SEO for Drug Rehab and Treatment Facilities

How many websites have you seen that offer no clue, not a scrap of information about who is running their operation? They rely instead on making generic statements like, "We at XXX have it as our goal to be ranked world-class in …"

Instead, make sure that site visitors know that there is a real organization in existence here. Demonstrate that you actually "exist" out there. Provide a physical address, show photos of your facility (both inside and outside), a location map, that you are registered with your local Better Business Bureau.

If you are providing resource articles on your site, or presenting statistical information, quote established authorities in the field. And provide links back to the original clinical or professional publications. This third-party referencing adds great credibility and helps to assure visitors that you are not promoting some quack treatment or medically questionable viewpoint.

You have no doubt taken great pains to secure well-qualified people to staff your treatment facility. No doubt, at least a few of them - most likely senior staff - would qualify as experts in their field(s). Make sure that their credentials are highlighted prominently. If your organization is partnered with others who are well known, make sure that information is provided as well.

Resist the temptation to discuss (on your website) treatments that are considered by the medical authorities as controversial or even worse, questionable. Don't link to sources promoting goofy ideas or agendas. You become more credible by associating with trustworthy sources - and less credible by association or affiliation with bad sources.

A site trying to establish credibility in any medical field needs to have a credible way to be contacted. Sites lacking a physical address and phone number are not building anyone's confidence or trust. Who wants to submit information through a website inquiry form to an organization they don't know anything about?

We highly recommend a street address be referenced that shows your physical location. If you have another address like a P.O. box where you receive mail, list that as well, as well as the main telephone and fax number and an email address.

Most visitors to your treatment center website are going to form a judgement about you by the appearance and functionality of your website. Think about the purpose of your business - does the visual layout and appearance of your site convey a professional image that is consistent with your messaging? You can't communicate a professional image if your site looks like a mommy blog.

And don't forget function. When visitors are on your site they should be able to find the information that they are looking for, should not have to wait and wait for pages to fully load. Nor should they be frustrated by clicking on links that lead to nowhere - links that are broken.

If you are like most of your competitors you probably have a significant amount of resource/research information on your site. But how current is that information? Are you staying up with the latest research? If you are putting fresh content on your site, make sure it is tagged with the date so that they (and search engines as well) will know how old it is. New forms of treatment, new medication therapies, updates about your physical plant, welcome to new staff - all of this can be used to help keep your site content current.

Here's a quick tip: For content that is largely still current and relevant, do a quick read-thru and make some minor edits and rewrites, not necessarily major changes. Then you can post the tweaked content and include a tag "updated [date]." If you maintain a blog on your site, make sure that new, fresh content is pushed out at least twice a month, each month. (Hint: Posirank has expertise in writing all sorts of medically-focused content. Contact us today if you need to give your site/blogsite a content freshen-up.)

While it might work for other sites, it is unlikely that people would react favorably to an addiction treatment center website that featured ads from other businesses or which was offering some sort of discount or promotional coupon. Any "advertising" you do on your site should be indirect - get people to contact you by your site content and credentials and leave it at that. And, please stay away from using annoying popups - they just irritate people.

Put your site under intense scrutiny. It needs to be 100% proofread, and there should be no spelling errors, typos, bad grammar or malformed HTML code causing display issues. Making these type of mistakes is very common and hard to avoid, but clean it up anyway. And if you have issues with your site not being online or taking too long to load, get with your web designers and/or hosting service and get that straightened up immediately.

This last one is a biggie. It is a huge assurance to prospective clients (and their families who may be booking their family member for treatment) to know of the many others your treatment facility has helped on to a better life. Readable, factual, and ideally verifiable testimonials and references are a must as a part of any SEO campaigns for addiction treatment websites.

And a part of this mix will - and should - involve a social media presence. When people are looking for a treatment center they will often check social media platforms they are a part of - and you need to be there to interact with them. A Facebook business page is a must. And you should be monitoring social media channels to discover what people are saying about your facility, and respond to it if needed.

Related to this is the need for ongoing Reputation Management. You don't want to allow negative content to be posted about your facility, and if it has appeared you need to mitigate the damage, either by getting the content taken down or by providing a reply or update demonstrating that you addressed the situation.