In your practice, you more than likely routinely inspect medical equipment and technology to make sure everything is operating smoothly and efficiently. But when was the last time you inspected your practice’s website?
More than likely, you’ve never audited the website for your practice, which is a shame because periodically auditing your content (and website as a whole) can ensure that it is performing at optimal levels. You can also perform an SEO audit that will diagnose problems and identify areas of improvement.
Using a Professional or DIY?
When it comes to SEO audits, you have options. Some options will set your practice back lots of time and money. Smaller medical practices, or facilities that have limited funds, can opt to perform a Lite SEO audit which, while not exhaustive, will be able to pinpoint major website issues.
According to the Online Marketing Institute, getting an SEO audit from the pros could cost your practice a minimum of $1,000, and could quickly surpass $5,000. In a professional SEO audit, you’re paying for:
- A very person knowledgeable in SEO to conduct the audit
- A 30-100+ page report that includes problems and recommendations on how to fix website issues
- Access to professional consultation if you have further questions and/or concerns
For the reason of money alone, a small medical practice would benefit from learning to perform these tasks themselves.
DIY Audit Tips
If you have the skills, why not save your practice some money and try to perform an audit yourself? Here are some areas you should focus on.
- 1. Overall technical health of your website
Making improvements to your website’s technical performance is one of the most valuable things you can do to increase visibility and visitor engagement. - 2. Analyze functionality
Your website needs to function for your visitors. Google will give you an SEO hit in rankings if people leave your site because your website is too confusing to navigate, has slow page load speed, etc. - 3. Analyze website content
When you hire a professional SEO auditor, you’ll usually receive an overview of how your content fairs and how well it’s optimized per your keywords. Your goal (as content is concerned) is to include content that people want to read, but also content that will keep them on your website to look around (the hook). If you can keep people interested in what you have to say, it will reduce your bounce rate.
For a medical office, it is unlikely that you have anyone on staff that has the skills and knowledge necessary to perform a full-scale SEO audit; however, in a pinch you could probably save your practice money by performing the above three tips. Moreover, even if you’re not interested in performing an entire SEO audit, having well-written content that keeps visitors on your site and having a website that functions well is always a plus!
If you decide you do need the help of a professional, look no further than SEOMedical – the healthcare marketing specialists. Contact us to discuss getting an SEO audit today.