The evolving rules of SEO logistics

New trends, algorithm updates and approaches.

By Michael Dobkowski

When balancing a busy practice and hefty surgical schedule, physicians can be tempted to procrastinate on improving their practice’s web browser placement. Don’t give in to temptation.

Effective search engine positioning, also known as search engine optimization (SEO), can help drive a significant amount of traffic and, ultimately, secure more patients. Understanding the basics of SEO enables a practice to select the correct SEO company to partner with for success. But, how do you know which resources should be put into SEO and if you’re on the right track?

2015 has turned out be a most progressive year in advancing search engine algorithms. The updates have favored strong content, location and quality website design instead of manipulative or unethical strategies (known as black-hat SEO techniques) to boost search engine placement. These updates have leveled the playing field and given new practices opportunities to land on the first page of a Google search result.

This article provides an overview of the important SEO logistics so that busy ophthalmology practices know what to do and look out for.

Keyword metrics, ROI and website traffic

The current movement of evaluating SEO effectiveness focuses more on traffic and ROI, but it is still important to optimize for the right keywords.

Your traffic matters, so before you do your appropriate keyword research, understand what your audience is looking for and where your traffic is coming from. Prior to writing your site content, determine those keywords that will be your areas of focus (such as cataract surgery).

Developing a content strategy

This year, content is back as an important factor in how well your SEO rankings perform. This means blogs are critical to the content strategy’s overall success, but having quality content on your Web pages is also important. In 2013, with the release of its major algorithm update, Hummingbird, Google said writing in a conversational tone will get a site noticed. The Google search algorithm, when crawling your site, will assess the type of verbiage and language used within it, and will award points accordingly based on whether you present your site’s content in a friendly, less technical manner. In other words, Google now knows when you’re treating your visitors like a person versus as an encyclopedia entry.

In addition to website content, another trend in content development is referred to as “content marketing.” Content marketing is a combination of SEO, social media and personalized storytelling that is often distributed online via outlets such as blogs, Facebook posts, message boards and other avenues.

Optimizing for mobile search

The percentage of organic traffic from mobile devices continues to increase. An estimated 46% of searchers now use mobile exclusively for product research, according to Search Engine Watch. As a result, Google places increasing importance on mobile-friendly sites, penalizing sites that lead to errors for mobile users.

With placing such importance on mobile search positioning and readability, expect Google to apply the following when assessing your Web page’s placement:

• Do fonts scale for easy reading on smaller screens?

• Do the touch elements, such as buttons, react readily, and are they spaced away from other touch elements?

• Does the website rely on the video web browser? Flash? Consider changing it; it tends not to play well in mobile browsers. The Googlebot must be allowed to crawl CSS and JavaScript.

• Have you separated the mobile URLs? You must redirect mobile users on each desktop URL to the appropriate mobile URL.

• Have you successfully avoided irrelevant cross-links? If your site links to the desktop-optimized pages from the site’s mobile version, and vice versa — get rid of them.

• Is your load speed, including that of your mobile page, in fifth gear? If not, make it so.

Note that mobile friendliness is determined at the page level — not sitewide — and Google is working on a dedicated mobile index. Page visitors do not want to scroll to the side to read a news article or perpetually zoom in to read the text on the page. Mobile-friendly Web design removes this potential hassle.

Your linking focus

Links — those inbound and outbound, those within your site — play an integral role in how the website performs.

Internet pages connect through embedded links. Despite all the updates and algorithm changes over the years, one thing remains the same: inbound links, or links from other sites to yours, are the most influential signals of trust and authority. In my opinion this isn’t going to change anytime soon.

Earning a single link on a high-quality relevant website is valuable for multiple reasons, including SEO, attracting referral traffic, leads, sales and branding exposure.

Also, search engines find your site through links and, in large part, use them to place your site in a search engine results page. Building a high-quality cache of incoming links can boost your medical website’s search engine rankings. Likewise, strategically-placed outbound links, or links from your site to others, can have an equally beneficial effect on your site’s rankings — as long as they are relevant and properly formatted.

Of equal importance, make sure that your visitors enjoy a hassle-free experience while navigating your website. As part of the spidering process, Google now assesses how easy it is for your visitors to get from the home page to what it determines to be the main or “pillar” pages of the site. Google rewards or penalizes your site based on that determination. If it takes more than a click to get from your home page to your main LASIK page, put some thought into changing the site’s navigation structure.

The local mix and effect of citations

As Google’s control over search-related items grows, it has added emphasis to other search areas, and as a result it is now important to have not only a local business profile, but also as many verifiable citations leading to it as possible.

It’s not only about making sure that you have an external profile — there are on-page considerations here as well. To aid your local efforts, make sure that you clearly and distinctly list all of your practice locations (even if you only have one) and mention your geographical area often. Add patient testimonials to the site, and make sure that cataract patients’ comments link to the cataract surgery page, and so on.

All of these considerations (and more) will ensure that Google and other search engines know not only who you are, but also where you are. In this new age of catering to people on the go, that couldn’t be more important.

On-page quality control

Despite the changes and challenges that search engines present to the SEO world, some things never change. Make sure the spiders can read the site’s basic elements, which must be present and correct. Each page should have appropriate URLs, images must be tagged properly, and targeted keywords should be used enough times throughout a page, but not too many times.

Conclusion

Ophthalmology is a unique industry; many traditional metrics don’t apply as they do to other industries. Yes, keywords should rank well and you want many online visitors, but it’s more important that you convert website visits to office visits.

Unlike most regular businesses with an online presence, one ophthalmology conversion can represent several thousand dollars in revenue, so it’s important to read and understand what your Google Analytics report is telling you, not just on the surface but down in the nitty-gritty as well. OM

About the Author
	Michael Dobkowski is a senior partner, managing director of search strategy and Internet Marketing at Glacial Multimedia Inc. He is a digital marketing veteran with 17 + years of experience helping ophthalmologists. A popular speaker at medical conferences, Mr. Dobkowski provides vital education about digital medical marketing concepts. 207-878-5900 or michael@glacial.com.