When was the last time you checked your SEO?
Extra notes by Dr. Sandi Eveleth NOT discussed in the Clubhouse room.
Wait, what the heck is SEO anyway?
If you’ve never heard that phrase, here’s the answer: SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the process of optimizing the information on your website so that the search engines (not just Google) can find you and serve up your pages to the top of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
In other words, optimize your site so you can get to the top of Google (and all the other search engines)!
SEO is no longer about “tricking the system” with all the right keywords. Yes, you’ll definitely want to perform keyword research, and make sure to write your copy that addresses this phrase or phrases, since it’s a phrase (or phrases) that are searched for often. But it’s more than that…
To optimize your site for search engines, you’ll want to check with your website designer to see if they’ve done these for you or if you’ve created your own website and/or would like to know what to do next, check these out:
- Do your research! Find out what your ideal customers are searching for on search engines – there are several ways to do this, both with paid and free software options,
- Write epic content that speaks to these keyword phrases. If your competition is writing about it, make sure YOUR content goes that extra mile, covering as much as you can about the topic,
- Try to acquire quality backlinks (links from high-quality websites that receive several views per month, that are linking back to your article because it adds value to their audience) for each of your articles,
- Do whatever you can to make sure your website loads quickly, with both your desktop and mobile versions,
- Make sure your site isn’t just mobile-optimized, but that it’s also mobile-friendly (for example, the buttons can be easily clicked with your thumbs),
- …and so much more! Here is an excellent article by Backlinko called “Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List (2020)” (see what I did there? I backlinked to Backlinko’s site!)
Notes for the Clubhouse room masterclass called “Grow Your Eye Care Practice with SEO”
Moderated by Dr. Sandi Eveleth & Dr. Darryl Glover, Jr. on March 7th, 2021, and presented by guest speaker Garry Kousoulou of Loving Social Media. Some of these notes were created prior to the meeting, while Garry’s presentation notes were taken with his permission during the meeting.
The reason you want to get to the top of Google or any other search engine (as mentioned above) is simple… When you are at the top of page one, your “phone won’t stop ringing!” – you’ll be able to fill your schedule completely…
There are 3 main sections that you’ll see on Google’s first page when you search for something.
- The top of the page is paid advertising – people often don’t trust this portion and won’t click on those results,
- “Google My Business” is the next section – it’s the part of the page often called the “3-pack” because the top 3 listings of businesses that have filled out and optimized their Google My Business page and acquired
- Organic traffic is the rest of the page – this is where you’ll see the rest of the listings below the 3-pack.
Note that there are other “features” that Google lists on the first page where you can help get your site to the top of the first page. Click here for an in-depth article on this topic.
SEO consists of these 3 legs.
- “Technical SEO” – Do whatever you can to optimize your website technically. Check out woorank.com: add your website URL there in their site crawl feature (you’ll need to sign up for a 14 day trial in order to do this); with a score <50, you will probably NOT be on pg 1; have your web designer fix any issues that may be missing to help elevate your score (favicon, meta description, etc); you can also check out Neil Patel’s free site analyzer here.
- “On-Page SEO” – These include adding positive things on your page that will help you climb to the top of the search engine results pages. You want Google (and other search engines) to crawl your page often with their “bots/spiders” (for images, videos, keyword phrases, etc.) to get the search engines to “know” who you are, what your content is, etc. Things you can do to improve your on-page SEO:
- It may not be that difficult to get your blog post to #1 quickly for a specific, long-tail keyword phrase (a specific phrase that you’ve done the research for and discovered is highly searched for). Don’t make the post less than < 800 words – best blogs have > 1,000 words; look for buyers’ search intent phrases (phrases that imply the person searching is ready to buy) – you can get some great ideas on a site called Answer the Public.
- Moz Local – this is a great site to check your local listing scores, get information about all-things local SEO; – when you create a video to match or go with your blog post, and then upload it to YouTube (remember, YouTube is the #2 search engine and is owned by Google, so get those videos up there!), make sure the title you create for the video is the same as the blog post. Do this for both the file name of the video AND the title you give to the video on YouTube.
- YouTube – create video that are 4-5 min.s long using the title as mentioned above (for example, such as from “Answer the Public” as mentioned above); in the description of the YouTube video, add the link to the Blog post – Garry recommends putting HASHTAGS in the title of your videos for hyperlinking purposes (make sure to do your research for these keyword phrases)!
- Bring the YT videos into the affiliated blog posts by embedding them. Tip from Sandi: add “?rel=0” to end of the YouTube video’s URL to show ONLY your own videos at the end of the video (YouTube automatically adds suggested videos that are NOT your videos!) – but only if your website visitors visit the blog post embedded versions, not if they click through to YouTube to watch the videos.
- In your blog posts, Garry recommends adding 2 internal links (links to other pages on your site) and add 5 external links to other blogs that are not competitive. Sandi’s tip: make sure the external links open up a separate tab or page so the website visitor still sees your own site.
- Author Attribution – get your byline at Gravatar and make sure your website has that same email address as the admin and contact email address.
- Google ranks for expertise, authority, and trust. This is one of the latest updates for ranking your site in Google – you want to be known as the expert!
- Google loves information about your staff – the “meet the team” type of information.
- “Off-Page SEO” – Go to Moz Local for more information.
- Add yourself to as many directories as you can – make sure the information is all consistent – there are companies that can push your information out to all of these directories.
- Social Media pointing to your website.
Miscellaneous notes about improving your website’s SEO
- Pinterest is the 3rd largest search engine – don’t forget to post your content there.
Q & A session about growing your practice with SEO
YouTube Channel – Starting it
- Add your website in the setup phase
- Add your keyword phrases to your channel and in each video’s description box
- Keep your brand the same as on your website and all your other online presence
- Have a welcome video that’s short and sweet and gets right to the point of how you can help prospective/current patients on the YouTube channel
- Embed your YouTube videos into your blog posts, home pages, etc.
Google Ads
- Hire an expert!
- It’s easy to waste $$ on Google Ads if you don’t know what you’re doing
- You can end up paying for something that can quickly escalate
Google Reviews
- Get at least 10 new reviews per year
- Create a QR code that redirects to your Google Reviews to make it easy for patients to review you
Join Us on Clubhouse!
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Access the Clubhouse Notes
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Grow Your Eye Care Practice with SEO
Here’s the video of the Clubhouse notes:
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