SEO or SEM: Which One Should Healthcare Businesses Choose

1. SEO or SEM: Which One Should Healthcare Businesses Choose A reliable healthcare website design agency can optimize your healthcare website using the right SEO or SEM strategies and approach. Today healthcare businesses and medical practices give more importance to online marketing. This is because in the present digital world the large majority of people have access to the internet and smartphones that help them find any information about healthcare at just the click of a button. Medical SEO services become relevant in this scenario, and healthcare entities can utilize these services for website optimization and mobile app development. With Google changing its algorithm many times, it is vital for healthcare businesses to update their websites and stay relevant. Search optimization helps search engines understand your website. The

2. engine then determines if your site is helpful to users. Successful search optimization puts you at the top of search results. It drives traffic to your website, builds brand awareness and helps grow your business. Search Engine Optimization SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the use of organic tactics to appear in search engine results. When a medical website ranks on top of the search engine result page in an unpaid position, it builds trust among potential patients. There are many SEO techniques that work to increase your search rank and the best organic SEO techniques are white hat techniques like on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO. Search Engine Marketing Once SEO is done the next step is SEM i.e. search engine marketing. It uses paid tactics to appear higher on the search results page. If a healthcare business uses SEM strategy, then the first step is to find the best keywords for their products and services. When potential patients perform any search using the keywords, they see paid ads above the organic results. Each time someone clicks on the ad there is a charge. SEM serves your ads to people already searching for your products and services. Main Difference between SEO and SEM •Targeting patients: SEM can use filters like age, location and income and with these parameters you can decide who can see the ads. It can show your ads to the target audience but in the case of SEO, it cannot specify who can view their search results. •Appearance: Paid results look different from organic results. For Paid results there will be an icon which says “AD” and they also have extensions with extra links, phone numbers and callouts whereas SEO has featured snippets that appear along with SEO results. •Cost for clicks: For Paid results, the advertiser pays each time when someone clicks on SEM results but for SEO results there is no charge when a user clicks on it •Long term value: SEO takes longer to show actual results in terms of high ranking, but it adds long term value to the healthcare brand. However, SEM works only when you use it i.e. when you turn off your ads the strategy becomes useless. However, if your organic search results are low, SEM puts you in front of consumers. •Immediate Impact: With SEM paid placements, potential patients can see your ads straightaway. Once a campaign is launched, the ads appear. You can turn the ads on or off as

3. needed. To increase visibility for a promotion you can turn on the ads. When the promotion ends, stop showing them. SEO is different from SEM, your brand starts to rank only months after creating content and implementing a strategy. •A/B testing: To test an idea or promotion use SEM. You can turn SEM paid ads on and off as needed and try an ad. If an ad doesn’t work then turn it off and after revising the copy change the demographics or build a new landing page, then turn the ad on again. Goals of Both SEO and SEM •To get your medical business among the top search results: Both the strategies aim at getting your healthcare business on top of the search engine page results. They work to display your medical practice or healthcare business when a potential patient searches for terms related to your products and services. •Increase traffic to your website: SEM and SEO strategies are designed to increase traffic to your website and also improve click-through rates. •Use of relevant keywords: Keyword research is important for SEO and SEM as the use of the right keywords helps your healthcare business to reach out to the right audience. Research your competition and find out the relevant keywords that can earn you audience as well as fits your budget. •Identifying the right audience: Successful SEO and SEM rely on knowing your target audience. Find out the wants, needs and habits of your buyers, and then create content and ads that offer value to them. To stay ahead of the cutthroat competition healthcare businesses must implement the above mentioned strategies. SEO is an important factor for medical businesses and SEM can also bring potential patients to your website. So choose any approach that suits your business. Healthcare providers, doctors, physicians and healthcare businesses should understand the importance of a successful digital marketing strategy. However, a digital marketing strategy does not mean gaining more leads and potential patients, it means creating a relationship in which your organization provides real, tangible value to your patients. SEO ranking is crucial to get to the top of the search results. If you wish to optimize your website, approach a reliable healthcare website design agency that will utilize the strategies and approach that are best for your healthcare business or medical practice. (800) 941-5527 www.medresponsive.com