Drug Rehab SEO

When it comes to marketing your facility, drug rehab SEO can be one of the more beneficial avenues of your marketing campaign and provide a great return on investment. In a sense, it's the gift that keeps on giving - organic traffic and potential leads being the reward. The reason is simple, once you rank, as long as your page meets the search intent and provides a great user experience, someone else will have to take measures to try and outrank you. Would you like to have the competition chasing you in the organic search results rather than the other way around? This is why seo is so important in your addiction treatment center marketing playbook.

Why Is Rehab Center SEO Needed?

While PPC marketing for rehabs is highly measurable and can provide a fairly certain stream of admissions, it also carries a high cost. Search engine optimization, on the other hand, has a compounding effect. Once the website is doing well, it becomes easier to rank new topics. This means that clicks and inquiries can come in from doing the work one time, rather than paying for each click. But what does it take to get there?

On-Site Search Engine Optimization Begins With an SEO Audit

Your website is basically our only online point of contact that you are in complete control of. You don’t own your Facebook page or how it is laid out. You don’t control how you rank in Google or YouTube. You can’t customize the experience or tune the page exactly how you want. But you can with your site. The same can be said for some of the more granular and technical aspects of drug rehab SEO. 

Your website is the complete opposite. You own every part of it. If you have things that aren’t optimized properly, you can take action to correct it. This is what an SEO audit is all about. Uncovering things that aren’t properly optimized and finding opportunities to increase our visibility. Below we will take a brief look at each part that we really want to focus on to kick things into high gear. Each section is truly its own topic, so we will cover the high points.

Technical SEO

Site Crawl

Google hates crawling a website to run into broken links, missing images and redirected URLs. Use a tool like Sitebulb or Screaming Frog to crawl the website and kick out information about where the site has issues. We want to fix anything that slows down the bot. Internal redirects are personal pet peeve of ours and a common problem we find when auditing a site. If you change a URL, you should be seeking any internal links to the old URL and updating them rather than simply letting WordPress redirect everyone for you. It’s just lazy. If you look at a chart of all the pages and their hierarchy (like below), you want as little red as possible, although sometimes a red node does make sense.

Sitemaps

Another thing we want to do here is make sure that we are only having the bots crawl pages that are important to us. This is another huge mistake we see daily. Websites are using an SEO plugin but think it works out of the box. This couldn’t be further from the truth. By default, everything will be indexed. You only want pages and posts indexed assuming you don’t have some custom site aspects that also would be present in a sitemap. Having sitemaps for tags, categories, authors and dates is an absolute waste.

Site Speed

We also want to make sure that our site speed is ok. We don’t need to be the fastest online, but we don’t want to be the black sheep in our market. Use the smallest image file size possible. Give your loading speeds a check with several tools like GTmetrix or Pingdom.

More importantly, do some real world testing. Having random people pull up your site from their mobile network is a great option. If it works “fast enough” to the average Joe, you are cool as a cucumber.

Keyword Research for Rehab SEO

I like to take a look at the site’s metrics and establish their keywords first. Keyword research is really a two phase approach. While we won’t get too deep into the weeds here, it basically works like this.

Using your primary keywords as the seed, uncover all of your ranking terms, don’t forget long-tail keywords. Google search console is a great place to start. You can also use third party tools. Then use a keyword tool to find any additional keywords related to terms you rank for, Ahrefs “also rank for” is a great option. You want to build a comprehensive list of any and all keywords that are directly relevant to your drug rehab facility and its treatment services.

Competitive Analysis

The next thing you of course need to do is have a look at the competition to see how they are doing. What do they write about? Is their content good? Do they have a site similar to ours? Is it easier to contact them? One caveat here: we aren’t just looking at the local competition, you can get amazing insights from facilities across the country that do things well in terms of search engine ranking.

All of these things are important because we want to “one up” them wherever we can. One of the most important things we can glean from competitors is a content gap analysis.

Content Gap - Target Missing Keywords

We already have an understanding of our offerings and know which keyword clusters we should be targeting. But it's easy to overlook things. This is the beauty of a content gap analysis. Take a big list of competitors that rank for a lot of keywords and find out where they rank and you don’t. If you have a page focused on a given keyword, it needs work. If not, you know you could write that piece and get closer to topical authority.

This gap analysis helps you with a content plan in the future. You know the topics are relevant and you are missing them. That means you haven’t completely covered the subject, which is something that Google likes you to do. To become an authority on a topic, you need full topical coverage to prove your expertise.

On-Site Optimizations

One thing that we can optimize sitewide is our correlation to our Google Maps listing. If you are a single location business (or website), you should have your Google Map embedded sitewide so that every page has it visible. This also helps with Google Business SEO. If you have multiple locations all tied to a website, this is handled differently and mentioned in a future section.

On-Page Optimizations

This is where we want to be on point. Google ranks pages, not websites. A given keyword has a set of pages that rank for it. We want to be on top, of course. This means we want to optimize every aspect that we can and get the most out of our actual content. Any new piece we create, or existing piece we update, should be using these principles.

Main Optimization Spots

The big guns here are the URL or page slug, the SEO title and the article title (H1 tag). You want to structure each one of these to include the main keyword of the page, preferably in the beginning of each. Localizing makes sense in certain situations which will be covered in the Facility Specific Pages section. Getting your main keyword into the first paragraph also helps a bit.

Topical Coverage

One of the biggest things in terms of optimizing a page is covering the topic completely. You want to start with a solid outline that encompasses your topic. Check the SERPs and look for angles others may have taken that you have not. Get those angles into your own words and into your published piece.

A lot of sites have a bunch of fluff on every page, likely to increase word count. In the rehab space, we see this a lot with facilities mentioning things like CBT and DBT as treatment modalities on every page of the site. Nobody searches for that stuff or knows what it is unless they have already been to a rehab. Either way, you aren’t doing yourself any favors.

Images

Whenever possible, use an image from your actual facility, preferably taken by a smartphone. These images contain location data that can be seen by Google if you upload to your Google Business Profile.

Here is another thing that is simple, yet almost always overlooked by business owners. Name your images something that is relevant to the page you are adding it to. By default images are just a string of characters from a phone. You can rename it with your keywords that are being targeted on the page where it will live. Don’t forget to fill out your alt text on the image for screen readers.

You also want to make sure you are compressing these images if they are on your website to keep your page size smaller and user speed faster. There are a number of image compression plugins available for WordPress and other CMS’s.

Internal Linking

Internal linking is a commonly overlooked detail on a lot of sites we see. Pumping out awesome content is great, but if it isn’t linking to and being linked to, nobody will ever find it. We have to do our best to help Google understand our website and have easy access to all of our important content. 

Orphan Pages

Pages that don’t have internal backlinks are called “orphan pages” and Google doesn’t like them. Other than the sitemap, they are tough to find. We have to be linking to and from pieces on our website.

Silo Strategy For Treatment Facilities

How we perform internal linking is something that is often debated. Some SEOs are under the umbrella of “link anywhere and everywhere”. This means that they would have no quandaries linking from an article about cocaine to an article about LSD. The only thing they have in common is that they are both drugs. For this reason, a better approach is available (shown below).

A “silo” (or cluster) refers to a group of content focused around an overarching topic (say cocaine addiction). If our new piece of content is about cocaine, we only link to other pieces about cocaine. Then, look for other cocaine related pieces that would give you an opportunity to update them and insert a link to your new piece. This keeps all of our links “topically relevant”. We find this to render the best success. It also means the Google crawl bot gets a very clear understanding of your expertise on a particular topic, increasing the likelihood of ranking it.

Keywords For Anchor Text

If you have read anything about backlinks, you know that anchor text is a hot topic. When you are acquiring links from other sites on the web, you have to be careful. When you are linking from your own pages to others on the same site, you can be much more aggressive. When we link to another page, we use a lot of keywords. Rarely do we use a generic term like “read more”. Just mix it up by using many variations of the page’s main keyword and you will be golden.

Recovery Center Schema Markup

Schema markup is code that is provided specifically for the bots. It can be used to explicitly talk to the bot and let them know a variety of things about a given business, service, page, website, author, review rating, etc. A bot can’t “read” and make sense of groups of text like a human can. Schema markup gives information to the bot in a way it can fully understand.

Local Business Schema

If you are using an seo plugin on your WordPress website, some of this is done for you. Most of them will create an organizational schema, but it isn’t robust. We want to build out a local business schema that has all the pertinent information in addition. For single location brands, this should be placed sitewide. For brands with multiple locations and a single website, you should add the new schema to the page for the given location. If you don’t have specific pages set up for each facility you have, you are seriously missing out on an opportunity to help more people in your community.

FAQ Schema

FAQ schema is easy to implement and can get you another spot in the results, the “people also ask” section. Some people dislike these because they can reveal your answer without the visitor having to leave Google, but that is silly, unless they don’t like “extra clicks”. Without the schema, this number can never be higher than zero. Your regular position is still ranking, this one is a “bonus” so why not spend a few minutes for every piece you publish and benefit forever? Keep in mind that you have to actually include FAQs in your content to implement the schema (you should be!).

Content Planning and Creation

Once you have the existing content free of errors and other technical glitches that can trip up the bot and have your existing content optimized, you can plan for future content. When you are planning content, you want to ensure that you are getting the most important content done first. Below we will look at a few typical content types that will bring in organic traffic. They are in the order of importance in terms of actually helping people in need.

Facility Specific Pages

You want to have a specific page for each of your actual facilities. This allows you to optimize that specific page for that specific city. You want to treat this page’s content very similar to a homepage. It should have a brief mention to each service that you provide. 

Localized Verbiage

It should also have some city specific data wherever possible, and use “local lingo” if that is a thing. The same optimizations already mentioned should be applied to this page, but localize it. That can be as simple as using verbiage like “are you looking for an Indianapolis addiction treatment facility?”. Perfect localized keyword that doesn’t sound “funny”.

Map Embed

You also want to embed your Google Map listing for the specific facility on this page. Don’t use the address version, use the one with your business name. You can easily grab the code by visiting your listing on Google Maps and clicking the share button. Then click the “Embed” tab and copy the code.

Reviews

Show off your local treatment reviews from this market on the page, folks need to see that before making a decision. If possible, be sure to use actual reviews that folks can verify rather than something taken internally that an employee could have easily faked. The days of generic reviews carrying weight are gone. There are several WordPress plugins that can connect to your business account and pull all of your reviews, as well as stay connected to grab future additions.

Social Media & Recovery Programs

If you have location specific social channels, list them on the page. This goes a long way to establishing trust within the local treatment market. While a company wide social media channel is great, a unique channel for a facility can better localize content.

Treatment Center Images

Display the best imagery possible of your rehab facility. If all things are equal, a potential patient will choose a treatment center that portrays a nice facility vs one that shows nothing. It’s kind of like choosing an Airbnb or a hotel. A better looking place to stay wins the day. If terms of seo for drug rehabs, you want to name your images appropriately and use keywords where you can.

Top Level Service Pages

Top level service pages are essentially your most important pages aside from the homepage and your facility pages if you have them. These are pages like outpatient, inpatient, detox, etc. If you are dual-diagnosis, you might also have things like depression, anxiety, ptsd, etc. Whatever rehab services you provide at your facility had better have its own dedicated page. All previously mentioned on-page optimizations are in play here, including localization if you have a single treatment facility. Make these pages look nice too, treat them “homepage like” and you will be fine.

Supporting Content

This is where the bulk of your traffic will come from as the site ages, many rankings can be earned from long-tail keywords. Your supporting content should focus on things that are relevant and can produce traffic. You can also find keywords that will generate legitimate leads amongst the visits, which is a bonus of course. All of these supporting pieces help you better cover your various topics (alcohol, depression, anxiety, cocaine), whatever they may be. As stated earlier, they should all be linking together as well. Every supporting piece should link to the top level treatment page within its silo.

Off-Site SEO For Drug Rehabs: Link Building

The world of link building is the wild wild West. No kidding, you can buy links on every marketplace, inside Facebook groups and on most outsourcing websites. If you are in the digital marketing space, you have undoubtedly been bombarded with spammy pitches selling “guest posts' or “guest blogging”. It truly is a crapshoot. If you get caught up in the mess, you had better be doing a proper job of vetting sites or you could be setting your website up for a future catastrophe.

Building Safe Rehab SEO Backlinks

The only really safe way to get these types of quality external links is to do manual outreach. That is the process of reaching out to websites where you may want a link and asking. The problem is that websites are almost always going to ask for money, which is against Google guidelines. There are many link building courses and the topic is too deep. We aren’t going to cover that here.

We will take a quick peek at some of the foundational links that will not harm your drug rehab center in the future and help to solidify it today and moving forward. We have all seen these types of links, Yelp is an example. Search for your brand, if you aren’t brand new, you already have some whether you made them or not. Over time, the web just puts them together for you, often with incorrect data. For this reason alone, doing this accurately for your brand and having control is worth the effort.

Citations

Yelp is one of the top citations on the web. In major markets, it can play a big role in how the public perceives a brand. There are thousands of others though, that are trusted sources of information for the general web. Sites like alignable, crunchbase, manta, etc are just a few of the higher quality options. You want to fill out a good deal of these so that you know the information is accurate. If a listing exists, you can try to claim it. Use your domain email to sign up and it's all but certain.

Social Channels

They are a bit more valuable if they are maintained with fresh content. A great use is to share your new website content with your page. If for no other reason, create a branded account and take ownership of it so a competitor never could.

Drug Oriented Niche Directories

These are citations on websites that are specific to a given niche, in our case, addiction treatment. You can find potential options by searching on Google. Oftentimes, a lot of them can be a flash in the pan, but occasionally you find some that are worth it over the long haul. One example of a niche specific website for this field is Psychology Today. Getting a psychologist profile and link to the website would surely be worth it.

Location Specific Directories

This is essentially the same thing as above, but about your location. Obviously smaller markets aren’t going to have these options, but if you are in a city with a population above a couple hundred thousand, you should be in luck. An obvious answer here would be the local chamber of commerce. If your city has one, you want to be on it, even if they ask a small fee. That city specific link is worth it provided they aren’t asking an absorbent amount considering the additional chamber benefits, whatever they may be.

Local SEO Using Google Maps

Now that we have covered the website and our offsite link building, it's time to look at where the lion’s share of the action will happen. The Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business, or better known as Google Maps. The amount of clicks that go to the maps portion of the search results on service oriented types of searches is huge. It makes sense, people don’t get addiction treatment in their home. They are planning to go somewhere. This makes Google My Business SEO one of the most important aspects of your campaign.

We will not cover how to actually set up a Google Business Profile, instead we will “hit the high points” on how to optimize it properly. For starters, fill out everything. If they are offering something to you, use it. One caveat: if your listing somehow has “Products” available, don’t use it. Even though Google My Business may provide you with an option to enter them, a treatment center doesn’t provide products, they provide services.

Google My Business Categories

The most important ranking aspect of your listing is the category that you are listed in. The folks reading this article should certainly have “Addiction treatment center” as their primary category. If they offer it, Alcoholism treatment center” is an excellent secondary category. 

Description

Utilizing the top social channels is also a solid trust factor for the brand and should be a part of your drug rehab marketing plan. While you may not keep them active too often, you still have the listing.

Services

Services are a piece of the listing that is a little tougher to find. In fact, they aren’t even shown on desktop without using a little workaround. On mobile however, they are displayed on the brand’s knowledge panel. You want to list the services you provide under the correct category. “Outpatient treatment” would be an example that would live under the addiction treatment center category.

Posts

Many providers that come to us don’t utilize Posts at all. But they are a great way to include keyword phrases into your listing, which of course adds relevance to your overall profile. Target the services you provide, include great images and don’t be spammy. The point is to let people know who you are and what you are about. These posts each become their own page on the Google Business Profile website if one has been set up.

Website

Within the GBP platform, you have the option to set up a business profile website. On this site will be your posts, photos, reviews and contact info, along with a section of content you can add. This can be pretty comprehensive and should include your main services. Treat it like a location page or homepage.

Photos

Any photos you add can be seen by visitors on search or maps, as well as published on the GBP website. You want to have photos of your facility so people can get a feel for your rehab center. A great way to accomplish this is by utilizing the services of a local 360 photographer. Just Google “360 photographers near me”.

The Results of Google Maps SEO

The graph shows that we didn’t gain many driving directions requests, but phone calls exploded in this 9 month comparison. Visits to the website also had awesome growth. This is the appearance of a healthy Google Maps SEO campaign. 

Rank Tracking

This isn’t a necessary thing of course, but you may want to track your rankings for certain keywords. This will certainly help if you are optimizing content and trying to establish if your efforts are worth it. Just keep in mind that trackers aren’t always perfectly accurate, so don’t get too hung up on checking this daily. Page optimizations can take weeks to settle into a new ranking in today’s environment. Additionally, it is difficult it “pin” a ranking to #1, there will be some fluctuation. When things are done properly though, you can expect great results for highly targeted keywords sending eyeballs to your website and maps listing.

Timeline

SEO for rehab centers is not a sprint. It’s a marathon that never truly ends and should be a staple of your marketing efforts. The moment you rest on your laurels and current rankings, you get surpassed by someone hungrier than you. With this knowledge, you should know that guaranteed rankings are a farce in this industry. So are “1 month rankings’. Sure, there can be some really simple and quick but powerful wins for businesses that were poorly optimized, but this isn’t a get there quick game.

In low-competition markets, you could expect to see some pretty solid growth in the first half of a year. For saturated markets however, expect a year or better to really start seeing marked results.

Proven Techniques For Drug Rehab SEO

Search engine optimization has so many different “signals” that can be worked on or tuned that your head would spin. SEO is essentially about pulling the right levers to earn more visibility for a business. Nothing more, nothing less. After years of working in the space, we have honed down that list of drug rehab seo strategies to find the main levers and shared them with you today. We know it's a tall order and that is why we exist - to connect more patients with quality care in a facility like yours. Call us at 800-396-9927.