In today\u2019s competitive healthcare industry, it\u2019s no longer an option for doctors and medical practices to have a website\u2014it\u2019s necessary if you want patients\u2014and providers who can make referrals\u2014to find you.<\/p>\n
Without any digital marketing experience however, you might think, \u201cbuild it and they will come.\u201d Yet your website is only the foundation of your online presence. The real key to getting found lies in search engine optimization, or SEO.<\/p>\n
But what exactly is SEO? And why does your medical practice need it? Read on for an SEO primer.<\/p>\n
SEO is how your business turns up in search engine results, how the content you create is ranked by Google and other search engines and how patients ultimately find you.<\/p>\n
SEO is process that\u2019s measured and repeated to help you get organic, or unpaid, traffic to your website and it includes both technical and creative tactics to drive that traffic, improve your search rankings and create awareness about your practice. SEO includes the right keywords, headings, subheadings and backlinks (hyperlinks to other reputable sites), as well as the structure, word count and amount of white space.<\/p>\n
Social media<\/a> is an effective way to get found online, but since search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are the primary sources of traffic, SEO is even more important.<\/p>\n Before patients look for a provider, however, they search for information about their symptoms and even a presumed diagnosis. According to a 2013 survey<\/a> by the Pew Research Center\u2019s Internet & American Life Project, 72 percent of online users say they have looked online for health information in the past year and 35 percent are \u201conline diagnosers,\u201d or people who have searched to try to figure out what medical condition they or someone else may have. If you\u2019re not creating content and providing valuable information for your prospective patients, they\u2019ll land on a competitor\u2019s site who is.<\/p>\n SEO is also important because it can help you turn up on the first page of search results, the most valuable since most people don\u2019t look past the first page. In fact, according to a 2013 report<\/a> by Chitika, sites listed on the first page of Google search results generate 92 percent of traffic from an average search.<\/p>\n SEO may seem like a marketing concept that\u2019s way over your head, but it\u2019s actually quite easy to understand.<\/p>\n SEO starts with Google\u2019s algorithm, a mathematical formula used to rank every website and search query to determine where websites will appear in search results and which ones will appear on that coveted first page. The algorithm looks at three factors: quality, trust and authority.<\/p>\n You may have heard the phrase \u201ccontent is king,\u201d and it couldn\u2019t be truer for an effective SEO strategy. Years ago, websites would fill their pages with keywords to rank higher but Google now penalizes sites for this practice of \u201ckeyword stuffing.\u201d<\/p>\n Google ranks sites that create interesting, unique, compelling and shareable content. The content should be optimized for search engines, of course, but it must also be user- friendly and easy to read by people who find your site.<\/p>\n Google assigns higher rankings to those sites that are authoritative\u2014meaning they\u2019re well liked and have an engaged audience. Sites that have a fan base, or a community of people who love your content, share your content on social media and make referrals are those that rank well.<\/p>\n Google wants to show search results of sites that are seen as credible and trustworthy and one factor that plays a role are online reviews.<\/p>\nHow does SEO work?<\/h1>\n
1. Quality<\/h2>\n
2. Authority<\/h2>\n
3. Trust<\/h2>\n