These days, the suite of tools available to digital marketers is more diverse than ever before. From pop-ups, to landing pages, to social media campaigns, the channels through which to reach your target consumer are constantly evolving, so it’s no surprise that it is also becoming increasingly difficult to know what combination of this ever-expanding “digital toolbox” is right for your company.
This is especially true of the healthcare industry, which has become so competitive that marketers at medical device companies are fighting tooth and nail to ensure that their products and services are out in front of their prospective customers.
One of the digital marketing “tools” that the top healthcare websites are employing is search engine optimization (SEO).
Actionable Healthcare SEO
Because healthcare SEO is a little more complex than some of the more traditional approaches to marketing, many companies dismiss the impact that a strong backlinks SEO strategy can have on your overall marketing program. Remember – a well-developed healthcare SEO campaign will not only increase overall traffic to your website, but in doing that will support the other marketing efforts of your company (social media, web leads, etc.).
Today, we’re going to review 5 of the most effective actionable healthcare SEO strategies to help maximize your online potential and ensure that your company has one of the best healthcare websites in the industry.
1. Quality Over Quantity?
The quality vs. quantity argument is age-old in the world of marketing, and healthcare SEO is no different. While it may seem obvious that more search keywords are better, that may not be the case if the keywords are not supported by high quality content. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we here at Prizm Media tend to agree that fresh, interesting content is one of the best things that a marketing campaign can do to support an SEO campaign. In fact, this Forbes article is a great read that outlines exactly what constitutes a “good” piece of content.
In establishing an actionable SEO strategy, it is easy to work with your content team to make sure the blogs, videos, and social media strategies being executed are keyword friendly. Having regular reviews of the important primary and secondary keywords to be included in that content is a simple step that can have a big impact on the success of your search campaigns.
So, while it sounds much like every other piece of marketing advice out there, an important first step towards developing a backlinks SEO strategy in the healthcare space is to continually produce relevant, keyword-friendly content.
2. Backlink SEO Strategy
When it comes to building one of the best healthcare websites out there, there are a number of factors to consider with respect to SEO. The first is to have an awareness of your competition – how are they marketing, which search verticals are they capitalizing on, and where are they experiencing the most success? This information will not only allow you to better understand your competition, but give you invaluable insight into how to approach your own campaign – where do you want to be competitive, which spaces are new territory, and what opportunities exist for future success.
Another component of testing is to understand how to successfully choose keywords that support a backlinks SEO strategy while still leading prospective customers to the right pages. Determining which keywords work best for your campaign will undoubtedly involve some trial and error, but it is always a safe bet to use words and phrases that appear organically in your content and are not necessarily the most frequently used “buzzwords” in the healthcare industry.
3. Keep Search Local if Possible
While we recognize that this may not be possible for many of the medical device marketers out there whose market includes all of the United States (or all of North America, for that matter), there is a significant benefit to using healthcare SEO in a local market.
A 2014 Consumer Search Behavior study from Google found that over twice as many local searches resulted in a same-day purchase when compared to non-local searches. The study suggests:
“Local searchers are ready to act. Many visit a nearby location within a day and complete purchases at a higher rate than consumers who conduct non-local searches.”
While this knowledge may not be directly applicable to your backlinks SEO strategy, understanding that your marketing campaign will be exponentially more successful in converting customers in a local market can be useful. For example, leveraging your company’s presence at a local event or a retail location could lead to a higher rate of success in converting prospective customers into sales.
4. Have a Sitemap
One simple tip to help support your healthcare SEO strategy is to develop a sitemap for your website. Often neglected but important if you want your website to be crawled. While your website may already have a site map, having a well-organized and clearly structured map will make it easier for search engines to understand and index your website.
If you have a web developer on staff, this actionable step should be a relatively simple step towards boosting your SEO success. If not, it may be worthwhile in the long run to consult a professional firm to assist you with this process, which happens to lead into our final strategy…
5. It Never Hurts to Have a Second Opinion
Simply put, SEO is tricky business. Experts in the field have their optimization practices down to a science, and it can be hard to remain competitive. Sometimes, it is best to consult professionals who can help you to not only start up a successful healthcare SEO campaign, but can ensure that your SEO strategy is working to complement the rest of your marketing efforts and boosting the overall performance of your website.
At Prizm Media, we take pride in helping support our customers in successfully entering the world of search engine optimization. If you are interested in learning more about SEO, and how we can work with you to integrate SEO strategies into your existing marketing campaign, please contact us!