Raise surgery center (ASC) website rankings by using updated tactics and strategies that align with Google SEO algorithms
Here are some things you can do to update your site and raise visibility without a total redesign
First, above all else, stop keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is so passe’. You may have some of this in your website already. If you have pages that are full of phrases like “best hip surgeon near me” or “knee replacement Atlanta” you need to change this. That’s because Google punishes sites if they use awkward unnatural language in content, headings, and button text or other calls to action (CTAs). Why? Because it damages Google’s brand promise of relevance delivery, so they bury your site if they catch you using this tactic to attract site visitors.
Google changed the rules when popular keyword phrases began showing up on landing pages and blogs, even if the content didn’t fulfill the user’s intent. Search engines now reward content written for actual human consumption, not to game their algorithms in pursuit of higher search rankings. Spammy content that does not satisfy user intent now gets driven down in SERPs. And don’t think for a split second that hidden web content will give you an advantage. Some novice or incompetent content creators attempt to circumvent search engine penalties by stuffing multiple keywords into the alt tags in images or the meta tags in their HTML. Game over. Search engines see right through this tactic and will penalize your pages in retaliation.
According to our Google-certified, digital healthcare marketing and branding expert, Maria Todd, so many medical practice, veterinary, ASC and hospital websites contain these 2013-era tactics that worked until they didn’t. Todd says that when she consults to healthcare providers on marketing and branding strategy and tactics, she discovers these tactics in more than 90% of client assignments.
Can You Revise it Yourself?
For Do-it-Yourselfers who don’t want to hire a marketing or branding consultant to update their site, Todd suggests that they examine every page and photograph. If your site was tuned to “knee replacement Atlanta”, revise the phrase to read, “We have provide excellent outcomes on knee replacement surgery by board-certified surgeons and anesthesiologists at our suburban Atlanta location.” and get the desired result.
Just keep in mind that you are trading your most precious commodity, time, a resource that can never be recovered and repurposed for doing this tedious assignment. Todd encounters many clients who begin the D-I-Y task and soon realize that D-I-Y isn’t the best use of their time or their staff time and eventually hire it out to Todd and her team of experts who do this better, cheaper, faster, and more skillfully.
“But whatever you do, realize that for every day this tactical approach is on your site, you get buried deeper and deeper and your URL (which is a big brand asset) is deemed “more scummy” and buried deeper and deeper by the search engines – Not just Google, but Bing and all the others,” Todd adds.
What are some other current SEO tactics to try?
Maria Todd suggests the following five tactics:
- Fresh weekly content. At least one article per week. Mix up text, audio, images and video.
- Make sure blogs contain at least 300 words.
- Keep your keyword density to about 2% of content in each article or page.
- Use secondary keywords and long-tail keywords. Search engines reward balance and natural language relevance.
- Post high quality content that your customers will want to read. For that you may need a branding consultant to help you define your target audience, their psychographics, and develop relevant messages that feature your ideal customer for that page, article or item as the protagonist. There’s a lot to this last pointer because to do this properly, you must KNOW THE CUSTOMER you are targeting and tell them the story that will compel them to choose your brand, your price, your location, your service over all your competitors.
