Let’s start with a simple exercise, shall we? What’s the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about search engines?
I bet you immediately thought of Google, am I right? Well, I don’t blame you. After all, Google is the biggest and most popular search engine out there. But here’s the thing… it’s not the only one. In fact, there are lots of search engines on the internet.
They may be less popular and not as powerful as Google, but you’ll be able to boost your search rankings and visibility by tapping into them. But for this article, we’ll be focusing mainly on YouTube. Yes, that’s right. Apart from its social networking site characteristics, YouTube is one of the most visited search engines in the world.
Google owns YouTube, so videos hosted on YouTube rank well on Google. If you’re looking to boost your video rankings, I urge you to read on.
Here are five ways to optimize your videos for search and ranking.
Do keyword research
If you’re looking to improve your YouTube SEO, the most important thing you need to do is to find the right keywords.
By choosing the right keywords, you can ensure that your video appears in the search results when people are looking for something related to your video’s topic. Start by thinking about what keyword people might use when looking for a video like yours.
You can also use a keyword research tool to see how many people are searching for those terms. This will give you insights into what people are actually searching for.
Incorporate keywords in the video title
When it comes to ranking your YouTube videos, optimizing your title is vital.
So if you’re looking to boost your videos, incorporating keywords into your title is a great place to start. By including relevant keywords in your title, you’ll be more likely to appear in YouTube search results for those terms. What’s more, you’ll also be more likely to attract viewers who are interested in your content.
Keep in mind that YouTube users often skim titles, so make sure your keywords are front and center. By optimizing your titles for YouTube SEO, you can ensure that your videos are seen by the people who are most likely to be interested in them.
Optimize your video description
Like with any other form of SEO, using the right keywords in your description can help ensure that your videos come up in search results. But it’s not just about using the right keywords – you also need to use them correctly.
For instance, including a list of keywords near the beginning of your description will help YouTube’s algorithm understand what your video is about and make it more likely to appear in relevant searches. In addition, be sure to use natural-sounding language and avoid keyword stuffing. If you can do this, you’ll be well on your way to getting more video views.
Use a custom thumbnail for your videos.
While it might be tempting to choose from one of the thumbnail options that are auto-generated by YouTube, it is best to upload a custom thumbnail image for your videos.
A custom thumbnail shows up in the search results and can help you stand out from the competition. When choosing a custom thumbnail, select an image that is high quality and represents the content of your video. Remember, your thumbnail is often the first impression people will have of your video, so make sure it accurately represents your video’s content and style.
You can also include keywords in the thumbnail to help people find your video. Be sure to test different thumbnails to see what works best for your videos.
Add subtitles and closed captions.
YouTube is the second largest search engine and the third most-visited website in the world. That’s a lot of potential viewers! And what do viewers want? Videos that are informative, entertaining, and easy to understand.
Adding subtitles and closed captions to your YouTube videos is one way to ensure your content is accessible to as many people as possible. Not only will it help hearing-impaired viewers follow along, but it will also make your videos more searchable.
YouTube uses automatic captioning algorithms, so be sure to proofread and edit your captions for accuracy. You can also add keywords to your captions to improve your YouTube SEO. By doing so, you’ll be able to reach a wider audience and achieve your video marketing goals.
Final thoughts
As you can see, optimizing your YouTube videos for better search engine ranking is crucial if you want to improve your visibility and get more leads. Using the tips outlined above, you can give your videos a better chance of being discovered by potential customers and clients.
But if you need help with your YouTube strategy, our team is here to assist you. Schedule a free consultation call today to discuss how we can help improve your ranking and visibility on this powerful platform.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/YouTube-SEO-How-to-Optimize-Your-Videos-for-Search-and-Ranking.png12602240Kathlyn Angeles-Timbolhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngKathlyn Angeles-Timbol2022-11-09 10:48:422022-11-03 14:33:55YouTube SEO: How to Optimize Your Videos for Search and Ranking
In the early days of the internet, blogging was one of the most popular ways to share information and connect with others. Today, social media has taken over as the primary platform for online communication, and many people have questioned whether blogging is still relevant.
While it is true that social media has eclipsed blogging in terms of popularity, it is still a powerful tool that can help you reach your goals.
If you’re thinking it might be time to start blogging, but you’re not sure if it’s worth the time and effort, then we urge you to keep reading. Here are 6 blogging benefits that will change your business forever.
Boost search engine optimization
SEO is extremely important for any business operating on the web. Every time you write a blog post, more pages from your domain become indexed in search engines. This gives you another opportunity to be found by people.
Search engines don’t want to send users to abandoned websites with outdated content. By regularly publishing contents to your website, you stand a better chance of being found by your target audience.
Drive traffic to your website
Blogging is an inexpensive way to attract more potential customers and drive traffic to your website. Studies suggest that companies who blog get 67% more leads as compared to those who don’t. In order to do that, you first need to know your target audience and create contents that will be of value to them.
Position your brand as an industry leader
Blogging is especially beneficial for small businesses looking to gain credibility. Majority of people go online to because they want information. By providing fresh, valuable information in your blog posts, you can build trust and clout within your industry. Over time, people will come to you for informative, helpful content and will be seen as an industry leader.
Convert traffic into customers
Now that you have captured the attention of your target audience, you want them to keep coming back to your site. To do that, you need to provide them with fresh, interesting and informative content on a regular basis. Once you have built an audience of loyal and trusting readers, it will be a lot easier to sell to them. In fact, studies show that 67% of American buyers have made a purchase based on blog posts.
Building your personal brand
Blogs are a great way to share your thoughts and ideas with the world. You can blog about anything, from your personal life to your professional journey. And unlike social media, blogs allow you to control the narrative. You can decide what information you want to share, and how you want to share it. As a result, blogs can be a powerful tool for building your personal brand. In addition, blogs can help you to connect with like-minded people and create a sense of community.
Differentiate your brand from the competition
Blogs are a powerful tool that can help businesses to differentiate their brands from the competition. This is essential in business; it’s what sets you apart from the competition and drives customers to your door. When used effectively, blogs can provide insights into your company culture, values and vision. They can also be used to share news and announcements, showcase customer testimonials, and promote special offers.
In addition, a blog can help humanize your brand, making it more relatable and approachable. By sharing the story of your brand, you can connect with potential customers on a personal level and build trust. So if you’re looking to differentiate your brand from the competition, consider starting a blog. It could just be the thing that sets you apart and helps you attract more business.
Final thoughts
A blog can be a powerful asset for your business. It can help you drive traffic to your site, position yourself as an industry leader, and convert traffic into customers. If you need help starting a business blog, we’re here to help. We’ll work with you to create content that is relevant to your target audience and helps you achieve your marketing goals. Schedule a free consultation today to get started.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Blogging-Benefits-that-Will-Change-Your-Business-Forever-3.png12602240Caitlin McDonaldhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngCaitlin McDonald2022-10-26 10:51:302022-10-19 13:17:57Blogging Benefits that Will Change Your Business Forever
Keyword research can be laborious. The research process often takes hours, only to find out that just a handful of the keywords are worthwhile.
Sure, it is a time-consuming process. But it isn’t something that should be taken lightly. Why? Because SEO helps make your website more visible. And when done right, it can dictate not just the traffic you get, but whether or not that traffic converts. But how can you make the most out of your SEO keyword research?
Use these timeless keyword research tips to ensure you attract qualified traffic.
Focus on long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are longer, highly specific phrases. These are keywords that people are more likely to use when they’re closer to a point-of-purchase.
Obviously, you’re going to draw less traffic with a long-tail keyword than you would with a more commonly used one. But since long-tail keywords are more specific, it will be easier for your site to be found by the audience for your particular niche.
With shorter keywords, competition for rankings can be fierce. Targeting longer, more specific keywords is a win-win. You get better search rankings, more qualified search traffic, and lower cost per click.
Check the on-site search queries your visitors are looking for
Sometimes, you don’t have to look too far to find what you’re looking for. The keywords you need are already in front of you. You just need to take note of them.
Some of your visitors are typing in keywords into your search bar because they are hoping that they’d find the answers they need on your website. Visitors are telling you what topics they want. Now, all you have to do is to create content around these topics.
This is the simplest, yet most underutilized technique. I want you to understand that those on-site searches are a gold mine of data just waiting to be looted.
Use Google Trends
Google Trends is one of the most powerful, yet underutilized tools for SEO. We highly suggest that you use it to your advantage.
You can use Google Trends to conduct keyword research for free. Just type in a search term in the homepage, and it will automatically give you a list of Google’s most popular keywords over the past year. In addition, Google Trends will also provide a list of relevant keywords based on your search term, along with the percentage of search volumes for each one.
This feature is powerful because it helps you identify which keywords are growing in popularity and which ones are becoming less popular over time.
Take advantage of Google suggest
Have you ever noticed that Google gives you suggestions when you enter words in the search box? You’d be surprised as to how accurate and helpful these suggestions are.
You see, Google takes note of everything we search for. It can provide you with a list of popular search topics in seconds. So next time you’re compiling a list of keywords for SEO, try using this technique. Let Google give you all the answers. Doing this will not only help you find interesting keywords, it saves you a lot of time too.
Compile a list of local keywords
While it is a good idea to rank on competitive keywords, you shouldn’t ignore the power of local keywords. This is particularly important when targeting audiences within a specific geographical area. In fact, 80% of consumers use search engines to find businesses in their area.
Focus on keywords you think your audience might use when conducting local research. Local searches may yield lower search volumes, but it’s more about driving traffic that is ready to convert. Remember, local searches tend to be from people who are looking and ready to convert.
Local keywords will not only play an integral role in optimizing your local SEO strategy but also help in driving patients to your practice.
Analyze your competitor’s winning keywords
When all else fails, emulate. If you want to take your SEO to the next level, then you’ll need to start looking at what your competitors are doing. This can work to your advantage as it can help you target consumers who are searching for these keywords. After all, the goal is to outrank your competitors, right?
To do this, you can use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush. For SEMRush, it’s as easy as entering your competitor’s website. It’ll give you a list of keywords they are ranking for in an instant.
On top of that, SEMRush also provides the URL of sites that rank for each term. This allows you to further understand what pieces of content are working for your competition.
Final thoughts
The world of SEO has evolved significantly over the years. Google now places more emphasis on content quality than keyword density. But let’s face it. Keyword research still remains the cornerstone of any successful SEO strategy. Hence, it is important to do it well. The keywords you use will ensure that your content is relevant and easily searchable on Google.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/SEO-blog.png12602240Kathlyn Angeles-Timbolhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngKathlyn Angeles-Timbol2021-01-06 10:31:032021-01-04 17:17:416 Timeless Keyword Research Tips to Boost Your SEO Content Strategy
Today, we’re going to be talking about search engine optimization for healthcare clinics, for medical practices, and why this is so important.
In our blog post, we also have a video that specifically is about how to do keyword research, and the ins and outs of search engine optimization so that you can actually do it, but this podcast is mostly geared towards why you need search engine optimization and the benefits of it.
To start off, why is Search Engine Optimization for Medical Practices important?
One-third of patients today are using their telephones or tablets to research and to book appointments. You need to make sure that you’re being found online.
58% of healthcare marketers are using blogs and that’s compared to 74% of all marketers. This means that there is room for you to grow in that space.
And 62% of smartphone owners use their phones to search for health information. So it gives you a chance to actually answer those questions.
What Does Search Engine Optimization Do for Health Care Practice?
Search engine optimization does more that just get your website ranking higher on Google and other search engines. SEO has other ways that it is useful. SEO as a piece of medical marketing allows you to:
Build trust with prospects
Share valuable and education content
Make sure you are appearing in Mobile search results
Additionally, there are different types of search engine optimization that you can pursue in your digital marketing strategy. SEO is not a one-and-done thing. There are tactics you can implement to make sure you continually are increasing your SEO. Search Engine Optimization is made of two main strategies – On-site and Off-site. Below is a list of the Social Speak recommendations for how to boost website traffic and grow your network of prospects online.
Types of SEO for Medical Practices
Off-Site SEO for Medical Practices: This includes building links from referring domains, backlinks, directory listings, and submitting your website and blog posts to syndication websites. Typical 1st-page listings on Google have exponentially more backlinks than those on the 2nd or 3rd page of search listings. These referring in-bound links need to be high-quality, as well. 10,000 links from websites with a low domain authority can be less valuable than 1 link from a well-established domain. Activities we recommend are:
Research your competition at NeilPatel.com. This is a free keyword research tool that allows you to see what websites are ranking for select keywords, their domain authority, and how many backlinks they have into their website.
Write high-quality blog posts (see on-page SEO below) and reach out to webmasters of websites in your industry to pitch adding a link to your resources.
Find websites in your niche that accept Guest Blog Posts. Write an article with a link back to your website.
Add your website to directories and optimize the content.
Comment with a link back to a resource on your website in forums and on other blogs
On-Site SEO for your Health care website: On-site SEO includes making sure your website is both up to date and that you are consistently producing keyworded content.
Website Security: Old PHP versions, outdated WordPress files, and expired SSL certificates are all key indicators that have harmful consequences for your SEO. We recommend backing up your website at least monthly and updating all theme, plugin, and WordPress files. There also are services that scan your website daily for malware or security vulnerabilities.
Blogging and Article writing: Gaining inbound backlinks and your ability to show up in search results for specific keywords are driven by high-quality, keyworded content on your website. The highest-ranking websites across industries produce blogs and articles on their websites multiple times per month and many take to blogging daily. These blogs aren’t just 500 word articles – they are well-researched pieces of content that could be 1,000 to 10,000 words long.
To find what topics to write about, we recommend:
Steps for Research
Your own brainstorm
Google related search results and ‘smart’ search results or ‘featured snippets’
How to find topics and keywords to use in Medical Marketing?
Why your medical practice, why as a doctor, you need to be focusing on search engine optimization.
In the video above, I show some of the tools that we utilize to find what keywords to focus on for your medical practice to build up that search engine optimization. So I’m going to share my screen and the first thing that you are going to see here is a tool Ubersuggest. Now Ubersuggest is Neil Patel’s tool, and it is a free tool that you can utilize. I am signed in right now, but this is free. It’s something that you just sign in with your Google account. And then by doing that, you can hook it up to your website so that you can measure things like traffic and the number of backlinks you have, any new backlinks that are showing up and things like that. It takes all of Google’s tools and compresses them into reports that you should be taking a look at for search engine optimization.
We utilize Ubersuggest as a way to find really specific content that you can include on your website and then also to get a sense of how many things like backlinks or the page rank of your competition. So I did a search already for pediatrician. We worked with a lot of pediatrics offices, and so I thought this might be a great thing to start with. So as you can see, when we do a search for “pediatrician,” we have a list of keywords over here and these are just suggested keywords that are similar to “pediatrician.”
The volume of the searches, cost per click if you were to bid on this using Google ads, page difficulty and then the SEO difficulty. So for most websites, if you’re seeing competition having a SEO difficulty here of 62, 65, 46, these are going to be pretty difficult for you to rank for, especially if you haven’t built that foundation of keywords that Google is already ranking you for. So we recommend scrolling down on the list until you find that SEO difficulty that’s a little bit lower.
Using Filters to Narrow Keywords
Now, you can use this filters technique. And so here, you can set what you want the search volume to be as well as the SEO difficulty. And so we actually utilize that, but for the purpose of this video, I want to show you kind of all the keywords that show up here. Then, over on the right hand side of the screen, you’re going to see the actual results that show up in Google. So for “pediatrician” for example, we only see a lot of WebMD, HealthyChildren.org, Verywell Health etcetera, pediatrics – a lot of very highly ranked websites with high domain scores. The domain score is how positively Google sees you. Most likely, trying to rank for the word “pediatrician” probably isn’t going to be good for you to start.
Build a foundation of keywords to then rank for more difficult keywords
However, as you build up that foundation of keywords below that, you can slowly work up over time for a top keyword like pediatrician. So let’s see what keywords we should be focusing on. So if you scroll down, there are quite a few for pediatric urgent care or for specialties that you might have.
“Pediatric urgent care near me,” for example, that has 20. And so this is the type of search that people do when they’re on their phones, so they’ll rather than typing in, they’ll actually say, “Pediatrician,” or “Pediatric urgent care near me.” So you want to make sure that you’re including language like that on a blog post or on a page on your website. Here we’ve got “urologist.” So that’s a different one. Even “pediatric clinic” has a lower SEO difficulty score. So rather than just going after pediatrician, you could have “pediatric clinic near me,” “pediatric urologist.” So again those specialties are good to highlight as well. I saw it down here on… Let’s see. Pediatrician for kids.
These are called long term keyword phrases. And so as you’re writing content, again, don’t just focus on that top keyword. Think about those secondary and third keywords that make up phrases for you to write content around.
Here we go, “pediatrician near me that accepts Medicaid.”
So if you accept Medicaid, this could be something to make sure to put in a blog post or on your website at somewhere just because it is absolutely something that is getting quite a few searches.
And yes, these are national numbers. But still, it ranks up here and that has that lower SEO difficulty. Now, one of the things that I like about this table here is the tool Ubersuggest also allows you to look at related keywords, questions, propositions and comparisons all of these make fantastic blog posts because they are really answering the questions that people have.
Specific Keywords for Pediatricians:
“pediatrician when you are pregnant” – you could have a blog post specifically about how to find a pediatrician when you’re pregnant or when to start talking to a pediatrician. Even answering things like, “Will a pediatrician prescribe birth control?” I am assuming that you probably aren’t, however, this is a question that people are asking and it’s something that you’d be able to rank in the eyes of Google for and start building up that foundation. So over time, you can start focusing on those keywords that 100% you need to be ranking for.
“Pediatrician accept Medicaid” – if you do accept Medicaid, this may be a great topic to rank for and write about. Describe the process, have a doctor interview, etc.
“Pediatrition for ADHD” – you could have a post that’s specifically on why your pediatrics office, the pediatrician office near them, is the right fit if your child has ADHD and you’d want to make sure to include this exact phrase right here.
Let’s say you do end up writing a blog post on Pediatrician for ADHD. You would then be able to come over here to see who else is ranking for that keyword. Now, if we take a look here, these domain scores all also do have… They are all fairly high as well. So what you can do is you can reach out to the author of, let’s see what’s this, everyday health protocol is, ‘Find the right ADHD specialist,’ and you could email the webmaster or the editor of this article and see if your article, if it is educational and provides great information you can actually email them to see if they wouldn’t mind adding you as a resource that they link to within their blog post. Now, getting these high-quality links back to your site are incredibly important for search engine optimization. We do see, for example, right here. So this person eastbaypediatrics.com. They don’t have any links. They are on the second page, so you can see the number of visits does go down, but their domain score is seven. So if you have the right content that’s related to Pediatrician for ADHD and you start building backlinks from these higher articles here in higher websites, you’re going to be showing Google that your content is very well written and it’s relevant and that people want to read it.
Pediatrician for ADHD could be a great topic to talk about.
Another option on Ubbersuggest Keyword Tool is comparisons. I love writing articles with comparisons. I think that this is a great way to stand apart from your competition, to provide great value.
A recommendation here could be for pediatrician writing one about “pediatrician or family doctor.”
What’s the difference? Why would you choose one versus the other? If you are a family doctor, this is a great topic to talk about as well. Other examples are: family medicine versus family doctor. With pediatrician or family doctor, for example, it only has 90 searches. However, that means combined with this page difficulty of five and the SEO difficulty seven, most likely you’re going to make an impact by writing about this topic or having one of your doctors answering this question, and you would be more likely to be able to place on the top pages of Google fairly quickly for this, especially if you then go out and get those backlinks.
Read the rest of the transcript for the video on How to Do Keyword Research with Ubersuggest for Healthcare SEO
11:26 CM: So one thing, once you have a topic or a handful of questions that you’ve found that people are asking about your specialty, you can then write up an interview for your doctor. And we love doing this just because it allows you to get multiple media at one time. So you have the audio if you ever want to start a podcast. You have the visual component through the video. And then you also easily get a transcript of this keyworded content of questions that people are actually asking that then you can put on your website. We have a full blog post. I’ll link to it down here that is about how to utilize interviews or videos in order to make transcripts that can then be turned into a blog post. You’ll see even with this video, we had that podcast. The podcast is the intro to this blog post and then this tutorial is really the bulk of that blog post. So we’ve talked about Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest tool. This is a free tool. There are plenty of paid tools that are very similar. Keyword Finder is one that we’ve talked about in the past and that is just kwfinder.com. The problem with this is they now are… And you’ll see it’s a very similar layout to Neil Patel’s.
12:46 CM: However they restrict the number of searches that you can do on the free account whereas Neil Patel’s tool really is a free tool. Yes, if you are linking up your website, they are probably collecting data on the number of visitors and the backlinks and everything. However this is a great free option.
13:27 CM: So, there is that Keyword Finder. Moz has a SEO tool, I think. HubSpot has a website grader. That’s always good to look at. But this again, the Neil Patel one, it is a great way to dive into how well the backbones of your website are even performing. Are there pages that don’t have Header 1 tags? Are their pages that are missing Alt tags on images? Can you improve the number of pages that are linking together kind of things like that? Neil Patel’s tool really showcases that very well. The last thing that we do, however, when we are doing keyword research is we actually turn over to Google and we take a look to see what other people are actually writing and to see if Google has any other recommended search results. So I’m going to do this. The pediatrician or family doctor, and I just go right over here to Google. Now oftentimes, I will be in the incognito mode, and that’s just so that I can really see everything that they have. But you can take a look to see what other people are talking about. So, you’ll notice a lot of these folks are using that keyword that we just searched for, “pediatrician” or “family doctor” in the title of the website or of the article.
15:00 CM: And here, if you don’t see that happening then make sure 100% that you are writing on that topic, ’cause you would, by having keywords, that phrase, in the title of the page as well as in the URL, it can be a great way to show Google right away, “Hey look, I’m actually talking about this whereas my competition isn’t necessarily talking about it.” But you can get a sense of what other people are writing about. So, how to decide, how to decide? So this one is “choosing a pediatrician for your new baby.” I’m sure in here, in this kid’s health article somewhere in there, it has “pediatrician versus family doctor.” Oh, this a… This looks like a forum. So forums can be great places to then get more backlinks into your website. So if you write an article “Pediatrician versus Family Doctor,” absolutely post it. This from 2011. So it’s not too current, but post it as, “Hey, we just wrote this great resource that it might be helpful for you as you’re deciding whether to utilize a pediatrician or a family doctor,” and add the link into a forum. Quora is another great place, Q-U-O-R-A, for you to do things like that as well.
16:26 CM: So if you see somebody asking a question “pediatrician versus family doctor” there, you can add your content and a link there as well, and that counts as a good backlink too. Let’s see, Revere Health, so they have “pediatrician versus family care doctor.” So they have just, “Pediatricians, family physicians, how to search?” So this is a very short article. Imagine if you had this article and then three videos of different doctors answering specific questions about when to utilize a pediatrician when family physicians are appropriate and then comparing the two of them. So by having that multi-media, it allows you to have much more content very easily on your website. Additionally, right here, we’re not seeing any videos popping up. However, there would be a chance that your video would be able to show up. Let’s see, so there are some folks who have talked a little bit about “pediatrician, family doctor, pediatrician,” “the difference between family medicine and internal medicine.” So, no one specifically, at least on this first page, has answered the pediatrician versus family care doctor or family doctor.
17:48 CM: This’s one, like another forum. So this could be a great one to talk about. Just going to keep on going down this rabbit hole. [laughter] People are asking their peers for their insights about whether they should utilize a pediatrician or a family doctor or go to one specialist or another. This is an excellent opportunity to jump in and see if you can also write content or have your doctors film content about the topic. So it’s important to have your website again ranked on Google, just because most folks, most prospects that you have are looking for your specialty online or they’re researching the referrals that they get. They want to make sure that you are the correct choice for them and for their family. And by doing keyword research, you can start to understand what language they’re actually utilizing and what questions they actually have as they’re going through this decision-making process? Search engine optimization has the ability to drastically increase the ROI that you get from digital marketing, just because it gets you shown more frequently on Google as well as increases the brand recognition and quickly increases the fact that people will know, like and trust you and that you’ll become more of a household name.
19:22 CM: So, we highly recommend utilizing search engine optimization. And when you’re going through and first starting out, please take a look at Neil Patel’s tool. You can do a Google search for Ubersuggest or its app, neilpatel.com/ubersuggest. And you’ll be able to get there. From here, type in that top-level keyword that ultimately you do want to make sure that your website ranks for and then take a look at the related, the questions, prepositions and comparisons to see if there are any sub-topics that are going to be more likely that you will rank for quickly. And as you start growing that baseline, you’ll be able to target those higher and higher-difficulty keywords in the future
Read the Medical Marketing Podcast Transcript on Why SEO should be a part of your Digital Marketing for Healthcare Strategy
00:00 Caitlin McDonald: Hello everybody, my name is Caitlin McDonald, and I’m here with the Social Speak Network on the Social Speak Network podcast. Today, we’re gonna be talking about search engine optimization for healthcare clinics, for medical practices and why this is so important in our blog post, we also have a video that specifically is about how to do keyword research, and the ins and outs of search engine optimization so that you can actually do it, but this blog post is, or excuse this podcast is mostly geared towards why you need search engine optimization and the benefits of it so to start off, why is it important? So, one-third of patients today are using their telephones or tablets to research and to book appointments. So you need to make sure that you’re being found online. 58% of healthcare marketers are using blogs and that’s compared to 74% of all marketers. So, this means that there is room for you to grow in that space. And 62% of smartphone owners use their phones to search for health information. So it gives you a chance to actually answer those questions.
01:30 CM: Additionally, 75% of patients use search engines prior to scheduling a visit. So we view search engine optimization as being incredibly important for your medical practice. Number one, it increase your online visibility. So, blogging is a huge part of search engine optimization, it’s your ability to create content but then is answering questions that folks are looking for online so increases your online visibility, you wanna make sure that you are actually found online. So without that content, let’s say your page just has doctor Profiles on it, information about some of the services that you offer your specialties, and then has the scheduling people are wanting more information. And so again, that second part of this, we’re actually gonna be diving into how to do that research, but for now, just know that if you weren’t found on the first page of Google most likely you’re not going to be found online. Search engine optimization, and being found organically online allows you to bring in more valuable visitors. So the reason why this is, is because of, being found first on Google, and having a presence on Google on Facebook, on LinkedIn and really on all of these other directories helps to boost consumer confidence in your facility in your clinic.
03:09 CM: And so you want to make sure that people know, like, and trust you, let’s say it’s the first time that they’ve dealt with the symptom they’re looking for answers about it. And you come up time and time again, they’re already going to start trusting you before they give you a call for that initial consultation. The third thing is that being optimized online helps to reduce your other digital marketing cost. So typically when we’re working with a healthcare center, we are running ads for them. This is a great way to reach people talking about top-of-funnel right when they’re searching for your specialty however, when you rank online as well, they’re more likely to click your listing down below, rather than the ad so it allows you to transfer some of that budget that you would be spending on clicks to people who are clicking on your free listing anyways, so it allows you to transfer some of those clicks as well as reach people who are just searching for lots of different things and they are wanting to make sure that you are legitimate and also to be able to find you and also positioned you above your competition if you’re showing up higher than them online as well.
04:35 CM: We have seen this to have a great return on investment and so traffic that you are getting from organic searches tends to be a little bit easier to convert. They aren’t seeing an ad and then wanting to do more research. You are the research that they are finding. So it’s a very cost-effective solution that has a high return on investment, and there are a few things to keep in mind as you are doing search engine optimization.
05:12 CM: One is you wanna make sure that you are thinking about mobile users. So about 62% of folks who are doing these searches are on their mobile phones. Often times, we even see search traffic up in the 80% for some of our clinics that we’re working for. And so you want to make sure if somebody’s doing a mobile search for your clinic, you’re also showing up there. Typically, people are starting to use voice searches. So rather than typing in a keyword, or two or service that they want, they are literally searching for a orthodontist near me or a pediatric office near me. And so you wanna make sure that you’re showing up for mobile users, and most importantly, for local mobile users, so put your clinic name, your location, and information like that in there so that people know that you are the one to visit.
06:13 CM: Let’s see, there are a few different ways that you can make your website stand out for search engines in 2020. And the first alluded to this with the blogging and how there is the gap for healthcare with blogging and a gap that you can fill by creating content that people are looking for. And so this is called on-page SEO, this is creating new content with keywords in it. Another thing that’s very valuable is building backlinks, so this is getting other websites, other directories to link into your website and having backlinks is one of the key indicators that Google is currently, looking for because it’s showing that other people want to link to your site. There’s a whole strategy behind this.
07:12 CM: I’m gonna be talking more about keyword research in the second part of this and how you can utilize that blog post, however if you are interested in the backlinking strategy, please just reach out to us schedule a consultation, we would love to chat with you in more detail about how to pursue backlinking for your healthcare center. However, this blog post is focused more on the front end of keyword research, creating content, things like that, then there is building links between pages. This is very easy to do if you are creating new content for your website basically on a blog post, if you mention a doctor’s name, link to their profile on your website if you are mentioning a service or a specialty, link to that specialty page. And so, just to wrap things up, in this part it is just very important to have search engine optimization as one of the key elements to your digital marketing strategy for your medical center because people are searching for medical practices and for specialists online if you want to meet them. Yes, you can create a referring partner relationships. However, a lot of folks are doing research themselves, and trying to figure out who’s gonna be the best person or best medical center to that they can trust to help heal them.
08:52 CM: So if you have any questions, please again jump over to that blog post, you’ll be able to read the full tutorial over there as well as watch our tutorial video and do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions on how your practice can utilize Search Engine Optimization and keyword research and backlinking to boost the number of new appointments that you are seeing. Thanks so much for tuning in and I will see you next time on The Social Speak Network podcast.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Why-Medical-Practices-Need-to-Invest-in-SEO-and-How-to-do-Keyword-Research.png800800Caitlin McDonaldhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngCaitlin McDonald2020-01-29 10:54:412020-03-17 15:42:08Why Medical Practices Need to Invest in SEO and How to do Keyword Research
Apparently, Google uses about 200 factors to rank a site. This can seem intimidating for those who just launched their website and are looking for ways to improve their search engine ranking. But here’s the catch. Not all of these factors do affect your SEO ranking. In fact, some of them are nothing but speculations.
As a business owner and digital marketer, it pays to pay attention to the things that really matter.
Here are 4 factors that do not directly affect your search engine ranking.
Social media presence
We all know how powerful social media is in reaching out to your audience. We’ve seen several articles circulating online suggesting that social media is the new SEO. While social media can help drive traffic to your site, it does not in any way affect your search engine rankings.
Let’s say your blog post garnered 20,000 Facebook shares. This will help increase your online presence, brand awareness and even boost your site traffic, which is a good thing. Social media can help your business in a lot of ways, but boosting your search engine ranking isn’t one of them.
Repetitive use of keyword
Most people would use the keyword throughout the content in the hopes of improving their search engine ranking. It helps to incorporate the keyword into your content as seamlessly as possible. However, overusing organic keywords can be a bad thing.
The goal of creating content is to attract readers. Google will reward your site if you publish good quality, informative and relevant content. But if you try to incorporate too much keyword into your content, your articles may end up painful to read. Your content will suffer. This can negatively affect your SEO ranking.
Paid advertising
A lot of people think that they’d rank better in search engines, Google in particular, if they carry Google Adsense Advertising. This makes sense given that Google would make more money when people click the ads. But that’s not how it works.
While paid advertising can help drive traffic to your website, it doesn’t have a direct impact on your search engine ranking. The decision not to use Google Adsense will not harm or hurt your rankings.
The age of your website
Google doesn’t really care whether you built your website in 1999 or in 2016. The only thing Google cares about is how your content helps people. If you built your website more than a decade ago and it’s still running up to the present time, chance are you’ve already built a lot of authority, links, and equity.
Just because you created your website 2 years ago, it doesn’t mean that the older site would perform better. If you have reached the same status and have built the same authority, links, and equity, there’s a good chance that Google would reward your site even more. Why? It’s because you achieved all that within a short period of time.
Caitlin McDonaldhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngCaitlin McDonald2017-10-13 13:53:052018-04-07 20:46:194 Factors That Do Not Directly Affect Your Search Engine Ranking
Optimizing your website properly is crucial to improving your site’s rank in search engines, as well as driving more potential customers to it.
Are you satisfied with your website’s performance? If not, then we urge to you to try these tips for optimizing your website.
Title tags matter
Title tags play an important role in optimizing your site. A title tag tells both the visitors and search engines what the page is all about.
A title that is highly relevant to the page it refers to will provide better usability and optimization for your search engine ranking. People won’t stay on your site if there’s no relevance and you’ll lose ranking in the end. The title tag should also be unique.
Select common-sense keywords
A search engine’s job is to refer users to websites and contents that are relevant to what they are looking for. If you run a chocolate chip cookie business and you want your website on the first page of Google, then you need to write blogs that are related to this topic. Use keywords like chocolate chips, chocolate, sweets, baked goods and desserts. When incorporating keywords into your content, make sure they sound natural to the reader.
Write great content
Dedicate some time to write content that are useful and engaging for humans. As Google’s algorithm become increasingly complex and intelligent, it is no longer sufficient to create content, stuff it with keywords and publish them to your site. If you want to your content to rank in search engines, you need to provide visitors with relevant and well-written content. Remember, content still reigns as the king in the world of search engine optimization.
Continuous testing and measuring
The process of optimization is not a one-time process. It requires tuning, maintenance, as well as constant testing and measuring. Something as simple as testing the layout of your landing page, the wording of your call-to-action or the images you’re using can do wonders for your click-through rates.
Caitlin McDonaldhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngCaitlin McDonald2017-05-12 09:11:072018-04-07 20:46:25Simple Tips to Optimize Your Website
Driving traffic to their website is one of the goals a lot of online marketers and business owners share. This is especially important for those who are selling online. But it’s not just about getting people to visit your site; it’s more of driving the right people to your site. SEO plays an invaluable role here.
SEO will help your potential customers and clients find your website and increase your sales in the process. How? It all starts with the words they type into the search box.
Here are some keys to selecting highly effective SEO keywords.
Create a list of topics that are relevant to your business
Take a look at the content, articles, and categories in your site. If you have a business blog, there are probably some topics that you often write about. Start there. If you want to get a high ranking on a keyword, it should be based on a topic you’re already writing about. Otherwise, you’re going to fail.
From these topics, make a list of keywords that you think your target audience will be using to search for your business. For this to be effective, the terms you choose should be specific enough that you’ll be able to get a high search rank for it, but broad enough that a lot of people will search of it.
Use SEO tools
There are a lot of tools and data resources that you can use to gather and analyze the necessary data. These tools play a significant role in selecting your target keywords. This is important as the right keywords will build the foundation of your SEO campaign. Unfortunately, this can be a costly and tedious process, and not all businesses have the resources to invest in such tools
Luckily, there are several tools that you can use for free. Google Keyword Planner, Moz, Google Search Console, Keyword Tool and Google Analytics are just some of them. These tools will help boost your organic rankings on search engines and instantly improve your marketing.
Refine your list
If you notice an increase in traffic to your site but there is still no improvement in your sales, then you need to refine your keywords. As mentioned earlier, you need to attract the right people in order to reach your end goals. To do that, you’ll need to take a look at your keywords and determine which one delivers the most conversion. Use those keywords in your content and optimize your landing page as well.
So you have finally decided to incorporate SEO into your online marketing strategy. That’s great! You chose a keyword and started using it into your content. You have uploaded those contents one after the other, and now you’re hoping that your website will land at the very top of Google’s rankings.
If you want to increase your website traffic, it is important to have search engine optimization in mind when creating contents for your website. That plan starts by avoiding the mistakes most website owners make.
In this blog post, we’ll give you a roundup of the most common SEO mistakes people make. Most of these mistakes cause huge, deal-breaking, rank-destroying disasters.
Copying content
Google wants high quality, original content. If you think you can trick Google by stealing some pieces of content from your competitors, think again. Copying content is not only illegal; Google will punish you for it. In fact, it will push your site so far down no one is going to ever read your content.
Writing original, compelling content takes time and effort. But if you want your website to stand the test of time, then you need to work hard for it.
Bad content
Poor content will not only weaken your ranking, it won’t simply make an impact to your readers. For your content to flourish, we advise that you choose topics that are of interest to your target audience. Do your research and write articles that are informative, relevant and unique. Supply your audience with a steady stream of high-quality content and watch as your rankings improve over time.
Not using the right keywords
Some people use generic keywords such as health, weight loss, baking or love. These types of keywords are too broad. While they can help you reach a wide range of audience, chances are it’s the wrong type of traffic.
To improve your chances of landing on the top three spots, consider using more specific keywords. As an added bonus, this will help you attract prospective customers who might be interested in buying your products.
Keyword stuffing
This is a common mistake newcomers often make. While it is important to incorporate the keywords into your content, make sure you don’t overdo it. Otherwise, it’s going to sound spammy. You want the article to sound natural and not forced.
Caitlin McDonaldhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngCaitlin McDonald2016-08-22 09:25:562018-04-07 20:46:25SEO Mistakes You Need to Stop Making
Social media marketing may seem like a fairly simple concept. All you have to do is to create an account on different social platforms and post updates every now and then. But the truth is, there’s a whole lot more that goes into building a social media presence and reaching your audience.
Whether you’re a large corporation seeking new ways to improve your online engagement or a new business trying to decide where to focus your social media efforts, there are a lot of ways to boost your social media presence.
Here are some steps you can take to help get you started.
Identify your audience
There are millions of active users on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media channels. The first thing you need to do is to identify your target audience and determine which sites they use the most. This will help you narrow down your options and know where your focus will be.
Build a targeted community
As an entrepreneur starting or running your own business or a professional trying to build your online brand, you want to have a good social media presence. But in order to do that, you first need to develop a large following. That means followers and fans on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts.
Engage with everyone
Social media should be less about you and more about your audience. It’s about making connections and having conversations.
Rather than focusing on your promotion, you want to use this opportunity to engage with people. Speak to them. Ask them to take part of the conversation, ask questions and encourage them to submit photos while using your product. People are likely to like, comment and share your content if you have established a relationship with them.
Produce valuable content
There are several types of content you can post on social media. You can post videos, blog posts, client or customer testimonials and others.
Aim for social updates that contain educational content rather than product-focused content. Make sure your Facebook posts, tweets and LinkedIn updates consist of engaging, useful and valuable content.
Caitlin McDonaldhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngCaitlin McDonald2016-07-05 09:58:302018-04-07 20:51:34How to Build a Strong Social Media Presence
Content is the new method of advertising. Over the years, business owners and marketers have realized the importance of utilizing content in their marketing strategy. Because of this, most companies have made a commitment to push content out there to keep feeding the masses with information. Audiences today, however, have wised up. That said, the importance of quality content cannot be stressed enough.
Forget about the dry press release and the hard sell. Rather, provide your audience with good content that they can to share with others.
Here are 3 reasons why high quality content still matters
Helps improve your ranking on search engines
Every user is searching for content in some form or another. Some businesses, however, think that the more content they have, the better their chances are of appearing in Google or other search engines. What they fail to realize is that quality is one of the key ingredients of a successful content marketing.
Google’s primary goal is to provide users the best results possible. Search engines are getting better at sniffing out bad content. Google, for instance, constantly update their algorithms to ensure that top-ranking sites contain high quality and relevant information. Just having something on your site is not necessarily good.
First impressions matter
In this digital age, people first visit your website and read through your content to decide whether you’re a credible business. It is often the first interaction a prospective customer has with your brand. Hence, it is important to take time to make your website as appealing as possible.
If your site is full of bad writing and grammatical errors, users are likely to migrate away from your site. Remember, contents that aren’t well written convey incompetence and laziness. These are two things you certainly don’t want associated with your business.
Attention is getting harder to grab
With professional services firms now churning out more content than ever, there is far more marketplace noise to cut through in order to capture the attention of your target audience. Companies that provide high quality content are those that are succeeding in reaching their audiences and converting their visitors into paying customers.