PPC and SEO Keywords For Chiropractors

If you are struggling to continually attract new patients to your chiropractic practice, you may be considering implementing a digital marketing campaign. Digital marketing can drive qualified leads to your practice and increase the number of new consultations, if performed correctly.

A combination of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has proven to be an effective strategy to increase traffic and this is done through targeting the correct keywords.

When implementing a digital marketing strategy for your chiropractic practice, the keywords you target are foundational to the success of your organic and paid ads campaigns. Without the proper keywords, you can end up wasting loads of time, money, and resources on tactics that won’t drive potential clients to your website.

This guide covers how to develop a keyword targeting strategy for both PPC & SEO keywords for your chiropractic practice and why targeting the correct keywords is crucial for driving traffic and qualified leads to your website.

If you are looking for a digital marketing agency to develop your SEO and PPC strategies, click here to schedule a call with one of our experts at Sagapixel.

Chiropractor Keywords For SEO

The most effective keywords for your SEO strategy address specific conditions your chiropractic practice treats, services you offer, and the surrounding locations you serve.

Without performing adequate keyword research, you won’t know which keywords are currently driving traffic to your website and which keywords your competitors are targeting and ranking for in the search results. What’s more, you won’t know what queries to target for any new pages or services you want to include.

To identify which keywords are currently driving traffic to your website, you should look at your Google Search Console queries data over the past 3 months. You’ll be able to see the number of clicks and impressions that your website has gotten for a specific keyword.

That said, if you’re putting together an new SEO strategy for your chiropractic practice, you’ll need a way to identify new queries to target, and Google’s Keyword Planner is a good place to start.

Of course, if you don’t have access to Keyword Planner for whatever reason, there are a variety of third-party keyword research tools online. Some are free while others offer their tools for a fee or through a subscription service. Either way, third-party tools often use their own methods for determining search volume, so their numbers should always be taken with a grain of salt.

Condition-Based Keywords

Keywords based on conditions your chiropractic practice treats can end up driving a good amount of traffic to your site. These keywords can effectively drive traffic because the potential patient is already aware of the condition they would like treatment for.

Essentially, you’re accomplishing two things when you target condition-based chiropractic keywords.

First, you’re addressing a problem a potential client already knows about. By doing this, you’re positioning your practice as the solution to their problem which helps in convincing them to commit to becoming a new client.

Second, you’re demonstrating the breadth of your practice’s services. By targeting specific conditions you help treat, you’re showing a level of experience which helps put people’s minds at ease when choosing a chiropractor.

These queries are closer to conversion because this prospective patient has conducted research and is now looking for a chiropractor to alleviate their ailment.

Examples of these condition-based keywords for chiropractors include:

• Back pain treatment
• Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ)
• Shoulder pain treatment
• Tennis Elbow treatment
• Scoliosis treatment
• Herniated disc treatment
• Fibromyalgia treatment
• Disc Pain treatment
• Hip Bursitis treatment
• Plantar Fasciitis treatment

You should build out a dedicated page to each condition that your chiropractic practice treats. This allows you to effectively discuss the pain points of the condition, what benefits come from seeking chiropractic treatment for the specific condition, and why the prospective patient should choose your practice for treatment.

What’s more, looking at the list of keywords from Keyword Planner above, you can see some additional examples of condition-based queries to further demonstrate this point. “Sciatica chiropractor” and “prenatal chiropractor” are a couple more examples straight from Google which you may want to target assuming your practice offers those services.

Service-Based Keywords

After the conditions that your chiropractic practice treats, the next most important keywords to target should be the specific services you offer. While not every prospective patient may understand or know the technical name of the chiropractic treatments or services you offer, these keywords are still crucial to effectively ranking in search results.

Services that your practice offers can range from adjustments to massages. A list of service-based keywords for chiropractors includes:

• Chiropractic Adjustment
• Hot & Cold Therapy
• Cold Laser Therapy
• Electrical Stimulation & Therapy
• Ultrasound Therapy
• Therapeutic Exercises
• Massage Therapy
• Hydrotherapy
• Traction

Relatedly, you may consider targeting specific individuals as part of your practice’s service offerings. For example, the queries identified from Keyword Planner above include “pediatric chiropractor” and “sports chiropractor.” While not explicitly “services,” these keywords are also great opportunities to expand your potential client base.

Like your condition pages, you should create a dedicated page for each of your service-based offerings. This allows you to explain what ailment the service aims to address and why a prospective patient should choose your chiropractic practice to have this service performed.

Location-Based Keywords

Location-based keywords are exactly what they sound like; terms which target a specific location. For chiropractic practices, this usually means creating pages targeting keywords plus your town or city and the surrounding areas like “chiropractor cherry hill” or “chiropractic massage philadelphia.” Generally, the intent for someone searching for a service and a location means they’re ready to convert and are weighing the options in their area.

This strategy involves creating location pages for each of your services to better expand your reach. Targeting nearby towns, cities, or even counties means driving more traffic to your site and potentially means attracting more prospective clients. Of course, you should only target locations where you offer services, like if you have multiple offices, or aren’t so far away people wouldn’t make a trip.

This is all to say, the main benefit of targeting location-based keywords for your chiropractic practice is to drive higher intent traffic. Prospective clients are more likely to choose your practice if they confirm you’re local or nearby. The conversion intent behind “chiropractor + location” is much better than just “chiropractor.” The former is most likely someone considering committing to scheduling an appointment while the latter is to general and probably more for research purposes.

An example page would target something like “spinal adjustment cherry hill.” The content would not only address spinal adjustments but also include mentions of Cherry Hill to specifically target the township.

What About Branded Keywords?

Of course, if people know your practice’s name, they may search for you by name. These terms are considered “branded keywords” and they’re basically anything including your practice’s name.

Generally, your website’s homepage should rank for your branded keywords. However, when it comes to PPC, you’ll want to make sure you bid on your branded keywords to ensure your practice’s site appears in the ads at the top of the search results page. If you don’t, your competitors might (and may try anyway) to bid on your branded terms to capture your prospective clients.

Branded keywords may include your top-level keywords plus the name of your business or vice versa. For example, you may target “business name + chiropractor” or “neck adjustment + business name” along with just your practice’s name. What’s more, you may want to target “business name + location” if you’re particularly focused on attracting business from a specific area or areas.

The Value of Finding Long-Tail Chiropractic Keywords

Long-tail keywords are essentially phrases people search in Google. These types of keywords tend to have higher search intent and are generally less competitive to rank for. Targeting long-tail keywords helps in establishing an organic search strategy as top-level keywords are more difficult to rank for.

For chiropractors, long-tail keywords would include specific questions concerning the various services you offer. Technically, long-tail keywords also include the location-based phrases you create pages around.

That said, some long-tail keywords have good sales intent. These are generally terms related to figuring out if a service can help or if it’s a good option for treatment. For chiropractors, this may mean writing an article explaining how a spinal adjustment could help with back pain.

The main benefit of targeting long-tail keywords for your chiropractic practice is they’re easier to rank for. Top-level or seed keywords are more difficult to rank for due to the number of competitors creating content around them. Long-tail keywords generally have less competition which means ranking is a lot easier.

However, one major drawback for long-tail keywords is they tend to get searched less than their top-level counterparts. That said, with that trade off, you generally get higher intent traffic.

Examples of Long-Tail Chiropractic Keywords

Generally, long-tail keywords for chiropractors should target questions around the services you offer. For the most part, this means creating blog articles explaining how a certain chiropractic service is beneficial but can also be used for service pages targeting specific conditions as mentioned earlier.

Some examples of long-tail keywords for chiropractors include:

• chiropractor who specializes in pregnancy
• does chiropractor help scoliosis
• what chiropractors can and cannot do
• is chiropractor good for sciatica
• how chiropractor treat back pain
• why chiropractors are important

Chiropractic Keywords for PPC

Pay-per-click or PPC marketing involves bidding on specific keywords for placement in the ads at the top of Google’s search results page.

For chiropractors, PPC keywords are generally the same you use for your organic targets. Aligning your SEO and PPC keywords means a more focused digital marketing campaign.

That said, there are generally three areas to focus your chiropractic keywords on:

• Branded
• Commercial
• Broad
• Competitor

We already touched on branded keywords for SEO. They’re just as, if not more, important in PPC for your chiropractic practice. You should be the first result in Google’s ads when someone searches your practice.

Commercial PPC keywords are those with the highest conversion intent. Typically, these terms target clients who are just about ready to convert and they’re looking for the best option.

Broad keywords are those top-level terms which are generally very difficult to rank for in SEO. They’re usually just as competitive in ads campaigns, but you should still bid on them to try and get into the ads when you can.

We already mentioned long-tail keywords for SEO and they work in much the same way in PPC. They tend to be less expensive than broad PPC keywords but also have that lower search volume mentioned earlier. Again, long-tail keywords usually have a higher intent, so bidding on them is still encouraged.

Finally, competitor keywords are basically competing branded terms. This is the reason why you also need to bid on your own branded keywords. Bidding on competing keywords means you may appear in Google ads for your competitors and take their traffic.

You Need a Chiropractic Negative Keywords List

A major element of successful PPC campaigns for chiropractors is to build out a thorough negative keyword list.

Negative keywords are basically those terms you don’t want to appear in the ads for. Generally, your negative keyword list should include keywords around services your practice doesn’t offer that other chiropractors do and locations you don’t wish to serve. For example, perhaps your practice is close to a state border and don’t want to appear in the ads in the neighboring state due to licensing differences or restrictions.

It Can Be Risky To Tackle SEO and PPC Keyword Research On Your Own

Doing SEO and PPC keyword research on your own can become difficult. On top of running your chiropractic practice, you then need to perform thorough keyword research which requires a different set of skills.

Finding a digital marketing agency to do the work for you means you can focus on running your practice while continuing to grow your business.

Sagapixel offers both SEO and PPC services to help your chiropractic practice attract new clients. Schedule a call with Sagapixel today to discuss your organic and paid digital marketing needs.