SEO Basics For Health Practitioners
SEO can be overwhelming, especially if you're new to the world of websites. When you're a health practitioner, it's just one more thing that you really don't have time to learn about! So I thought I'd share some of the SEO basics I teach health pracs.
SEO Basics
What is SEO?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, sounds complex. And in some ways, it is!
But for simplicity's sake, SEO is about optimising a website for ranking on sites like Google.
There are a lot of factors that go into SEO these days - what you write directly on a webpage, the stuff in the background, whether your site is similar to spam sites.
But we're going to stick to the SEO basics today - the things that you can work on with every blog post.
Why does SEO matter?
The world is mostly online these days. Even if you don't have an interest in online consults, SEO is still going to help local clients look you up.
Gone are the days where we would wander through the local area to see if a business was available, or looking them up in the phonebook!
Nowadays, we jump onto our phones and search Google or Facebook.
If you are the only practitioner of your modality in your area and you only want in-person consults, you might be ok to do some SEO basics on your website and leave it at that.
But if you want to do online work, or there are other practitioners in the local area, you'll want to work on SEO ongoing.
I still tweak my SEO whenever I do a spring-clean of my website!
Do I need to spend heaps of money on someone to do constant SEO for me?
Not unless you have that money to spare, AND you are super-clear on your niche, target market etc.
SEO is only one piece of the marketing puzzle, especially as the algorithms change.
99% of the time, there are better ways to spend money if you're a health practitioner.If you do decide to work with an SEO specialist, only work with someone recommended to you. There are plenty of companies out there that will do tiny tweaks and then ignore you, but charges hundreds or even thousands for it every month.
Writing blogs with SEO in mind
The easiest way to continually nudge your SEO in the right direction is by writing regular content.
Ready to write some blogs that have great SEO to support your biz? There are dozens of things you can do, but here are some basics to get you started.
Figure out the topic of your blog - including a keyword or phrase. Make sure that everything you write is focused on that topic - no going off on a ramble!
Use your keyword or phrase - pop it in your title, a subheading or two, and scattered throughout your article. You'll also want it in the URL. But don't go too crazy - more than 2.5% can be flagged as 'keyword stuffing', which is considered spammy by Google.
Write at least 300 words for each post. Less than this and Google might ignore it.
Use subheadings whenever appropriate - especially if they contain a variation of your keyword or phrase, eg gut health/digestive health are variations of each other. Google notes subheadings as more significant, because they sum up what each section is about.
Don't neglect your reader to achieve 'perfect' SEO. At the end of the day, you still want your content to educate the reader. SEO is just a tool to help it reach more people.
Want some more support with nailing the SEO basics?
You can grab my free blog post checklist when you sign up to my mailing list right here.