In today’s world of Internet marketing, having a good website is only one piece of the puzzle. The simple fact is, everyone has a website. What’s crucial now is making sure your site is found by potential patients searching the web.
Search Engine Optimization aims to increase the visibility of your website on search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. At MyAdvice, we optimize your site using keywords relevant to your practice. These are based on the services and procedures you offer, your geographic location and most importantly, your target audience.
Now, understanding the value of your web traffic can be a bit tricky. Consider performing this quick SEO check up! Here are three steps you can take to ensure your site is being optimized to reach potential patients:
Step One: Check your rankings
Ask yourself, “Is my practice appearing in targeted searches?” The first step is “Googling” your practice. Try searching for the procedures and services you offer using the keywords used to optimize your site. Since SEO doesn’t happen overnight, you should see your website climb in search engine rankings over time.
But, while this may be a way to measure performance, it doesn’t measure value. Appearing in search results does not necessarily mean people are visiting your website. This is where your site’s analytics can help you dig deeper.
Step Two: Find out how many visitors your site is getting from search engines
Because your search engine rankings are not necessarily a measure of success, website analytics become a vital tool in determining the actual visitors to your website via search engines.
Web analytics services, such as Google Analytics, can show you exactly which keywords and terms are bringing the most visitors to your site. This data can also show just how much your site visitation has increased since you began optimizing your site.
To take this a step further, exclude visitors who found you through branded searches (by name instead of by general terms). Over time, you should see an increase in potential patients finding your site who hadn’t specifically searched for your practice by name.
Above is a screen shot of Google Analytics. You will want to access your Organic Search Traffic. This is where you will find the number of unpaid visits, most popular keywords driving organic traffic and where you can filter out branded keywords.
Step Three: Get out your calculator! Determine cost/visitor from search
To determine just where your marketing dollars are going, you need to find out how much each visitor is costing you! It’s important to look at the non-branded search visitors (visitors who searched for general terms and came to your website) and look at the actual cost of acquiring them.
If you are paying your SEO provider $425/month for services and your website received 3,864 non-branded search visitors over the past 4 months, your cost per visitor is 44¢. For comparison, a Search Engine Marketing (Pay-Per-Click) Campaign could cost as much $5-10 per visitor depending upon the specialty and market.
Key SEO Takeaway
Organic SEO is a vital part of your Internet marketing strategy. And, while SEO aims to obtain prominent rankings in search results, it is ultimately the search engines that determine the actual position. The only way to guarantee placement is through targeted Search Engine Marketing (Pay-Per-Click) Campaigns.
Want to learn more? Contact us today with any questions you have about SEO and SEM as part of your practice’s Internet marketing strategy!
