SEO: as recommended by your doctor

As recently as August 2019, John Mueller of Google let us know that “You should specify if a doctor reviewed your medical content.”

This seems to be as simple as adding a line that says: “Reviewed by Dr Jane Doe on the 23^rd August 2019”, with a link to her profile on your website.

Why is this significant?

People Google their symptoms, and there is no two ways about it. It is every GP’s pet peeve, I am sure, that a trawl through Yahoo! Answers, Quora questions and Reddit forums makes the rest of us experts in self-diagnosis.

With a plethora of misinformation out there, Google comes under fire whenever someone takes bad advice from its search results. This is likely one of many trust signals that Google uses to rank good information above misinformation.

Will writing ‘reviewed by doctors’ improve my rankings?

While Mueller did not explicitly say whether this could help content rank higher, we do know that the more trusted your content is, the better it can rank. I’d trust a specialist over a Reddit thread any day.

However, it won’t matter who reviewed it if your content is poor quality.

How can I improve the rankings for healthcare content?

Check out what comes up when you search the top three FAQs on this treatment. Does the first search result recommend drinking apple cider vinegar and crossing your fingers to hope the problem goes away?

If you feel affronted that there is no good content out there, make something you know is better:

• Provide trustworthy and reliable sources
• Easier to read, with a patient-friendly tone
• Answers more questions
• Offer better diagrams and videos

Lastly, get your practitioners or clinical team to check over what you have written and see if they will add an attributed quote.

This post was not reviewed by a doctor, but if you happen to be one – and you’re experiencing symptoms of digital-marketing-deficiency – book an appointment with our marketing team on 01273 208 913, or pop your name in the form below.