Chiropractic SEO: 2 Things That Chiropractors Need To Understand About Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is incredibly valuable for chiropractors who want to attract more new patients. If that’s you, the reality is there are people in your area who are actively searching for their next chiropractor. The difference between your practice showing up on the second page of Google and showing up on the top of the first page can be the difference between thriving and barely surviving.

But I don’t think that “SEO is important” is shocking news to most chiropractors. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that people aren’t going to the Yellow Pages looking for a chiropractor. They are going to the internet. What they find or don’t find determines who their next chiropractor is going to be.

Although most chiropractors understand that SEO can be very valuable for their practice, that’s about where their SEO knowledge stops. Sometimes I’m shocked at the basic lack of understanding chiropractors have regarding SEO.

It’s not that I expect chiropractors to be SEO experts, but it’s impossible to make good decisions about something that you misunderstand. Many chiropractors are in a position where they want to improve their SEO, but their ignorance about SEO makes them susceptible to dishonest SEO services.

Many chiropractors think that their chiropractic website company is doing ALL their SEO for them. (They aren’t.) Other chiropractors are paying for expensive SEO, but they don’t even know what is being done for them. Ignorance may be bliss, but it’s not helpful when making business decisions. SEO is no exception to that rule.

As I said, I don’t expect chiropractors to be SEO experts. But I do want to give you some basic information that will help you make better SEO decisions when deciding how to spend your chiropractic SEO dollars. Here are 2 things you really should know about chiropractic SEO.

1. SEO is Just Relationship Building with Google
Chiropractors understand referrals, so I’m going to talk about referrals to better explain SEO. When someone refers a potential patient to you, it’s because the referring person trusts you and believe you will do a good job. They have most likely come to that conclusion through conversations and personal experiences with you.

The simplest way to think about Google is as a referral source. When someone goes to Google and types in “Chiropractor near me” they are asking Google for a referral. They are asking Google who the best chiropractor near them is.

The order in which Google ranks chiropractors in a search has to do with trust and proximity. The chiropractors in the area who Google trusts the most are the chiropractors who will rank the highest. If Google doesn’t trust a chiropractor or is unsure about a chiropractor, those chiropractors will rank the lowest in the search results.

Google wants to give the best answer to every question that people ask. So if Google doesn’t trust you and isn’t sure that you are going to treat people well, your chiropractic practice is not the one Google is going to refer people to. You won’t rank well.

That’s why the purpose of good chiropractic SEO is to build trust with Google. But Google doesn’t build trust through conversations and experiences the way that you and I do. Google builds trust through data and analytics.

Google looks at things like structured data, metadata, image tags, and internal linking. Google looks at backlinks, citations, website authority, and reviews. Google is constantly gathering data about a chiropractor to determine if that chiropractor is trustworthy. Building trust the way that Google understands it and communicating who you are and what you do to Google in a way that Google understands is what quality SEO is all about.

This is also why trying to trick Google with shady SEO hacks isn’t a good idea. Is that how you would treat a person who you want to trust you and refer people to you? Hopefully, not. You don’t build relationships with people by being shady and you don’t build trust with Google that way either. Trying to hack Google is bad SEO practice.

The “secret” to SEO is that there is no secret. In order to build trust with Google and rank as high as possible, you have to do a lot of little things, consistently, and correctly (the way that Google cares about). If you do that, your website will build authority. It will demonstrate to Google that you are trustworthy. That authority and trustworthiness will be the reason you outrank the other chiropractors in your area.

2. SEO Is NOT Just Adding Words To Your Website
There are a couple different extremes when it comes to SEO. Some people try to make SEO sound so complicated that no one short of a NASA engineer could possibly understand it. Other people try to make SEO sound so simple that a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal could do it and do it well. Both of those extremes are incorrect.

Any chiropractor who thinks they can just add a bunch of keywords to their website and rank well is living in a fantasy world. Google is NOT stupid. If there ever was a time when keyword stuffing worked, it was a VERY LONG TIME AGO. It doesn’t work anymore. Frankly, if Google sees you doing it, it will undermine trust and hurt your rank.

Google looks at a lot of different factors to determine trust/rank. Some of the big things are your Google Business Profile, on-site SEO, online reviews, and off-site factors like backlinks and citations. I would argue that SEO is more complex than it is complicated. It’s like an onion…there are lots of layers.

If a chiropractor wanted to improve their SEO, but they weren’t in a position to pay for managed SEO, I would advise them to do a few things.

1.) Prioritize Online Reviews

Reviews aren’t everything, but I’ve seen time and time again that chiropractors who have 2-3x more reviews than everyone else do VERY well in Google Maps results. 

Also, getting more reviews is something that any chiropractor can do. Yes, there are services and software that make getting more reviews easier. But I’ve seen chiropractors do very well without them. 

2.) Get The Basics Right

I don’t recommend it, but many chiropractors choose to build and maintain their own website. If you are on a shoestring budget, I get it. But if you can afford $125/mth, I would be happy to do it for you and it will be MUCH better than what you are doing. 

With that said, if you are doing your own website, the bare minimum for SEO is you have to get the basics right. Your site title, metadata, image tags, and headlines should include your most important keywords.

I’m continually amazed at the number of chiropractor websites that don’t have the word “chiropractor” anywhere on the homepage. It’s baffling to me. I’m even more baffled when I see it from a chiropractic website that a chiropractor is paying for. That should never happen, but it does.

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