How easily and frequently potential patients find your website relies greatly on how visible it is in the search engine’s search results.  Websites that rank higher get more traffic than those sites buried several pages back.  More importantly, increased website traffic translates to more new patient appointments for your office.

To achieve a good ranking position, you must be implementing a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.  Best practice SEO can help you climb the rankings, but poor SEO techniques may prevent you from reaching a top spot on the first page. Avoid these common SEO mistakes to keep your website on track for optimal online visibility.

Thinking SEO is a one-time commitment

This is perhaps the most common—and dangerous—mistake people make when it comes to search engine optimization.  SEO is not a set it and forget it strategy. It’s an ongoing process that involves keeping up with the search engines’ ever-changing algorithms in order to achieve a high organic ranking in the search results.

Going overboard with keywords

“Content is king” when it comes to SEO.  The content on your site is not only what visitors will read to learn about your practice, but it is also what the search engines use to rank your site. To rank well for certain words or phrases, such as “dermatologist in West Orange” these keywords need to appear in the body of your text.  What this doesn’t mean is littering the content on your pages with so many keywords that it appears unnaturally. This is known as “keyword stuffing”—a tactic that makes your site look spammy to both your visitors and the search engines.

Choosing quantity link building over quality

Link building is one of the primary means by which the search engines determine the value of your site, but having more links doesn’t mean anything if they aren’t of high quality. Avoid linking to irrelevant sites and other low-quality link sources. Instead focus on building quality links from sources that are relevant to your practice and specialty. Ten quality links are much more valuable in the long run than 100 spammy links that will ultimately hurt your ranking.

Are poor SEO efforts hurting your Google presence? Talk to Officite about implementing a six month SEO strategy that focuses on quality, best practice techniques that are tailored for your specific website needs and practice location.