SEO for Plastic Surgeons

A Step-by-Step Plastic Surgery SEO Guide

Are you ready to attract more patients to your plastic surgery practice through organic search? Keep reading to learn how a targeted SEO plastic surgery marketing strategy can help you get found by potential patients online.

In this guide you will learn:

Chapter 1
Intro to SEO →

Chapter 2
Keyword Research →

Chapter 3
On-Page SEO →

Chapter 4
Off-Page SEO →

Chapter 5
Best Practices →

Chapter 6
FAQs & Resources →

What is SEO for plastic surgeons?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a website or web page to increase its visibility in search engines, like Google and Bing.

SEO is a critical tool for any plastic surgeon looking to attract more patients. The higher your website ranks on Google, the greater the likelihood that potential patients will click through to your site.

Think of it as the aesthetic enhancement for your website.

Just as aesthetic procedures improve appearance, SEO ensures your website is ‘healthy’ and optimized—making it easier for search engines to find and rank. This, in turn, drives more traffic to your site and helps you connect with individuals seeking your expertise.

A person searching for a plastic surgeon on Google may use a search query like “plastic surgeon near me” or “best cosmetic clinic in [city name]”.

They may search for specific procedures such as “breast augmentation surgeon”, “rhinoplasty specialist”, or “facelift near me”. Or they may even include financing options in the search query, such as “plastic surgeon with payment plans in [city name]”.

In order to benefit from SEO, you want your website to rank for these kind of searches.

Why is plastic surgery SEO important?

Here are some of the benefits of using SEO for your cosmetic surgery practice:

• Increased visibility: SEO helps boost the visibility of your website in search engines, making it more likely that potential patients will find you when searching for cosmetic procedures like rhinoplasty, liposuction, or facelifts.
• Cost-effective: Compared to traditional advertising methods such as print ads or television, SEO is a cost-effective way to reach patients actively searching for the services you offer.
• Targeted audience: SEO allows you to focus on specific keywords related to your services, such as “breast augmentation surgeon near me” or “non-surgical facelifts,” ensuring you attract the right audience.
• Local SEO: Local SEO enhances your website’s visibility for patients searching in your specific geographic area. This is particularly beneficial for plastic surgeons, as most patients seek services within a convenient distance.
• Building trust: By providing high-quality, informative content on your website, SEO helps establish your practice as a trusted authority in the field. This not only improves your search engine ranking but also fosters confidence among potential patients.

How do search engines work?

Search engines work by crawling billions of webpages with their own web crawlers, known as search engine bots or spiders. These are then stored and saved in an index.

Google Search Essentials (formerly Webmaster Guidelines)

The Google Search Essentials define the actions that webmasters can take to make their websites better indexable or crawlable.

Read them here: Official Google Guidelines

The guidelines are based on three central aspects:

1. Crawling – webmasters should support Google in finding websites.
2. Indexing – webmasters should help Google to classify and “recognize” the content.
3. Usability and user experience – webmasters should support the users of the websites in their use (usability and user experience).

Essentially, according to these Google guidelines,  a website should support the search engine in crawling and indexing and ensure a good user experience. 

Before you get started with SEO, there are a few prerequisites you want to check off first:

SEO Basics

At a bare minimum, you want to make sure you cover these basic standards before embarking on doing SEO:

• Website Speed – Have a fast loading site so potential customers don’t get tired of waiting for things to load.
• Mobile Friendliness – Make sure your site works on mobile as over 50% of users browse on mobile devices
• Analytics – Setup Google Analytics, Google Search Console & so you can understand what is and isn’t working.
• XML Sitemap – search engines use this to get your site’s URLs
• Robots.txt – tells search engine crawlers where they can (and where they can’t go) on your site.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is the process of making website and server optimizations to help search engines to crawl and index your site more effectively (and therefore help to improve organic rankings).

Technical errors can hurt a website’s ability to rank. There are potentially a lot of errors, but here are some of the most common that will have the biggest impact when fixed:

• 404 errors
• Broken backlinks
• Poor URL structure
• Duplicate/thin content
• Poor internal linking
• Poor website architecture
• Missing metadata (page titles & meta descriptions)
• Missing H1 tags

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What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of identifying the words and phrases that people use when searching for specific products or services:

Once you understand the keywords your target audience is using, you can optimize your website to appear for these in search results.

Think of keyword research as a diagnostic tool for your website. Just as a consultation helps you understand a patient’s goals and needs, keyword research helps you identify what potential patients are searching for online when they are looking for cosmetic procedures.

For example, if your practice specializes in rhinoplasty, keyword research might reveal that people frequently search for terms like “best rhinoplasty surgeon near me,” “non-surgical nose job,” or “affordable rhinoplasty in [your city].”

By optimizing your website with these keywords, you increase its chances of appearing higher in search engine results. This helps attract more patients actively seeking the services you provide, ensuring that your practice is visible to the right audience.

Why is keyword research important?

Keyword research is important for plastic surgeons because it helps to:

• understand what people are searching for when they are looking for plastic surgeon services, and to optimize their website accordingly.
• identify the specific needs and pain points of their target audience, which can inform the content they create and services they offer, ultimately leading to more conversion and better patient experience.
• identify the competition in the local area and understand what they are doing, so they can create a more effective SEO strategy.

What keywords are best to target?

Understand that there’s no “best” keywords, just those that are highly searched by your audience. With this in mind, it’s up to you to craft a strategy that will help you rank pages and drive traffic.

The best keywords for your SEO strategy will take into account relevance, authority, and volume. You want to find highly searched keywords that you can reasonably compete for based on:

• The level of competition you’re up against.
• Your ability to produce content that exceeds in quality what’s currently ranking.

How to do keyword research for your plastic surgery practice

To start keyword research: put yourself in your customers shoes.

What words, phrases and terms might they use in order to find solutions to these problems? These are the keywords you want to find and target.

Here is a simple process to follow:

Step 1) Make a list of broad topics

Create a list of general topics related to your business. These might correspond to product categories, services or anything you believe your target audience would be interested in.

For example, broad topics like:

• Breast Augmentation
• Liposuction
• Rhinoplasty
• Facelifts
• Botox and Dermal Fillers

Step 2) Expand topics into a list of phrases

Now you want to take those topics and expand them into a list of related phrases to target.

Imagine yourself as a buyer looking for your product or service and ask yourself: what would I type into Google?

Whilst keyword research tools are useful here, you can do this for free by Googling your keyword.

For example, Google “breast augmentation” and you’ll get a list of related questions people ask (which you can answer with blog content).

As well as related searches which may uncover other keywords to target:

Step 3) Analyze your keywords

Once you have a list of potential keywords, you need to gauge which terms are worth targeting.

You’ll need to use a keyword research tool here to pay attention to the following keyword metrics:

• Search volume
• Trends
• Search value over time
• Difficulty
• CPC
• SERP features

But most importantly, you want to consider relevancy and search intent:

Relevant keywords:

For relevancy, you want to ask yourself:

• Are these keywords relevant to my business?
• Do I have a chance of ranking for these terms based on the competition?
• Is ranking for these keywords going to have a positive ROI?

If you can answer YES to the above questions, chances are you have picked a relevant keyword

Search intent:

Search intent is the goal and purpose of a search query in Google. When someone searches for something, they are typically looking for more information before performing an action.

Search intent falls in four buckets:

• Informational – Searchers looking for information, they’ll use words like: how, what, why, when etc.
• Navigational – Searchers trying to find a specific site, they’ll use words relating to the service/product/brand
• Transactional – Searchers looking to purchase, they’ll use words like: buy, cost, pricing, cheap etc.
• Commercial investigation – Searchers researching prior to making a purchase, they’ll use words like: best, review, comparison etc

Not only is it important to select good keywords, but also to pick keywords you have a chance of ranking for.

For example, if you want to rank for the keyword: “Rhinoplasty Recovery Tips” but your page doesn’t provide detailed recovery advice, you are not meeting a searcher’s intent and may struggle to rank for it.

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What is on-page SEO?

On-page SEO describes specific elements of the pages on your website that you control, such as:

• Title tags
• Meta descriptions
• Header tags
• Internal linking
• Images
• Content

Why is on-page SEO important?

On-page SEO is crucial for plastic surgeons because it ensures that their website is easily found and understood by search engines. This increased visibility can drive more traffic to the website, ultimately resulting in more consultations and patients for the practice.

For example, if a plastic surgeon offers a service like “rhinoplasty” but that service is not mentioned or prominently highlighted on the website, it will be less likely to appear in search results when someone searches for “rhinoplasty near me” or related terms. Conversely, if the website is optimized with “rhinoplasty” as a focus keyword, it is far more likely to appear in search results and attract patients looking for that specific service.

Additionally, on-page optimization enhances the overall user experience of the website, which can lead to higher engagement and conversion rates. A well-organized, easy-to-navigate website with clear calls to action—such as “Schedule a Consultation” or “Learn More About Rhinoplasty”—is more likely to convert visitors into patients.

By focusing on on-page SEO, plastic surgeons can improve their online visibility, enhance user experience, and attract more targeted inquiries for their services.

On-Page SEO Checklist

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What is off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO refers to specific actions done outside of your website, such as getting backlinks from other websites or social media.

What is link building?

Link building is the practice of building one-way hyperlinks (also known as “backlinks”) to a website with the goal of improving SEO. Common link building strategies include content marketing, building useful tools, email outreach, broken link building and guest posts.

Why is link building important?

Link building is important for plastic surgeons because it helps to increase the visibility of a website on search engines. Google, for example, use links to a website as a way to determine the authority and trustworthiness of a website.

The more high-quality links that point to a website, the more likely it is to be considered an authority in its field and be given higher rankings in the SERPs (search engine results page).

This increased visibility can drive more traffic to a website, which can lead to more patients for the plastic surgery practice.

Link building is a vital strategy for plastic surgeons to establish their practice as a reputable and trustworthy provider of cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. High-quality links from reputable websites in the healthcare or cosmetic surgery industry, such as medical directories, professional associations, or trusted blogs, signal to both search engines and potential patients that the practice is respected and credible.

Link building can also drive referral traffic to your website. For instance, visitors might discover your practice through a link on a health-focused blog discussing cosmetic surgery or a feature on a medical association’s website. This not only increases brand awareness but also introduces your services to new audiences who may not have otherwise found your practice.

In summary, link building is essential for plastic surgeons because it increases online visibility, establishes trust and authority, and drives referral traffic to your website. These benefits combine to attract more inquiries and grow your patient base.

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Plastic Surgeon SEO Best Practices (+ 4 Tips)

4 Actionable Plastic Surgery SEO Tips

Here are some things your practice can do to begin the process of developing a good plastic surgery marketing strategy.

1. Add relevant keywords
2. Optimize for local searches
3. Start blogging
4. Earn links

1. Add relevant keywords to your website

People searching for plastic surgeons often look for specific services, such as rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, or non-surgical treatments like Botox. Long-tail keyword searches may have lower search volumes, but they attract highly targeted traffic that is more likely to convert into real patients.

For example, instead of only optimizing your website for broad terms like “plastic surgeon” or “cosmetic surgery,” you could include more specific keywords, such as:

• “Rhinoplasty surgeon in [your city]”
• “Non-surgical facelift options in [your area]”
• “Affordable breast augmentation in [your city], [state]”

By incorporating these long-tail keywords into your website content, you can attract individuals actively searching for the precise services you offer, increasing the likelihood of inquiries and consultations.

2. Optimize your site for local searches

If your SEO plan doesn’t use local SEO to target specific areas, you’ll likely miss out on some great leads. Adding the name of your town and nearby towns to your website copy is the easiest way to get better results.

But don’t forget about things on your site besides writing copy. You should also add places to the titles and URLs of your pages.

Also, make sure that your business is listed on Google Maps and local directory sites. This will help your business show up more in local searches.

3. Start writing useful content

The main goal of plastic surgery SEO is to get more patients by making your website more visible in Google.

One effective way to grow your online presence is to write a blog. By creating blog posts with valuable insights, such as tips on preparing for a cosmetic procedure, understanding recovery timelines, or comparing surgical and non-surgical options, you can attract interested readers who may become potential patients.

As your blog content gains traffic, your website’s search rankings will improve, making it easier for people searching for a plastic surgeon in your area to find you. Over time, readers will begin to view your practice as a reliable and knowledgeable source for cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, increasing the likelihood that they’ll turn to you for their needs.

4. Earn quality links

How high your site ranks in search results for keywords and phrases related to your business depends on how many and how good the links are to it. This means that you need to get good links if you want to keep your rankings.

You can do this by making good content and reaching out to bloggers and leaders in your field to ask them to share it. This will not only help you move up in search results, but it will also make your plastic surgery practice look like a leader in the field.

Backlinks are a very important part of SEO for plastic surgeons. They are like a vote of confidence for the content your practise puts out. Because of this, links are one of the most important ways that search engines like Google decide how to rank pages.

How does plastic surgery SEO work?

SEO for plastic surgery means making sure that your website is optimized for both search engines and users. This makes your website more visible in relevant and organic search results.

Optimizations include:

• on-page SEO
• link building
• technical SEO review
• content audit
• local citation audit

Why do plastic surgeons need marketing?

Marketing is essential for plastic surgeons to set their practice apart in a competitive industry.

Your patients are your clients, and a strategic marketing plan not only helps you identify your target audience but also communicates why potential patients should choose your practice over others. It highlights your unique qualifications, specialized services, and patient-focused approach.

A well-executed marketing strategy can attract new patients, retain existing ones, and increase awareness of your practice and offerings. The ultimate goal is to encourage potential patients to contact your office, schedule a consultation, or book a procedure, helping your practice grow and thrive.

How long does plastic surgery SEO take?

Typically, plastic surgery SEO takes at least six months to deliver results.

In some cases, practices may start to see results like increased traffic, phone calls, and appointments, in faster timeframe than this.

Although typically 6 months is a good benchmark as SEO is a long-term strategy vs. a short-term strategy like PPC.

How much does SEO for plastic surgeons cost?

Prices for a plastic surgeon website SEO depend on multiple factors, but the average cost for plastic surgery SEO is $1500 – $5000 per month.

If you’re looking to partner with a consultant or plastic surgery SEO expert, the average rate is $100 – $300 per hour.