Google provides the lion's share of visitors to the average website so its essential to do what you can to get a good listing near the top of the page. For Health & Medical websites, search engines provide an average of 87% of traffic!
People can buy their way to the top of the listings through Google Ads however as soon as the campaign ends, the listing will too.
Websites can however achieve free (organic) listings through a process called Search Engine Optimisation or SEO. It is a list of criteria set by the search engines for websites to employ. The more criteria a website matches, the higher it will appear on search results. The good news is that if you have a website, you are likely following some of these rules already, so lets take a look at what else you can do improve your website's chances of getting found on google.
Quality Content & Relevant Keywords
Ultimately Google wants to match a user's search query to a highly relevant website page with as much accuracy as possible. So make sure that your website includes quality content on every service you provide. Also make sure to use the terminology that your clients use, for example, in the case of healthcare practices your clients might reference 'private practice' when searching for your type of services but you don't, make sure it is referenced somewhere on site so it will match to their terms.
Rich Media - Images & Video
Google likes websites that provide a well rounded experience for their visitors and that includes text, imagery and videos if relevant. Make sure images are high quality but low enough in file size so they don't take an age to load.
Navigation & Design
Your website needs to be easy to navigate across any device (desktop, tablet & MOBILE), with the ability to source information on your services in one or two clicks. Multiple menu layers are not good. Nor are over-packed, busy pages that forces the visitor to do a lot of work to find what they need. Simple, modern design should allow the content to stand out with intuitive pathways to contact pages and follow-on information.
Up-To-Date Content
Google loves proof of life! This means updating content on your website as often as you can. A great way to do this is through blogs, news, updates etc. You can also also build on your keywords (from the first point) using these resources.
Security Certificate / SSL
If your website doesn't start with https you don't have a security certificate and this is a big no-no. Google will penalise your ranking and your visitors will likely get a warning that your site is not secure and not to proceed. A bad look all round!
Ultimately, there are over 200 ranking factors from Google alone and there is a whole industry around it, but if you follow these more controllable elements you will be well on your way.
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