also influenced by the way other sites
link to the site and the structure of the
website itself. User-generated content,
fresh content and social-media links
play a role as well.
effectiveSEOalwaysconsidersthe
user of the site. The content of the site
itself should be friendly, useful and
engaging, and the site itself should be
easy to understand and navigate. It's
not enough to just attract attention
throughenhancedvisibility.GoodSEO
practice makes visitors want to stay on
the site once they arrive.
information online. They go to major
search engines such as Google and
type in words and phrases related
to their health. They research
conditions and symptoms and look
for information on procedures and
treatments. Most importantly for your
practice, they search for healthcare
providers that meet their needs. If
your website isn't listed on the first
page of search-engine results, you
might as well be invisible.
patients are referred to a medical
practice, to an increasingly patient-
driven system. Patients are making
decisions about which providers or
facilities to visit and are more actively
involved in the healthcare decisions
that impact their lives, and they
are studying websites to obtain the
information they need to make
those decisions.
referrals, you may be missing a large
pool of potential patients. When
combined with a professional and
engagingwebsite,SEOincreasesyour
visibility to potential patients in your
community. Traffic to your website
equals patients to your door it's as
simple as that.
them effectively.
engines use a process called indexing
to categorise the written and visual
content on web pages, and rank them
according to relevance. When an
individual enters a word or phrase into
the search line of Google, for example,
the search engine looks through the
websites it has indexed and returns
results based on the site's relevance to
the subject of the search. Those search
subjects are known as keywords.
closely fit your practice. This involves
knowing the demographics of your
target market and the language they
use when referring to your specialty or
services. In short, you must know the
language people use most often when
looking for your practice.
associate with your practice? Patients
are more likely to search for `cancer
treatment', for example, than they are
`oncology'. An oncologist will want to
use both of these terms on a practice
website to increase visibility to
professional people and patients.
patient. What is important to this
person, what common concerns are
expressed in your office and which
questions are asked most frequently?
These are clues to the type of keywords
your patients use.
of a website. If you are unfamiliar with
SEOyoumayoverlooktheimportance
of a domain name when your website
is being designed. Many doctors
simply use their own name or the
name of their practice as a domain.
A domain name such as
www.yourbusinessname.com is
convenient and certainly identifies
your practice, however it's not the
most powerful choice.
link out of a list of search engine
results if they see a keyword in your
domain name. Potential patients are
encouraged to visit your site when
they see the exact word or phrase
they typed into Google or Bing.
Your domain name should include a
keyword if possible but still clearly
point to your practice.
website provide? Do you have a blog
or FAQ section that provides general
health information related to your
practice and specialty? If so, how often
is this content updated and refreshed?
your website they also look at how
those words are used and the number
of times they appear. Packing a lot
of keywords into a few paragraphs