09 Mar
Search engine algorithm changes are something that everyone who owns an online business dreads. A single algorithm change is enough to jumble up any rankings you have and change your patient traffic rate and can take your medical site from its high ranking and push it way down to the second search result page.
Search Engine Algorithm
While search engine algorithm changes are updated for improving the user experience, they can be the cause of all your marketing efforts going down the drain. Algorithm changes are unavoidable and there are few things that can protect your medical site from getting the full hit of them.
It is said that if your medical site follows white-hat SEO practices, you are safe from the algorithm changes; it can still be affected by them, nonetheless. Even if Google doesn’t disclose the secrets of how it ranks sites after an algorithm change, it does provide some useful protocols that can protect your medical site from the get-go.
Use Your Medical Content As Armor
Your medical content is the bread and butter for your medical site. It decides your medical site’s success and can be the saving factor for it when you go through an algorithm change. You should protect your medical site by posting protective medical content on it that will be reason enough for patients to seek out your medical site and get you those high rankings.
Your medical content is something that plays a permanent role in building up your online standing and you can benefit from it for several months after posting it on your site. Google recognizes valuable content and regards it highly.
If your medical content is of such a high-quality that patients especially seek it out on the internet, Google will have no choice but to keep your medical site in its high-ranking lists and keep you sheltered from the algorithm storm.
Perform Weekly Site Audits
Site audits should be on your to-do lists from the very start. Every successful online business carries out regular site audits to identify the aspects of their sites that are flourishing, the ones that need work, and the ones that should be taken down. Site audits are especially useful for protecting your medical site against search engine algorithm changes as well.
By carrying out weekly site audits, you can be made aware of the three main aspects of your medical site that Google looks into. These three defining aspects are:
- Site loading time
- Site indexing
- Site navigation
Excel in all three of these and Google won’t find a reason to throw your medical site in the algorithm storm and mess up your rankings. By carrying out a site audit, you can find out the loading time of your medical site and work on it to improve it, correct your site indexing and simplify your site’s navigation.
Besides that, you can also check whether your Google My Business profile is updated and running, your medical content meets Google’s guidelines (content that should be longer than 500 words but shorter than 2000 words), and that each page of your medical site is unique and purposeful.
Stick With Your Target Medical Keywords
The best way to avoid letting all your rankings flow away with an algorithm change is to create some base strengths and keep them strong enough to endure anything. Picking out target medical keywords is one of them.
While you can experiment and test while carrying out a keyword campaign, set aside your core medical keywords and work on improving them so they can protect you from any algorithm change. Don’t be fooled by the idea of choosing extra keywords to encourage more traffic during an algorithm change.
This can cause you to lose the keywords that work for you and any chances of patient traffic. These new keywords can weaken the importance of your current target keywords and therefore you may lose a large portion of the patient traffic you generally get. This can expand the effect of the algorithm change.
Focus On Authentic Linking
There is a very popular saying regarding backlinks that goes as “be wary of the bite of a backlink”. The truth of this saying may hit you during an algorithm change if you are not careful with where you get your medical backlinks from. During an algorithm change, Google specifically picks out sites that have weak and unauthorized sources for their backlinks.
If your medical site is one of them, you may end up losing more than just your rankings. To avoid this predicament, simply employ backlinks from safe and authorized sources that Google recognizes and be sure to have them generate at a safe rate.
Generating backlinks too fast may also end up with your medical site getting in Google’s list of suspicious sites. According to the latest algorithm change, Google’s main focus isn’t on the volume of backlinks but rather on the authenticity of their sources.
Keep Other Doors Of Patient Traffic Open
Aside from losing your rankings, an algorithm change can cost you losing your patient traffic as well. This can affect you even more if you only use your medical site to promote your medical services. To avoid losing so much patient traffic, simply create different traffic inducing platforms to keep up your patient flow.
Social media is especially beneficial in this case since you are not leaving all your eggs in one basket. By using social media marketing for medical practice to promote your medical services, you are creating different doors for patients to find you in case your medical site is suffering from an algorithm change and your rankings are down.
Search Engine Algorithm Changes Are For Improving User Experience
While search engine algorithm changes may negatively affect sites, they are designed to improve user experience. If any site fails to keep up with the new algorithm guidelines, it simply gets weeded out by it. To avoid suffering from the same fate, make sure your medical site is safe by the above 5 protective protocols.
