SEO for doctors & medical centers (MVZ)
✓ More patients through better positioning
In order to increase the visibility of your company on Google, it is crucial to identify the right search terms (keywords) that exactly match the search intentions of users.
In addition, a logical website structure will not only improve your ranking potential, but also increase user satisfaction.
A comprehensive keyword analysis is essential. It helps you to identify the search terms relevant to your industry. Before you start creating content for your website – let us find out which keywords are relevant for you!
Contents
SEO for doctors is an important part of online marketing
You can increase your online presence through targeted SEO measures , which leads to more patents
You can attract the attention of potential patients with an SEO-friendly website
Regular review and optimization of your website is important for long-term success
SEO for medical practices will become even more important in 2025.
As a medical professional, your online visibility is crucial to reaching potential patients and promoting the success of your practice – SEO is therefore essential. The basics of search engine optimization are crucial for medical professionals! Your patients are searching for you online, and if your website doesn’t appear on the first page of search results, you could lose many patients to competitors.
A short guide for your practice SEO:
The aim is to design your website in such a way that it is classified as relevant and useful by search engines. You can achieve this by using suitable keywords, a technically flawless website and high-quality content.
By considering and implementing these aspects, you improve the likelihood that your website will rank higher in search results, resulting in increased visibility to potential patients.
Would you like to find the most lucrative keywords for your company and successfully cover the search intent?
INCREASE ONLINE VISIBILITY
Through targeted search engine optimization, your website will be ranked higher in search results and therefore found more quickly.
ORGANIC VISIBILITY
Patients discover your practice online without you having to resort to cost-intensive advertising measures.
MORE PATIENTS
Greater online visibility leads to an increase in patient numbers and thus to a successful positioning of your practice.
RETURNING PATIENTS
With a strong online presence, you need to worry less about attracting new patients, as your visibility on Google ensures a constant flow of traffic.
QUALITY OF PATIENT CARE
SEO allows you to attract the kind of patients you want by tailoring content and keywords to their needs.
ADDRESSING TARGET GROUPS
Through the targeted placement of relevant keywords and content on your website, you address your target group directly and thus increase the probability of successful patient acquisition.
TARGETED APPLICATION OF SERVICES
You can use SEO to highlight and advertise specific services, such as private treatments.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
With a well thought-out SEO strategy, you have a competitive advantage over other practices and medical centers.
COST SAVINGS
Compared to conventional marketing measures such as print advertising or posters, SEO marketing is more cost-effective.
It is imperative that you stick to white-hat SEO methods. Google rewards this.
When implementing SEO strategies for medical practices, it is essential to follow ethical guidelines and professional standards. Doctors have a particular responsibility as their online presence can have a direct impact on patient welfare.
It is important that all SEO measures are transparent and honest so as not to jeopardize patient trust. This means that misleading content, keyword stuffing or manipulative backlink practices must be strictly avoided.
Instead, doctors should focus on high-quality, accurate and helpful content that reflects their expertise and authority. Adhering to these principles is not only ethical, but also complies with Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, link leads to official Google document), which are crucial for sustainable SEO.
With the increasing use of the Internet via mobile devices, Google has increased the importance of mobile user-friendliness as a ranking factor.
The content of your website should not only be relevant and understandable for your target group, but should also be updated regularly to meet Google’s requirements.
Google carries out numerous updates every year (100 +), from minor adjustments to comprehensive revisions of the algorithm to constantly optimize the user experience. An SEO strategy is therefore essential for doctors.
In the world of search engine optimization, Google is the undisputed market leader and strives to always provide its users with relevant and thematically appropriate content. Websites that are regularly updated with new, comprehensive and high-quality content enjoy a clear advantage. A thorough keyword analysis is therefore essential for doctors and medical facilities in order to effectively implement SEO measures and increase visibility in search results.
Keyword research example from the keyword research agency SeoGuideline. The client & partner here is an orthopaedic practice.
Once a comprehensive list of all relevant keywords has been created, the focus should be placed on the content of your own website. This content must be optimized with the identified keywords. In the past, a separate subpage was created for each search phrase and each combination of keywords.
Today, in 2025, it is crucial to pay attention to search intent when it comes to SEO for medical professionals. This increases visibility in search results as the website can be found for a variety of search terms. It is important that new subpages provide the precise information that potential patients are looking for. The content should offer recognizable added value and stand out positively from that of the competition.
Before you start creating content, thorough keyword research is essential. High-quality content alone is not enough if it is not targeted at the right keywords. A solid keyword analysis provides you with important data about the monthly search volume and the search intent of users.
It is crucial to weigh up the effort required to achieve a good ranking for certain keywords. Not every keyword with a high search volume is also profitable. Let’s take the search term “general practitioner Freiburg” as an example, which has around 1900 searches per month. This could be an attractive keyword for optimization.
However, your practice may offer more than just general medical services. Specializations such as acupuncture or tick prevention should be highlighted on separate subpages of your website. For example, the term “acupuncture Freiburg” receives 790 searches per month – potential patients that you certainly don’t want to miss out on. It is therefore important to create specific landing pages for each of your services that are tailored to relevant keywords.
In modern search engine optimization, quality clearly takes precedence over quantity. This applies both to your patients and to Google. Think about what information your patients are looking for. Regardless of whether you are a specialist or a general practitioner, many people are looking for clear explanations of examinations, medical conditions and health insurance benefits.
Use this opportunity to educate people with informative texts. Explain common procedures and treatments, such as bone densitometry or spirometry, and provide information on cost coverage by health insurance companies. It is important not only to use technical terms, but also to explain them so that potential patients can understand them.
The benefit: Patients can inform themselves online in advance and come to your practice with fewer questions.
High-quality content also increases the likelihood of receiving valuable backlinks, which in turn are important for Google rankings.
Text length is also crucial for effective on-page optimization. Short, carelessly written texts do not leave a lasting impression on patients and can have a negative impact on your Google ranking.
E-E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness and Experience – expertise, authority, trustworthiness and experience. These factors are crucial for doctors who want to strengthen their online presence.
Painting of a medical practice in Freiburg Wiehre. Local optimization plays a decisive role.
Google measures medical professional websites against these criteria to provide users with reliable and accurate information.
Physicians should incorporate their personal experience and expertise into their web content to demonstrate E-E-A-T. This can be done by sharing case studies, real-life testimonials or by publishing articles on specific medical topics where the physician demonstrates their expertise.
By sharing your expertise and personal experience as a doctor, you not only build trust with your patients, but also increase the credibility and authority of your website in the eyes of search engines.
Does that all sound too complicated? Comprehensible!
Technical SEO aspects are also essential for doctors to rank well in search engines. While these technical elements are not the only factors that determine placement on the first page of search results, they are essential to improving rankings and optimizing the user experience.
Fast website loading times and adaptation to mobile devices are not only important for search engines, but also for patients. The majority of search queries nowadays are made via mobile devices, which makes smooth mobile use of your website essential.
There are numerous online marketing tools that can analyze your website for technical SEO criteria. If you use WordPress, you can use plugins such as Yoast SEO to technically optimize your website. Other content management systems offer similar functions.
By implementing these technical SEO basics, you not only improve your visibility in the search engines, but also offer your patients a better user experience on your website.
The previous examples clearly show how important it is for doctors to take an SEO approach.
Patients often search for medical services in their immediate area using search terms such as “ophthalmologist Freiburg” to get results that are geographically relevant. Google’s algorithms are designed to understand such queries and deliver the appropriate local results.
However, if a user only searches for “ophthalmologist” without specifying a location, Google uses the searcher’s location to offer relevant results in the vicinity. It is therefore crucial for doctors and medical facilities to be findable in both cases, which can be achieved through targeted local SEO for doctors.
For successful local search engine optimization, it is essential for doctors and medical practices to create a Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business).
This profile connects your practice directly to Google and allows you to share important information about your services.
Complete Google Business Profiles profile of your practice
It is crucial that you maintain your profile with complete and accurate metadata. The more detailed and precise this information is, the better Google can assess the relevance of your practice for search queries.
You should include meaningful images of your practice in your Google Business Profile. Images play an important role in making a positive first impression on potential patients.
Strict adherence to telephone number, address, name of practice (NAP)
In addition, it is important to present your location consistently on your website. This includes the homepage, meta tags such as titles and descriptions, and the footer of your website. By keeping this information consistent and accurate, you will improve your local findability and make it easier for patients to find your practice both online and offline.
Positive reviews on Google My Business
These increase the trust of potential patients and have a positive influence on the ranking of your practice in local search results.
Local SEO Freiburg. Screenshot for the keyword seo freiburg in the Google Snack Pack. SeoGuideline in position 1 and outperforms other agencies. Would you like to appear at the top of Google with local search engine optimization for doctors?
In addition to their presence on Google Business Profile, medical portals such as Doctolib or Jameda have established themselves as increasingly important for the online visibility of doctors. These portals offer patients the opportunity to make appointments, read and leave reviews with just a few clicks.
The advantages of a presence on these portals include:
Increased online presence:
Your practice will be visible on platforms that are actively used by patients to search for medical services.
Direct appointment bookings:
Patients can book appointments directly via the platform, which simplifies the booking process and increases the likelihood of new patients coming to you.
Patient reviews:
Positive reviews can strengthen the trust of potential patients and positively influence their decision to choose your practice.
SEO benefits:
By linking your practice website to these portals, you can benefit from their authority and strengthen your own domain.
However, it is important to actively manage the presence on these portals to ensure that the information is up to date and that patient feedback is taken into account appropriately.
List of important medical portals:
On the homepage of your practice website, you could use a keyword combination such as “general practitioner Freiburg” to highlight your main service in conjunction with your location. If you offer a specialized medical service, a more specific combination such as “Kinderarzt Freiburg Wiehre” could be useful to target patients from specific parts of the city.
To refine the local search even further, you could also include a district in your keywords, such as “dermatologist Freiburg Herdern”. Please note that a top ranking with a relatively general term such as “general practitioner Freiburg” is more challenging, as the competition may be higher.
But the more consistent and high-quality the SEO measures are implemented on your website, the better the chances of establishing yourself in the top ranks of search results and becoming visible to patients in your region.
Are you looking for professional SEO support that focuses specifically on the needs of doctors? My expertise is based on successful projects with established companies from Switzerland that benefit from a monthly traffic of over one million visitors. You don’t need an SEO agency for doctors.
I am particularly passionate about local companies that have a significant physical location factor.
It is a personal concern of mine to promote smaller, locally rooted businesses that strive for a strong presence in local search results. I focus on targeted optimization for local search queries to ensure that your law firm is visible exactly where potential clients are searching.
Kristian Trpcevski
SEO expert & lecturer
What does SEO for doctors cost?
The classic approach here is to optimize the local search for doctors. The costs for local SEO start at €2950 and vary depending on the customer’s wishes.
What is SEO for doctors?
SEO for doctors is an online marketing method that uses special techniques to improve the visibility of a medical practice in search engines. More potential patients can be reached through targeted optimization of the website and relevant content.
Why is SEO important for doctors?
SEO for doctors is important to make your medical practice visible online and attract more potential patients. With an optimized website and relevant content, you can increase your reach and attract new patients.
Are there ethical guidelines?
During implementation, you should adhere to ethical guidelines. This means positioning yourself in a legal and fair manner, not engaging in any manipulation or improper practices and offering users high-quality and relevant content.
What advantages do the measures offer?
SEO for doctors offers a variety of benefits, including improved visibility in search engines, increased reach to potential patients, an increase in patient numbers, better positioning against the competition and long-term success for your medical practice.
How long does SEO optimization take?
The effect of SEO measures (search engine optimization) typically manifests itself over a period of four months to a year. This time frame can vary depending on previous measures, the initial website situation and, in particular, the intensity of competition in your industry or for specific keywords. For example, it may take longer for a company that wants to rank nationwide for the term “building cleaning” to achieve significant results than for a regional lawyer or tax consultant.
At SeoGuideline I always stick to white-hat SEO methods!
For sustainable SEO success, it is crucial to work consistently and long-term on your search engine optimization. This way, you can expect an increase in inquiries and an increase in sales in the foreseeable future. If you would like professional advice, I will be happy to assist you.
Further information on the“SEO support” page
How do I identify relevant keywords for my medical practice?
To identify relevant keywords for your medical practice, you can carry out a thorough keyword analysis carry out a thorough keyword analysis. You can use tools such as the Google Keyword Planner or other resources available online to analyze search volumes and the competitive environment for various keywords.
How do I build an SEO-friendly website for my medical practice?
To build an SEO-friendly website for your medical practice, you should ensure that your website is technically optimized, has a clear page structure, offers relevant content and is designed to be user-friendly. Also pay attention to good internal linking and fast loading times.
What are topic silos and how can they be used on a homepage for doctors?
Topic silos are a method of organizing content on a website in a structured way.
On a homepage for doctors, topic silos can be used to separate different specialist areas or medical topics from one another and to present specific content in a targeted manner. This improves the clarity and relevance of the website.
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