1. Perform Competitive Research & Find Relevant Keywords

Look at your competition to see what their successes and mistakes are. See if any successful design elements or body copy tone that can be tailored to your unique company brand. By researching their negative reviews, you can avoid any obvious mistakes that have already been done by other companies your similar industry. Also use Google’s Keyword Planner to discover search engine friendly keywords you can use in your website’s headings and body copy. Incorporating relevant keywords will not only separate you from the competition but increase your value to Search Engines like Google and your potential clients searching from products or services like yours. 

2. Optimize Your Website’s Content for Mobile

Most searches come from users on their phone. Google also uses mobile-first indexing that prioritizing mobile-friendly design. If you want rank higher on SERPs, your website must be responsive and load fast. While most web templates come already responsive, it is still wise to check on your phone to see if any content or photos gets cut off or if your website loads slow. You may need help from a digital marketing agency if you can’t fix any cut off content on your own or if the template you chose is buggy and loads slowly. 

3. Set up Google Search Console

 Google Search Console is a tool that allows you to submit your website to be indexed, as well as view data about your website’s traffic and performance. This is useful for successful long-term SEO plans, digital marketing, and performance of your website. It allows you to view items such as user click-through rate and other performance elements. You can also keep track of any site errors that will help keep your website functioning optimally and prevent unsafe web practices. The data you gather will help you create comprehensive plans that don’t waste your money and maximize you ROI. 

4. Create a Sitemap and Submit It 

A sitemap contains a list of all the pages on your website in a single file. If you have a sitemap, this helps search engines index your website quicker and easier. Google has a tool that can help you create one or you can ask a digital marketing firm to help. It is also wise to include a link to your sitemap in your website’s footer. Once you submit your sitemap using web master tools, search engine crawlers will find your website and index for SERPs. The quicker this can be done more likely you will increase the rank of your website, thus gain more users and clients.

5. Add Structured Data Markup 

Structured data markup is a code that you can add to your website’s HTML code. It is used to help search engines understand the information on your website. This helps when trying to attract organic traffic. Structured data is a standardized format for classifying page content. For example, on a recipe page: what are the ingredients, the cooking time and temperature, the calories, etc. This will help your website become more engaging to your users leading to rich results. The more interaction users have with our website, the more value search engines register it as and keep it high on SERPs. 

Let us include a SEO plan with your new website. Call 248.528.3600

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1. Use Appropriate Medical Keywords 

Make sure you target the correct keywords for your industry. Start with the medical product or services you offer, then use Google’s Keyword Planner to help find the best keywords to incorporate into your content. Compare your results to what is and isn’t being search by users. Avoid keyword stuffing at all costs! This is a spammy tactic that will penalize your website. Instead, be specific. Use short-tail keyword in titles and long-form keywords into your body copy. Make sure your body copy is relevant, readable, and simple enough to understand. A lot of medical medicines or ingredients like to use long Latin words, don’t be afraid to mention their common names in your content as reference. 

2. Add A Lot of Content Pages

Other industries usually have to cut back on the amount of content they include, but for medical websites it is the opposite. Include high-quality information that goes into detail on how your product or service will help make your target audiences lives’ better or easier. The more long-form content you include, the more likely Google will recognize you as an authority and thus increase your ranking. Ideas on how to increase your content length are:

• Add a blog page
• Side effects section
• How-to-use section 
• When-to-use section
• Symptoms section
• Ingredient section
• When-not-to-use section
• How it will improve your life description 
• Meet the doctors page 
• About the manufactures page 
• FAQ section or page 
• What to ask your doctor section 

3. Optimize Visual Elements 

Include photos and graphic elements to make your pages more interesting to look at. If you can include a video, even better! Infographics are also an underrated visual medium that could display useful information for your users. This will increase organic traffic and encourage visitors to stay longer on your website. Increased view time tells search engines that your web pages have valuable content that is useful to users. For images, make sure you don’t forget to include accurate alt text and meta descriptions for Google crawlers and e-readers.

4. Optimize Website Speed, Security & Mobile Friendliness 

Website speed, security, and mobile friendliness are all ranking factors. First, use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to check your current site speed. Since you have a lot of content, your page might load slower than others, however, you still want in to be quick enough for users to know that your website is active. A few ways to increase speed is to:

• Have a performance-optimized hosting provider
• Compress images
• Reduce URL redirects 
• Cache your web pages
• Enable browser caching 
• Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML
• Eliminate unnecessary plugins
• Use asynchronous loading for CSS and JavaScript files

Second, check the security of your website. Use an SSL certificate to encrypt your website and ensure visitor data is protected from hackers. Also check for spam links in existing or old content. Always keep your website software, apps, and plugins updated (read more on keeping your website secure here). Lastly, ensure your website is mobile friendly and responsive. Check on phones, iPads, and desktops to see if your website is functional. Most CMS, like WordPress, have templates already optimize for responsive design, but if your site is still running on PHP you may want to hire a digital marketing firm to update the your web design. 

5. Offsite Factors 

Check your social media accounts, especially if you have a plugin linked to your website. Make sure the passwords are strong. Clean up comments that contain spammy links. Block suspicious accounts that want to follow you. Use social media platforms as a link-building tool that leads to longer form content on a landing page. You can also use social media to interact with clients by asking important questions. Then, you can incorporate their questions into your content. Not only does this make it so your audience feels heard, but Google will also see you as a direct authority.  

6. Local SEO

Have a Google My Business profile. This can by created through Google Maps. It is important to build local traffic, especially if your business relies on in-person experiences. You want your website to pop up in the top 10 results when they ask “(medical practice, drug store, med supplies, etc.)  near me”. Fill out the following information: 

• The business categories
• Your primary phone number
• The business description
• Your hours of operation (and any seasonal hours)
• Your address or service area.
• Google reviews of your business
• Photos of your business and products or services

Let us help with your medical business’ SEO. Call 248.528.3600.

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1. Changes to responsive search ads as Google focuses on automation

In August 2021, Google announced that automation should be a key focus for businesses. From June 30, 2022, responsive search ads (RSAs) will be the only search ad type that can be created or edited within standard search campaigns. Expanded text ads (ETAs) will no longer be an option. RSAs allow multiple headlines and descriptions for ads. Google uses machine learning (ML) to automatically test different combinations to find the highest-performing ad.

There are a few clear benefits for advertisements using RSAs v ETAs:

• Increased engagement from customers due to improved click-through rates
• Lower costs due to improved ad copy
• Testing in limited volumes: higher click-through rates and lower cost-per-click

Prepare your business by ensuring RSAs are in every ad group, and review performance of these ads to ensure they’re of the highest quality in line with Google’s scoring.

2. The start of keyword-less world: Performance Max

Google announced that Performance Max will replace Smart Shopping and local campaigns by the end of Q3 2022. Rather than the usual keyword-based search campaign, Performance Max uses:

• Your creative assets alongside business goals and automated bidding
• User signals and data-driven attribution to tailor ads to potential customers across the Google ecosystem (search, display, YouTube, Gmail, and Discovery)

This goal-based format helps target customers at the right stage of their purchase journey, depending on the goal of the campaign. Performance Max campaigns will be built from any existing smart shopping and local campaigns. Existing settings will remain, but they will be automatically upgraded from July onward. Create new campaigns and pause any relevant activity (such as Smart Shopping), then start working through the new additional creative assets. Have clear units of measures of success with GA4 that provides the most detail on performance. 

3. The re-introduction of broad match

Google has been changing keyword match rules since 2014. This always brings unpredictability around budget and performance. Previously, broad match meant that if the search query was contextually like the keyword being targeted, your ad could show. Modern search is an evolution of broad match and focuses on the meaning of your keyword and the intent behind it. This can include searches that don’t contain the original keyword terms.

Google’s BERT algorithm technology helps interpret queries, language, and search intent. It also makes keyword matching behavior more closely aligned Broad matches more relevant. There have been great results from testing, with important to web traffic and revenue. Ensure you’re live with automated bidding, as the new broad match needs this to work effectively. Start by testing any previous broad match modifier keywords. Choose campaigns to switch to broad match and run a test. Test this on stable campaigns, using robust testing methodologies such as Google’s built-in testing functions.

4. The removal of third-party cookies and the influence of audience

Brands have used cookies to help them target ads to the right audiences. With the removal of third-party cookies, Google is now focusing on the intent of people’s searches rather than audiences. This will capture people on the likelihood that they will meet a campaign’s objectives.

Measurement and optimization will be impacted. Review your platform’s initiatives to mitigate and understand whether they align with business goals and objectives.

Google recently announced that it will be sunsetting Universal Analytics from July 1, 2023. Think about the way you’re tracking to be able to capture and measure effectively moving forward. Find out what the platform you use is doing to enable continued measurement and reporting. 

First-party data also becomes important in targeting an engaged audience. Contextual targeting will again rise to the frontier for display/programmatic activity. Make sure you’re working closely with your provider and review targeting options for future activity and how to capture your target audience. Loss of third-party cookies and how to combat this should be a key talking point across all brands to make sure you’re not left behind when the change is made.

Update your paid search strategy now. Call 248.528.360.

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1. Keep Your Character Count in Mind

Title tags on search engines are limited to 50-60 characters. You want the topic your target audience needs to know about to be visible on the results page. If possible, use a keyword at the beginning. For Example, a headline might read “SEO Tips for Local Businesses in Michigan”. 

2. Avoid Keyword Stuffing 

It may be tempting to include a keyword or keyword phrase in your SEO headline more than once to help improve your ranking on search engines, but you’re more than likely to irritate or confuse your audience by doing so. It sounds repetitive and pushy: “SEO Tips: The Best SEO Tips from SEO Experts”. With such limited visibility of characters for a title tag, do your best to keep it simple for the search engine and your readers with your keyword quantity.

3. Be as Clear as Possible 

Use these questions as a guideline to help determine whether your title tag is user-friendly for your audience:

• Can my headline be easily skimmed? 
• Is my keyword or phrase found within the first or last 3 words of my headline? 
• Think of yourself as a teacher of your industry, would a new comer understand your headline? 
• Is my headline longer than 60 characters?
• Is my headline grammatically correct? 
• Am I using any unnecessary big words? 

4. Use Attention-grabbing Vocabulary 

Large words are not needed to sound impressive. Use call-to-action words to draw attention. A few examples:

• Boost
• Easy 
• Shop 
• Important 
• Limited
• Free
• Find Out
• Learn More 

5. Ensure Consistency between Title Tag & Content 

Make sure your SEO headline matches what you will cover in your content. Avoid clickbait, stretching the truth, or omitting relevant info in your content. If you are using a CMS, such as WordPress, titles are auto generated. Make sure to double check to see the title is accurate and if not, edit the title to match. 

Too busy to change your headlines? Call 248.528.3600. 

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In an example provided by moz.com, Popsockets, a phone grip brand, activated 8 of their brand ambassadors to participate in a trend known as the “Emoji Outfit Challenge”. The ambassadors would film themselves matching their outfits to popular emojis and include a phone grip into their respective outfits. Their product reached 2 million viewers.

If a popular influencer from your niche is already featuring a generic product, you sell in a trending piece of content that could translate into follow-up content such as reviews, hauls, etc. This could also lead to content being created that your product could be seamlessly incorporated into. For example, if you sell cookware and you send cookware to a cooking influencer, and they genially enjoy your product, they will use it in other videos they create. Reach out to influencers for product placement and use the power of spoken word marketing. You can find influencers in every niche or even look beyond your niche; you might find a new market to break into that overlaps with your target audience. With the right creative spin, even seemingly mismatched pairings can yield successful results.

Ready to develop an influencer marketing strategy? Call 248.528.3600.

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Here is how it works provided by IBM:

Enter your site into the search bar within the tool. Then go to the Positions tab and enter how much monthly volume you or stakeholders would consider “impactful”. Large enterprises usually enter approximately 1,000 – 5,000 as a minimum, while small business enter 100 – 500 searches. Remember not to set your minimum too high, the goal is to find easy-to-rank keywords. Moving on to the next step, filter keywords to only show terms sitting in positions 11-20 that nearly rank on Page 1. 

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Also, perform SEO with the latest updates in mind. SEO will help your help you get onto Google’s first page. Best practices include creating quality, keyword-targeted content along with optimizing images and building links. Use Core Web Vitals to align with every page experience update. Use schema markup so that rich snippets can appear below your site title in the SERP, like ratings or even your main navigation pages. The pandemic has strengthened consumer support for local businesses, so prioritize local SEO. 

Businesses that blog get 55% more website visitors than businesses that don’t. Including a business blog is a great way to include keywords. Each post can be a deep dive into a keyword. This also helps in ranking for that keyword and to appear in search results for tons of searches your target customers. It can also provide essential information about your field or service or product. 

Need help with these services? Call 248.528.3600

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