5 Ways To Improve Your Practice Search Results
It’s never been more important to have a clear online presence that is easy to find – without physical discovery, online discovery of your practice is everything!
The mysterious term of ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ (a.k.a. SEO) is one that appears on any marketing blog about search rankings. But what does this actually mean?
What’s the basic idea behind search?
In essence, SEO is all about the clever setup of your practice’s website in order to ensure your website ranks well when someone searches for you on a site like Google or Bing or Duck Duck Go (any search engine, really!). Google is the most popular place to search, and so websites tend to be setup to adhere to their guidelines about what performs well. This comprises of many small things that you can do to ensure your website ranks.
Why are search results important?
Search results equal views, and therefore traffic to your site! With more people coming to your site, more people will know about your service and what you offer. In general, anyone searching for chiropractic is likely to be interested either in the health practices more generally or looking specifically for help with a problem they have. With a good website that’s set up to answer this, you can ensure it’s you they find first when in need!
What makes for “good” SEO?
Good performance is a mixture of a relevant search term bringing a user to your site, by associating your site with those terms, as well as ensuring you ‘rank’ high up on the list of returned results. All to say: you want the right words to be associated with your site, but also words that people are actually searching for! By combining what people need with what you offer, your site is more likely to perform well and be seen. In terms of breaking down the way you achieve this, you need three key ingredients:
Great content!
Having excellent content on your site is what will keep people on your website and coming back for more. You need quality information, because search engines are always filtering out poor quality websites – they want to provide the best possible information to users!
Great site organisation!
This means a site that is arranged in a logical and neat way – no superfluous pages, random links, or content that is buried or hard to find. Organise your site well and it will make an impact.
Being the authority on your subject!
Being an authority is really important. This means that others link to your content, or it’s clear that you provide really necessary and high-quality information. When people link back to you, or you create backlinks yourself between platforms (like your social media), you’re showing the net that your website is valued and valuable.
So, all in all, it’s not as mysterious as it sounds initially. To help you get the most from your practice website, here are the insider tips you need to stand out!
1. Know your keywords
Do you know what words and phrases are important to you and your practice? This might be a whole host of things, for example:
What is the difference between a chiropractor and an osteopath
What does a chiropractor do
What causes neck pain
What causes back pain
How can a chiropractor help with neck pain
How can a chiropractor help with back pain
How to manage sciatica
How to deal with pain
Managing headaches and migraines
Starting your health journey
Tips for better wellness
Exercises to increase flexibility
How to achieve your health goals
Guide to setting health goals
Top 5 wellbeing tips
What you should know about back pain
How to manage neck pain
Exercises to prevent neck pain
Exercises for greater mobility
Exercises for strength
Top 5 health tips
Tips to improve your posture
How to sleep better
Best pillow for neck pain
Dealing with dizziness
How to maintain health
It’s a good idea to take a look at Search Console and investigate what is being searched for and how regularly. Think about your practice and how relevant these are to you.
Once you know what your keywords are, make sure they appear on each and every page of your website. But don’t go crazy - density of keywords over 7% of the total word count is considered junk, and a natural density is closer to 1%. So be mindful of how often you use your keywords!
2. Publish relevant content
Relevant content that speaks to your audience is essential. Having a blog is a great way to do this. Keep your keywords in mind, include them in your page URL, the page title and in page headings and subheadings as appropriate. But also be aware that you do need to write relevant copy within the larger body of the page. If you’re struggling, we can help.
3. Update regularly
Search engines want to know that you are keeping things up to date. This affects how relevant your site is to a set of terms, so make sure you’re regularly taking a look and updating on your blog and wider site.
4. Get your meta-data and alt-tags in order
Meta-data is usually a box inside your website’s back end, that appears each and every time you add something to your site. This is a space to add your keyword phrases and accurately describe what each page contains. Similarly, alt-tags are words that describe images added to your site – the search engine can’t read a picture, so you have to describe in words what the picture contains!
5. Promote links back to your site
Use your wider presence to direct your traffic back to your site. Consider collaborating with other health publications to include links back to your practice’s website. With your newsletter and social media as a great starting place, you can start to build meaningful links that show your website is valuable and worthwhile to read!
We hope this gets you started in improving your search rankings as a practice. For a detailed look into how you can achieve better results, get in touch. We can help with everything from identifying keywords through to blog writing. Make sure your practice is discovered online so you can get the message out to patients who need you.