Health Care Copywriting and SEO

Attention Health Practitioners

Many of our clients come from the medical or allied health fields, so we have a wealth of experience in health care copywriting, SEO, and an excellent working knowledge of the AHPRA advertising guidelines.

This means that you don’t have to fear a breach notice, fines or penalties, when you engage us to write your website content or promote your business in organic search (otherwise known as SEO).

Interpreting Medical Jargon

As a registered health practitioner, you’ve spent many years studying and developing your knowledge. While you could write your own website content, there are a some very good reasons why you probably shouldn’t:

You will most likely use jargon that lay people don’t understand.
Your years at university mean that you will have a more academic writing style, which isn’t appropriate for web content and SEO.
Lack of time is an extremely common problem for busy health professionals!
And while you may be an expert in your field, you aren’t an expert in SEO or copywriting.

The most successful web content (ie that captures the attention of Google AND your reader, persuading them to take action), should be easily read by a 12 year old. So if your website is filled with terms like:

patellar subluxation;
dissociative identity disorder;
hyperopia and hypermetropia;
foraminatomy or laminectomy;

then your content will not be understood by – or hold the interest of – your potential patients or clients.

NB: It’s still okay to use these terms occasionally, IF you include an explanation!

Here are the same terms rephrased in ways that the general public will understand (even if the terminology may not be medically “correct”):

dislocated knee;
“split” personality;
long-sightedness;
types of spine surgery.

Don’t ever be fooled into thinking that simple, easy-to-read text is easy to write. There is a real art to being able to write concise, clear copy. If your website is full of waffle or jargon, your potential clients are likely to lose patience (pun intended) and click away!

And that’s before we even get on to the subject of optimising your content and website, for the search engines.

Web Content that follows AHPRA Guidelines

The other challenge is that there are all sorts of restrictions placed on how health practitioners can advertise or promote their business, whether in brochures, TV ads, or on their own websites – for details, visit the Australian Health Practitioner (AHPRA) Guidelines.

If you are found in breach of the AHPRA Guidelines, it is a criminal offense and at time of writing, carries a fine of up to $5 000 (individual) or $10 000 (bodies corporate). And do you know who’s liable if one of your staff or a contractor gets it wrong? YOU, the health practitioner. So you will want to make sure that if you delegate or outsource any marketing tasks, that your employee, copywriter or SEO agency has more than a passing acquaintance with these guidelines!

Here are just a few examples which could get you into hot water:

Best Optometrist in Town
10% off Dental Checkups this Month
We have the Cheapest Chiropractor Fees in the City
Our Physiotherapy Treatments will make you Taller!
Read these Testimonials from Happy Clients of our Podiatry Clinic
Stop Smoking Guaranteed with our Dietitian
All our Psychologists specialise in Hypnotherapy (unless they are endorsed or have specific qualifications in this area)

As you can see, some of the most common advertising and promotional tactics are just not an option for health care and medical businesses.

If you own or operate a medical practice or a health care clinic, wanting to generate more patients by coming up the top of online search results, we can help.

We’ve provided SEO services and web content for a range of businesses in the health and medical sector, including:

Chiropractors;
Podiatry Clinics;
Psychologists and Clinical Psychologists;
Optometrists;
Dietitians and Nutritionists;
Acupuncture Clinics and Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners;
Physiotherapists;
and other related health and wellbeing industries such as massage therapy, beauty therapy, yoga and pilates studios, as well as products impacted by TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) rules and regulations (for example, joint pain supplements).

The Goal of Health Care SEO

While ranking on the front page of Google is highly desirable, it is not the ultimate goal of health care copywriting and SEO. At the end of the day, you want not just to rank well in search engine results, but to also have:

text shown with your Google listing (known as a meta description) which entices people to click through to your website;
content that visitors can’t help but read;
and finally, plenty of patient bookings and enquiries!

More Bookings for Health Practitioners

In the past decade, we’ve helped a number of health and medical providers to build a healthy practice. Here are just a few examples:

graph showing SEO results for a local chiropractor

Local Chiropractic Centre

This practice on Brisbane’s northside saw the amount of targetted and relevant website traffic double in an 8-month period – promising results indeed, given that SEO tends to rise exponentially from about the 12 month point!

Podiatry Clinic

This local podiatry clinic is a long-term client; we’ve been able to boost the business their website generates to such a point that they have now been able to drop back to a “monitor and maintenance” package, at a lower cost. This is a great way to reward them for their loyalty – while also ensuring that their SEO continues to send plenty of patients their way!

graph of website traffic doubling for a Brisbane psychology clinic in 12 months

Solo Psychologist Practice

This psychologist also saw double the amount of website visits, this time in a 12 month period, off the back of one of our short-term Starter packages. (Imagine how much greater the results could have been if they’d opted for ongoing SEO!)

Others have been able to stop running Google Ads, as the leads generated by organic search (SEO) have been more than sufficient to keep their books full, with a steady stream of new patients booking appointments at their clinic.

Exclusivity Guarantee

If we are providing ongoing SEO for your medical practice or allied health clinic, we will not work with another business of the same type in your geographical area.

This is because we believe that would be a conflict of interest, and of detriment to our clients.

If we are currently working with a psychology practice on Brisbane’s southside – we are only open to working with psychology clinics in other areas, such as Ipswich, the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane’s northside, Toowoomba, Cairns, Townsville, or Adelaide.

As a health care professional, you take care of others. Let us take care of your web content and SEO needs: contact admin@frontpageseo.com.au or 0421 757 424 to book your free SEO checkup!