Search engine marketing for your orthopaedic website Boost your Presence, Build your Brand Christian Veillette M.D., M.Sc., FRCSC Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Shoulder & Elbow Reconstructive Surgery University Health Network Affiliated Faculty, Techna Institute

Disclosure My disclosure is in the Final Program Book and in the AAOS database. I have no potential conflicts with this presentation.

Objectives Understand the basics of search engines Describe what SEM is and how it is done –Natural optimization (SEO) –Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Learn about social media optimization (SMO) and its role in SEM Learn how to measure the success of SEM

How does a Search Engine Work?

Google Inside Search

Who is who? Jan 2012

Who is who? March 2013

Why do we care?

Location! Location! Location!

Click through rates

Health Consumers Online 59% of all adults in the U.S. look for health information online 80% of Internet users look online for health information –making it third most popular online activity Most start with a general search engine, rather than a medical vertical

Looking online for doctors is 3 rd !

SEM vs. SEO Search Engine Marketing (SEM) - Positioning of your web site in the search engines so that it is found by your target market at the right time. –Search Engine Optimization –Link building –Pay per click Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – SEM technique to optimize site content to improve search engine rank and visibility

How does it fit together? Search Engine Marketing SEO Search Engine Optimization “Organic” PPC Pay-Per-Click “Search Advertising” Pro: Great Long-term ROI More exposure/awareness High ceiling and volume Con: Tough to quantify Lots of work (design/dev) Takes a while Pro: Quick setup Highly measureable/quantifiable Less development resources Con: More expensive Lower ceiling/volume potential Subject to “Ad Blindness”

Paid Organic vs Paid Search Organic

10% of Clicks Organic vs Paid Search 90% of Clicks

Search Engine Marketing – Next Gen SEO Search Engine Optimization PPC Pay Per Click SMO Social Media Optimization Target keywords Link Building ALT/TITLE attributes Keyword density Sitemap Reporting/Analytics Campaign design Google Adwords Facebook Ads Microsoft AdCenter Increase linkability Make tagging and bookmarking easy Reward inbound links Help content travel

What do Search Engines look for? Readable Text Fresh, unique content Relevant inbound links Good site architecture Unique meta info Social connections

Site Health Google Webmaster Tools –

CONTENT!

SEO Pyramid

SEO Workflow Keyword research & analysis Analyze site for crawl / performance issues Implement optimization Monitor results

What Steps Can You Take Mini-Online Marketing Plan 1.Keyword research for target market 2.Select 3 prioritized optimization terms 3.Set up hosted tracking solution 4.Optimize the home page with location + service/product 5.Optimize inner pages of site and sitemap 6.Submit site to search engines and directories 7.Research link building opportunities 8.ADD UNIQUE FRESH CONTENT AND GOOGLE+ BUTTON!

Step-by-Step SEO - David L. Nelson, MD

Step-by-Step SEO - David L. Nelson, MD

1. Research your target market Brainstorm: –How will your target market search for you? Hand surgeon, hand surgery, wrist surgery –Are you targeting a geographic area? California, Greenbrae, San Francisco, Oakland

Keyword Research Suggestion Tools Google Keyword Tool – SEOmoz – (free trial + paid) Wordtracker – (free) – (paid) Keyword Discovery – (free trial + paid)

Keyword Research Tools

2. Select 3 top search terms David L. Nelson’s 3 prioritized terms: –California hand surgeon/surgery –Hand specialist California –San Francisco/Greenbrae hand specialist –Consider: –hand pain, wrist pain, carpal tunnel, trigger finger

3. Set up hosted web analytics

Setup Google Webmaster Tools

4. Optimize home page Title Tag Meta Info Alt Tags H1 Tags Javascript Embedded links Footer

Old View Source

New View Source

5. Optimize inner site pages Unique text and meta information for every page on your site! Title Tag Meta Info Alt Tags H1 Tags Javascript Embedded links Footer

Internal Linking (aka Information Architecture)

90% of the Rankings in 4 Factors #1 - Keyword Usage & Content Relevance

90% of the Rankings in 4 Factors #2 - Global link popularity (PageRank)

90% of the Rankings in 4 Factors #3 - Anchor Text Weight Dr. David L. Nelson – Hand Surgeon

90% of the Rankings in 4 Factors #4 - Domain Authority

Growing impact of social media Helps content get indexed faster –Tweeting cuts indexation time by 50% –Reduces time it takes Googlebot to find your content from hours to seconds Increases rankings for terms in the share –Shares can trigger freshness portions of Google algorithm, temp. increase ranking Increases domains ability to rank –High levels of social activity shows search engines that you’re authentic, engaged, valuable

Twitter and SEO Use keywords in tweets that link back to your website Use keyword descriptive hashtags Optimize your company bio aka description, URL

Google Plus and SEO

6. Submit your site Suggested search engines: Google Yahoo Bing Suggested directories: Google Local/Places Yahoo Local Bing Local

7. Research Link Building Opportunities

Inbound Link Best Practices Obtain links only from quality, authoritative sources related or relevant to your site –Top sites have good PageRank Can view PageRank levels from Google Toolbar Links to any page on your site; not just homepage –Deep linking Do not obtain links from “shady” sources –Link farms/rings –Link exchanges from sources of little/no Page Rank Do not purchase links from others

Where else? Blogs – WebMD, RevolutionHealth Profiles – AAOS, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Orthopaedic Directories/Authority Sites –Orthopaedic Web Links –Orthogate –Spine Universe Local Directories –Citysearch, Yellowpages, MD Compare Sites Press releases/Topic articles –Link back to your site

8. Keep your site fresh New content ideas: Press releases Articles Events News updates Image galleries Interviews Videos Blogs Social Media

SEO Methodology Keywords Research & Analysis Crawlability issues / HTML Optimization Content Development / Copywriting Onsite Optimization (body texts, titles, meta tags etc) Internal Linking, Navigation, Sitemaps Link Building Campaigns Analytics, Testing & Refinement Social Media / Author Rank

Questions?