Essentially, SEO is all about Google (or any other search engine) trying to find the best or most useful result for the searcher.
It is in a search engine’s interest to return the most useful searches it can, because search engines make money through advertising on their platform. The more useful the search engine’s results, the more people use it, the more ads get shown, and the more money they make.
Google is the ubiquitous search engine with 91% of the search market, although this may be changing.
In deciding what results to return to the searcher in order to be of most use, the search engine will consider 2 or 3 things:
Google do not tell us what the ranking factors are and give only vague advice, which often turns out to be misinformation. See this guide to local ranking factors.
Technical optimisation of your website is called Technical SEO and covers two different areas:
A well-functioning website is still important, but most SEOs no longer break a sweat over things like improving load speed metrics or mobile experience. After years of saying these things were ranking factors Google eventually turned around and said they had been lying all along. But the real reason we don’t worry too much about them is that website technology has improved to the point that most websites will easily be optimised for mobiles and load fast.
We have already covered choosing keywords for a local clinic in the guide to choosing your keywords. You might also like to see the guide to keyword research using SEMRush.
Keywords are central to SEO. We first choose the keywords we want to target based on what our market is typing into Google (e.g. “dentist in london”) and then optimise our website to be seen as relevant as possible for those terms by Google.
It is a very general principle in SEO that the more and better information you have about something, the higher you will rank.
For this reason websites will publish extensive information around a topic, such as blog posts or a knowledge base (like this one), which makes them a more comprehensive source of knowledge on the topic and helps them to rank higher.
Features such as FAQs and videos on the page can also help improve ranking as they enrich the content.
Although Google continues to deny they are a ranking factor, it is well known in SEO that behavioural factors are important to your rankings. By behavioural factors we mean:
The only way to improve behavioural factors is to make your website as useful and appealing as possible to the searcher. This approach is also a general principle in modern SEO – it is all about creating lots of helpful, useful content.
If you have more questions about SEO, we’ll be happy to help. Feel free to reach out, come and ask a question in Free Webinar Friday, or book a free strategy call.
Also, don’t forget to sign up to our mailing list below for weekly clinic marketing tips, webinar invitations and free SEO data.
Do you know what your clients are searching for online? We do! Sign up to our mailing list to receive a free talking therapies search data report and SEO guide.
Mailing list subscribers get invites to our free weekly marketing webinars, and links to watch the replays. Join us every Friday to ask anything you want to know about marketing.
Every week we’ll send you free marketing tips and advice, and the latest news from the world of search marketing and SEO.
We do not share your data. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Book a call and start growing your practice
Market Your Clinic Online
34 Windmill House
Waterloo
London SE1 8LX
Market Your Clinic Online is a trading name of Red Balloon Web Limited
