Wellness clinics are gamechangers for many people who prefer to take a whole-body approach to their health and wellness. While these broad offerings can be useful once patients are in the door, the broad nature can make marketing a challenge. That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. Here’s what to know about SEO for wellness clinics to get the most out of your marketing strategy. 

What is SEO for wellness clinics?

Strong SEO for wellness clinics involves a focus on E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authority, and trust), a mix of local and broad SEO, and symptom and intent-based search queries.

The goal of any type of health and wellness SEO strategy should be to provide value to the reader and encourage them to check out your offerings. Nothing turns a wellness-focused person away from a company quicker than generic content that reads like a sales pitch. So let’s go over what actually works. 

E-E-A-T for wellness SEO 

The Google search algorithm strongly favors experience, expertise, authority, and trust. Wellness brands that prioritize these content pillars tend to see more meaningful results because their content actually answers pressing questions with credibility. 

Weaving in experience is a crucial part of any wellness SEO strategy. And if you’re running a wellness clinic, congratulations. You have experience! Use some of your real-life thoughts and anecdotes to bring the content alive.

Expertise is crucial, too. You can’t just publish articles that talk about something as important as health and wellness without real, expert information. Pull from studies. Talk to experts in the field. Cite credible sources. 

Authority is what happens when Google picks up on your brand’s expertise in the field. If you produce a lot of well-written, targeted content that addresses real-world questions and leaves readers with new knowledge, Google will eventually pick up on this and see your website as a place of authority. This helps rankings. Avoid writing a ton of broad, generic blogs to capture a bunch of topics at once. Instead, hone in on your corner of the space and build a content pool that brings real authority and value to readers. 

Finally, trust is what happens when you do all of the above consistently. You don’t make broad, unsubstantiated statements. You talk to experts and weave in your unmatched lived experience. You’re consistent. 

The biggest hurdle to SEO for wellness clinics: YMYL

Wellness clinics fall under Google’s YMYL (your money, your life), meaning the content is highly scrutinized. You are held to a high standard because people may choose to spend their money on choices that could impact their health and life. That’s why research-backed, authoritative content will always rank higher. Google can trust that showing credible content won’t negatively impact a person’s life. 

I’ve been writing in highly regulated spaces for nearly a decade now. There are a lot of parallels between the cannabis industry (where I spent a lot of my career writing) and larger wellness spaces like wellness clinics. You can’t traditionally advertise and you have to be extra careful about medical claims. While these can be barriers to success, they can also open the door to brands that want to really stand out. 

By sticking to Google’s E-E-A-T pillars, you can keep yourself safe from any YMYL problems. Don’t make sweeping medical claims, but talk about your own personal experience and the research we have on hand. Discuss the limits to the research and current knowledge. Be transparent. 

How do I build a wellness SEO strategy?

To build a wellness SEO strategy that actually works, focus on E-E-A-T and provide content that is not easily replicable. You want to stand out by providing unique and valuable insights that can’t be found elsewhere.

Think like your target audience. What are their biggest concerns and what problems might they search for that lead them to your clinic?

Take a look at this blog about how I turn one health topic into 10 high-intent articles. It’s a great jumping off point for better understanding how your wellness target audience thinks and acts. 

If you find yourself producing generic content ideas, focus on unique angles only you can tell. Hone in on storytelling to keep your marketing from falling flat. Humans love stories and they can do wonders for marketing strategy, when executed properly. 

Make sure you thoroughly understand the dos and don’ts of health and wellness marketing, too. Great content can still fail if you’re tanking your marketing efforts elsewhere. 

Can I use AI for wellness SEO strategies?

Sure, you can use AI to help you build an SEO strategy. The keyword here is build. Not create. You can use AI to help you identify useful topics and build out a general structure. But I wouldn’t recommend it for the actual content production because AI can’t capture the E-E-A-T pillars that Google loves. 

I’ve seen several health and wellness brands shift to AI-produced content in hopes to provide a wealth of information for potential customers to discover. While AI can produce some useful educational content, it’s not enough to stand out in a highly saturated, highly regulated industry like health and wellness. 

AI can’t weave in personal experience and expertise. It can’t share an anecdote from years of doing the work you do. And it can’t reliably keep all rules of compliance in mind to keep you out of trouble.

In many cases, the health and wellness brands that shift to AI for content production end up moving back to human-written content. They realize that their AI content is not ranking and that Google tends to prefer human content with real, unique experiences behind it. 

Hire a wellness writer

If you’re busy running the operations of your business, you probably don’t want to learn all of the important aspects of successful SEO strategies for wellness brands. Nor do you have the time to research useful keywords, create a strategy of local and broad SEO terms, and deeply research your target audience. 

But I do! It’s my job and I love it. I am happy to create a wellness SEO strategy that actually converts. Send me a message and let’s get the traffic rolling in.