The challenges
What makes growth hard in healthcare.
- 01
Advertising platforms restrict targeting, claims and remarketing for health topics, which removes tactics other sectors rely on.
- 02
Clinical accuracy and regulatory review slow publishing, so content calendars slip and pages go stale.
- 03
A provider with several sites, departments and practitioners has dozens of listings that drift out of date.
- 04
Patient privacy rules limit what can be tracked, which makes it hard to connect marketing to booked appointments.
Search behaviour
How buyers search and decide.
People searching for health information are often anxious and always looking for someone trustworthy. Search systems apply higher quality thresholds to medical topics, and advertising rules are strict. Accuracy is the strategy.
Demand generation
Where demand comes from.
Healthcare demand starts with a symptom or a diagnosis, usually typed into a search engine or put to an AI assistant, and ends with a choice of provider that is heavily local. Informational search builds familiarity and trust long before an appointment is needed. Map results, practitioner profiles and reviews decide the provider at the moment of need. Paid search works for specific treatments and specialities where policy allows it, and referral from other clinicians remains a channel that digital activity should support instead of ignore.
Content needs
What healthcare buyers expect to find.
- Condition and treatment pages reviewed by a named, qualified clinician
- Practitioner profiles with qualifications, specialisms and where they consult
- Location pages with services, opening hours, access and parking
- Plain-language guidance on what to expect before, during and after a procedure
- Clear information on fees, insurance and referral requirements
Each of these is written or reviewed by someone who knows the subject. AI speeds up research and drafting. It does not decide what is accurate.
Conversion challenges
Where interest is lost before it becomes business.
- 01
Booking friction
A patient who cannot see availability or book online often rings the next provider. Online booking should be the easy path, with the phone as a clear alternative.
- 02
Calls that go unanswered
Much healthcare demand still converts by phone. Answer rates and call handling are conversion work, even though they sit outside the website.
- 03
Reassurance before commitment
Anxious visitors look for who will treat them, what it involves and what it costs. Pages that hide those answers lose them.
- 04
Privacy-safe measurement
Tracking has to be designed so that health information is never passed to advertising platforms, while still showing which channels lead to appointments.
The SERPMOZ approach
Three priorities for healthcare.
- 01
Clinically reviewed content
Condition and treatment pages written with, and attributed to, qualified practitioners.
- 02
Local visibility
Profiles, reviews and location pages for every clinic, department and practitioner.
- 03
Compliant acquisition
Paid campaigns and tracking designed within platform policy and applicable privacy rules.
Relevant services
Typically involved.
- Local SEOGoogle Business Profile, Maps visibility, reviews and location pages for single and multi-location businesses.
- Google Maps SEOBusiness Profile optimisation, reviews and location signals for visibility in map results.
- SEOTechnical, content and authority work prioritised by commercial value and measured against pipeline.
- Google AdsSearch, Shopping, Performance Max and YouTube run against qualified leads and margin.
- Web DevelopmentNext.js, WordPress, Shopify and Webflow builds with SEO, speed and conversion designed in from the first wireframe.
- WhatsApp AutomationBusiness Platform setup, consented messaging, chat flows and CRM integration.
In practice
The kind of work this leads to.
Examples of what we would build for a healthcare business. They describe work, not outcomes. What is right for you is decided after the diagnostic.
- 01
A clinical review workflow where each condition page carries a named reviewer, a review date and a schedule for the next check.
- 02
A listings audit across every site and practitioner, with one source of truth for names, addresses, hours and services.
- 03
A measurement design that reports booked appointments by channel without sending patient details to ad platforms.
What we measure in healthcare
Outcomes we plan around
- 01Appointment requests
- 02Calls by location
- 03Cost per booked appointment
- 04Review volume and rating
Targets are set after the diagnostic, against your own baseline.
Start with a growth audit
Stop Buying Marketing Activity.Start Building a Growth Engine.
Tell us where you are today, where you want to go and what is holding growth back. We’ll identify the highest-impact opportunities.
What happens next
- 1
You tell us where you are
A short form about the business, its goals and what is holding growth back.
- 2
A strategist reviews it
Search, AI visibility, paid media, content and conversion, read together.
- 3
You get the priorities
The highest-impact opportunities, in order, with the reasoning shown.
No obligation, and no guaranteed outcomes promised. Just an honest read of where you stand.