The behavioral health industry is constantly changing and evolving alongside the digital marketing landscape. What it takes to stand out and succeed as a treatment center now is drastically different than it was even five years ago. The space has become more competitive and more saturated, and it can be easy for a center to get lost in the noise. Digital marketing has become a necessity for the success of new and existing treatment facilities. Many digital marketing companies have recognized that and started advertising to the behavioral health industry- however, most of these agencies do not specialize in this space. Successful digital marketing strategies, specifically SEO, within the behavioral healthcare industry can be drastically different from other types of businesses.
How is SEO in Behavioral Health Different From Other Industries?
As a behavioral health marketing agency, we talk to a lot of treatment centers that have had negative experiences with other agencies. Many times, this experience is derived from a need for more experience within this specific industry. While some common SEO practices can be utilized across multiple industries, the behavioral healthcare industry needs very specific strategies in order to be successful. To be successful, a digital marketer needs to have a deep understanding of the type of user that is landing on a treatment center’s website. Whether this is someone looking for help for themselves or a loved one, we need to cater the design, content, and keyword-targeting to their needs. We also need to cater our strategy to Google’s strict healthcare requirements. Finding this balance takes expertise and time spent operating within the behavioral healthcare industry.
5 SEO Tips for Behavioral Health Centers
Content, Content, Content
‘Content is King’ is a phrase that is heard often, and in this industry, it really does apply. Producing content in the form of core pages and blogs on a consistent basis allows a website to target a wide range of keywords, both educational and transactional.
Base Your Strategy On the Levels of Care
Most behavioral health digital marketing is location-based. In order to choose the correct locations to target, one has to look closely at the levels of care offered at a treatment center. This can determine how far or how close from the facility the keyword targeting should be.
Develop Industry-Specific Link Building Relationships
Google needs to see high domain-authority backlinks from other websites pointing to your website. This can be even more beneficial if this other website is within the behavioral healthcare space, and people may find your website from this referral source. Building solid relationships with other websites and directories within this industry can prove very beneficial for this purpose.
Stay Intent-Driven
Not all keywords are made the same. Just because a keyword has a large search volume does not mean it’s one that should be targeted. The intent behind the keyword that is being searched determines the type of internet user that ends up on your website and who may end up contacting you. In order to ensure that your Admissions team is not bogged down by unqualified leads or spam calls, it is important to choose the correct keywords to target.
EEAT: Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness
Google has different requirements for healthcare. Although it is not always explicitly stated, Google needs to build a higher level of trust with healthcare websites before ranking them well. This means that websites need to adjust their design, link-building, and content strategies. Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (or EEAT) is a guideline that Google looks for when choosing to rank a website. This guideline applies to healthcare more than any other industry. This is a newer policy, and it is a positive one, as Google attempts to make search as ethical as possible. However, it is an obstacle that one has to work around when doing search engine optimization, and it’s important to take this into consideration.
MGMT Digital: Behavioral Health Marketing Experts
MGMT Digital is a boutique marketing agency that has only and will only serve the behavioral healthcare space. We were founded seven years ago by Zach Gross, who wanted to combat the unethical practices within marketing for addiction treatment centers. Since our founding, we have expanded into mental health marketing, eating disorder marketing, and more. We have a team of extremely passionate people who are experts in marketing behavioral health centers. Get in touch with us; we would love to talk to you about your goals.