What is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO is a common term that refers to any optimization that isn’t happening directly on your website. See, when you optimize content, design, structure, or speed on your website, that’s known as on-page SEO. So for off-page SEO, we work on the other essentials, such as link building, mapping, social media, and more! Off-page SEO is an essential building block when it comes to generating traffic and attracting quality leads. At Web3MD, we are specialists in SEO services for medical offices and healthcare practices around the country. To learn more about medical SEO and optimizing medical websites, contact us, or continue exploring our website for additional information. In this section, we’ll go over the essential off-page SEO basics for medical professionals.
Off-Page SEO Drives Exposure and Brand Awareness
In today’s world, your medical practice website is essentially a virtual front office. When potential clients visit your website, you want them to like what they see, because if they don’t, they’ll leave within seconds. That’s what on-page SEO focuses on: authoritative content, compelling design, user-friendly structure, and so on.
Off-page SEO is what you use to draw in potential clients, and to direct your target audience to your website. When done properly, off-page SEO builds trust in your clients, in addition to brand awareness.
For example, reviews from reputable third parties such as Yelp, RateMDs, or HealthGrades are all a part of off-page SEO. In this scenario, your good reviews on other reputable websites will alert local patients to your existence, and then attract client traffic to your website.
The Importance Of Link Building
If you’ve ever fallen down a YouTube rabbit-hole, (you know, when a video ends and you keep clicking the ‘suggested’ video links until 3 hours have flown by, and you can’t even remember what the original video was,) you’ve already had a taste of how effective relevant linking can be. In regards to on-page SEO, you use linking inside of your written content. With strategically placed links within your content, you can direct your traffic to other pages within your site, which reduces bounce rate.
In regards to off-page SEO, however, you want other sites to link to you, which is known as link building. This is thought to be one of the most efficient ways to improve your ranking on search engines like Google, but it isn’t easy. There are many rules to link building that you’ll need to keep in mind, which we’ll discuss on another page. However, for basics, you should never pay to have another site link to you, sites that link to you need to be reputable and relevant to your site, and if you link to the site that links to you, both of you might notice a dip in rankings.
In essence, quality link building is a huge part of off-page SEO that shouldn’t be forgotten, and quality links come from quality sites. Focus on third party review sites, like we mentioned above, as well as your google reviews, and even social media links too!
Social Media Enhances Off-Page SEO
Social media is an easy and interactive way to build your web-presence online and stay connected with your target audience. While social media alone won’t be your strongest tool in your off-page SEO toolbox, it is still an essential one, and shouldn’t be overlooked. First and foremost, having properly optimized social media accounts enforces your web presence, which helps search engines recognize your practice as a real business, which is critical for ranking.
However, with that said, several Facebook posts a day and trending photos on your practice’s instagram won’t translate directly into higher search engine rankings. Instead, use your social media accounts to increase your client’s affinity for your brand, and cultivate brand loyalty. Include any promotions you might be having, as well as polls and other interactive posts. By keeping in touch and interacting with your clients through social media, you can build trust with your clients, and in turn, their recommendations can play a role in your site’s off-page SEO as well.
Local SEO is a Form of Off-Page SEO
Generally speaking, most medical practices operate as local businesses. For any type of local business, local SEO is a critical component of your web presence and search engine rankings. That means that some of your off-page SEO is going to be in-person. Though websites are now an essential part of any medical practice, make sure you remember that old fashioned word-of-mouth marketing is far from dead. Communicate with your clients about your website and don’t be shy about asking for reviews! Including your website and social media links on your business cards can help you connect with clients and drive traffic.
Need Help With Your Medical Website’s Off-Page SEO?
Hopefully this article has answered your questions about the basics of off-page SEO for medical practices. As you can see, link building, branding, self-promoting, and more all play essential roles in how well your website will rank in search engine results. Remember to use quality content, user-friendly structure, responsive design, and a well-rounded web presence to make your site stand out.
In the end, a great website works for your business, not against it.
If you need help optimizing a medical office or medical practice website, you can count on the professionals at Web3MD. We provide effective and affordable SEO services for medical websites, and we work diligently with our clients to improve all aspects of the website, including on-page and off-page SEO. Let us redesign your existing site, or even build you a new website from the ground up. Our methods will improve your website’s ranking on search engine result pages, which increases the amount of traffic and leads you’ll receive from your website. If you’re ready to find out how targeted medical SEO techniques can help you stand out against the competition, contact us now and get started!