Audiology SEO, Those Tips I promised

Structuring Audiology SEO for maximum impact

Search engine optimisation has changed quite a bit over the last two years. In fact it is an ever evolving concept with new elements and conceptual thinking arriving at an almost daily rate. Even for someone who is fascinated with the subject, it can be hard to keep up. 

The best advice

The best advice I have, wait for it.... is write for prospects. Yup, believe it or not that is the single best piece of advice I can give you in the modern SEO landscape. Google are consistently changing how they rank sites, the one thing that stays consistent is that they reward sites that write good content. 

Content that meets the needs of searchers will always float to the top in the search rankings. So if you write content that answers the needs of your prospects it will rank well. Simply because your content is meeting the needs of those searchers. Google is getting better and better at understanding what those prospects are actually searching for.

There has been a concerted move within Google to move towards semantic search. This type of search structure allows Google to understand the concepts behind the search phrase. We see this in action when content appears for a search that doesn't necessarily have the keyword or keyword phrase used for the search in it. 

Google is attempting to understand the scope of the content and its full relevance in relation to searches. They are in fact getting better and better at it. However, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't use good SEO structure, priciples and even keywords in our strategy. 

Focusing on keyword phrases and localisation

The key for us is to focus on keyword phrases, not keywords in isolation. Consider the way people think, they ask questions in sentences, not necessarily in keywords. This is becoming more important with the prevelance of mobile search. Mobile search is often spoken, not typed, this changes the search queries used. For instance, if we were searching for a cafe in Blackrock on desktop, we would probably type Cafe, blackrock or maybe Cafe in Blackrock. 

When talking to your phone you are more likely to say find me the best cafe in Blackrock or just what's the best cafe near me. Those are pretty different search terms from the typed alternative. It is just human nature to speak in a different manner from the way we type. This is going to become more important as spoken search becomes more prevalent on desktop (which it is). 

To meet this new type of search we need to focus on phrases, rather than just keywords. That has been the case for many years, but it is now imperative. If you want to rank for search that is relevant to you and your marketing needs, you need to write content that answers your prospect's questions. I mean you know what many of them are, you get asked them almost every day. Lets look at the technical structure of content and how you can maximise your opportunity for ranking. 

Technical structuring for maximum impact on your healthcare marketing strategy

Blogging or content marketing is an imperative in Google's brave new world. if you want to drive your on-line healthcare marketing strategy, regular articles will be the engine of it. The technical structure you apply to a blog post will also help you to understand how to perform the same service on your static web pages. 

Metas are important

Before we move to the actual post, let's look at Metas, some people have said that meta descriptions are un-important, we belive that to be bull. We have found both the meta title and meta description to be important for ranking and for click through. What is a meta? 

A meta title is a piece of html code that tells a search engine the title of the page, a meta description is a piece of html that tells a search engine what the page is about. However, they are much more than that, the meta title and description will appear in the search results. They are the little snippets for each entry on a search return page.

They are the first thing a searcher sees, they make a decision to click through to your site and your content based on these snippets. So they are exceptionally important!

Treat them like headlines

Treat the title like a headline and the description like an enticer, in this way you can maximise the potential of the searcher picking you in the search returns. It is that simple, unfortunately you get a limited amount of characters to do it with, but hey, no one likes it too easy right?

Most content management systems, WordPress, Joomla, AUDIOLOGY ENGINE (my idea of subliminal marketing!), will allow you to control and set your metas. You should take a little time to frame them, remember you need to be succinct, to the point but you also need to stoke interest. You need to do this across every page of your website, not just on your articles. 

Article or content structure

Normally I just write an article, I have an idea, I know what I want to say and I just splurge it out onto the page. I don't really think about structure other than start, middle, end. I then look at the article based on the formula A.I.D.A.

A. Get Their Attention, I. Stoke their Interest, D, Engender Desire, A. Move them to Action.  

Using this formula I may well re-write or move around some parts of the article based on how it reads. I didn't invent A.I.D.A, I just use it, it is a great conceptual structure for good copy. So having done all that, I then look with a deeper SEO eye at the following things. These are the elements that Google uses to understand the context of your article or page a little better. 

Your URL

Although Google has said that having your keyword in a url will not help a great deal, we have found in our experience that it does. The url is the address of the page, for instance this page is www.blah/seo-for-audiology-those-tips. We have cleverly included the phrase seo for audiology in the url, (how cool are we???? Irish wit again, I apologise). Again, don't go mad and make sure the url makes sense and isn't too long. 

Post Title

Your post or article title should contain the keyword or phrase that you are endeavouring to target. It also needs to be a little catchy, think of it as your on-page headline! Write it or re-write it so that it delivers to those needs

Header 1

In some content management systems the post title maybe the H1 tag, however, that is not always the case. You need to use good formatting in your posts, so the initial paragraph title of your post needs to be formatted as H1.Again, consider using your keyword or keyword phrase in the H1. However, it needs to be un-forced and natural. You are writing for people, not just Google. The same strategy goes for sub-headers like using H2, H3 etc. 

The body of the post

Write short sentences using good grammatical rules, don't overfill the copy with either jargon or keywords. It is easier for the the viewer to read and understand. You should also keep your paragraphs short. Maybe no more than six or seven sentences depending on length of sentence.

You should use the keyword or key phrase you are targeting within your post. However, when you use it, it needs to be used naturally. Do not stuff your post with keywords or key phrases. Google will make you pay for it by consigning your article to page ninety of the search results.

Remember write the post for the reader, in this way you will never go far wrong. Content marketing is about attracting people to you with well written and informative posts. Prospects have a set agenda in mind, their agenda. If you write the post with just your agenda in mind, you will fail.

Alt-text on pictures

Ensure that all of your pictures have alt-text that are designed to include your keywords or key phrases.

Use anchor text

Look for the opportunity to use anchor text hyper links in the post that will point to and support relevant pages on your site. This type of anchor text helps to set the terms of reference for Google to other parts of your site. It can also help to support different areas of your site in search. An example of this would be as follows.

A new product is released, you set up a page on your site to detail the product and perhaps the pricing. You then decide to write a post detailing what you think of the product and your experiences with it. The H1 is the product name at your location (in this way you are localising the keyword phrase).

In the following copy you use the phrase in a sentence, hyper-link this phrase back to the page on your site that is relevant to the product. This frames the terms of reference for Google of the page you are pointing at. So if somebody searches for product in location, you will have a better chance of ranking.

You may rank for both your website and your article for this type of keyword phrase search. In essence that is exactly what you want, getting them to your blog or to your site is the beginning of the journey to turning them into a lead. The one way to ensure that you are successful with blogging is to use a proper physical framework for your posts.

Don't forget! Write for people, structure for Google.