As we move further into 2025, voice search is becoming an increasingly important tool for users across various industries, including healthcare. In fact, it’s projected that by 2025, more than 75% of households in the United States will have a voice-enabled device. For healthcare providers, this means that optimizing for voice search is no longer optional—it’s essential. In this blog, we’ll walk you through the key strategies for optimizing for voice search in healthcare websites, ensuring that your practice or hospital stays ahead of the curve in this rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Why Voice Search is Crucial for Healthcare Websites
Voice search is revolutionizing how people search for information. It’s faster, more convenient, and hands-free, which makes it especially useful for busy individuals seeking healthcare information. In healthcare, voice search is often used to find local doctors, schedule appointments, research symptoms, and even check insurance details. As more people turn to devices like Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Siri to find healthcare providers and services, healthcare websites need to ensure they’re optimized for voice queries.
For instance, healthcare giant Mayo Clinic has seen the growing importance of voice search. As people rely on virtual assistants like Siri and Google Assistant, Mayo Clinic has optimized its content to ensure it answers common health-related questions that people might voice search, such as “What are the symptoms of heart disease?” or “Find a pediatrician in Rochester, MN.” This adaptation has helped Mayo Clinic remain visible in voice search results, making it easier for potential patients to find their services.
1. Use Natural Language and Conversational Keywords
When people use voice search, their queries are often more conversational than when typing. For example, instead of typing “doctor near me,” a person might say, “What’s the closest doctor to me who specializes in cardiology?” This difference in phrasing means healthcare websites need to focus on optimizing for natural language.
Mount Sinai Health System in New York is a prime example of a healthcare provider making this shift. They’ve adapted their content by incorporating long-tail conversational keywords, making sure that their FAQs align with the way people ask questions aloud. For example, instead of just listing “pediatrician,” their content answers more specific questions like “What are the signs that my child needs to see a pediatrician?” This approach has significantly increased their visibility in voice search results.
To effectively optimize for voice search, healthcare websites should incorporate more question-based keywords like:
- “Where can I find a pediatrician near me?”
- “What are the symptoms of the flu?”
- “How do I schedule a mammogram appointment?”
Including these types of queries will make your website more likely to appear in voice search results.
2. Optimize for Local Search Results
A large portion of voice searches in healthcare is location-based. People often use voice search to find healthcare providers, pharmacies, and hospitals nearby. If your healthcare website isn’t optimized for local search, it’s likely to be overlooked.
One great example comes from Cleveland Clinic, which has done an exceptional job with local SEO. They have location-specific landing pages detailing the services available at each of their hospitals. These pages include terms like “best heart doctor in Cleveland” or “top orthopedic surgeons in Ohio.” This ensures that when users perform voice searches like “Find a cardiologist near me,” Cleveland Clinic is prominently featured. Their consistent use of location-specific keywords has helped boost their presence in local voice search results.
To optimize for local voice search, ensure your website includes:
- NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistency across your site and local directories.
- Location-specific landing pages with information about your services.
- Structured data markup, like Schema.org, to help search engines understand and display your location-based content.
3. Focus on Mobile-Friendly Design
Voice search is primarily used on mobile devices, so it’s crucial that your healthcare website is mobile-friendly. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, it will likely rank lower in search results, both for traditional searches and voice queries. A mobile-optimized website enhances user experience, ensuring that patients can easily navigate your site to find the information they need.
Yale Medicine is a great example of a healthcare provider that focuses on mobile optimization. Their website is responsive and adapts to a range of devices. This is crucial for ensuring that users accessing the site through voice search on their smartphones have a smooth experience. Whether they’re looking for a specialist or scheduling an appointment, Yale Medicine ensures all relevant information is easy to access on mobile, which is a key factor in improving rankings for voice search.
To ensure your website is mobile-friendly, follow these steps:
- Make sure your site design adapts to various screen sizes.
- Optimize your page load speed to reduce bounce rates.
- Simplify navigation and ensure important information, like appointment scheduling or emergency contacts, is easily accessible.
4. Improve Page Speed for Quick Responses
Page speed is crucial for voice search optimization. Users expect immediate results from voice queries, and a slow website can cause frustration, leading users to abandon your site. Search engines like Google also prioritize faster websites, especially when delivering voice search results.
Yale Medicine is another example of how a fast website can enhance voice search rankings. By ensuring their website loads quickly, they provide a seamless experience for users accessing information on the go. As voice search continues to grow in popularity, websites with slow loading times are likely to lose out on traffic and potential patients.
To improve your website’s page speed:
- Use compressed images and videos.
- Minimize the use of heavy scripts and plugins.
- Leverage browser caching and content delivery networks (CDNs).
5. Optimize for Featured Snippets and Answer Boxes
When a user asks a voice-enabled device a question, the device typically pulls information from featured snippets and answer boxes that appear on the search results page. This makes it essential for healthcare websites to target these positions by answering common questions directly on your pages.
WebMD is a great example of a healthcare website that often appears in voice search results because it provides direct, concise answers to healthcare-related questions. By formatting their content to provide answers in the form of quick, readable snippets, WebMD increases its chances of being pulled into voice search answer boxes. This strategy has significantly improved their visibility, especially when users ask common questions about symptoms, treatments, or medications.
To target featured snippets:
- Answer specific questions at the top of your blog posts or service pages.
- Use bullet points or numbered lists for easy-to-read answers.
- Format your content to be concise and to the point—avoid long-winded explanations.
6. Implement Structured Data Markup
Structured data, or schema markup, is a form of code that helps search engines understand the context of your content. By using structured data on your healthcare website, you can help search engines deliver more relevant voice search results, particularly when users are asking about services, doctors, or clinics.
Healthgrades does this exceptionally well. They use structured data to provide detailed doctor profiles, including their specialties, locations, and ratings. This structured data ensures that Healthgrades appears in voice search results when users ask for doctors with specific specialties or services. Structured data has helped improve their visibility and accuracy in delivering relevant healthcare information through voice search.
To implement structured data:
- Use schema.org markup to tag important details about your healthcare services, doctors, and locations.
- Include ratings and reviews where applicable, as these are frequently referenced in voice search queries.
- Use the correct schema markup for healthcare organizations, like MedicalBusiness or Physician.
Conclusion
As voice search continues to reshape how people access information, optimizing for voice search in healthcare websites is becoming more important than ever. By focusing on natural language, improving local SEO, optimizing for mobile, speeding up your site, and implementing structured data, you can ensure that your healthcare website remains visible and accessible to users making voice queries.
At MedMind Marketing, we specialize in helping healthcare providers optimize their digital presence for the future of search. If you’re ready to improve your healthcare website’s performance in voice search and drive more patient engagement, contact us today to see how we can help you implement these strategies effectively.