To boost your Google rankings, you need to construct your website to allow for easy navigation for Google’s search crawlers and human users. However, it is just as important for your practice website and pages to be connected to other reputable sites through links.
These outgoing and incoming hyperlinks, or “backlinks,” are major ranking factors in how Google determines the authority and trustworthiness of your website and domain. The presence or absence of relevant, high-quality backlinks can make or break your business.
The age-old adage, “You will be judged by the company you keep” (Cole) can be directly applied to winning strategies for link building and SEO.
Link building is an essential part of any successful medical SEO strategy. Guidance from a seasoned SEO professional can make a huge difference in how effectively you can grow the volume and quality of your back links and online brand. Here are some of the basics of link building. To learn about best practices for building backlinks or to receive a complete backlink report for your website, call us.
Ideally, your medical link-building strategy should be built around natural links embedded inside relevant comments, like articles and blog posts on other websites. These kinds of links are generally considered safe and genuine by search engine algorithms, and they can provide benefits to both sides of the connection.
If you want to link to another site without expressly endorsing its content or through a direct advertisement or sponsorship, you may create a “no follow” link that does not direct search engine bots to crawl the site at the other end. You generally want to avoid building user-created links in places like personal profile pages and blog comments since they are difficult to create inorganically and rarely provide a good return on investment.
Successful link building in any context requires a careful balance. You must ensure you get an optimal return on the time and money you put into designing and executing your strategy while also ensuring you do not engage in any SEO practices that may lead to Google penalizing your web domain. First and foremost, you need to figure out exactly what audience you want your backlinks to target—for example, people looking for information about a specific medical procedure or patients looking to switch primary care providers. You want to target sites that those people trust for backlink placement.
Likewise, backlinks should make it clear to site visitors exactly what they can expect to find at the other end of that link. This can be accomplished by using keywords and long-tail phrases that people in the target audience often search for. Finally, it is essential to keep an eye on your backlinks as the campaign plays out, checking not just for short-term results but also for long-term sustainability.
One of the most straightforward and effective ways of building links between your website and other reputable online platforms is by contributing high-quality content to those other sites. Guest blog posts and articles can be beneficial for both parties. Depending on how you approach it, this can also lead to an increase in referrals or boost your site’s SEO rankings.
In the same vein, hosting high-quality content by asking other professionals to contribute to your website can provide similar benefits, as can wider participation in the local and national medical community. Attending and speaking at conferences and seminars can drive interest in your web platform and provide direct and personal links to possible partners and patients. Additionally, there are numerous organizations that present awards to high-achieving industry members and/or publish directories of local service providers, both of which can boost your medical link building.
To learn more about medical link building and how it can benefit your practice, reach out to the SEO professionals at MedShark Digital today. We can elevate your business and help you reach your target audience. Call us today for an assessment or consultation.