4 ways to improve your hospital’s search ranking

SEO tips I picked up from an expert at Google

I’ve come to realize that my habits as a consumer have completely changed, thanks to Siri, my smartphone, and the fact that I’m busier and more distracted than ever before. When I need a product or service, I simply ask Siri, and my smartphone provides me with an appropriate list of answers to my question. The products or services that aren’t listed, simply don’t stand a chance. They could be fantastic options, but are losing the great game of Search Engine Optimization and, at the very least, my business.

This point became clear at a presentation I attended at Hospital Marketing  National Conference a few months back, by Avinash Kaushik, Digital Marketing Evangelist at Google and co-author of Market Motive, Inc. Avinash discussed the do’s and don’ts of online search tactics. He delivered eye-opening stats about digital consumer behavior, insight on keyword optimization, and tips about how to overshadow the competition.

To make a point about the power of SEO, Avinash listed keywords that hospitals compete for such as Bariatrics Surgery, Women’s Health, and seven other categories. The number of potential searches for these keywords was close to 30 million. In his example, Avinash used an 11 percent ownership of click shares (a given hospital who owned 11 percent of their keyword terms). Which left close to 27 million keywords that Avinash listed as “gift to competitors.” Now, in reality, most healthcare organization can’t own all their keyword phrases. Most don’t have the budget or simply don’t have the time. But, all hospitals or health systems have a need to drive volume to individual service lines.

    Here is what they can do to compete:

• Determine which keyword phrases your organization can use to compete effectively.
• Employ a paid search campaign for the terms you don’t rank for organically.
• Give users the ability to engage and interact with your site by either offering downloadable content, videos, or online appointment schedulers.
• Spy on your competitors. Look at what they’re doing from a content perspective and do it better.