Housekeeping Welcome to How to Blow Away Your Competition on Google Search Results Presenter: Stephanie Erickson SEO Strategist & Founder AuDseo Digital Marketing for Hearing Aid Practices www.audseo.com This presentation is being recorded CE credit is available! Visit ihsinfo.org for details and access to the quiz Note taking handouts are available at ihsinfo.org on the webinar page. Feel free to download now! IHS Moderators: Ted Annis Senior Marketing Specialist Suzanne Hill Professional Development Project Supervisor Agenda Seniors and baby boomers online Major factors in local SEO Content creation Review sites Social media Q&A Please enter your questions in the question box at any time. SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE SEO RACE ANCIENT PROVERB Okay, not really but great advice nonetheless.
Traditional marketing trends Newspapers are on the decline Newspaper Direct mail TV Radio 1999 72% 2013 55% Direct mail response is declining too Television and radio 44% of direct mail never gets opened 25% drop in response rates between 2003 2012 Television viewership down Radio down as well
Internet usage among seniors SENIORS AND BABY BOOMERS ONLINE Among seniors who go online 71% go online every day and an additional 11% go online 3 4 times a week. 74% of seniors ages 65 69 go online. (Pew Research Center 2013) Who is your target demographic? Top online activities for seniors 90% of seniors with an annual household income of $75,000 or more go online. 87% of seniors with a college degree go online. (Pew Research Center 2013) 1.) Google 2.) Facebook 3.) Yahoo! 4.) YouTube
What is local SEO? LOCAL SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Local SEO are efforts made to rank well for keywords so that when someone searches locally for what you do they can easily find you. Why is local SEO important? 70% of all search traffic goes to organic results, not paid results Long term vs. short term Added value to your practice ROI While it would be impressive to rank nationally for keywords you don t really need someone across the country finding you.
Major factors in local SEO On site optimization Off site optimization MAJOR FACTORS IN LOCAL SEO User experience Social media Content On site optimization Meta titles and descriptions On site optimization refers to efforts made on your website to rank better on search engines. Title Description Includes: Copy on your pages Keyword density Image alt tags Meta descriptions Meta titles
Meta titles Meta descriptions Tips for writing your own: Keep title between 50-60 characters Place keywords first then your practice name Keep it closely related to page content Clear, simple and concise Avoid keyword stuffing Do mention your city name Tips for writing your own: Keep description between 150-160 characters Write for humans not for Google Keep it closely related to page content Clear, simple and concise Example meta title and description Off site optimization Hearing Aid Practice located in Portland, Oregon [Example Meta Title] Hearing Aids & Hearing Tests Portland, OR ABC Hearing [Example Meta Description] Locally owned since 1987, ABC Hearing of Portland offers the best hearing aids with the highest quality aftercare. Schedule your FREE hearing test today! Off site optimization refers to efforts made outside of your website to rank better on search engines. Includes: Directory submission Backlinks
User experience USER EXPERIENCE (UX) Bounce Rate Page speed Mobile friendly design Site layout Bounce rate High bounce rate? Bounce rate represents the percentage of visitors who enter a website and "bounce" (leave the site) rather than continue viewing other pages within the same site. Your site isn t providing what the user seeks Pages are loading too slowly Your site may be difficult to navigate
Bounce rate Mobile friendly design Google Analytics shows your bounce rate. www.google.com/analytics 60% of internet traffic now comes from mobile devices. What should a bounce rate be? Mobile friendly design Mobile friendly design Google shows a Mobile friendly label next to websites meeting their mobile requirements. Mobile friendly tool https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ mobile friendly/
Page speed The average amount of time it takes for a webpage to load for a user. Google takes this into account when ranking you against your competition. Google is testing new slow label Page Speed Insights Page speed https://developers.google.com/speed/ pagespeed/insights/ What should the score be? It also affects your bounce rate. Site layout Easy to read Uncluttered & clean Easy to navigate Location, hours of operation and contact information easily found CONTENT IS QUEEN
Creating quality content How do you know if your content is quality? Original Relevant Informative Helpful Interesting Traditional marketing talks at people. Content marketing talks with them. Doug Kessler Blogging Dos Blogging Don ts Write at least 400 words per post Stay very narrow in topic Address frequently asked questions Keep titles simple and generally helpful Break post into easy to digest sections Do not paste articles from other sites Avoid criticizing competitors Be inconsistent (timing)
Other types of content What to do with your content? Animated videos Professional videos/images of your office Infographics YouTube videos Share links on social media Upload to YouTube Get creative Use it to create other pieces of content Review sites REVIEW SITES Yelp Google+ Angie s List HearingTracker
Yelp stats Yelp Yelp gets 106 million unique visitors a month 16% of total visitors are age 45 54 8% are 55 65 4% are 65+ That's 12,720,000 visitors age 55+ every month! Importance of Yelp Claim your Yelp listing Yelp integration with Bing Yelp integration with Apple Maps Yelp domain authority Hearing Aids in Denver Your company Yelp listing showing in organic search results Visit: biz.yelp.com You will be able to add: 1.) Images 2.) Business hours 3.) Website URL 4.) Business owner bio and headshot 5.) Business description
Other review sites Tips for getting reviews Angie s List: business.angieslist.com Hearing Tracker: HearingTracker.com Free listing Claim and complete your profiles Set up a Yelp check in offer Respond to each and every review Let it be known that you are on these sites Train your team Negative review? What now Respond publicly to the reviewer Keep your cool Have someone proofread Wait a day or two Focus on getting more reviews
Why should you care? Important social media sites 27% of all Americans ages 65 and older, are social networking site users. Facebook Twitter Google+ Facebook Facebook Organic reach is no more. Facebook likes are irrelevant today, as your posts will not be seen by many (1 2%) without advertising the post. Facebook jargon: Likes, shares, status updates, pages, boost post, friends and followers. This means you need to do Facebook Ads in order to get in front of potential patients on Facebook.
Facebook Twitter Visit: www.facebook.com/business Only 3% of seniors use Twitter. Twitter has struck a deal to start showing Tweets in Google search results. Twitter Twitter Twitter jargon: Twitter handle, tweets, retweets, favorites, followers and hashtags. Example Tweet: Have you heard of #earcandling for earwax removal? What is it and does it actually work? http://bit.ly/1dy2ccp #hearingloss Use a URL shortening service like bit.ly
Twitter The importance of Google+ Visit: business.twitter.com Helps you present a seamless image of your practice across Google products. Google keeps track of +1s and who is following who. Google+ Google+ Google+ jargon: +1 Pages Shares Circles Followers To get your practice information onto Google+, Google Maps and Google Search, visit: https://www.google.com/business/
7ways to improve your SEO in 2015 Questions 1. Improve your speed with a premium host 2. Place a unique video on your homepage 3. Create unique meta titles and descriptions 4. Get a mobile friendly design 5. Blog consistently 6. Claim your Yelp page 7. Sign up for Google My Business Enter your question in the Question Box on your webinar dashboard Contact Stephanie Erickson: stephanie@audseo.comor 602 850 1526 Visit www.audseo.com For more info on obtaining a CE credit for this webinar, visit www.ihsinfo.org THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING!