Each industry has its own hurdles to overcome when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). Some have trouble getting started while others are challenged to stay competitive among the industry giants. Whatever the challenges are, it’s important that all success-driven companies partake in SEO – especially in the highly competitive healthcare industry. Not only are there an unprecedented amount of healthcare companies vying for awareness and page-one rankings on the web, but the keywords they’re ranking for are among the most competitive in the world, such as “Electronic Health Records.”
To make a dent and improve your rankings on search engines like Google, use these three best SEO tips:
Content Marketing: It’s More Than Blogs
Now more than ever it’s important to include rich content into your SEO strategy. For B2B healthcare companies such as EHR providers, it’s important to understand how your audience is searching for your products and services on the web and what type of information they need during each step of the Buyer’s Journey, spanning awareness, consideration and decision. Once you know this information, you can move forward with producing and publishing effective content.
For example, if hospitals are your defined market and you know they’re searching for EHR software, make sure your website contains help content on the subject. This includes general information on EHR software, comparison guides on how your software differs from the competition and compelling offers and call-to-actions encouraging visitors to schedule a free demo or consultation.
Additionally, evergreen content is a term used to describe SEO content that’s continuously relevant. Evergreen content attracts visitors to your site and keeps them coming back for more. It also helps to include specific keywords in your content: again, if you know your audience is searching for “the best EHR software,” include those words in the titles, pages, meta descriptions and content itself.
UX: It’s More Than a Pretty Website
User experience (UX) is the next thing you’ll want to focus on to improve your SEO performance. To accomplish this, it’s important that your website delivers on four key areas, as set forth by Moz:
- Easy to navigate, understand and use
- Provides direct information relevant to the search
- Delivers high-quality content
- Professionally designed and easily accessible
To more clearly explain how four factors affect your site’s SEO performance, let’s return to our EHR software example. This time we’re going to make the search term more specific and assume the audience is looking for “EHR software with an integrated billing system.”
To ensure a great UX when visitors land on your website, make sure your homepage provides obvious buttons and CTAs to the EHR software information. The information should answer any questions the audience may have about the software and billing system to guarantee that your information is relevant to the search and of high quality.
Finally, you want your site’s appearance to match the quality of your product. If you believe your EHR software is the best of the best, make sure your website also looks and feels that way.
Conversion Rate Optimization: It’s More Than Forms
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), the rate at which your website enables visitors to complete your desired actions, is the third tactic needed to compete for B2B healthcare SEO rankings. To improve your CRO, benchmark your current rate and identify areas for improvement.
Crazy Egg is a heat mapping tool that reviews your sites current performance. It shows you where people click, scroll and most importantly, why they aren’t converting. Once you’re armed with this data, you can interpret the results to improve your conversions.
For example, if your organic search traffic is leading to more site visits and thus, more downloads, you want to focus your efforts on increasing organic search traffic. Another CRO best practice is simplifying the path to conversion. Remove any unnecessary steps it takes to download a whitepaper or move your CTA to a highly trafficked page, so it’s seen right away. Conversion rates have a direct relationship with ROI, so when your conversion rate is high your ROI will be too.
It’s no secret that SEO for the B2B healthcare sector is highly competitive, but with the right tactics, you can improve your performance. The important thing to remember is that SEO growth does not happen overnight. It’s a long-term strategy that can yield highly valuable results when given proper investment. To get started, take a hard look at these three tactics – but remember, SEO is always growing and evolving, so it’s crucial to stay up to date with the latest trends.
For more ways to implement effective SEO in the B2B healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, download our new eBook: Top Tactics for Marketing to Healthcare and Pharma Companies in 2017.
Are you interested in B2B healthcare marketing services? Contact Sagefrog Marketing Group today.
