During this time of chaos and uncertainty, our team has been focusing on affordable ways to continue marketing for our pharmacy clients to ensure they stay top of mind, but don’t need to put in much effort. This blog will be reviewing website search engine optimization (SEO) as well as blogging tips to ensure your business can be found by your community.
First and foremost, for those who don’t know, search engine optimization is the process of increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website or a web page to users of a web search engine. This excludes direct traffic/visitors that were acquired via paid digital marketing (social media advertisements, Google AdWords, Geofencing). There are two avenues of SEO – on-site and off-site.
On-Site SEO:
This refers to things within your website that you can do to help improve your overall search engine rank. Things such as keywords, content, relevancy, internal linking and more all play a role in how your website is ranked.
Keywords. To start, conduct research to get an idea on what phrases your target audience searches for and find the best ones that apply to your website. I recommend using the Google Keyword Planner tool. Don’t go overboard. Including every possible keyword won’t help you. Pick one primary keyword per page on your website.
Content. Write high-quality, high-value, relevant content. For blogs, make sure it is at minimum 300 words – ideal length is closer to the 600 – 1200 word range. Additionally, it is important to regularly refresh your content – try to do so monthly, if not then quarterly.
Relevancy. All content on your website needs to provide the best, most relevant information. Search engines have evolved to the point where they can understand intent and relevancy to what a user is attempting to find. By writing content to be relevant to your ideal user you are helping ensure your website gets found.
Linking. Internal linking refers to building your website so that there are links on each page that direct users to additional, relevant pages. For example, if you have a section on your website that talks about a specific product or service, be sure to include a link that directs the user to a blog post that goes into more detail regarding said product or service.
It is also important to ensure that you optimize all of your images with alt-text, it is easily readable for all viewers (avoid overly small text or color combinations that are hard to read), and has a layout that is easy to navigate.
Off-Site SEO:
Refers to actions taken outside of your website that impact your search engine results rankings. Primarily this refers to social media pages, online listings, linked brand mentions (such as newspaper articles) and influencer marketing. The combined power of these items creates a funnel to your website through various sources throughout the internet. Essentially, it is the digital equivalent of word-of-mouth. Review your site visitor analytics regularly to see how your site traffic flows and see what areas need improving. Your website provider should be able to send you reports or a Google Analytics login.
Blogging
Similar to the on-site SEO tips, when it comes to blogging it is important to include the following:
Keywords. Before starting your blog, brainstorm some long-tail keywords that will apply. For example, a standard keyword for this blog could simply be SEO, but a long-tail keyword would be SEO and Blogging tips for small businesses. Don’t overuse your keywords but try to include them in your URL and meta description.
Content. As mentioned earlier, the ideal length for a blog is between 600 and 1200 words – depending on the topic. Don’t fill the blog with fluff to get more words - quality means more than quantity. Relevancy is just as important when it comes to content. Blogs are a great opportunity to show your expertise, not just as a sales tool.
For more information on SEO and blogging tips – we recommend visiting moz.com. They offer a lot of great information on all things websites and break it down so people outside of the world of digital can understand and follow. You can also reach out to the GRX Marketing team at 515-280-2914 or email us at info@grxmarketing.com
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