Healthcare SEO is the process of optimizing medical websites and content so patients find your practice when searching for symptoms, treatments, providers, or nearby care. Unlike standard SEO, healthcare faces stricter scrutiny because Google classifies medical content as Your Money or Your Life (YMYL), meaning low-quality results can directly harm users. That triggers heavier algorithmic vetting and manual review thresholds. The core difference is E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust. You need licensed professionals authoring content, clear credentials displayed, citations to peer-reviewed sources, and verified business listings. A dentist writing about root canals will outrank a freelance blogger every time, even if the blogger's on-page SEO is technically cleaner. We've seen practices double organic traffic just by adding author bios with license numbers and clinic affiliations. Local SEO dominates healthcare because 80-plus percent of patients search with geographic intent. Your Google Business Profile becomes the highest-leverage asset. Accurate NAP data (name, address, phone), category selection (pick the most specific primary category like "pediatric dentist" not just "dentist"), patient reviews, and posted service lists directly feed local pack rankings. A physiotherapy clinic in Ottawa competing for "physio Centretown" lives or dies by GBP optimization and local citations on healthgrades.com, ratemds.com, and provincial directories. Content strategy splits into two lanes. Informational content answers patient questions ("what causes migraines," "how long does knee replacement recovery take") to capture top-of-funnel traffic. Service pages target commercial intent ("knee replacement surgeon Ottawa," "walk-in clinic open Sunday"). Both need schema markup, especially MedicalBusiness, Physician, and MedicalCondition schemas, so Google understands entity relationships. Compliance is non-negotiable. Patient privacy rules (PHIPAA in most provinces, PIPEDA federally) restrict testimonial details and before-after photos without consent. Never publish identifiable patient data in case studies. At Ottawa SEO, we treat healthcare clients with extra caution on claims: if a chiropractor can't legally claim to cure migraines, the website can't either. Organic growth in healthcare is slower but stickier because trust compounds over time.