Online marketing can offer several amazing benefits for your medical practice. It helps to expand your reach, it can be low-cost, and it’s time-effective if done properly. However, there are a few dos and don’ts that you should keep in mind when executing your digital marketing strategy to make it work even harder for you.
1. DO: Remove elements that slow down your website
In the past, people were willing to put up with a slow-loading website. However, times have changed. Speed is now one of the most important elements of a great website.
According to research, 40% of users abandon a site that takes over 3 seconds to finish loading. Also, site speed is included in Google’s list of ranking factors. The quicker your page loads, the higher your position in the search results.
Get rid of any elements that are not essential. Deactivate the plug-ins that you’re not using. Clear your sidebar of any unnecessary widgets. A streamlined site will get you better results!
2. DON’T: Only link to your own content
It can be tempting to link all of your pages back to other pieces of content on your website. While it is important to link to your own content, you should also be linking out to other websites as well. Sure, link building takes people away from your page, but it’s essential if you want to experience growth. According to Rand Fishkin, linking out helps you to get trackable traffic and turns your website into a more valuable resource.
So make sure that you provide links to other authoritative websites within your content. You may even want to notify the blogs that you link to so that they might consider linking to your site as well. Remember, link building is chiefly about quality, not quantity. So choose the sites that you link to wisely–Google will judge your website accordingly.
3. DO: Write for humans
When it comes to executing a successful medical marketing strategy, lots of marketers are stuck in the past. Instead of writing for humans, they choose to focus on stuffing certain keywords into their content. Sure, it’s important to use the right keywords. However, you should always put more emphasis on whether or not your content is actually helping people, as this is what will lead to more traffic and engagement.
Make sure that your information is thorough and engaging. It’s good to include keywords, but you should focus on specific, lower-competition long-tail terms instead of lots of general terms. When you attempt to manipulate the search engine, it only results in low-grade content.
4. DON’T: Forget to use web analytics from the very beginning
Once you’ve clearly defined your search engine optimization goals, you need to start using analytics software right away to determine what actually works and what doesn’t. Software solutions such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and others can give you a better idea of what strategies you should stick to. You don’t need a million visitors to consider your results valid; you should use analytic software from the very beginning so you can tweak your marketing approach as needed.
5. DO: Write relevant and unique meta descriptions for each page
There are many websites that offer tons of valuable information. However, business owners often fail to realize the importance of their meta descriptions. Meta descriptions are the first snippets of text that users see in the search results on Google. If you want more traffic, you need to take the time to craft descriptive and compelling meta descriptions.
You should avoid using the same description over and over again. Each page description should be customized. Typically, Google doesn’t like any form of duplicate content, so duplicate meta descriptions can sometimes lead to SEO trouble.
Even if you’re not immediately penalized by Google, duplicate meta descriptions can have a negative impact on the user experience. Users need to be able to differentiate one page from another! Luckily, WordPress users can easily fix their meta descriptions by installing plug-ins like Yoast.
6. DON’T: Focus solely on your website
With all of the talk of search engine optimization, it’s easy to focus only on your website. However, it’s important to keep in mind that your social media presence is just as important as your site. In fact, social media is actually a key part of a healthy SEO strategy. Google hasn’t officially added social signals to their list of ranking factors, but social signals can play a role in your place in the search results.
Create content that makes people want to share across all social media platforms. Ensure that your share buttons are visible on each post. Ask people to share your posts with their networks. Host content. Also, link to and mention influencers within your posts. There are lots of ways to leverage social media–the key is consistency!
7. DO: A/B Test
It’s not enough to install software that will help you to track your results. You should also actively test out strategies to find out what gets you the best results. A/B testing is a great way to measure which techniques are best for you. A/B testing, which is also referred to as split testing, is a strategy in which you compare two versions of a webpage. This helps you to find out which performs the best. You can also use this strategy for digital advertising.
8. DON’T: Expect SEO to work immediately
No matter how closely you follow expert advice, you should never expect SEO to take immediate effect. This is a long-term strategy that can take months to begin producing results. However, over time, all of your hard work and experimenting will pay off. If you’re searching for overnight results, then PPC may be the better option for you. However, this will require a larger budget.
Be Patient & Seek Help if Necessary!
Most SEO specialists will tell you that digital marketing can be challenging. And that’s because there are a lot of factors that can have an effect on your ranking. However, with time, research, and patience, you can see great results from your marketing campaigns.
Luckily, if you aren’t sure about which direction you should go in or you want to learn more about digital marketing, you can always seek the help of a professional agency like Surgeon’s Advisor. Getting help from professionals can make it so much easier to see results while freeing up your time for patient care!