Are You Guilty of Sidelining Veterinary SEO?

As a veterinarian, there’s not much you can be accused of ignoring. You work hard in one of the noblest professions, and compassion comes to you naturally. Like most veterinarians, this probably shows in how you run your practice. In today’s highly competitive world, however, having the populist vote simply is not enough. You need work continually to consolidate your position.

This is true for your Google ranking as well. To stay competitive, you need to enjoy top ranking with Google. So how do you do that?

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most effective ways of getting a good spot in search engine results pages. But what is SEO exactly? Simply put, it’s what you do to ensure the visibility of your website and its content when people use search engines like Google.

However, the search engine giant uses around 200 factors for ranking websites. The big question—do you need to worry about all of them?

The answer is a categorical no, but there are important SEO factors that you need to weave into your marketing plan if you want to strengthen your search engine ranking position. Quality content and authoritative backlinks to your website are the two SEO success goal posts that you need to aim for if you want Google to notice your website and give you a page one ranking.

Quality Content Is Centric to User Experience

Through the years, content was made king, dethroned, and even ignored by a lot of digital marketers and self-proclaimed SEO gurus. However, quality content has been the hallmark of brand marketing and Google ranking for several crucial reasons.

If the quality of your content is great, then clients will naturally gravitate toward your brand. Why? Because over time, your website (and thus your brand) will develop the reputation of being an authoritative site that caters to what digital audiences want from brands the most: quality and highly relevant content.

For Google it is user experience that is the deciding factor behind all the changes and upheavals you see in its SEO mashup. If Google’s audience is happy with something, the search engine giant will show more of it!

[Click here to learn more about how Google is dividing into two search engines.]

Here’s what you need to do:

• Ensure your content ranks high in relevance. This means tailoring your content to be relevant to a specific query so it can rank for that query.
• Make sure your content is high in quality. Simply put, all your content should meet the needs of your audience.
• Lastly, ensure that your content is well organized, formatted clearly, and easy to read and understand. Do away with medical jargon, keep the language simple, and work with your webmaster to ensure that your site is easily navigable and high on user experience.

Provide Authoritative Backlinks to Your Content

The number of quality backlinks to your content is one of the ways in which Google measures site authority. A backlink is simply a link from one page on your site to another page on your site. While this may not seem to be an easy feat, it’s actually rather simple. At least in its logic.

Let's go over the logic first. Google essentially uses sites that it trusts to determine which new sites it should trust. This means that if your site consistently features quality content, and the sites that Google trusts start linking to your content organically, Google's trust in you will increase.

Now let’s talk implementation. Here’s what you can do:

• The quickest (and often more effective) content delivery platform today is social media. Share your content on all your social media platforms to build a strong presence and gain website page views.
• If you provide a newsletter, send links to all your content to subscribers on a regular basis. If you don't already run a newsletter, you might want to consider starting one.
• Connect with influencers within your industry and request backlinks. Also reach out to influencers who you feel are a good fit for building exposure for your content. In return, explain how your content can help them build more interactive engagement with their audience. It must be a win—win for both parties involved.

Conclusion

Quality and relevance are pivotal when it comes to creating veterinary content. You need to balance both and consistently send out great content not only for your audience but also to get on the radar of industry influencers. This is the best way to get Google to notice you and to give your veterinary brand top search engine ranking position.

Naren Arulrajah is president and CEO of Ekwa Marketing, a complete Internet marketing company that focuses on SEO, social media, marketing education, and the online reputations of veterinarians/practice owners. With a team of 140+ full time marketers, www.ekwa.com helps practice owners who know where they want to go get there by dominating their market and growing their business significantly year after year. If you have questions about marketing your practice online, call 855-598-3320 to speak one-on-one with Naren.