There are many options when you’re trying to rank your medical practice at the top of search engine ranking pages (SERPs). However, sometimes it’s challenging to know where to begin. Your SEO score is a metric given by some websites, measured from 1-to 100, to provide you with a snapshot of how well your SEO process is coming along.
This article will cover the next steps you need to improve your SEO score and rankings on SERPs. We’ll start with the basics of medical SEO and move into some steps to improve your SEO score.
What is medical SEO?
Medical SEO is optimizing a medical website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), thereby increasing the number of visitors and leads coming from organic search.
Several factors contribute to a website’s ability to rank on SERPs, but some of the most important include:
– The quality and quantity of your website’s content
– The structure and design of your website
– Your website’s loading speed
– Your website’s mobile-friendliness
– How well your website is linked internally and externally
Before we take a deep dive into these contributors, let’s cover an essential principle of SEO: data analytics and data tracking.
How to perform SEO audits and set up data tracking
Before you begin any SEO campaign, it’s vital to audit your current SEO and set up data tracking adequately. That means starting with some of the most fundamental questions: What are your goals with the campaign? Do they align with your other business goals? What is your budget for SEO? How long would the ideal process take?
Then you can move to an SEO audit to get a sense of your current state. An audit will help you understand what areas of improvement are most pressing. A few critical components of an SEO audit include:
- On-page analysis: Conducting deep-dive research of your website’s existing content, design, and development.
- Technical analysis: A technical analysis ensures that your website is accessible to search engine bots and users alike.
- Competitive analysis: To rank higher than your competitors, you need to know what they’re doing and where they stand.
- Link building analysis: Inbound links are among the most important ranking factors for any website.
SEO Tools for Audit & Tracking
There are many different tools available to perform an SEO audit, but some of our favorites include:
- SEMrush: This tool is excellent for analyzing on-page factors like title tags, meta descriptions, H1s, and anchor text.
- Google Search Console: This free tool provides valuable insights into how your website performs in organic search results.
- Moz Pro: Moz Pro is a comprehensive suite of tools that includes an SEO audit tool, keyword research tool, link building tool, etc.
- Ahrefs: Ahrefs is another all-in-one SEO platform that offers a site audit tool, keyword research tool, backlink analysis tool, etc.
Please note that most (yet not all) of this software can also perform data tracking and analytics. To perform data tracking, you need to set up goals in Google Analytics and your preferred data tracking software.
Google Analytics is a free platform that gives you valuable insights into how users interact with your website. You can use it to track page views, unique visitors, time on site, and other essential metrics. Then, you can export this data into a spreadsheet or visualization tool like Google Data Studio to further analyze your progress over time.
Improve quality and quantity of content
To rank higher in SERPs, you need to have high-quality, keyword-rich content that provides value to your target audience. When it comes to medical SEO, it’s imperative to have accurate and up-to-date information on your website. After all, people come to your site for medical advice—not outdated information or inaccurate facts.
Remember to think about your target audience. What types of content would be most valuable to them? Additionally, you want your content to be long enough to keep people interested, yet not so long that people aren’t finishing the article. Finding the sweet spot is critical.
One final tip is to perform competitor analysis. Your competitor’s content is where you’ll begin. Brainstorm ways you can create your content better. What are they missing? What did they do right?
Create an exceptional user experience
User experience includes but isn’t limited to: structural design and formatting, website load speed, mobile-friendliness, and navigation. Creating a great user experience is essential for two reasons:
- People are more likely to stay on your website and continue engaging with your content if it’s easy to find what they’re looking for and conveys a positive overall experience.
- According to Digital Authority Partners, Google favors websites that provide a great user experience
You’ll want to include concise headlines, easy-to-scan paragraphs, and plenty of white space. Also, be sure your website is mobile-friendly. More and more people are using their smartphones to search for information online, so you want to make sure they can easily view your site no matter what device they’re using.
Additionally, you’ll want a straightforward navigation menu. Your visitors should be able to find what they’re looking for with ease. If your website is challenging to navigate, people will leave and find another more accessible site to use.
On-page and off-page linking is essential
Linking is vital for two reasons. First, it helps improve the user experience. If people can easily find related information, they’re more likely to stay on your site longer. Second, linking helps with SEO. When you link to other high-quality websites, it shows Google your site is also a credible and trustworthy source of information.
There are two types of links: on-page and off-page. On-page links are those that are within the body of your content. These are usually hyperlinks that lead to other pages on your website. Off-page links are links from other websites that point back to your website. These links are called backlinks.
Obtaining backlinks and creating internal linking systems is how Google understands your site. For backlinks, quantity isn’t better than quality. Websites with higher authority are where you want to get backlinks. As for internal linking, you’ll want to include 3 to 5 on each page, using anchor text that describes the page you’re linking.
Takeaways
By following these steps, you can help improve your website’s SEO ranking, making it more likely for people to find your site when they’re searching for medical information online. Please keep in mind that SEO can take months to be effective. It’s a long-winded process that takes consistency and persistence. When you take the time to perform a campaign properly, you’ll reap all the benefits!
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