SEO for Plastic Surgeons: Expert Tips, Costs + Examples

Plastic surgery SEO helps clinics rank higher in search and drive more qualified leads. It involves optimizing your website, content, and online presence to attract patients actively searching for procedures and providers in your area.

Today’s medical patient is savvier than ever.

They spend hours researching cosmetic procedures, scouring reviews, and checking out websites of plastic surgeons before they even consider a consultation.

If your website doesn’t rank near the top of search results, your chances of connecting with those patients drop significantly.

Implementing effective SEO for plastic surgeons is the best way to improve online visibility and attract new patients ready to book services.

Let’s explore what plastic surgery SEO is and how you can use it to boost your Google rankings.

What is plastic surgery SEO?

Plastic surgery SEO is a digital marketing strategy that helps plastic surgeon web pages rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP) by improving site performance, creating targeted content, and building authority through reputable third-party links and citations.

The goal of SEO for plastic surgeons is to drive more high-quality leads to the provider’s website.

How much does SEO cost for plastic surgeons?

The cost of SEO for a plastic surgery website depends on your marketing agency’s experience, the scope of work, and local competition.

However, you can expect to spend anywhere between $3,000 to $10,000 per month. And for local SEO, the average cost runs between $500 and $3,000.

Why is SEO important for plastic surgeons?

SEO is important for cosmetic surgeons because it helps increase visibility and attract high-intent website visitors.

Specific ways search engine optimization can benefit your plastic surgery practice include:

Increase visibility online. Improving your website’s ranking means more high-intent searchers can find you.

Drive organic traffic to your website. The more people who can find you on Google, the more traffic you’re likely to drive to your plastic surgery website.

Build your brand. Improving your online presence helps build your brand as you get more eyes on your website and business.

Bring in more plastic surgery patients. With a well-designed site, high-quality user experience, and valuable content, you are more likely to convert visitors into patients.

Drive profits for your practice. SEO is a cost-effective way to bring in new patients, allowing you to drive more profit for your practice.

While SEO is an investment, it provides a high return on investment (ROI) if you do it right.

7 ways to improve your plastic surgery SEO

Ready to rank on Google? Use these 7 tips to get started with plastic surgeon SEO so more patients can find you in search.

1. Conduct targeted keyword research
2. Optimize on-page SEO
3. Fix technical SEO issues
4. Build your off-page SEO
5. Ensure your site is mobile-friendly
6. Create patient-focused, high-quality content
7. Track performance and refine your strategy over time

1. Conduct targeted keyword research

Keyword research helps you identify search terms your target audience uses when looking for plastic surgeons like you.

These keywords will guide your on-page SEO and content strategy. They may relate to specific procedures, products you offer, or conditions that lead someone to seek a plastic surgeon.

Common patient questions are also a good place to find keyword opportunities.

Using a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner or Semrush, enter your “seed” topics to find relevant keywords.

Focus on keywords with strong intent and a realistic level of competition, balancing search volume with how difficult they are to rank for — these will often be local or long-tail keywords.

Be sure to include location-based keywords (for example, “breast augmentation in Chicago”) to attract patients in your service area.

Create a list of target keywords and assign each one to a specific page on your site — both existing pages and future content.

Pro tip: Prioritize high-intent keywords (like “near me” or “[procedure] cost”) for your core service pages.

2. Optimize on-page SEO

On-page SEO is the process of improving your website content to rank higher in the SERPs for target keywords.

Some elements of on-page SEO include:

• Page content (aligned with search intent)
• Internal linking
• External linking
• Title tags
• Meta descriptions
• Headers (H1–H3)
• URLs
• Images (including alt text and file names)

Make sure each page is optimized for a specific target keyword and provides content that matches what users are looking for.

You can use a tool like Semrush’s On-Page SEO Checker to identify optimization opportunities. It provides actionable recommendations and a prioritized list of tasks to help improve your rankings.

3. Fix technical SEO issues

Technical SEO focuses on optimizing your website’s infrastructure so search engines can crawl, index, and rank your pages effectively.

Key components of technical SEO include:

• Page load speed and Core Web Vitals
• Mobile-friendliness
• Crawlability and indexing issues
• URL structure
• Site architecture
• Structured data (schema markup)
• JavaScript and CSS issues

Use your SEO tool of choice to conduct a full website audit and identify any issues that need to be fixed.

4. Build your off-page SEO

While most of your SEO efforts will involve improvements to your website, earning links to your site from other reputable websites (known as backlinks) is a powerful way to improve your search engine rankings.

This practice, called link building, involves getting other trustworthy sites to link back to your content through outreach and a strong content strategy.

Here are a few ways to build high-quality backlinks for your plastic surgery practice:

• Get listed on reputable directories (e.g., Healthgrades, RealSelf, and industry associations)
• Partner with local businesses or organizations for cross-promotion
• Contribute guest posts to relevant blogs or publications
• Create high-quality content that others naturally want to link to
• Find broken links on other websites and suggest your content as a replacement
• Use pitching tools like Help A Reporter Out (HARO) or Qwoted

Focus on earning links from authoritative, relevant websites rather than trying to get as many links as possible. A few high-quality backlinks can be more valuable than many low-quality ones.

Further reading: What is Backlinking? How to Earn Links That Boost SEO Rankings

5. Ensure your site is mobile-friendly

A mobile-friendly website is essential for plastic surgery marketing.

A quick (and free) way to see if your website is optimized for mobile is to run it through Google PageSpeed Insights. This tool will test your Core Web Vitals, diagnose performance issues, and give you an accessibility score based on what’s found.

Review your assessment results to see what to fix to optimize your site for mobile devices. The tool will also give a score (out of 100) for best practices and SEO, which may show more issues to address.

Here are several things to keep in mind when optimizing your plastic surgery website for mobile:

• Condense images on your site so they load quickly without sacrificing image quality.
• Optimize any videos on your pages to ensure they’re compatible with smartphones and tablets.
• Design buttons that’ll be easy for people to click on when using a smaller device screen.
• Avoid using long paragraphs that crowd the screen and make it difficult for people on-the-go to read.
• Make your mobile site easy to navigate from a smaller device screen with clear navigation.

6. Create patient-focused, high-quality content

Content marketing is one of the best ways to improve SEO on your plastic surgery website, often through your site’s blog.

Use your list of keywords (along with common patient questions) to build a content calendar that maps out what to publish and when. This allows you to consistently target the right topics and align your content with search intent.

Pro tip: Be sure to refresh old content as a part of your regular content schedule as well. Refreshing content shows search engines and potential patients that your website is up-to-date and relevant. 

7. Track performance and refine your strategy over time

To get the best results with SEO, monitor performance and tweak your strategy based on what you find.

“Tracking is an essential part of any SEO campaign, especially for plastic surgery centers,” says HawkSEM co-founder and CEO Sam Yadegar.

Google Analytics is a free tracking tool you can use to understand how visitors are interacting with your site and monitor website performance — including metrics like session duration, pages per session, and bounce rates.

You can also see which pages are most popular and where your traffic comes from.

Pair Google Analytics with another SEO tool like Semrush or Ahrefs to see which keywords your website currently ranks for. You can also use these tools to get competitor insights, informing your plastic surgery SEO strategy.

How to improve local SEO for plastic surgeons

While some of your potential patients may travel for plastic surgery services, many people will seek a local plastic surgery practice that’s in their city or state. Local SEO helps you reach these nearby patients looking for your services online.

Here are a few ways you can improve local SEO and attract more prospective patients:

• Optimize your Google Business Profile
• Keep NAP information consistent
• Get reviews from satisfied patients
• Build local landing pages for each office location
• Create locally-focused service pages

Optimize your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is a key asset to have when optimizing for local search. It controls how your business appears in Google Search and Google Maps.

Make sure your contact information, office hours, and website are up-to-date. Fill out all of the profile information, including the description of your office and the products/services you offer.

Add high-quality images of your office, providers, and patient experience. You can also encourage patients to upload photos as part of their reviews.

Keep NAP information consistent

Keeping your business information consistent across the web is critical for local SEO. Inaccurate or outdated information can frustrate potential patients and hurt your rankings.

Make a list of all the local and industry-related directories where your office is listed. Ensure your Name, Address, and Phone Number are consistent across all platforms, and update them whenever changes occur.

Don’t forget to check the NAP citation for national communities like Yelp or ZocDoc.

Go through your social media pages on channels like Facebook and LinkedIn to make sure your NAP information is up-to-date.

Get reviews from satisfied patients

Many patients will visit Google to read reviews before booking a consultation.

Positive reviews of your plastic surgery practice improves your Google Business Profile ranking and maintains a positive online reputation.

Encourage happy patients to leave a review of their experience with your plastic surgery office on Google. The more positive reviews you have, the more likely Google will show your practice higher in the search results.

As a best practice, reply to reviews — both good and bad. This shows potential patients that you care about your patients and take their experience seriously.

Build local landing pages for each office location

If you have multiple plastic surgery offices, create local SEO landing pages for each office location.

Even if you only have one office, create an SEO landing page focused on the city where your office is located.

These local SEO landing pages give you the opportunity to rank for location-based keywords. Here’s a great example from North Texas Plastic Surgery — a multi-location practice with landing pages for each office location in the website’s top navigation.

The page for Dallas offers information about the services the Dallas office provides and contact information, office hours, and a map of the location.

Create locally-focused service pages

In addition to local SEO landing pages for office locations, you should also create locally-focused service/procedure pages. This is a page that describes the service while also including local SEO keywords.

For example, let’s say we want a procedure in Austin, TX. We might type “BBL near me” into the Google search bar. The first organic search result that appears is a service page for Brazilian Butt Lift in Austin.

The service page talks all about the BBL procedure with locally-focused language using keyword phrases like “Brazilian Butt Lift in Austin” and “BBL surgery in Austin.”

This helps the plastic surgery office rank for these keywords, which a person may type in when looking to get this procedure done in Austin.

Further reading: 11 Expert Google Business Profile Optimization Tips (+ Checklist) 

The takeaway

SEO is an important digital marketing strategy for plastic surgery practices that want to drive more qualified leads.

There are a lot of moving pieces in SEO, but overall, the time, effort, and resources are worthwhile if you do it right.

If you need help creating or implementing an SEO strategy, it may be time to hire an SEO company.

As one of the best SEO agencies in the industry, HawkSEM is ready to help your plastic surgery practice bring in more new patients through organic search.

In fact, we helped LightRX, a medspa with dozens of locations throughout the country, increase conversion volume by 76% and boost impression share by over 111% through our SEO services.

As a result, LightRX was able to more than double their existing locations.

Are you ready to grow your practice, too? Reach out today.

This article has been updated and was originally published in July 2024.