Having a strong web presence is crucial to growing your practice, and being visible to search engines is key to that goal. Research by Google & Compete reveals that 77 percent of patients use search engines prior to scheduling a healthcare appointment, and three times as many visitors to healthcare providers' websites come from search than from non-search sources. Search engines can therefore help you market your practice, and if you aren't using techniques to improve your search engine visibility, you're missing out on potential revenue.
The first step in improving your search engine visibility is to understand how search engines work . Search engines allow you to use keywords to search the internet. When you enter keywords into a search engine, programs called 'web crawlers' scour through trillions of web pages, and create an index, or list, of relevant web pages.
Search engines then rank the web pages using programs called search algorithms. Most search engines use several algorithms, and each algorithm takes hundreds of factors into account when determining how to rank web pages. These factors may include domain age, server location, the date and quality of content updates, and page load speeds. Google's best-known search algorithm, PageRank, counts the quality and number of links to a web page to determine how relevant a web page is to a search, and where it should appear on a search engine results page.
Search engines present these ranked websites on a search engine results page (SERP). You have seen this page before - that familiar list of search results that you are presented with after you search for a keyword on a search engine. Each result on the page normally includes a title, a link to the web page, and a description showing where the keywords in the search query match the content on the web page.
Search engines change their algorithms hundreds of times a year to fight blackhat, ‘cheating’ search tactics, and to improve users' search-engine experience. Most of these algorithm changes are minor; however, search engines occasionally roll out major updates that affect SERP rankings in significant ways.
One example is Google's Hummingbird update. Designed to place greater importance on whole search queries rather than individual keywords, Hummingbird affected 90 percent of all searches and was the most comprehensive update to Google's search algorithm since 2001.
Keeping abreast of search algorithm changes is key to ensuring that your website continues to rank well. One of the best ways to stay ahead of search algorithm changes and improve your SERP ranking is to optimize your website for search engines, and then measure and track your success. Below are some search engine optimization best practices to help improve your website's rankings:
Optimizing your website for search engines and staying ahead of search algorithm updates takes time and money. By outsourcing your digital marketing to a company that serves healthcare practices, you can ensure your practice gets the exposure and the expertise that it deserves. Want to learn more? Contact Online Podiatry Sites at 855-777-0548.
