Veterinary SEO
BY: MIKE HAMILTON
LEADBUMPS, OWNER
SEO is a term that is mentioned often in the Veterinary industry. With that said, not many people understand what search engine optimization (SEO) entails. SEO is always changing and our clients expect that we are experts in the field in order to ensure their website is doing the best it can. The goal of this article is to explain some logic behind SEO that not many people know.
The Most Common Components of SEO
On page optimization is the first component of search engine optimization. On page optimization is defined as ensuring that Google knows what is on your website. It is a way to showcase to all search engines what your website is about. Many websites in today’s world are not successful in this.
I will use an example to make the following information easier to understand. If you created a website about dog collars and wanted it to show up whenever someone searched for dog collars in your city you would have to do a few things.
Meta Data
Each page of a website has metadata. The data basically tells Google or a different search engine a summary of your page. This is what Google uses during a search to determine if your page should rank high or low in the list.
If you are located in Green Bay, WI and have a dog collar website your metadata must have “Dog Collar” and “Green Bay” in it. One or the other will not suffice. Without the city, your website will be fighting against every dog collar website on the internet and without dog collar, you will be fighting against every website linked to Green Bay.
This data includes descriptions, title tags and keywords. A website should always have accurate metadata that matches up with the content on the page.
Page Content
The page content must match your meta information. The information and words that you put on your pages must relate to the meta title that you gave the page. It must also fit the meta keywords and description. Making sure everything is accurate and relates to each other is essential to a high ranking.
Page Length
Page length can also affect how you rank. It is ideal for you to have pages that have more than 400 words. The longer the page the better. Pictures, videos and lots of content are helpful in making sure you create high quality pages.
Off Page Components of SEO
Off page optimization is the next important part of SEO. Off page optimization involves other online websites. They are able to “vote” for your website.
In your internet browsing career, you have most likely been on a website and clicked a link that brought you to another website. The link that you used is referred to as a backlink. If you are able to get good, quality backlinks that direct people to your website, your Google rank will skyrocket.
Backlinks can originate from many different locations. Directories are one place in which you can get backlinks. Social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are also helpful in creating links that lead to specific pages of your site.
There are some links that have more power though. In addition, some links are a safer option than others. Google will analyze your backlinks and if they notice that your links are from a low quality source they will penalize you by lowering your rank. Google used to not penalize for poor backlinks, but now that they do, it is more important than ever to have high quality links.
How Do I Master SEO?
Mastering SEO is a long and difficult process. It requires thousands of hours of research and learning. Google is always shuffling through algorithms and changing their methods making the process a never ending learning experience. Leadbumps is one of the best at SEO as we do all the difficult work for you. We want to let you focus only on your Veterinary Office and your patients and let us handle your online marketing.
If you have any questions we are happy to chat with you!