When it comes to plastic surgery or medical aesthetic SEO, the best SEO content is content that answers the questions people ask — people who are within your market. It will generate the most qualified traffic, in other words.
The more you know your market, the less you will have writer’s block. Because knowing your market well enough will always provide you with many content ideas — such as commonly asked questions you regularly answer.
Questions are great for FAQs. But they’re also tremendously valuable for developing content that search engines (and its users) will love.
If you’ve been a plastic surgeon or clinic owner for some time, chances are you will have a good grasp of the types of questions your patients and prospective patients ask. But sometimes, even with the best of us, writer’s block can happen. Maybe we have an idea but we don’t know how to express it.
That’s where content ideation can help.
Content ideation exercises may provide you with actual content ideas to write with, or they can provide you with the inspiration you can draw from. In my experience, especially from when I worked as an SEO director at a local agency for a few years, there are three methods that I’ve resorted to with success.
- Question words;
- Numbers and lists;
- And idea generators.
Question Words
The easiest way to uncover questions you can answer is by looking for those based on question words. They’re questions that start with “who,” “when,” “where,” “what,” “why,” “how,” “how long,” and “how much,” as well as with verbs such as “can,” “does/do,” “am I,” “is/are,” “will/would,” and “shall/should.”
For example (and these are actual questions people ask):
- When does eyelid surgery bruising go away?
- What are breast implants made of?
- Why are botox injections better than surgery?
- Which nose job should I get?
- Where are facelift scars located?
- Who is the best plastic surgeon in Chicago?
- How effective is laser skin resurfacing?
- How long does it take to recover from surgery?
- How much does it cost to have a butt lift?
- Can a facelift help with acne scars?
- Am I a good candidate for liposuction?
- Are hair transplants permanent?
- Will a facelift get rid of wrinkles?
- Would a breast reduction help back pain?
- Should I get a chin implant?
You can search Google by typing in a question word along with a topic, such as “why facelift” or “does breast implant.” You will get a list of results — either in the search results themselves, in the search suggestions (before hitting “enter”), or under the “people also asked” panel further down the search results page.
You can also use a keyword tool, like AnswerThePublic.com, AlsoAsked.com, or KeywordTool.io. With the latter, type in the topic (e.g., breast implants), and click on the “questions” tab to get a list of questions people ask. I also use tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs, which I’ve mentioned several times before.
Numbers and Lists in SEO Content
People love numbers and lists. I suspect it’s because numbers are specific and allow the reader to know, beforehand, what they’re about to read. Plus, lists are great as they help simplify the content by arranging them in bite-sized chunks.
You can simply type in a number, a list type qualifier, and the topic into Google, and you will get a ton of ideas. For example, “15 questions,” “16 things to know,” “Top 5,” “8 trends,” etc, followed by the topic. For example, when I typed in “top 5 facelifts,” I get the following results:
- Top 5 reasons to get a facelift
- Top 5 cosmetic surgery procedures
- Top 10 most common plastic surgeries
- Top 5 advantages of a minilift
- 5 best plastic surgeons in the USA
- Top 5 most common myths about facelifts
- 5 top things you need to know when choosing a surgeon
You can change either the number or the qualifier (or both) to get more results, like “20 questions,” “8 things,” “7 best,” “11 trends,” etc. You even drop the number to see what comes up, like “questions facelift” or “trends lip injections.”
However, the problem is that it might be too generic and the results might be all over the place. So, qualify it more, like “questions to ask doctor,” “common questions about facelifts,” or “questions people need to ask.”
Either these will give you a brainstorm of ideas to write about, or you can use the same idea but outrank it by using the skyscraper technique. In other words, write something similar but add more content, more research, more insights, more photos, more tips, etc. By doing so, your article might rank better.
Idea Generators
Third but not least, you can also use idea generators. There are quite a few of them out there, and they’re mostly free to use. For example, there’s:
- HubSpot’s Blog Idea Generator (my favorite)
- Portent Title Idea Generator
- WebFX Blog Post Idea Generator
Now, these are not idea generators specifically, but they are idea goldmines. For example, look at question-and-answer sites like Quora.com, Answers.com, reddit.com, and social media in general.
There are plenty of niche-specific forums and groups on social media where people can join, ask questions, and provide answers. While the objective in many cases is to become a helpful participant and gain exposure, I like to use them to get ideas. Just sitting on the sidelines can become a goldmine.
Let’s not forget the comments section on social media public pages, especially those of your competitors, where people ask questions either from one another, from the page owner, or from the original post author.
The most popular medium for plastic surgeons is currently Instagram. It’s relatively easy to follow plastic surgeons, look at their posts, and read the comments. Sometimes, it can become a goldmine of content ideas.
For example, I follow (and tell my clients to follow) hashtags related to their field — such as #plasticsurgeon, #plasticsurgery, #medicalaesthetics, #facelifts, #breastaugmention, and so on. Look at posts that use these hashtags and read the comments. They will give you a wealth of ideas.
