amwa seo -optimize your online content
TRANSCRIPT
Optimize Your Online Content
SEO Toolkit for Medical Writers and Editors
A Little About Us
Sara WuillerminSenior Editorwww.linkedin.com/in/sarawuillermin
Nicole HessDirector of Strategywww.linkedin.com/in/nicolecheriehess
What We’ll Cover➔ What SEO Is ➔ Why it’s Important➔ Strategy & Execution➔ Measuring Results➔ Q&A➔ Resources
What SEO Is
SEO is getting traffic to your site by being here
Why SEO Is Important
72 % of Americans
search online for health
information
50% schedule an appointment
based on what they find
SEO as Inbound Marketing
“Organic Search Is Actually Responsible for 64% of Your Web Traffic”
We have a responsibility.
And an opportunity.
Basic Terminology
Keywords / Key Phrase
A keyword (also known as key phrase) is what someone types into this search box.
Keyword Tail Length
Short tail Long tail
Tip70% of all searches are for long-tail keywords.However, most CEOs get excited by the high search volume of short-tail keywords.Your challenge awaits!
Keyword Tail Length
Short tail Long tail
@aaronfriedman
Google’s Index
That’s a lot of indexed sites for one keyword!
Keyword “nursing shoes”
ads
SERPs
The list of results that appear when a keyword is searches is called the Search Results Pages (SERPS)
There can be both ads and “organic” results on SERPs. organic
Keyword “nursing shoes”
ads
Ranking position #1
Ranking position #2
Ranking position #3
Organic Rankings
The order in which a site appears in the organic part of a SERP is its organic ranking position.
Google Changes, and Keeps Changing
A note on Google’s algorithms and updates.
4 updates in 4 years:PandaPenguinRankBrain“Possum” (name TBD)
Lesson learned? Good content always, always wins.
Google Scholar
Google wants scholarly articles. Options for individuals, universities and journals to submit to Google Scholar with minimal effort.
Google NewsWrite medical content for a non-medical site?If it’s newsworthy, Google News wants your content.
AMPGoogle wants to deliver a faster mobile experience, so it created AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages).
53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load
The average load time for mobile sites is 19 seconds over 3G connections
SEO in Action
Hospital Network of
40+ Locations
Situation:
40 hospitals in 6 states
Many offered the same services and treatments
Goal:
Increase organic SEO traffic to each hospital
Hospital Network of 40+ Locations
Steps:
1. Define specialties for each hospital.
2. Identify words that patients would search.
3. Map out geographic overlaps of hospitals.
4. Develop content strategy.
5. Implement new copy.
6. Track and measure results.
Results
Developed 50 unique content pieces
• One-fourth of original number of pages, pre-SEO estimate
Increased rankings and traffic for targeted hospital services
Content first redesign for all hospitals
• SEO + Content even led the redesign kickoff call
Why is SEO important for you?Connect your content
with the right audience
Use data to help people find the content that best suites their needs
It’s up to you to guide how users find your content
Developing SEO Content Strategy
Full SEO PlanStrategy Copy
Optimization
Technical SEO
Link Building
Keyword Selection
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Review Results
SEO Content Strategy In 4 Steps
The Assignment.
What is the assignment?
- Draft a new page for “Echocardiography”
Why is copy being assigned?
- To get more echocardiograms scheduled every week
TipFind out the main goal for the assignment before creating the copy→
Sometimes the “ask” and the actual “want” might require a different approach for content and SEO.
1. Define Goals“SMART” Goals:SpecificMeasurableActionableRelatable, and to occur within a specificTime
By writing a new page for the echocardiogram test we will increase traffic by 25% over 3 months and gain 2 new Web inquiries per month starting in 90 days.
2. Identify Target AudienceWho is your Audience?
3. Determine Desired Interaction
How should the audience feel after reading the content?Informed, reassured, ready to get the test done
Where should the audience go after consuming this content?To the Schedule an Appointment page
How will they get there?Custom image with link “Click here to schedule your
appointment”
4. Competition
Check out competitor pages for:
●Inspiration ● Things to avoid● What their SEO targets
are
Doing SEO
SEO Content PlanStrategy
Identify audience, needs, goals, and UX constraints
Keyword SelectionDetermine the words they are using to find your new cardiology content
1. 2.
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
- Dale Carnegie
Keyword Research:
Get interested in what people are searching for.
BrainstormThink of all the words someone may use to search for the particular page.
Write them down.
- Echocardiogram
- What is an echocardiogram?
- Stress echocardiogram
- Echocardiogram vs. ekg
- Echocardiogram near me
Go to the ToolsAnswer the Public.Mission: Get more ideas
Answer the Public
Go to the ToolsSEMrushMission: Get search volume dataMission: Research the competition
SEMrush Dashboard - Keyword Search Volume
SEMrush Dashboard
Go to the Results
Google.Mission: Not only to make good content, but make it better than everything else that’s out there.
echocardiogram
Review the search results for the keyword.- Can our content outrank what’s already there?
Review Content OutlineDetermine which keywords make the most sense to add for your page.
Use keyword Echocardiogram?- Yes.
What sites rank now?- General ones
Will we have a chance to rank for it?- Not likely
Transesophageal
echocardiogram
Review the search results for the keyword.- Can our content outrank what’s already there?
TipUse the results to get more ideas.
Review Content OutlineDetermine which keywords make the most sense to add for your page.
Use keyword Transesophageal echocardiogram?- Yes
What sites rank now?- Hospital, some general ones
Will we have a chance to rank for it?- Yes
List of Keywords to TargetKeyword Tail
LengthSearch Volume
Competition
To rank for?
echocardiogram short 74,000 General sites Not likely
Transesophageal echocardiogram
mid 5,400 Hospital sites, some general
Yes
Stress echocardiogram mid 2,400 Hospital sites Yes
How much does an echocardiogram cost
long 260 General sites Possible
How is an echocardiogram done
long 170 General sites Not likely
Content Optimization
Using target keyword strategically in copy.
SEO Content PlanStrategy
Identify audience, needs, goals and UX constraints
Copy OptimizationDevelop the copy with SEO best practices
Keyword SelectionDetermine the words they are using to find your new cardiology content
1. 2. 3.
Now where to put the keywords
MetadataMeta TitleMeta Description
Body CopyURL StructureHeadings (H1, H2s)Images
Alt Tag
The H1 title has no length requirements.
Include target keyword.
Ensure the H1 Tag is different from the meta title and meta description AND ensure there’s only one per page.
SEO for Titles (H1)
SEO for Body CopyGeneral rule of thumb is 500 words is the minimum.
Include 1 target keyword in the first paragraph.
There’s no ideal # of keyword variations to use.
Google punishes keyword-heavy content with no real substance, called “thin content”.
Make sure there’s a call-to-action (CTA) in the page
InterlinkingMakes it easier for search engines to find and crawl
more pages
Builds a better semantic understanding of an entire site
Passes page value from the main piece of content or web page to the pages it links to
Think before you interlink:- DO link to other internal pages that are relevant to the topic of the page and/or helpful for the visitor to the page.
- DON’T link to other pages immediately. Wait until the second or third paragraph.
- DON’T link to external sites you don’t trust. This could tell search engines that you aren’t providing real value to searchers.
SEO for Meta TitleLimit title tag to 55 characters. (
Moz’s Preview Tool)
Include target keyword 1-2 times.
Write keywords into title tags using natural language.
Title Tag Writing Best PracticesCapitalize Each Word, It’s okay to use “&” instead of “and”,
Punctuation rules need not apply. Grammar should be like that of a book title. Make it unique. It should be different from your other pages’ meta titles, as well as different from competitors’ meta titles.
SEO for Meta DescriptionLimit meta descriptions to 155 characters.
Include target keyword 1-2 times without being repetitive and without keyword stuffing.
Meta Title Writing Best PracticesMake it unique. It should be different from your other pages’
meta descriptions, as well as different from competitors’ meta descriptions.
Deliverable Cheat Sheet
Measuring Performance
SEO Content PlanStrategy
Identify audience, needs, goals and UX constraints
Copy OptimizationDevelop the copy with SEO best practices
Technical SEOEnsure page code optimized
Link BuildingPromote content worthy of being shared (linked to)
Keyword SelectionDetermine the words they are using to find your new cardiology content
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Review ResultsMeasure performance
Remember “SMART” Goals:SpecificMeasurableActionableRelatable, and to occur within a specificTime
By rewriting the copy of this page and supporting “cardiology pages” we will increase traffic to this page by 25% over 3 months and gain 2 new Web inquiries per month starting in 90 days.
Goal Tracking
Google Analytics (GA)
Tracking organic performance of a post before and after SEO
Link: http://www.greenlaneseo.com/blog/2016/07/introducing-url-performance-tool/
Recap
Why is SEO important for you?Connect your content
with the right audience
Use data to help people find the content that best suites their needs
It’s up to you to guide how users find your content
SEO as Inbound Marketing
“Organic Search Is Actually Responsible for 64% of Your Web Traffic”
We have a responsibility.
And an opportunity.
Thank you.
bit.ly/amwa-seo
Resources➔ Template: Content Request Form➔ Template: Content + SEO
➔ SEMrush
➔ Answer the Public➔ Google Scholar
➔ Google News➔ AMP Setup in 15 Minutes
➔ Keywords and Topics Webinar
➔ Technical SEO