SEO For Pharmacies
In today’s digital world, most people turn to Google before anything else to find what they need. Looking for a local or online pharmacy is no exception!
According to WebFX, 46% of all Google searches are local. It is therefore essential you employ a good SEO strategy in order to appear in the top few results for “pharmacies near me”. If not, you may not even appear on the first few pages of results, and potential consumers will be unable to find you.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is a strategy used to improve a website’s chance of showing up in the first few organic results of a search engine for a given search term (also called a keyword). A successful SEO strategy can drive more traffic to your website, increasing leads and potential business for your company.
SEO is not a quick win, and it can take a while before you start seeing any hard work pay off, so it is best to start as soon as possible to start ranking as soon as possible!
How Do Search Engines Rank Websites?
A number of factors affect the rankings of a website in the search engine results pages (SERPs), and they differ depending on the search engine being used. Google is the most popular search engine by far, getting over 70% of all search traffic on the internet. It is for this reason that Google’s algorithm is the most accurate but also complex when it comes to sorting websites. It is clever enough to sort results based on location, word choice and even the search intent of the user.
How to Improve Your Pharmacy’s Online Visibility Using SEO
There are some crucial aspects to SEO you must get right in order to have a chance at ranking alongside competitors. These best practices can help to improve your pharmacy’s SEO and start seeing results. Remember, SEO is a long-term strategy and it could take 6 months to a year before you really see any noticeable changes.
SEO Best Practices for Pharmacies
When first starting out, SEO can be overwhelming due to the sheer amount of information and processes out there. It gets a lot more complex and in-depth than this, but here is a simple list of best practices in SEO to get you started in improving rankings and seeing results for your pharmacy:
1. Keyword Research
Perhaps the backbone of any SEO strategy, keyword research is essential when it comes to choosing what search terms you want to rank for. There are a few different free tools you can use to find the sorts of things users are searching. Make sure the keywords you choose to target for each page are highly relevant to the content, as well as have decent search volume.
2. Meta-Data
Ensure the meta-data for your pharmacy’s website is accurate and optimised for the search terms you want to appear at the top of the SERPs for. Length, capitalisation, as well as keyword density can all make a difference to your SEO. It can take a bit of trial and error to determine exactly the sort of meta-data Google favours, but looking at competitors who are doing well in the SERPs can be a good starting point.
3. Headings
A H1 tag should be the title of your page, and accurately sum up the page's contents to give both Google and the user a good idea of what they can expect to find there. It is best practice to only have one H1 tag so as not to confuse Google. Make sure you try and use your target keyword in this heading.
4. On-Page Content
Optimise any on-page content to make it obvious to Google what your page is about. Choose a priority keyword and try to litter it through the page naturally. Be careful not to put an unnatural number of mentions in it though, as this can be seen as “keyword stuffing’ by Google and result in your website dropping in rankings. A top tip is to write for the intent of the user; therefore, keywords should naturally fit into this.
5. Google My Business
Make sure your pharmacy is set up accurately on Google My Business with your website, address and branding. This can help Google correctly categorise you when someone close by searches “pharmacies near me”, giving your pharmacy website a better chance of appearing.
6. Links, links, links
Make sure all pages on your website are well linked to in either your navigation menu or on other internal pages. The most important pages on your website should not be more that 2 clicks away for a user at any time. External links from other websites are also important to gain. These are called backlinks and are seen as a vote of confidence from a given website for yours, which improves SEO.
How to Measure Your Pharmacy’s SEO Progress
A good indicator of whether your SEO strategy is working is to measure traffic changes in Google Analytics. This is a free software that you can set up on your pharmacy’s website to measure things from traffic to bounce rate and conversions. Draw comparisons between the traffic on your site when you first started your SEO campaign compared to now to make sure you’re going in the right direction.
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