SEO Strategies to Help Your Practice

Compete in 2017

Brought to you by Sycle & Chris Erickson of AuDSEO

The number of people who use the Internet to research products and services continues to grow at a rapid rate.

Prospective clients and patients often use the Internet to research services before stepping foot into a brick-and-mortar practice. In just the month of October 2016, there were almost 600,000

searches on Google for the top 700 hearing-aid-related terms. That figure doesn’t even include Yahoo or Bing. SEO can help your business become more visible in the search results.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an internet-marketing strategy that researches the factors that search engines (like Google, Yahoo, Bing) use to rank websites and in turn, builds these factors into websites to ensure high-rankings for businesses.

When someone in your town searches for something on Google, the results show a couple of advertisements, followed by hundreds or thousands of “organic” results. Each result is some company’s website, hoping to get clicked on. The vast majority of people

Part 1: What is SEO? Introduction

will scroll past the paid ads and select from the organic listings on the first page of the results.

Your “organic” ranking is where your website shows up on this long list of websites. Investing in local search engine optimization (SEO) is how your company website can show up on top, gaining more clicks than your competitors.

Research shows us that approximately 70% of the organic clicks go to those who own the first three organic positions. To put it simply, if a potential client is typing in “Phoenix” and “hearing aids,” you want your Phoenix-based hearing aid business website to be at the top – or as close as possible to the top – of the organic search results (also called SERPs). This is why SEO is so important.

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One best practice is to focus on content “freshness,” because

search engines like to see that your content is updated regularly.

Part 2: The Three Virtues of Successful SEO

There are many technical and tactical behaviors that lead to SEO success. There are also general behaviors, or virtues, that ensure digital marketing success when combined with the appropriate technical behaviors. Here we share the three most important:

VIRTURE 1: CONSISTENCYConsistency is an important part of SEO and digital marketing. Ranking well on search engines requires ongoing effort and consistent implementation of white-hat strategies, rather than a one-time change to websites.*

*The term “white-hat” SEO refers to search marketing experts who use their knowledge to ethically shape content, use search marketing best practices, and implement changes to positively affect the client’s website. White hat professionals follow these best practices and are less likely to get penalized by Google (or other search engines).

One best practice is to focus on content “freshness”, because search engines like to see that your content is updated regularly. Content freshness can be achieved by:

• adding new products or services to your site

• updating old pages with fresh content (ex. new events, staff updates, celebrations)

• writing blog articles regularly

VIRTUE 2: VARIETYRanking well on search engines requires more than doing one or two things well - it requires variety. Various elements can be used, including image, video, and copy, to build a dynamic and engaging website for your business. There are three main traffic sourcesthat can direct consumers to your website:

• Direct navigation (typed in searches, bookmarks, email links)

• Referral traffic (links on different websites, social media sites, etc that

lead to your website)• Search traffic (from major search engines)

There are also many different waysto promote your practice’s site andimprove rankings. Content creation,social media, directory citations, linkbuilding and on-site optimization are alleffective ways of boosting SEO. You (oryour digital agency) should be active inall of these areas for long-term success.

VIRTUE 3: PATIENCEEffective SEO takes time. While positivemovement and increased traffic maycome quickly, it takes time to solidifystrong search engine rankings and todominate your market. I’ve seen sitesgo from 4th page to #1 in their marketin less than 30 days. I’ve also seensites take almost 6 months to reach adominant placement. It depends onmany different factors; domain history,competition, current link profile andother factors may make one site’srankings improve more quickly thanothers.

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“Since May of 2014, the

popularity of the keyword phrase “hearing aids near me” has increased nearly 20 times.

THE ADVANTAGE OF LOCALAs consumer behavior changes, bigbox stores offer low cost devices,manufacturers absorb practices andonline retailers and networks capturea bigger slice of the pie every year,independent practice owners aresearching for ways to compete againstthese industry giants. How can anindependently owned audiology orhearing aid center not only compete,but dominate their local market?

BY GOING “ALL-IN” ON DIGITALIt is pretty much impossible for theaverage independent practice tooutspend these industry giants onmarketing efforts, whether online oroff. Equipped with this knowledge,the independent practice can spendsmarter by investing in digitalmarketing and Local SEO. Many practiceowners don’t realize this, but recentchanges to Google’s algorithm actuallyfavor the local office over the largerorganizations and chains.

Consider this amazing statistic. SinceMay of 2014, the popularity of thekeyword phrase “hearing aids near me”has increased nearly 20 times. Yes, youread that correctly. That’s a 1900%increase in just over 2 years (source:Google Trends). Long gone are thedays when just having a website was

enough. Today, getting your site to rankwell locally requires ongoing effortsboth on and off your website. You cancompete against big box stores byfocusing marketing dollars on localorganic rankings.

Did you know practices that rank #1-3in local search results get over 60% of allclicks?

This is a powerful percentage given thatin an average city, there are thousandsof online searches per month forhearing aid related keywords. Just inthe city of Phoenix alone, there is anaverage of 1300 monthly searches forone keyword phrase, “hearing aids”.Each search query is literally a potentialpatient, in your area, searchingspecifically for the services you offer.

THE INDEPENDENT ADVANTAGEHaving just a few locations, yourpractice actually has an advantagein your local market over yourcompetitors with large nationaloperations. As a small organization,each of your locations can have a verypersonalized online footprint, withresources devoted to just a handful oflocations. Companies with hundredsof locations can rarely invest the timeneeded per location to get eachranking well organically. This levels

the playing field for small to mediumsize hearing aid practices who areunable to compete with the bloatedad budgets of the network’s, chainretailers and conglomerates.

To secure your future in this changingenvironment, your practice can andmust dominate online in your area.You’ll capture a larger percentage ofthe leads coming in the from theinternet and see a better return onyour investment than many othermarketing methods.

USING LOCAL SEO TO MOVE YOURWEBSITE UP THE RANKINGSFocusing on the community aroundyou can help increase your visibility inlocal search. Here are the some of thetop strategies hearing and audiologypractices can engage in to move up thelocal search rankings:

1. CREATE CONTENTFor your website to be seen as avaluable resource on the web, it needsa steady flow of unique and relevantcontent. Most websites in the hearingindustry have relevant content, but

struggle with the unique aspect ofthis equation. Search engines oftenignore or discount duplicate (or stockcontent. This is why we only provideunique content with our services.

One way to provide unique content toyour site is to write blog articles. Manypractices have someone on staff whoenjoys writing. Put these talents to useby having that person write abouthearing loss, hearing aids and more. Ifyou don’t have anyone in the practicewho has the time, skill and interest towrite, consider hiring a content writer oragency to handle content creation.

Not sure what topics to writeabout? There is no need to think toomuch on this one. Think about thecommon questions you get frompatients in the office. Here are a fewexamples:

• Why should I wear two hearing aids as• opposed to just one?• Why are hearing aid prices so high?• I see a lot of ‘Made for iPhone’ hearing• aids around - which one do you• recommend and why?

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Practices that rank #1-3 in local search results

get over 60% of all clicks

Part 3: Leveraging Local SEO to Stay Competitive

Keep it natural and don’t worry toomuch about which keywords to use.The best articles are those that answercommon questions or concerns for theuser.

2. BE SOCIALSocial media is a great way to get theword out in your community aboutyour practice and what you stand for.Similar to the content, try dedicatingsomeone in the office to manage andnurture social media accounts. Whenyou create content for your practice,post a link to that content on yoursocial profiles.

Content curation however, the act ofconstantly sharing content from otherentities on your social pages, haslittle SEO or engagement value andtypically only benefits the organizationthat created the original content.

So which social media platforms shouldyou use? That is a great question andthe answer depends on your level offamiliarity and expertise within eachplatform. Facebook is an absolute mustas it has a large and engaged followingof older adults. In fact, over 60% ofonline adults over the age of 65 useFacebook. Continue to post to Twitterand Google+, although engagementis typically lower on these platforms. There have been many changes toGoogle+ and we may soon see the endof it as a social platform, but there is

still SEO value in continuing to post.Posting to your G+/GMB has evenbecome more difficult, as you now haveto switch to ‘Classic View’ or use yourGoogleMyBusiness dashboard to postarticles.

If you have visual information you’d liketo share with your community (imagesof new products, etc), utilize Instagramand/or Pinterest as well.

3. ENCOURAGE REVIEWSOnline reviews are a large part of youroverall digital presence and SEO ‘profile’.Search engines are currently usingreview information on sites like Yelpand HearingTracker to learn about yourbusiness. In addition, your Google+GMB/Google Map reviews are animportant factor for ranking within theGoogle Map local listings.

How can you encourage onlinereviews? The most effective way is toask. You have probably had the happypatient in your office who has askedhow they can repay you for helpingthem (new hearing aids, fixing theirhearing aid, etc). This is an excellentopportunity to talk to them aboutwhere they could leave a review. Becareful though, as offering any sortof compensation for a review is notonly against the Terms of Serviceof these platforms, it is also illegalin many cases. If you feel that thisoption doesn’t work for you and your

Conclusion

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Over 60% of online adultsover the age of 65 use Facebook.

practice, you can always sign up for aReputation Management Solution thatautomates the process. Either strategy

can work, as long as you increase thepositive ‘chatter’ online about yourbusiness.

The number of people using theInternet to search for products andservices is set to continue growing.Implementing the SEO strategiesoutlined in this eBook will help increasethe visibility of your business in the

results generated by these searches. As you embark on a journey to improvethe digital marketing footprint of yourpractice, remember to follow the 3Virtues of Successful SEO and leveragelocal.

To find out how Sycle can help you step up your marketing in 2017, visit audiology.sycle.net/sycle-seo