#124: Why Google’s March Core Update is a Great Opportunity for Medical Clinics

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Hey there! Earlier this year, Google shook things up in a big way with their search ranking algorithm. They called it a core update, and it's got everyone in the digital marketing world talking. While some businesses, like news publishers, took a hit in their rankings, this update has opened up some exciting opportunities for others - especially in the medical field.

Welcome to another episode of Online Marketing For Doctors TV and Podcast show-- the place to be to go to grow and scale your practice. I'm Huyen Truong,  Search Marketing Director here at OMD. My team and I have been working in medical marketing for over a decade, helping hundreds of clinics grow with our proven patient generation blueprint.

In today's episode, we're going to dive into this Google core update and explore the golden opportunity it presents for medical practices like yours. So, stick around, and let's get your SEO strategy working like never before!

What is a core update?

First off, let's break down what a core update actually is. You see, Google is always tinkering with their algorithm on their search engine. Most fundamentals remain consistent: have a modern and fast website, create great content targeted around keywords, and build a healthy backlink profile to demonstrate your website's authority.

As SEOs, our job is to deliver on that consistency while navigating the small adjustments Google often makes. But occasionally, Google will make a much larger update to their algorithm. These are called Core Updates, and they can really shake things up.

In March this year, Google introduced one of the biggest core updates yet, which rolled out slowly until late April. It was targeted at cleaning up low-quality, often AI-generated content cluttering search results. This update was a big deal because it introduced new features and rebalanced their algorithm in a significant way, often having a major impact on web traffic.

Now, you might be wondering, "Why is this an opportunity for medical clinics?" Well, let me tell you.

Why is this an opportunity for medical clinics?

In the past, Google has told SEOs to follow the "EAT" principle. This means presenting Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness in your content for your website. But with this update, Google introduced a second 'E': EXPERIENCE. This means that Google is actively looking for websites which demonstrate any experience, qualifications, or credentials.

As doctors and practice owners, medical clinics have a huge opportunity here to present their strong experience. That's right, Google will give you a little pat on the back for all those years in medical school!

Conversely, it means Google will be looking to push down pages that offer little value to users and instead prioritise pages that offer a beneficial user experience and clearly demonstrate Google's E-E-A-T factors.

So, how can clinic owners capitalise on this SEO opportunity? Let me break it down for you.

First, clinic owners should look at making sure they have a rich, fully developed "About Us" page. This section of your site should detail pretty much everything there is to know about your clinic. When and where it was founded, what procedures you offer, what sets you apart from the competition, and what your qualifications are. You should also note the key people within the organisation and the experience they have in the business and the sector and any plans for the future.

Secondly, clinic owners should also be looking to share real-world case studies. These serve as a critical element of any medical website. They provide potential customers with credible evidence of your services and demonstrate that all-important Experience for E-E-A-T.

We just did an episode called 5 Must Know Benefits Of SEO For Getting More Patients Consistently I'll leave the link in the show notes below.

We’ve seen great results recently with our clients. One of our clients in the UK -HR Plastic Surgery, have seen some of their results really take off in the last few months. While the foundation work of their SEO has taken place over the previous 18 months, recently they’ve seen their rankings for highly competitive keywords improve and drive over 16,000 monthly visitors to their website, considering this time last year, they had around 1,200 visits per month, that is a massive jump, resulting in 240 % increase in the number of conversions.. With a high performing website, they’re able to convert more of this traffic into enquiries and ultimately patients.

It’s not just in Australia where we’re seeing great results. In the UK, our other client Breast and Body Clinic have also seen great results. After redesigning and redeveloping their website, we embarked on our long-term SEO work to help drive traffic. When we started working with them, they weren’t on the first page for any of their main keywords and were getting 300 impressions a day. After 18 months, they’re getting closer to 5,000 impressions a day, and their website conversion rate has gone up by over 600% compared to the previous year. This means a lot more enquiries, and a lot more patients.

A client in Canada, Hair Transplant Medical Centre, began working with us 6 months ago. This time last year, their website had around 2,000 visitors. Now, they've seen a significant increase to over 6,300 visitors. Just last month alone, their traffic grew by more than 1,100 visitors. Additionally, their conversion numbers have risen from 346 to 415, reflecting a 16% increase compared to the previous month.

But remember, this isn't a silver bullet. While this is an opportunity for enhanced SEO, it's important to ensure you have the fundamentals in place, which these three examples had. This means a high quality, fast-loading, mobile responsive website. You should have great content on your website, with blogs and other resources for your prospects. You need to actively build your backlinks too, to ensure you keep improving in the rankings.

If you want to make the most of this opportunity, get in touch with us and book a free Discovery call. We can give you a free website audit to see where the opportunities are, or what's blocking you from greater success.

Ok, that wraps up another episode of the OMD TV & podcast show. If this was helpful to you, please subscribe to the OMD TV and Podcast Show so you don't miss any future episodes. And please share this episode with your staff and colleagues.

If you want to learn more about Online Marketing For Doctors offers and how our team can help you generate more new patients and referring doctors via SEO for medical and healthcare practices, please reach out to us and book a 15-minute discovery call with us and we'll show you the opportunities that you might have with your practice's marketing. I'll leave a link to it in the show notes below.

Thank you so much and hope to talk to you on a discovery call soon. 🥳