Voice Search
The Importance of Voice Optimization
Voice optimization should be our top priority for plastic surgery. Making sure your website shows up when people ask a specific question about a plastic surgeon is crucial for the success of your business. Voice search is soaring for a few main reasons: smart speakers are everywhere, voice-activated speakers and assistants increase our capability to search without using our hands, and voices can simultaneously perform other tasks (e.g., while I dish, I’m asking Google, “Where is the closest urgent care!”).
The Shift to Natural Language Search
The jump to voice search is just the beginning of natural language search changing online behavior, but it’s more than just the latest chance for search engine education. If you want to be found online, considering voice search should be your top priority – especially if you are a plastic surgeon.
Differences Between Voice and Text Search
Voice search optimization is nuanced in ways that differ from classic SEO strategies. However, the first step in optimizing voice search is taking a high-level view of the differences between voice search and text search. First, voice searches tend to be longer; they’re more conversational. Rather than typing ‘Top plastic surgeons,’ a patient is likelier to ask, ‘Where can I find a top plastic surgeon near me?’ That means incorporating natural-sounding language and long-tail keywords all the time. Taking cues from everyday conversations, identify the questions patients ask you most often, then turn those query variants into content for your website, FAQs, and blog.
Schema Markups
Add schema markups (structured data), which helps search engines understand in more detail what’s on your pages, making it easier for them to pick up your content to answer spoken queries.
Local Search Optimization
Optimizing for a local search as someone primarily relies on local patients is crucial to voice search optimization for plastic surgeons. For users typing in a voice search, ‘near me’ will more often than not signify local intent. To increase your practice’s exposure in local searches, optimize your Google My Business profile by ensuring this information is filled out completely and up to date.
Mobile Optimization
You need to optimize your site for mobile. Most voice searches happen on mobile, so if your site is not responsive, not loading quickly, and not easy to navigate, you have a problem. Mobile optimization and user experience go hand in hand, which matters for your standing in search and your patients! A pleasant mobile expertise will minimize bounce rates and increase the chance of a conversion.
Featured Snippets
Your other thing can be featured snippets. Featured snippets are called ‘position zero’ because they answer the user’s question that Google gives them before they’ve even scrolled down the results page. If your search is: ‘What is the recovery time after rhinoplasty?’, you get: We all have to deal with that. We have to adapt to the current trends. I’ve evolved over the years. My experience got me closer to women who want to be treated well. I have to adapt to the media, to the questions that everybody asks, to the social media pressures, to the selfie trend, and to women who put more importance on their looks instead of their brains. This is a text which has been distilled and kept short. The key is that it answers the searcher’s question precisely and concisely. If you want users to click through from voice search, your article needs information that keeps them on the page. To optimize for a featured snippet, write your article so that data is structured into direct answers to common plastic surgery questions. Use headings, bullet points, and numbered lists to make it easy to read.
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
If you want to excel at voice search optimization, it also helps to employ natural language processing (NLP) techniques within your content strategy. NLP is a technology search engine that better understands and analyzes written language using more human-sounding linguistic practices. Writing in a conversational style, as if you were talking, and taking the time to answer questions and write sentences that are easy for a reader to flow through will ensure that your website is in closer alignment with the type of questions people might ask when using voice search.
Multimedia Content
Multimedia-related content can also improve voice search visibility. Videos, podcasts, and infographics can enhance user experience and improve content discoverability. For instance, creating educational videos about plastic surgery procedures or hosting podcasts that cover patient experiences or industry trends can attract more visitors and inspire a longer dwell time on your site. Transcribing such articles and optimizing the transcripts with relevant keywords can also improve voice search rankings.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO factors shouldn’t be ignored in the voice search optimization process. First, make sure that your site has a clean, crawlable structure. Does your site have a clear hierarchy? Have you used header tags properly? Are there any instances of canonicalization or any steps you need to take to address duplicate content issues? Moreover, site speed is critical. Users can often get impatient if your site could be faster. Both users and search engines will notice if your site takes too long to load, and it’s likely to rank lower in search results. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can help you track and fix your site’s speed.
Social Proof and Backlinks
Social proof in the form of citations or backlinks from authoritative medical sites can also boost your website’s credibility and search rankings. Digital PR initiatives such as publishing timely articles on health news sites, guest blogging about your area of expertise on reputable medical sites, posting medical answers or comments on forums, or securing a backlink from a health-related blog or publication can all generate organic, high-quality backlinks. These can improve your domain authority and increase the chance of your content ranking in voice search results.
Staying Updated with Trends
Developments in voice search technology are ongoing, so keeping up with the latest trends and developments is essential to maintaining success over time. Attend voice search industry conferences and webinars and take online courses to keep up with new voice search and SEO developments. Check your SEO strategy often, adjusting as necessary with algorithm updates and new voice search features released by digital assistants such as Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Apple Siri.
Patient Feedback
Patient feedback can improve your voice search strategy. Patients who find your practice online may be motivated to provide feedback. They can tell you how they found you, including via voice search. This can help you determine the common search phrases prospective patients use. It also enables you to understand whether the specific tone and wording they expect to use in search is essential to them. To further enhance your voice search optimization strategy, ask patients whether and how they use voice search. Engaging in a dialogue with your patients and prospective customers about how they want to find the right healthcare clinic can provide valuable insights. Over time, you can use these insights to improve your keyword strategy and content focus. On your websites or through social media channels and patient forums, you have more opportunities to understand how patients are thinking and to address their needs. Conduct regular analysis to uncover trends, measure the efficiency of your search marketing actions, and make data-driven decisions to improve your SEO.
Voice Search Advertising
Voice search advertising can also supplement your positioning in organic optimization. There are now voice search ad placements on Google Ads that allow you to target and connect with prospective patients at the top of the funnel (Planning your initial trip). Suppose people are searching for information on a specific condition, for instance. In that case, your ads can appear at the top of the results page if the question is relevant to encourage them to visit an educational landing page for more information that might bring them closer to taking action or becoming an appointment down the line. Combining the paid and organic fronts allows you to be your unicorn in voice results.
Continuous Optimization
Voice search optimization is a process; it’s not done once and never revisited. The voice space will continue to evolve – the technology will continue to develop, and users’ behavior will continue to shift and accelerate.
Privacy and Security
Voice search and security are closely related. Privacy is now more critical than ever. Ensure your website aligns with data protection rules such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Install three SSL certificates that ensure the safety of user data and protect content navigation. Not only does this build trust with potential callers, but it also increases your search engine results positively.
Conclusion
To summarise, optimizing for plastic surgeon SEO demands a multifaceted approach – the understanding of user intent, which allows creating conversational content of high quality, local SEO implementations, mobile-friendliness, aiming for featured snippets, applying NLP features, using multimedia content, maintaining technical SEO best practices, generating quality backlinks, keeping abreast of industry news, collecting patients’ feedback, setting up robust analytics, promoting voice search ads, ensuring privacy and security, and engaging in a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.
