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Before we can monitor and optimise for search, we need to understand the different search types.
Over the decades Google has evolved to return various different types of result depending on the search intent. Google assesses every search term to try and ascertain the intent of the user based on results that have proven helpful for that search in the past. So, if Google thinks you are looking for general information, it will return web pages containing that information. If it thinks you are looking to buy a product, it will return products. It might also return YouTube videos or frequently asked questions, depending on what it thinks will be helpful.
For clinic owners there is really only one type of search we are interested in, and that is a local search. When you add a location modifier to a search term, such as a town name or “near me”, Google will return websites of local businesses, and a map with the top three local results marked on it, known as the local pack. Clicking on the map will take you through to Google maps and more results marked on the map. This is a map search, which is a local search by default.
The opposite of a local search is an informational search, where we don’t care what geographical location the information comes from, and there is also a hybrid search (my word) which returns a mixture of local and informational results – Google isn’t sure of the intent and is hedging its bets.
Informational search – returns national, informational result without taking location into account
What does a physiotherapist do?
Local search – returns local results and a local pack (map with top 3 results)
Physiotherapist near me
Hybrid search – will return a mixture of local and informational results as Google isn’t sure of intent
Physiotherapist
Before we move on to the different types of local search, it’s important to understand how a national SEO strategy works so you will understand when an SEO tool, agency or guide is telling you to do something that isn’t appropriate to you as a local business.
Let’s say we’re selling a product online that we can ship to anywhere in the world. What we’ll do is look for long tail search terms. These are very specific and contain several words, whereas short tail search terms are short. For example, basketball shoes is a short tail search term, and best basketball shoes for young teens is a long-tail search term.
We’ll use search engine software to look for long tail keyphrases related to our product that we can target. So if we’re selling basketball shoes and find that best basketball shoes for young teens is a search that’s being made frequently and has low competition, we’ll create content – in the form of blog articles, etc. – to rank for this term. The searcher then clicks through to our article to get the information they requre, and while they’re there we try to get them to either buy some shoes, sign up to our mailing list, or take some other conversion action.
One of my first SEO jobs involved this strategy, working for a careers coach. I would find good terms to target such as “am I in a toxic work environment” or “how to stay motivated when working from home” and create content with her which I would then optimise to rank and drive traffic to her site.
However, this strategy is not really relevant for local businesses. We may be able to rank #1 for “what does a physiotherapist do” or “are natural toothbrushes any good” but if the traffic we’re generating isn’t local, it’s not going to get us any business. The exception here is telehealth services. If you can deliver your service remotely – counselling for example – then this strategy is viable, particularly if you have some authority and a specialist niche.
That doesn’t mean to say you shouldn’t create content if you’re a local business, you absolutely should. Having lots of useful content on your website related to your service and optimised for your keywords will help you to rank locally for your general search term as well. But what you shouldn’t be doing is targeting rankings for informational searches or monitoring your positions for them – it’s irrelevant. If you choose to work with an SEO agency make sure they understand this, as I’ve seen clients who have worked with national-only agencies who are ranking them for niche, long-tail informational searches and considering they’ve done a good job, when actually the traffic they’re driving is irrelevant.
There are 3 types of search that will return local results. These are the searches we want to rank for, and the ones we will be interested in monitoring our positions for. We discussed this in the guide to choosing your keywords.
As well as ‘near me’, this also includes searches such as ‘around me’, ‘in my area’, etc., e.g. “dentist near me”.
With a ‘near me’ modifier, proximity becomes a greater factor in the search, so you will rank higher at your location and then tail off quicker the further away you get.
In my experience these are the easiest searches to start ranking for because proximity is such a great factor. With a new clinic, we aim to rank first for ‘near me’ searches at the clinic’s location, and then move forwards from there.
You should rank for a ‘near me’ search simply because your Google Business Profile address is close to the searcher, without any additional optimisation. However, there is evidence that doing things like creating a page called “counselling near me in London” for example, does increase results, despite being such a crude tactic.
This is where the user simply types in the name of the service with no other context. Google will return a map and local results, mixed in with informational results.
For example, if I do a search for “counselling”, I get results about “what is counselling”, local results, counselling degrees and counselling FAQs.
Proximity has a lesser effect for treatment only searches, and there are other results to compete with. This means that they’re harder to get results for than a ‘near me’ search, and we’ll see progress in ranking for treatment-only results as a good sign that the clinic’s SEO is moving forward.
Some people will do a service + location search e.g. counselling in Glasgow or Guildford dentist.
In these searches, proximity is a much smaller factor, and Google will typically return the top results for the whole of that area, regardless of how close they are to the searcher. That means if the searcher types in “dentist london” they will get the top ranking few dentists in all of London, wherever they make the search from.
To compete on that is extremely difficult, which is why we pick our location optimisations carefully depending on our authority and competition. A small physiotherapy clinic in London will do best to target their immediate area name and avoid the competition of terms such as “London”, “North London” etc. where they will find it extremely difficult to rank. On the other hand a more niche service such as “breastfeeding coach” will have less competition, and will be able to target larger areas sooner.
Ranking for these searches shows us that Google now considers you one of the top clinics for that service in the area, and that our SEO is really gaining traction.
One other important factor here is that whether you can be included in searches for the area depends whether you’re in the boundaries for that area as defined by Google. To find out what that is, simply type the name of the area into Google maps and a red boundary area will appear, which is Google’s definition of where that area is. If you’re 10 metres outside of that, you generally won’t be able to rank for that location search – a big disadvantage when clinics are on the outskirts of town and fall just outside the boundary.
As well as different types of searches, there is also a difference depending on what device and platform you make the search on. Generally this means:
You will have to choose what platforms to measure. Generally do Google organic (desktop or mobile) and Google Maps as a basic, anything else is up to you.
An important distinction between maps and organic search is that on maps it is your Google Business Profile that is ranking, and organic search it is your website that is ranking (unless you’re in the local pack, in which case it’s your GBP). It’s possible to be ranking in the local pack and also have your website included in the search results, in which case you will have 2 positions for any given search.
The takeaway is that it is not as simple as “how am I ranking”. The question is how are you ranking, for what terms, with what local modifiers, on what platforms, in what search engines, and in map or organic. All of these metrics give us different clues to our search performance and guide what we should be working on.
We have to choose what to measure in order to get the most useful picture we can of our local search rankings, and we’ll look at this in the next guide.
If you have more questions about SEO, we’ll be happy to help. Feel free to reach out, come and ask a question in Free Webinar Friday, or book a free strategy call.
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