Getting Your Veterinary Hospital Website On Top Of Google and Other Search Engines

Practical and Applied Methods for Improving your Veterinary Hospital’s Website Page Rank – Part 2

In Part 1 of our series, Getting Your Veterinary Hospital Website on Top of Google, we described how Google’s search engine crawls the web and ranks veterinary hospital websites in response to search terms. The exact method by which Google ranks websites is mysterious and complex, but as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists, we know the tried-and-true ways to improve your veterinary hospital’s website rankings in Google search results. In today’s article, we’ll unravel some of the mysteries in improving your hospital’s rankings.

Optimizing the Metatags in your Veterinary Hospital Website

Metatags are bits of code that live behind your webpage and tell Google and the search engines what your veterinary hospital’s website is all about.  To rank well in search page results, your hospital’s website needs relevant and researched metatags that reflect the content of your site.  Ideally, your website’s metatags should also match the terms that visitors type in Google to find you. There are three important metatags you need to consider in your veterinary hospital’s website: title, description, and keywords.

The title appears at the top of the browser window and gives each webpage a unique name. “Low cost veterinarian in Austin, TX – 24 hour pet clinic” is one example of a descriptive, concise title for a veterinary hospital website home page. A good title is less than 60 characters long and contains at least one relevant keyword or phrase.

A well-written description, rich with relevant keywords, goes beyond the information in the title and tells the world why your veterinary hospital website exists.  Many SEO specialists believe the description is the most important of the three primary metatags in determining search results.  Search engines favor a well-written sentence of 12 – 24 words. In Google, part or all of your website’s description often appears under the title in the search results with the relevant search terms highlighted or bolded.

Ideally, your veterinary hospital’s website keywords are the various terms people might type into Google to find businesses like yours. SEO specialists analyze keywords to discover the exact phrases to include in the title, description and content of a website. When John Q. Websearcher types a relevant term such as “animal clinic” into a search box and clicks the Enter button, Google or another search engine returns a list of websites that use “animal clinic” in the code and in the content. However, keyword analysis is not as straightforward as it sounds.

The Importance of Keyword Analysis

You might think that “dog vaccination” is a perfect keyword combination for a visitor to use in order to find your hospital’s website.  Using web-based tools, Search Engine Optimization experts can find out that 22,000 people a month search online for “dog vaccination.” But would it surprise you to know that some competing terms are much more popular? “Pet booster” beat it with 27,000 searches a month, and “dog shot” got 60,000.

It’s important to know how to analyze the keyword data for your veterinary hospital’s website, and to choose keywords that are not overly popular. For example, the term “veterinarian” is typed into Google over a million times a month, not including misspellings. Used alone, this keyword will not benefit your hospital’s site because of the overwhelming competition. However, “Peoria veterinarian”– by being both popular and targeted– will bring local clients to your veterinary hospital website.

Increasing your Page Rank with Google and Other Search Engines

Optimizing your hospital’s website metatags is just one way to increase your page rank and your website traffic. However, it does not guarantee a page one ranking. Google uses many factors to prioritize the list of websites it returns on the search results page. Google uses your metatags to help identify your content and match it with the search terms a visitor types into the Google search box.

Google’s algorithm is constantly changing, and so is the scope of the Internet. There are no credible estimates of how many websites exist today, and many more are added every second. If your veterinary hospital’s website ranks number one for your best keyword phrase, you win a temporary victory. However, SEO specialists know that next week your website may drop to ninth position – or worse – you may be relegated to page two or page three.  In order to keep your hospital’s website on top of Google, someone has to keep an eye on your rankings, make adjustments whenever necessary, stay ahead of the competition and watch for frequent Google news releases.  It takes tenacity and vigilance to stay on top.

Keeping Your Veterinary Website on Top with VetNetwork’s SEO Services

With a monthly Search Engine Optimization plan, the SEO specialists at VetNetwork regularly review your hospital’s website search results, analyze your website’s traffic and make the necessary changes in your content, metatags, links and page style in order to improve your veterinary hospital’s website rankings and push your hospital website to the top of Google.

Article Written and Copyright © by
Mark Feltz, DVM
VetNetwork
www.vetnetwork.com

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