17:00] about having a helpful website that speaks to your patient that's SEO optimized, which is going to lead to, people, with a strong call to action to call the clinic or to make an appointment, which is going to really, help the clinic in the long run.

Tyson E. Franklin: So if you were a business that wanted more authentic patients, then. You should be writing a lot of blog articles, have frequently asked questions, have evergreen articles, what orthotics are and all the different things that people could be. The questions that people are asking about orthotics, can orthotics help me with this?

can I wear orthotics in this type of shoe? Just so many different things and just making sure the word orthotic is used in many

Jim McDannald, DPM: So there's

Tyson E. Franklin: And not just the word orthotic, probably arch support, foot support, different terminology because people will

Jim McDannald, DPM: no, for sure. I think there's some different opportunities there. I think the foundation for SEO, for a clinic website to start off with is having what I would call these Hub pages or these diagnosis of procedure based pages first So you want to have a [00:18:00] very authoritarian piece about if it's plantar fasciitis in that article you're saying what it is Like, what are the risk factors?

How do people get it? How do you treat it? What are the you know frequently asked questions about it? What should you ask your podiatrist all in a central article initially? you don't have to go it doesn't have to be Words are being encyclopedia about it, but it has to be very relevant. So if you do go, once you get past that level, if you want to be the orthotic expert, then you're building, maybe some blog articles that are maybe had an athlete come in that didn't mind you mentioning them, or you're treating like a university running team and you're using orthotics.

And what, like you said, maybe you're talking about that experience. You casted orthotics, you treated a sprained ankle, and you have those words linked back to that main orthotic page that you've already built. So it's relevant, right? It's not just like a spammy link. That's trying to get them tricked into making an appointment.

They are curious to know more about what an orthotic is or the way [00:19:00] that, what problems in orthotic treats in a way. So it's a good kind of customer journey or a patient journey. To help them learn about those different treatment options available and different tactics being used with blog articles, but I think not enough podiatry clinics, at least initially, are building up these authoritative pages about diagnosis or procedures.

They're just jumping straight to one off blog articles, which like might generate some traffic. Let's say like when Tiger Woods got injured, like everyone wanted to write up about lower leg injuries or Taylor fractures and just Try to pray that they were the page that like was in the top three or top 10 and get some traffic for that.

But when you write pages about that, you're going to get a ton of irrelevant links and clicks from people that are on the other side of the world. So you're best off being locally relevant with your SEO strategy before you go after these big kind of like international or even national or even local stories that Aren't relevant [00:20:00] to someone making an appointment in your clinic.

Tyson E. Franklin: So what you're thinking on different blog articles you've written on your business or on your website to then have links to other pages around your website to try and keep them on your

Jim McDannald, DPM: I think that can be helpful. to me, like at least initially. Until you have all those pages built out, a blog is more of an opportunity to talk about what's happening in your clinic. you can mention some of your services in those blog post articles. maybe you've got a new device or a new way to treat something, and then there's opportunities to link there.

there's local partnerships with a physio. Maybe like they're sending you patients for plantar fasciitis, you're sending them some stuff. And you can highlight those different services, not only for yourself and for others. internal linking, like you're talking about, is important, but these external links are also important.

Other websites, in a genuine fashion, an authentic way, linking back to your website will also help you rank higher. the more outside websites that say that, Tyson, Franklin, Podiatry Legends podcast is so much better than Podiatry [00:21:00] Marketing podcast, or, more links to that, is going to put that higher, for certain terms.

Tyson E. Franklin: Or, So you talk, are you talking

Jim McDannald, DPM: yeah, we're talking about, yeah, we're talking about backlinks or, external links, from authoritative stuff. And there's shady stuff that can happen there as well. But when you have these genuine backlinks from other websites that are relevant to your local, to what you provide, the local chamber of commerce, other clinics, hospitals.

local kind of like directories. those things can be hugely beneficial to the SEO of a website.

Tyson E. Franklin: Okay. So before we wrap up, are there any other tools that people should be looking at to help them out

Useful Tools for SEO and Wrap Up

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yeah, I think there's some different tools that can be helpful. I think, there's something called GT metrics, which is a free tool that helps you learn about your page speed and like how fast your website loads and grades. So this is gt metrics.com with an X.

it can be a helpful way to, to see how your, your website's ranking when it comes to speed, because, how a webpage is, a website is used a MO from a mobile perspective, and we didn't, [00:22:00] we'll jump into that at some point. Maybe we'll have a mobile website, podcast. But, as more people are on their phones, you have to have both a great desktop and mobile experience, as my light.

Tyson E. Franklin: Oh, isn't there nothing worse? Nothing worse than when you go to, you're on your phone, you go to a website, you go, Oh yeah, you click on that. And it is their website, which is exactly their desktop version on your phone. And you're going squinting down. You can't see anything. You're trying to zoom it up and you go, and some of them, it just surprised you who the businesses

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yes. No, they, they should, but it's just, like you're busy in your practice, right? People are busy doing other things. They don't have time to like troubleshoot how their website looks like on a mobile phone or a different type of device or an Android or an iPhone. GT metrics is good. There is, a website called mobile Moxie, which can be helpful to like, get a general sense of where you're ranking or, what keywords, you're ranking locally.

But those are some of the ones that I think can be helpful. I'll put some more in the show notes that I use with my [00:23:00] clients so people can play around with them a little bit, just to see, white spark is another one that can be used to track local rankings. But, yeah, there's all kinds of tools.

There's all kinds of, expensive SEO tools you can use, but any, SEO specialist, you work with should have those in their arsenal so they can build out. whether it be keywords or campaigns that SEO campaigns that are going to benefit your clinic results.

Tyson E. Franklin: Okay. That's cool. So I'm just looking at the time. I think it's time to wrap up this particular episode, Jim. So thank you for sharing your knowledge on the SEO. And if people want to know more about SEO, they can easily just reach out to you because you're

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yeah, they can reach out or like I said, we'll on the website, we'll have, some good links to some resources for people to, just do a little bit of a deep dive into their own websites to see how things are going.

Tyson E. Franklin: Okay, cool. So I'll talk to you again next week, Jim.

Jim McDannald, DPM: See Tyson.

Tyson E. Franklin: See ya.

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