Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of enhancing a website or webpage to increase its visibility in search engine results. By optimizing your website, you can increase the organic (unpaid) traffic and potential patients being driven to your website.
Search engines determine the organic ranking (the order in which a website or web page shows up in an organic search) of websites and web pages through an algorithm that looks at many factors such as:
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- Content length
- Quality of the content
- Relevance
- Readability
- Page load speed
- Quantity of referral links
- Quantity and quality of social media links and shares
- Website traffic
- Core Web Vitals
- Alt tags
- Meta descriptions
- And much more
When a user searches for a keyword or phrase in a search engine, the results that appear are based on this algorithm. But, an optimized website is about much more than just adding relevant keywords. SEO can be improved through several activities performed consistently over time. While some of these updates involve SEO tools and experts, here are 5 simple things you can do right now to help improve the SEO of your website.
#1 Add Relevant Video
Nobody wants to read a page full of lengthy paragraphs. The amount of online video being consumed has almost doubled since 2018. Video is processed in our brains 60,000 times faster than text, which allows users to quickly gain and process information without having to read or do much thinking. When communicating with people in person, 93% of communication is visual. Of the information that we take in day to day, 90% of what our brain processes and saves is also visual. It’s no surprise that people prefer visuals over heavy text. Adding video content to your pages is good for SEO and is another one of the many factors that are taken into account in the algorithm mentioned above.
#2 Add Relevant Images
Similar to video, images can help convey your message without using a lot of hard to read text. Just be sure to select images that are relevant to your content. If you’re using free stock images, it’s also important to make sure you’re permitted to use them. There’s nothing worse than getting caught up in copyright infringement.
#3 Add Or Update Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions, or meta data, are displayed in search results and can influence click-through rates. Meta descriptions should be no more than 160 characters, enticing enough to get people to click on your page listing and include relevant keywords.
#4 Add Relevant Keywords
I know, I know! We just said it’s about more than adding relevant keywords, but performing regular keyword research and reviewing your content for potential updates is vital to staying in the game when it comes to ranking. If your content is missing new keywords, you could be missing out on appearing in new search queries.
#5 Add Relevant Inlinks and Backlinks
An inlink is a hyperlink on text on a page on your website to other content on your website. Inlinks are a great way to share other relevant content about the same or similar topic. A backlink is a hyperlink on text on a page on your website to content on a different website. Backlinks are a great way to provide a source of information for facts or data. Both benefit your SEO by supporting your existing content.
While these things are a great start, nothing beats an SEO strategy, tools and expertise in optimizing your website. At Points Group, we have over 20 years of experience providing high quality SEO service and healthcare focused content writing. Contact us today to get started.
