An optimised healthcare website can rank higher in search results for medical queries, build trust with potential patients, provide a better user experience for visitors, and ensure compliance with healthcare industry standards.
However, many healthcare providers face common technical SEO problems such as poor site structure and missing schema markup. These issues can greatly impact their search engine rankings and ability to attract new patients.
Search engines prioritise healthcare websites that show expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. By addressing important technical SEO factors, healthcare providers can enhance their online presence and better serve their patient community.
Lack of Site Architecture
A well-structured healthcare website acts as a digital roadmap for both patients and search engines. Site architecture determines how content is organised, categorised, and interconnected within your website.
Key Elements of Effective Site Architecture:
- Clear hierarchy of medical services and specialities
- Logical grouping of related health topics
- Strategic internal linking between relevant pages
- Intuitive navigation menus and breadcrumbs
- Proper URL structure reflecting content hierarchy
Poor site architecture creates confusion for visitors and search engine crawlers. When patients can’t find information quickly, they leave. When search engines struggle to understand your content relationships, your rankings suffer.
Best Practices for Healthcare Site Architecture:
- Create service-based categories (e.g., Cardiology, Paediatrics)
- Build location-specific sections for multi-location practices
- Implement consistent navigation across all pages
- Limit subdirectory depth to 3 levels
- Use descriptive URLS that match your site structure
- Include a comprehensive XML sitemap
A strategic site architecture helps search engines understand your medical expertise while making it easy for patients to find the healthcare information they need.
Missing Key Landing Pages
Healthcare websites need specific landing pages to guide patients through their healthcare journey. These essential pages serve as digital touchpoints where patients make critical decisions about their care.
Key Landing Pages Every Healthcare Website Needs:
- Location Pages
- Detailed facility information
- Maps and directions
- Parking details
- Public transport access
- Photos of the facility
- Service Pages
- Treatment descriptions
- Procedure information
- Recovery expectations
- Insurance coverage details
- Patient testimonials
A quick audit can reveal missing landing pages. Check your website analytics for high-bounce rates or search terms that don’t match existing pages – these indicate gaps in your content strategy.
Creating Patient-Focused Landing Pages:
- Use clear, simple language
- Include relevant medical terms for SEO
- Add high-quality images
- Implement proper schema markup
- Create unique meta descriptions
- Optimise page titles with location/service keywords
- Include clear calls-to-action
- Add appointment booking options
Remember to maintain consistent branding across all landing pages while ensuring each page addresses specific patient needs and search intent.
Lack of Supporting Content for Main Topics
Thin content remains a critical issue for healthcare websites, affecting both search visibility and user trust. A single service page describing a medical procedure lacks the depth needed to establish expertise in search engines’ eyes.
Signs of Thin Content in Healthcare Websites:
- Standalone service pages without related information
- Brief, surface-level descriptions of medical procedures
- Limited educational resources for patients
- Missing FAQ sections or patient guides
Creating comprehensive supporting content builds topical authority and enhances user engagement. A dental implant service page becomes more valuable with additional pages covering:
- Pre-procedure preparation guides
- Post-operative care instructions
- Patient success stories
- Detailed procedure steps
- Cost and insurance information
- Recovery timeline expectations
Effective Ways to Develop Supporting Content:
- Create detailed blog posts explaining medical terms
- Design downloadable patient education materials
- Include video content demonstrating procedures
- Develop condition-specific care guides
- Add interactive tools like symptom checkers
- Feature expert interviews and professional insights
This depth of content helps search engines understand your expertise while providing valuable information to potential patients researching their healthcare options.
Over-optimising Blog and Website Content
Over-optimisation remains a persistent issue in healthcare websites, often leading to search engine penalties and diminished user trust. Search engines have become increasingly sophisticated at detecting manipulative SEO practices.
Common Over-optimisation Red Flags:
- Excessive use of medical terms and procedures in unnatural contexts
- Cramming location-specific keywords into every paragraph
- Multiple versions of the same content targeting different cities
- Unnecessary repetition of doctor names and specialities
Best Practices for Natural Optimisation:
- Write for patients first, search engines second
- Use keywords where they occur naturally
- Employ semantic variations and similar words
- Prioritise answering certain patient questions
- Develop exclusive, valuable content for each service page
A balanced approach to keyword usage helps healthcare websites maintain credibility while achieving strong search visibility. Natural content that addresses patient needs performs better in search rankings and converts more effectively.
URL Structure Problems
Clear, descriptive URLS serve as digital signposts for both users and search engines. A well-structured URL helps patients understand the content they’ll find on the page before clicking, while search engines use these URLS to categorise and rank healthcare websites effectively.
Common URL Structure Issues in Healthcare Websites:
- Dynamic URLS with random parameters
- Example: example.com/page.php?id=123&cat=456
- Excessive subdirectories
- Example: example.com/services/medical/treatments/procedures/dental/cleaning
- Special characters or spaces in URLS
- Underscores instead of hyphens
- Non-descriptive page names
Best Practices for Healthcare Website URLS:
- Use hyphens to separate words
- Good: example.com/dental-cleaning-services
- Bad: example.com/dental_cleaning_services
- Keep URLS short and descriptive
- Include relevant keywords naturally
- Remove unnecessary parameters
- Create logical hierarchies
- Example: example.com/services/dental-cleaning
- Use lowercase letters
- Avoid special characters
A logical URL structure improves site navigation, enhances user experience, and helps search engines understand your healthcare website’s content hierarchy.
Site Performance (Page Speed) Issues
Page speed directly impacts both user experience and search engine rankings in healthcare websites. Google’s research shows 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load – a critical factor for healthcare providers where immediate access to information can be crucial.
Key factors affecting healthcare website speed:
- Large, unoptimised images: particularly high-resolution medical photographs and diagnostic images
- Heavy JavaScript files: often from appointment booking systems and patient portals
- Render-blocking resources: third-party scripts for analytics and marketing tools
- Unminified CSS/JavaScript: bloated code, slowing down page rendering
- Lack of browser caching: forcing repeat visitors to reload all resources
Healthcare websites can improve loading times by:
- Implementing image compression and lazy loading
- Minifying and combining CSS/JavaScript files
- Enabling browser caching
- Using a content delivery network (CDN)
- Optimising server response time
- Removing unnecessary third-party scripts
Mobile optimisation deserves special attention as 60% of healthcare searches happen on mobile devices. Regular speed testing using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights helps identify specific areas needing improvement.
Lack of Medical-Related Schema Markup
Medical schema markup is a powerful tool for healthcare websites to communicate effectively with search engines. This structured data helps search engines understand specific medical content, leading to improved visibility in search results.
Key Benefits of Medical Schema Markup:
- Rich snippets displaying crucial information like:
- Doctor credentials
- Treatment descriptions
- Patient reviews
- Medical condition details
- Appointment availability
- Higher click-through rates from search results
- Improved local search visibility
- Enhanced mobile search presence
Commonly Missed Schema Opportunities:
- Medical Condition markup for disease/condition pages
- Medical Procedure for Treatment Descriptions
- Physician markup for doctor profiles
- Medical Organisation for practice information
- Local Business combined with medical schemas
Implementing proper medical schema markup requires careful attention to detail and regular updates. Healthcare organisations should prioritise schema markup for their core services, physician profiles, and location information to maximise their search visibility potential.
Additional Common Issues Faced by Local Healthcare Websites
Local medical professionals have their own set of challenges in keeping their online presence alive. NAP consistency – the Name, Address, and Phone number accuracy – is a key to local search success.
Here’s why NAP consistency matters:
- Search engines cross-reference business information across multiple platforms
- Inconsistent data signals unreliability to search algorithms
- Patients rely on accurate contact details for appointments
Common NAP issues include:
- Different phone numbers are listed in various directories
- Old addresses remaining on review sites
- Variations in business names (e.g., “Dr. Smith’s Clinic” vs “Smith Medical Centre”)
These discrepancies create real-world problems:
- Missed appointments due to wrong directions
- Lost patients calling outdated numbers
- Reduced visibility in local search results
- Decreased trust when patients encounter conflicting information
Regular audits of business listings and prompt updates across all platforms help maintain NAP consistency and strengthen local search performance.
Conclusion
Fixing technical SEO issues in healthcare websites requires a strategic approach and ongoing monitoring. A well-optimised healthcare website strengthens your online presence, builds trust with patients, and improves search engine rankings. The world of healthcare SEO changes with search engine algorithms and user behaviour shifts.
Want to improve your healthcare website’s SEO performance? Our team at Rankingeek specialises in identifying and fixing technical SEO problems specific to the healthcare industry. We help medical practices achieve better visibility, attract more patients, and stay ahead of future trends in healthcare SEO. Contact us today to schedule a comprehensive SEO audit of your healthcare website.
