Before we start.
If you've ever wondered why your site isn't showing up on Google, this is the article for you. SEO is one of those terms that gets thrown around a lot, usually by people trying to sell you something, but it's actually really simple and I'm going to give you a few tips that'll get you 80-90% of the way there in an afternoon.
Please note SEO can be an entire career path, so this is not a comprehensive guide. But if you commit to a few minutes of reading and doing the basics well, you can often get much further than you expect.
What SEO actually is, in one sentence.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It means making your website easier for Google and other search engines to understand so it shows up when patients search for what you do.
Google has bots that crawl through websites and read them. There are things you can do to make it easier for Google to figure out who you are, what you do, and who to show your site to. Think of it like the web version of putting a clear sign up on the front of a physical practice.
When someone types "dermatologist near me" or "bulk billing GP Joondalup," Google has to decide which clinics to show first. It looks at hundreds of signals, but most of them boil down to: does this site clearly say what this clinic does, where it is, and whether it's any good? If your site answers those questions well, you rank higher. If it doesn't, someone else does.
SEO is making your site easy for Google to read so you show up when patients search for what you do.
Why it matters more for clinics than most businesses.
Healthcare is one of the most searched industries in Australia. Patients search, scroll, and book. If your clinic isn't showing up in their search results page, you're invisible to a large chunk of potential patients.
Patients are selective with their health, and GPs are selective with who they send their patients to. They compare clinicians and take time to try and find the right one that suits them. If your website isn't visible, you're not even in the comparison.
On a general note, medical websites are usually awful at SEO. That means a little bit goes a long way.
What Google actually looks at on your site. EEAT for dummies.
Google doesn't read your site the way a patient does. It reads the code underneath. It's looking for structure: headings that describe what each section is about, page titles that match what people search for, and content that is direct and says what you do rather than dancing around it.
The big ones: your page titles (the text that shows up in the browser tab), your meta descriptions (the blurb under your link in search results), your headings (H1, H2, the hierarchy of your page), and whether your site loads fast on a phone. Google has been mobile-first since 2019, meaning it judges your site by the phone version, not the desktop one.
Google's algorithms have to take what their crawlers have found and fit it into a structured pattern. This means Google needs clear signals about who you are, what you do, and whether you're telling the truth. Is this a real business with a real doctor, or a fake and untrustworthy page? Google calls this evaluation framework EEAT: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
If your site is getting the basics wrong, none of the trust signals matter. Common mistakes in medical clinic websites
Think of it like meeting an auditor. If a specialist walked into a room with someone who'd never heard of them, they'd need to prove four things:
- 1.You're a doctor.↳Put your AHPRA number on your site.
- 2.You're a specialist.↳List your degrees, fellowship, and specialist college registration.
- 3.You have a real business.↳Make sure your physical address and business name match across your site, your Google Business Profile, and every directory you're listed on.
- 4.You know your field.↳Write original content. Educational posts, explainers, condition pages. Google can tell the difference between templated filler and something a real clinician wrote.
There's another thing that Google weighs as a big positive signal: backlinks. Nobody works in isolation, and the same goes for websites. If other reputable sites link to yours, that's similar to a trusted colleague vouching for you. A mention on your hospital's staff page, a link from your specialist college's directory, a reference from a GP's site. Links from trusted sources are one of the strongest signals that you're legitimate.
A word of warning on backlinks: there are sites that sell them in bulk, things like 5,000 backlinks for 50 dollars. Do not do this. Google is very good at spotting paid link schemes and will penalise your site for trying to game it. In real life, one respected colleague vouching for you is worth more than 500 paid strangers. The same applies on the web.
Google checks your page titles, headings, mobile speed, and trust signals (EEAT). Prove you're a real doctor at a real practice with original content.
Local SEO: the map pack and why it's everything.
When you search for a doctor, clinic, or local business of any kind, Google usually shows a map with three results pinned on it before the regular search results. That's called the map pack, and it's the single most valuable piece of screen real estate on the internet. If you want to rank for a search term, and when you search it there's a map pack, you should try as hard as possible to get into it.
Getting into the map pack depends mostly on three things: your Google Business Profile (is it complete, accurate, and active?), your reviews (how many, how recent, and what rating?), and proximity (how close you are to the person searching). Proximity isn't in your control, but you can work on the other two. And the good news is, most practices do it poorly, so a little bit goes a long way.
Most clinics set up their Google Business Profile once, half-fill it in, and never touch it again. You can do better with five simple things:
- 1.Fill in every field.
- 2.Add your services.
- 3.Upload real photos of your clinic.
- 4.Post updates occasionally.
- 5.Reply to reviews.
This alone can move you from invisible to the map pack in your suburb.
What you can do this afternoon.
You can get 80-90% of the way there by doing a few simple things:
- 1.Claim and complete your Google Business Profile.↳Go to business.google.com. Fill in every field: address, phone, hours, services, a proper description of your practice. Upload at least five real photos. This is free and takes about 30 minutes.
- 2.Add your credentials and trust signals to your site.↳Qualifications, research, registrations, anything that proves expertise. Clearly labelled, not buried in a paragraph.
- 3.Check your website on your phone.↳Open it, try to book an appointment, try to find your address and hours. If anything is hard to tap, slow to load, or confusing to navigate, it needs fixing. That's what your patients see, and what Google sees.
- 4.Ask for backlinks from organisations you actually work with.↳Your hospital, specialist college, anywhere you lecture. One link from a trusted source in your field is worth more than dozens from unrelated sites.
- 5.Write real page titles.↳Not "Home" or "Services" or "Welcome." Something like "Dr Smith, Dermatologist, Subiaco" or "Bulk Billing GP, Joondalup." The single easiest SEO fix, a clear signpost to Google's crawlers, and it costs nothing.
- 6.Set up Google Search Console.↳It's free, takes ten minutes, and tells you exactly what people search when they find your site. Knowing what patients type into Google is worth more than any SEO audit you could pay for.
Start publishing educational content for your patients.
Start a blog. Publish ten to twenty articles about conditions you treat, procedures you offer, or questions patients ask you every week. Each one is a signal that you know what you're talking about, and articles that link to each other are often rewarded by search engines. This isn't an afternoon job though. It's a 6 to 12 month commitment, but it's a great investment in your site's long-term visibility.
Claim your Google Business Profile, check your site on your phone, write real page titles, and set up Search Console. All free, all doable today. Long-term: publish 10 to 20 educational articles that link to each other.
The short version.
SEO is not complicated. It's making sure Google can understand what you do, where you are, and that you're worth recommending. Claim your Google Business Profile, make your site fast on a phone, write page titles that say what's on the page, and keep your information consistent everywhere it appears online. Do those four things and you're ahead of most clinics in Perth.
