The opportunity is clear - medical spa searches in Google continue to skyrocket with exponential growth year over year.

Take a look at the images below - search volume is exponentially growing for various med spa services in Google. 

Everything is growing in search volume. 

Prefer to watch a video on the topic?

So, where do you start?

In this post, I will cover the SEO strategies and tactics you need to get started improving your organic non-paid presence in Google now. Search engine optimization is one part of an overall successful marketing strategy that leans heavily on digital tactics. Read my related post on lead generation for medical spas for additional ideas to generate leads which SEO is just one component. (Related post here on our SEO Case Studies.)

For any keyword, typically, there are often 5 or more features within a Google Search Results Page (SERP) that you have the opportunity to show your website in. Think about a Google SERP like the shelf space at a grocery store - the more spots you occupy, the more likely you will win the click and the sale. 

Here’s a list of the 8 most common places to rank your website and your content, which a comprehensive SEO strategy plus content marketing aims for. (see my related post here on all the different features you can rank with a Google SERP)

Most Common Places You Can Rank

And if you’re producing quality videos, you have yet another opportunity to show in the organic listings with an optimized video.

How To Rank in Each Area of A Google Search Results Page

Factors Important for the 3-Pack and Google Maps

Citations

Citations are other websites that mention your company name, address, phone number (i.e. NAP), and sometimes provide a link back to your website. Examples of citations are your Yelp page, Facebook page, chamber of commerce, Yellowbook, and dozens more. 

Google uses these third-party sites as verification that you are who you say you are. Citations build trust.  After all, the last thing Google wants to do is send a searcher to your business and it’s not located at that address, or the phone is wrong. 

Make sure you have an active campaign to get as many high-profile citations as you can, and correct any that list incorrect information. 

For additional ideas for citations, query for your top-ranking competitors in Google and look at what other sites list that company - those are likely good citation sources for you, too. 

Local Business Schema markup

Schema markup is a special code that tells Google exactly what your company’s NAP is (name, address, and phone number), your open hours, and more. 

Here’s an example:

Reviews

Reviews affect conversions more than anything else as Google Reviews show right in the search results. The consensus is that reviews provide a very small ranking signal. But don’t ignore them. Make sure you have a system in place - such as with marketing automation - that is automatically soliciting positive reviews. A marketing automation platform can do this seamlessly for you. 

Factors for Traditional Organic SEO

Content

The SEO strategies to rank differ from ranking in a local 3-pack. The focus here is primarily on content. If someone searches for “what is laser tattoo removal” and you don’t have content about that phrase, your site will not be shown to searchers.

So the first step in ranking here is ensuring you have pages dedicated to your primary services. I’m assuming you do not have access to expensive SEO tools, and in this case, do a Google search for your services and take a look at the top competitor pages to understand:

Use the ranking competitor pages as a rough guide for your page content. How can you make it better? How long is the content? If the top ranking pages are using 1000 words then like you should write that much to cover the topic. However, be careful writing too much content - a related post here highlighting how reducing the word count improved SEO. And if you're all in on creating content, maximize your SEO efforts by creating an SEO funnel. 

On-Page SEO and Keywords

For every page on your website, identify one primary keyword.  Your home page, and core service pages are the most important. Ensure  you have a page dedicated to each service area. 

For example, if you provide Dermal Fillers, make sure you have a page dedicated to that, if you do laser tattoo removal, create a page for that. 

Then, your ideal keyword for that service is going to be, Dermal Fillers [city/town name]. 

Take a look at your top-ranking competitors to also see what they are using by checking Google searches with that phrase. You can also use Google Trends and its Related and Top Searches for additional keyword ideas (a related post here on Google Trends.)

Once you have solidified the primary keyword per page, follow these guidelines: 

Factors Affecting "People Also Ask" & Featured Snippets

Not all Google Search Pages include these features, but when they do, you can improve the likelihood of ranking in each of them by first ensuring you have that question and answer on the page, ideally near the top. Then, you need to mark it up using FAQ schema markup. 

For additional ideas on which FAQs you should include, consider the following:

Ranking in The Image Pack, Image Tab, Video Tab, & Video Pack

Ranking images is almost as important as the traditional organic listings. Image search has a significant volume in Google. Alt tags are the most important factor for images. At least one image should have your primary keyword. 

For videos, embed at least one video that is related to the page content and use video schema markup which informs Google that there’s a video on the page and all its details. 

Without video schema, Google likely won’t index the video, which means it won’t show it in search results. Below is an example - I highlighted in yellow the information that makes it clear to Google all sorts of details that are important about the video. (here's a related post I wrote on improving SEO with YouTube video embeds)

Here’s an example of video schema markup from my own site:

Content Marketing - Content Strategy

The final area for SEO has to do with producing content regularly. There is a direct correlation between how much content is on your site and the traffic your site receives. And the topics people search for are endless. If you don’t have content for those keyword topics or answers to the hundreds of questions people ask Google, you will not capture that traffic. Instead, that traffic will go to the sites that do have that content which are likely your competitors. 

If you're using WordPress and producing content regularly, read my related blog posts on WordPress Workflow for SEO, and Using WordPress Categories for SEO.

Silos of Content/Content Hubs

For each service area, produce content that covers the service thoroughly. Below is an example showing the different topics people search related to tattoo removal. Here's a related post about silos of content and internal linking that explains the strategy more thoroughly.

And an additional benefit of producing quality content is that it naturally attracts quality backlinks to your site. A content strategy has many benefits to your company. 

Summary

There are many opportunities for you to rank your site on the first page of Google. From various feature areas in a Google Search Results Pages - Local 3-packs, Featured Snippets, Traditional Organic Listings, People Also ask, and FAQs, to the Image Tab and Video Tab - to writing user-focused content on the sub-topics and questions prospective patients have about Medical Spa services. So, if you're serious about ranking in Google, embrace a holistic approach to SEO that seeks to maximize your exposure with regular content production.

If you have more questions about SEO, please contact me directly. Or, if you'd like to explore ways a med spa marketing agency like 39 Celsius can help your location improve its SEO traffic and leads, reach out to me today by scheduling a 15-minute call with me below.