Search Engine Optimization could sound scary when you hear it. It sounds like the type of feature you need to specialize in to truly take advantage of. It’s a phrase used in the marketing world to make it seem as though they are the only ones who can help you understand and succeed with it. It’s something you may hear all the time and feel as though you might have a scratch-and-sniff understanding of, but not something you feel like you can make a difference in yourself. Well, guess what, my friend – you can! This process is going to give you a game plan that you can implement strong SEO inside of your practice today to help your organic rankings, not take up an immense amount of time, and make your business more profitable.
What is Search Engine Optimization (or SEO)?
First, you need to gain an understanding of what SEO is. In a literal explanation of Search Engine Optimization, the dictionary defines it as “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.” To put it in simpler terms, it’s the way potential or existing patients are going to find your offerings online through a search engine such as Google, Bing, etc. The higher your rankings are, the easier it is for someone to find out about your products and services. Which in return will drive traffic to your website and have prospective patients filling out consultation request forms. So, greater rankings equals higher revenue opportunities.
How Do I Know What My Current SEO Rankings Are?
This is a lot simpler than you think. Take out your phone, go to a search engine, type in your highest revenue generating procedure, followed by the town your practice is in. If your practice does not show up on the first page for that phrase, then there is some work to be done. Do this task for your entire suite of services to see where the practice falls and where your efforts need to be put first. Once pinpointed where the practice is at with organic SEO, put together a strategy to bump those rankings up and stay there. Some examples of strategies are below.
What Can I Do to Help My Organic SEO Rankings?
This is the million-dollar question. One quick and easy way to grow your organic SEO within your practice is by utilizing your staff to research, structure, and write blogs that will be posted to your website. A blog is crucial to organic SEO because that is how search engines rank your website based upon unique and original content that contains crucial key words. For example, here at Crystal Clear, the staff in our sales department once a month writes a blog on a service or subject that is common here. This allows the staff to have a deeper understanding of what is offered and create a stronger and more effective organic SEO presence. Have your team each write a short blog (at least 750 words) like this that details out what your practices offer. For example, if you are a med spa, ‘What are the benefits to Botox?’ could be a great topic for someone in the practice to write about. By doing this, it puts your practice in a great position to win the battle of SEO in your local area. When it comes to organically ranking pages on your website the number one thing to remember is content is king. The more original content you and your team can produce the better your rankings will be.
Organic SEO vs. Paid Search
This is a topic that could be discussed for multiple blogs. The difference between the two is really a philosophical belief. Putting together an organic SEO strategy that is going to get you ranked for your top keywords and phrases and keep you ranked is more of a long-term solution. Whereas paid search such as “Google Ads” is more of a short-term solution. Sometimes to see the results you are looking for it takes a blend of both, but do not put yourself in a position where you are a slave to paid search. Think about this, you could be doing great through some paid ads and consistently receive traffic through this method, but if for some reason Google decides that your phrase and keyword is worth more in your area, you are then subject to paying that price because you didn’t do the dirty work of getting yourself on page one for those keywords or phrases in the interim.
Make More Money. Have More Fun!
Has there ever been a better headline than that? Obviously, if we are in an industry like aesthetic medicine, we’re not trying to run a nonprofit. Some practice owners employee ten, twenty, and some as many as fifty employees. This means you have a fiduciary responsibility to do exactly that. Make more money. In order to do this, you must wire your brain and align your goals for growth. Putting yourself in a position where the practice is consistently working on your organic SEO is inherently going to help with growth. This strategy for organic SEO is not going to change your practice over night, but it will help you win the long-term battle. Organic SEO is just one spoke on the wheel of your digital marketing ecosystem. In order to maximize your practice’s fullest potential, it takes a fully comprehensive solution that runs in the background of your practice and funnels the right type of patients to the door. The best part about that is that Crystal Clear Digital Marketing was created to do just that. We are here to help practices find, serve and keep more patients profitably. If you are ready to take on the digital marketing battle, Crystal Clear is ready to fight by your side. Contact us today to set up a free online demonstration to see just exactly what we can bring to your practice.