Someone searching “sciatica physio” wants to land on a page about sciatica. If your website has one “Services” page with a bulleted list, Google has nothing specific to show them, and the visitor has nothing specific to read.
The fix is one real page for each main thing you treat. Here is how to choose them, what goes on each, and what to avoid.
Which pages to build first
Start with what you see most. Look at your last month of new patients and write down the reasons they came in. Typically that gives you a list like:
- Low back pain
- Neck pain and headaches
- Sports injuries
- Knee or shoulder pain
- Pre- and post-surgery rehab
- Your special interests (pelvic health, vestibular, running, work injuries)
Pick the top three or four and do them well. Add more later. Four good pages beat fifteen thin ones.
You can also check what people actually type. Start typing a condition into Google and look at the suggestions that appear, or look at the questions in the “People also ask” box. Those are real phrasings you can answer.
What goes on a good service page
Write for a worried person who has never met you. A rough order that works:
- A clear heading that names the problem and the place, such as “Low back pain physiotherapy in [your city]”.
- Who this page is for. Describe the person in plain words: “If your back stiffens after sitting, or hurts when you bend to lift your child…”
- What causes it, briefly. Two or three short paragraphs. Avoid jargon, and don’t try to teach a degree.
- What happens at the first visit. How long it takes, what you ask, what the exam involves, what the patient leaves with. This is the part most clinic sites skip, and it is what a nervous new patient most wants to know.
- How you treat it. The things you really do: hands-on work, exercise, education, a return-to-activity plan. Name the practitioners who see this most.
- When to see someone urgently. Short and honest. For example, say the patient should seek urgent medical care for sudden weakness, numbness in the groin, or loss of bladder or bowel control. Check wording with your own clinical standards.
- A few real questions with short answers. “Do I need a referral?” “Do you direct bill?” “How many visits will I need?” (Answer honestly: it varies after the assessment.)
- A booking button, every time. “Book online” and the phone number, visible without scrolling on a phone.
Aim for 400 to 800 words. A page that fully answers the question is the right length, whatever the word count.
Write the page title and heading well
The page title is what shows in Google’s results. Keep it under about 60 characters, put the service and place first, and add your clinic name last:
- Low Back Pain Physiotherapy in Guelph | Example Clinic
- Sports Injury Physio and Chiropractic in Leeds | Example Clinic
Also write a plain description of one or two sentences, for the line of text under the title. It won’t always be used, but it is worth getting right.
Name the place, once or twice
Mention your city or neighbourhood naturally: in the heading, once in the intro, and in the footer address. “We see people from across the north side of the city” is fine. Repeating “physio Toronto” in every paragraph is not.
Don’t make a page for every suburb
It’s tempting to make “Physio in Suburb A”, “Physio in Suburb B” and so on, with the same text and a swapped name. Google’s spam policies describe this as doorway abuse: pages made to rank for similar searches that lead people to a page that is less useful than the final destination (Google Search Central).
If you truly serve several areas, make one page that explains where you are, how to get there, and where to park. A separate location page only makes sense if you have a separate clinic at that location.
Keep to what you can claim
Health advertising rules apply to your website too. A few habits keep you safe:
- Don’t promise cures or timeframes (“fix your back in three visits”).
- Don’t compare yourself to other clinics with words like “best”. Some regulators prohibit this.
- Use photos of your own clinic and staff, not stock images of a patient pointing at their back, unless you have a licence for the picture.
- Be careful with patient stories and quotes. Some regulators restrict testimonials entirely.
Our guide on advertising rules for physio and chiro clinics covers what to check. Rules differ by country, province, state and profession, so read your own regulator’s guidance. This is general information, not legal advice.
Link the pages together
- From your homepage, link to each service page in your main menu or a short “What we treat” section.
- From each service page, link to the others that are related (“neck pain” to “headaches”).
- From each page, link to your booking page.
Links help visitors move on, and they help Google understand what your site is about. If you are not sure how this fits with the rest of your search work, local SEO basics puts it in order. A service page that mentions insurance should match what you say in your direct billing wording. Our homepage checklist shows what the first screen of your site should do.
Check it like a patient
For each page, ask:
- Could someone with this problem tell within five seconds that the page is about them?
- Could they find the booking button without scrolling on a phone?
- Does the page answer the question they’d ask a friend: “What happens when I go?”
- Is it written in your clinic’s words, not copied from another site or a template?
If you can’t say yes to all four, edit before you add more pages.
If you’d like a look at which condition pages your site is missing, claim your marketing audit and we’ll tell you where to start.