Plastic Surgery SEO: Tips + Best Practices to Get Clients

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October of 2022 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Is SEO an effective lead-generation strategy for plastic surgeons? 

Well, according to this research from the National Health Institute, more than half of internet users rely on search engines when researching health-related information, including surgical procedures. 

For instance, the search volume for breast augmentation is almost 50K in the US alone: 

This means traditional lead generation methods for plastic surgeons – word-of-mouth marketing and referrals – are fast becoming obsolete, especially if you want to scale (fast). 

But there are currently over 300 million sites on Google targeting the keyword ‘plastic surgery’

How do you stand out amidst the noise and turn your website into a consistent lead-generation machine? In this article, I shared the top SEO strategies for plastic surgeons and how to leverage them for your business. By focusing on cosmetic surgery SEO, you can enhance online visibility, drive targeted traffic, and ultimately increase client leads and revenue for your practice.

But before that…

What is Plastic Surgery Search Engine Optimization?

Plastic surgery search engine optimization is almost similar to regular SEO. But in this case, it involves optimizing your website for potential patients searching for your services online. This form of SEO helps you rank high on the search engines to increase your brand visibility, reach, and, most importantly, conversions. 

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Why SEO for plastic surgeons? 

Plastic surgery is in high demand. From burn victims to cancer survivors or those simply wanting to enhance their appearance, countless people conduct searches for plastic surgeons daily.

With all of the interest in plastic surgery, one would think attracting clients would be easy. As a practicing plastic surgeon, you know that is not always true. 

Referrals from satisfied clients and other medical professionals are certainly a boon to your business, but they are not sustainable. 

Have you ever considered the untapped potential client base who won’t find your plastic surgery practice based on referrals? This category of people is probably using search engines for your target keywords. They are also likely to spend more time investigating different procedures, costs, surgeons’ qualifications, and reviews from other competitors.  Understanding the search behavior and intent of plastic surgery patients can significantly influence your practice’s success in converting leads into actual clients.

Leveraging SEO can help you shorten the sales cycle, increase brand awareness, and reach more customers. 

For example, imagine a user types a search query ‘best plastic surgeons in Ohio.’ Here are the search results:  

As you can see, well-optimized sites (Dr. Gregory Fedele) rank high in the search results for the search query, even above the map pack. I checked Dr Gregory’s landing page and realized the headers and web content are optimized for the keyword ‘plastic surgeon in Ohio.’

This is why SEO is important for plastic surgeons. However, the goal isn’t solely ranking-focused; it ensures your business gets the greatest exposure possible and attracts the right traffic.   

Best Strategies for Plastic Surgeons 

Here are some SEO strategies to mirror in your marketing campaign: 

1. Get started with local SEO 

For cosmetic surgeons, local SEO focuses on ranking the search results for local search queries. Optimizing your online presence for local searches makes it easier for potential patients to find your service online when searching locally. It also creates a local demand flywheel for your services. 

Why is this necessary? 

According to research: 

• 46% of all Google searches are local 
• 78% of local searches lead to an online conversion 
• Almost 7% of all Google searches are health-related (approximately 70,000 searches per minute).

The plastic surgery customer journey is more complex than it used to be. Potential patients today will likely spend more time investigating different procedures, costs, surgeons’ qualifications, and reviews before deciding who to go to. 

To get your share of this traffic, it’s imperative that you optimize your site to target each stage of their customer journey – awareness, consideration, decision, and post-care stage. 

Let’s talk about this in detail and how local SEO can help you achieve that. 

Awareness Stage: 

This is the first stage of the customer journey. Patients here are aware of their problems and need a quick fix. This is a great chance to market your plastic surgery services by showing how you’re better than the competition. 

The first step is ensuring your business ranks well in the search results. This can be in the organic results section or the local map pack, as in the example I highlighted above. 

Also, ensure all information provided is accurate and consistent across channels, including your local business directories. 

Since brand visibility and high rankings are a priority in this case, here are some tips to help achieve both: 

• Claim, complete, and optimize your Google Business Profile. 
• Target local keywords such as ‘Plastic surgeon near me,’ ‘BBL in [area]’ etc. More about this later.
• Ensure your clinic is listed on local online directories, review sites and medical directories. As I pinpointed above, your Number, Address and Phone number (NAP) must be accurate and consistent across these platforms. 
• Link your social platforms to your GBP. Also, share relevant information, promotions, business updates, etc., that is relevant to your local audience.
• Create location-specific landing pages if you’re targeting multiple locations within your service area. Also, tailor each landing page to the audience/location you’re targeting.  

Data is equally important. Run a competitive analysis to find out how other practitioners are ranking high in the search results using local SEO. This can help you strategize how to improve your performance online.

Read more: How to perform competitive analysis for SEO. 

Consideration Stage: 

Here, your potential patients are fully aware of what they need and are seeking information to help them make an informed decision. For plastic surgery practices, they’re likely to compare practitioners and check customer reviews, prices, etc., before reaching out or making commitments. 

In this stage, your priority is demonstrating credibility, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. This is where you answer the question ‘why.’ 

I have some tips as well: 

• Have you worked on some transformative procedures? This is the best time to showcase successful surgeries you’ve handled in the past. Include detailed descriptions, visuals (either photos or videos or both), and customer reviews to provide tangible evidence of your results. This demonstrates credibility. 
• Sprinkle customer reviews and testimonials in the key sections of your GBP, website, and listings. This speaks volumes about your professionalism and expertise. 
• Display all relevant, verifiable certifications, qualifications, awards, and (or) affiliations with any reputable medical organizations. This instills confidence in the minds of your potential patients, reassuring them of your expertise and credibility.  
• Leverage social media to share pre-op and post-op checkup videos of your previous/current patients. Some potential clients may check your social media pages to see how you handle clients before and after surgery; this strategy is a great way to increase their interest in working with you.

Decision Stage: 

In this stage, your potential customers are fully aware of your services and ready to make investments. To convert them into leads, ensure all required information is available to them on your plastic surgery website. 

Here: 

• Make sure your NAP is consistent across all platforms. This prevents any issues that may arise due to navigation or communication inconsistencies. 
• Offer convenient ways for potential patients to take the next step, such as filling out an online inquiry form or scheduling an appointment. Embed the right link in the right CTA.
• Provide a comprehensive overview of your services, pricing, procedures, and other offers. Make it easy for customers to find detailed descriptions of each service, what it entails, the expected outcomes, and pricing plans.
• Showcase client testimonials, before and after photos, and success stories on your GBP and website. 

Most importantly, respond quickly to inquiries and offer personalized services to each customer. Remember, the little things always count. 

Post-op Stage: 

This stage is your best chance to retain your patients and earn their loyalty. After each procedure, provide personalized guidance such as support groups and communities where they can ask questions at will. Crafting effective meta descriptions that accurately summarize your page content can also enhance ongoing patient engagement by attracting users on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Encourage them to leave positive reviews and testimonials on your GBP or other relevant review platforms. Also, keep an eye out for negative reviews left by dissatisfied patients so that you can respond and resolve the issue. 

Provide recovery resources and guides to help your patient’s recovery process. 

2. Website Design and Optimization

Your website is the face of your business. It is also key to your digital marketing strategy using search engine optimization. When it comes to attracting customers online, your search engine ranking matters as much as your skill as a plastic surgeon.

How does website design impact your ranking? Google has specific criteria and algorithms it uses to determine a website’s ranking. Let’s take a closer look at some of those now.

• Speed: How fast does your website load a page? Does it refresh quickly? Google’s algorithm considers all of these things when determining your website’s ranking. If your website is slow, you won’t rank high.
• Mobile Design: This is another crucial factor Google considers when ranking websites. Is your website mobile-friendly? Keep in mind that 177.8 million users search via mobile.
• Layout: Your website’s design is critical to SEO. If your website is challenging to read or visitors struggle to find information, they will quickly leave and you will miss out on new patients.

Read more: Web design for plastic surgeons. 

3. Prioritize the right keywords 

Keywords are the foundation of any successful SEO strategy. By targeting the right keywords, you’re already on the pedestal for improving your search rankings and attracting marketing-qualified leads to your website. 

Before choosing keywords for your SEO, you need to understand the search intent behind each query. There are four distinct categories: 

• Informational Keywords: 

In this case, your potential patients are researching information about surgical and non-surgical procedures. It’s your perfect chance to display authority in the subject matter. Some examples are: ‘How long does BBL take?’ ‘Can I lay on my stomach after my tummy tuck?’  In these blog posts, you’re not repurposing existing articles online; you’re to provide accurate advice to demonstrate expertise and ‘impress’ potential patients.

• Navigational keywords: 

These types of keywords are used by searchers who are well aware of what they’re searching for. They’re more specific and often contain branded or service-specific phrases, such as ‘Dr. Gregory Ohio’ or ‘Cleveland Tummy Tuck Ohio.’ 

• Transactional/commercial Keywords: 

Here, the searcher is already aware of what they need and is ready to take action, such as booking a consultation. Examples are Ohio tummy tuck cost, Miami face lift costs, and the best breast augmentation plastic surgeons. 

How do you choose the right keywords? 

Start by brainstorming ideas you think are relevant to your business or that you want to target.  

Enter the keyword(s) into SEO tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to get a detailed analysis and related keyword ideas: 

You can also use these tools to discover the top keywords your competitors are ranking for as you can see here: 

Compare the search volume and competitiveness of each keyword. I recommend finding a balance between both metrics to ensure you target keywords with sufficient search volume and also minimal competition. 

Read more: How to target keywords for SEO. 

4. Implement On-page SEO best practices

On-page SEO covers all you do on your website to boost rankings on the SERPs. This covers content creation, content optimization, title tag optimization, adding internal and external links, etc. On-page SEO ensures your web pages are discoverable by users and search engines. 

Let’s delve into some basics: 

Use keywords strategically: 

Place your target keywords strategically in your content and headers. A rule of thumb is to insert them in the H1 and first 100 words in your web content to enhance plastic surgeon SEO. 

See this example: 

This will help search crawlers and users decipher the context of your web pages quickly. 

Conduct a content audit

If you already have existing content on your site, evaluate the performance to determine if it’s still achieving its goals and gaining ROI (return on investment). 

SEO tools such as SEMRush and Ahrefs can be helpful in conducting site-wide audits for your content. 

Create user-centric content

Share educational content to ease your potential customer’s decision-making process. 

For example, if you’re performing abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) procedures, create an in-depth guide on the topic covering the benefits, risks, and recovery process. 

Also, you don’t have to stick to blog content. Create and share different content formats that’ll easily incite user engagement—for example, creating a detailed video showing pre-operation checkups, etc. 

Another effective strategy is incorporating a similar case study in the content to display expertise in the procedure. Overall, Google’s EEAT guidelines should be followed to improve content performance on the SERPs.  

Tip: Keep your clients at the focal point of your content strategy. Understand their needs, research patterns, and content consumption methods. This will inform your overall content strategy. Also, always get consent from patients for both picture and video content to avoid legal issues later.

Implement Schema for rich results 

Schema markup is a unique code that makes it easier for search engine bots to understand the content of a web page. It provides additional content about your practice, for example, reviews, opening hours, etc., enabling search engines to display it on rich snippets. 

As a plastic surgeon, there are different ways of improving your click-through rate by enabling schema markup on your site: 

• Use local business schema markup to provide more information about your business, such as your business name, website URL, phone number, and operating hours.
• Using FAQ page schema to display your FAQs in rich snippets
• Implement a breadcrumb list schema to create a hierarchical navigation trail on your website. This makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your website. 

Add relevant links

Links are the veins of the web. They help connect contextually relevant content and provide a seamless navigational structure for users and search engines. They’re also used to determine the authoritativeness and trustworthiness of the web page. 

For external links, ensure that they are: 

• Relevant to the subject matter being discussed
• Authoritative, i.e., with high domain authority 
• Trustworthy. This means it should be a credible source of information, especially in terms of context. 

For internal links, they should: 

• Have the right anchor text. That is, if you’re writing an article on rhinoplasty, you can hyperlink your rhinoplasty service page. 
• Fit naturally. Don’t stuff links in the middle of a sentence in a way that seems out of place. 
• Be authoritative. Distribute link equity by hyperlinking your best-performing pages into your content. 

5. Technical SEO

Technical SEO ensures your website is crawlable and indexable by search engines. It checks your site’s ‘health,’ identifying and addressing issues impacting your performance on the search results. 

Luckily, plastic surgeons don’t need complex sites. This is because the primary goal of your online presence is to provide essential information about your services. 

Here are some tips: 

• Use the Noindex tag on low-value pages you don’t want to rank on the SERPs. 
• Ensure that the breadcrumbs schema is implemented on all procedure pages to help Google understand your website’s architecture. 
• Use SEO tools like SEMRush to regularly run technical audits on your site to discover issues before they impact your performance. 
• Submit your XML sitemap to Google for indexing.
• Ensure your URLs are optimized for SEO

Read more: Why is technical SEO important?

6. Off-page SEO 

Off-page SEO encompasses everything you do outside your website to improve its rankings on the search results. This includes link building, content distribution, etc. 

Let’s explore some best practices. 

• Attract high-quality, relevant backlinks to your site by creating high-quality content that showcases your expertise. This can be blog posts, case studies, videos, or infographics. 
• Guest posts on reputable medical websites and publications. 
• Repurpose content into different formats, i.e., email newsletters, podcasts, social media posts, etc. 
• To build authority, you should actively create content on social media—YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook are top picks for plastic surgeons. You can add a link to your website in the description of the videos to funnel social traffic to your site. 
• Encourage customers to leave reviews on your GBP or review sites. This signals trust and boosts your credibility on search engines. 
• Partner with relevant health/beauty industry influencers to promote your services. This can help boost your brand visibility and expand your reach. 
• If you’re servicing a local community, get involved in community events. For example, sponsor health fairs or charitable causes. 

Tip: Prioritize providing customers with a positive experience, both before and after they commit to your services. This is because word-of-mouth marketing and user-generated content remain powerful lead-generation strategies in plastic surgery. 

7. Conversion Rate Optimization

Driving more traffic to your website isn’t the ultimate goal of a plastic surgery SEO strategy. The ultimate goal is converting that traffic into new patients. This is where conversion rate optimization (CRO) comes into play.

CRO should play a vital role in any SEO strategy, yet it is often overlooked. CRO is effective when visitors to your website take a desired action, such as completing a form to receive more information about your cosmetic surgery practice.

Conversion is a prospective patient’s actions accomplishing a specific goal. Goals include a potential patient taking note of your phone number and calling to schedule a consultation or making a purchase on your website. Here are a few more examples of conversions:

• Making an appointment
• Requesting prices
• Subscribing to a mailing list
• Adding a product to their shopping cart
• Creating an account

How often potential patients complete these actions will determine your conversion rates. Although CRO does not directly impact your Google search ranking, it does benefit SEO in the following ways:

• Insight into potential client’s behavior: CRO helps you identify the right customers for your cosmetic surgery practice. By implementing a CRO strategy, you will improve your understanding of potential clients.
• Improved return on investment: You will get more for your money by converting the maximum number of visitors to your site from prospective patients to actual patients.
• Improved user experience: By understanding your customers, you will be able to tailor your web design to best meet their needs.
• Increased trust: To convert a potential client into a paying client, they will need to trust your website and its information. CRO will give you the resources to build this trust.

SEO Services

Search engine optimization is central to your digital marketing strategy, as it significantly impacts your visibility in search engine results. You do not need to embark on this journey alone. 

A qualified marketing agency can help refine your SEO strategy, optimize your web design, develop your marketing strategy, assist with content marketing, and enhance your online presence.

The best marketing agency ensures you rank on Google’s first page by tweaking your website and driving potential clients to your plastic surgery practice. A marketing agency will also assist you with social media management, ensuring you have a top-notch internet marketing strategy.

Ready to Attract More Patients with Expert SEO?

Discover how our proven SEO strategies can help your plastic surgery practice stand out online. Request a tailored proposal today and start seeing results that matter.

Reqeust a Proposal

Final Thoughts

The end goal of SEO for plastic surgeons is increasing your visibility on the web through your website, Google My Business, and social media. Ranking on Google’s front page is essential to driving traffic to your webpage. 

A sound SEO campaign will help to attract potential clients and convert them into patients, increasing your bottom line.

Contact one of our consultants today so we can help you implement SEO strategies that will allow you to grow your plastic surgery practice well into the future.