Google likes activity and credibility. Yelp has this credibility because of its size, longevity, and frequent updates. However, Google likes localized sites about you even more. Its time to tend your practice website garden and grow its search results ranking, and shove Yelp way down the results page.
Step 5: Add Content and Reviews to Your Site - We want your website to be the first link people see (most often clicked), and the only way for this to happen is to show Google you are actively tending your site. This gives Google the awareness that this is an active, relevant site about you, is part of your local area, and should be featured more prominently. This activity is measured in three ways: your Search Engine Optimization, your Sitemap updates, and your content quality and publication.
Everyone has heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), but few understand it, and the opinions on what is best vary widely. The basics, however, are simple: create quality content, title the page with those key words or phrases that describe the content, and set your title and metadata to help Google understand what your article is about. We won't go into the details in this article, but look at your website and ensure that page titles (and that title in the top of your browser) and content are consistent. If you aren't sure, please ask your device company rep to contact us for a website assessment at no cost. These keyword rich page titles are used in your sitemap.
Sitemaps are secret files that tell Google where your pages live. It helps Google find things. Here's how to test to ensure you have one. Pull up your website homepage, http://yoursite.com. Now add "/robots.txt" after this. Robots.txt is a standard file that all websites SHOULD have (If you do NOT have a robots.txt file, your web developer is not doing their job and should be replaced). The robots.txt file tells Google and other search engines where to look, where to keep out, and where the sitemap file is. For an example of this, look at Neuroscience Specialists robots file at http://www.neurosurg.org/robots.txt. Pretty simple, right? Now Google knows where the sitemap XML file lives. This is a special type of file that contains data pointing at the pages on the site and when they were last UPDATED. The "last updated" part is key! We want to alert Google that the pages have changed, and this is how that happens.
Your sitemap will not be updated unless you change content or add content. Doctors do not have the luxury of countless hours of time to write content, so source your content from device companies. Many of our device company clients offer libraries of content, both text and video, for use on surgeon customer websites. This content, when combined with SEO that identifies your location, helps you get found. You can also license content from companies such as my company, VoxMD, eOrthopod, or Swarm Interactive (ViewMedica animations). This content plugs into your website and gives you multiple pages to help you get found for all of your treatment and conditions. If your web developer or SEO "expert" starts squealing about duplicate content, its time to replace them as well. Syndicated content from device companies or trusted partners like myself is not duplicate content if Google trusts it AND it is localized. Duplicate content refers to reuse of content on multiple pages of the same website or sister sites.
Finally, one of the easiest ways to get content on your site AND add stars to your own website is to collect and post reviews on your bio page of your website. You're immediately thinking of patients you can ask to write glowing testimonials and put on your website, right? But these testimonials differ from reviews in one key way: how Google sees them. Testimonials added to your website are great, but usually stuck on a separate page that rarely gets found. The better place for testimonials is on your bio page. Google sees your homepage and your bio page as the two key pages about you. By adding short testimonial blurbs to these pages and linking though to the full testimonial on another page, you've alerted Google to content changes. Your sitemap will show the page(s) have been updated, and you'll move up.
Reviews are different than testimonials, and these are the superchargers for page growth. Reviews may look just like a testimonial, but underneath the covers, in the code, are bits of data called schema, description, and properties. This is sophisticated code surrounding the reviews, adding the scores, and structured to share with Google. When your reviews page is read, Google takes this pre-structured data and pulls it in, along with the associated page, and will reflect the data in the form of stars. Look up "Plas James, MD" for an example of how stars impact where rating directories fall. His site - with star ratings - is top of page. By actively collecting reviews, you'll continuously change your content. If you looked up Dr. James and clicked through to his page, you'll see his reviews change every clinic day.
It is highly unlikely your web developer knows how to create this code, but there are multiple systems that can deliver data to your website, and work with most website platforms. PracticeRate is the system Dr. James uses to collect and display testimonials. This tool also provides email marketing and management of data. Other systems, such as PulseMD, integrate survey data into your website. And entry-level products like GetFiveStars get you started with the basics. Contact us at info@voxmd.com if you'd like an assessment to find the right system for you.
Content, Testimonials, and Reviews are the critical success factors for boosting your website and pushing Yelp down in the results, and diminishing their effect. Content sounds like a lot of work, but leveraging vendors and device companies help you fast track your content efforts with a minimum of fuss.
Dick Pepper is President of VoxMD, a medical marketing and technology company, and creator of PracticeRate, a reputation management and marketing tool. Visit VoxMD at http://voxmd.com, and feel free to ask questions at info@voxmd.com.