by admin | Jul 27, 2020 | Baltimore SEO
Healthcare Marketing During A Pandemic
Marketing your healthcare or senior living facility is always important, but it is especially vital during a pandemic. Even though some healthcare facilities in specific areas of the country are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, others are having to make the difficult decision of laying off staff because the number of elective surgeries and well visits have decreased so dramatically.
As each state loosens its stay-at-home orders, patients will return to healthcare facilities for routine visits and non-emergency surgeries. Families who need help with aging family members may reach out to senior living facilities. Of course, you realize many only do so out of desperation as many will be hesitant to go out in public, especially to places where the coronavirus has been known to be.
How will you give your patients the confidence to visit your facility? One way is to share your COVID plan with the general public.
Before they pick up the phone to make an appointment, your potential patients and clients will turn to Google to find out what your facility is doing to keep visitors safe.
They will want answers to the following questions:
- Is it safe to visit the doctor for non-COVID related illnesses?
- Can I be diagnosed or receive treatment over a video conference call?
- I need to find a senior care facility for my elderly parent. What protocol must we follow to visit your care center?
- What steps are being taken to make sure the elderly are kept safe from coronavirus at your facility?
Think about your healthcare facility’s website. Are you answering these questions? What are you doing to put your potential customers at ease that you are doing everything in your power to keep them safe from the coronavirus?
Where does your healthcare facility rank on a Google search?
As you think about whether or not your website is equipped to answer the COVID-related questions of your customers and clients, it may also be time to analyze your business’ SEO strategy. SEO stands for search engine optimization, and this is a complex strategy that enables your customers to find your webpage in the first place.
If you are old enough to remember printed Yellow Page directories, you may recall how many businesses were named “AAA Plumbing” or “A+ Roofing.” These past business owners knew the importance of appearing first in their category listings.
Appearing first in a Google search is the equivalent of appearing first in a Yellow Page listing. It’s not as easy as renaming your business to start with the letter “A.” Instead, increasing your ranking takes the expertise of an SEO strategist, especially one that specializes in health and elderly care.
The staff of Virtual Surge can help you increase your Google ranking. Here are some of the strategies that we will use to assist customers in finding your business:
- We will set up your local listings in Google My Business, Bing Places, and Yahoo Local.
- We will complete keyword research for your industry and formulate a targeted, keyword strategy that enables clients to find your business based on their Google searches.
- Virtual Surge will optimize your page’s URL.
- We will help you create unique, quality content that will drive traffic to your website.
- Virtual Surge will make sure that your webpage uses title tags, image tags, and backlinks.
Let Virtual Surge get your business to the top of your customers’ Google search pages without paying for expensive ad space.
Here are two SEO strategies for you.
1. It is vital to hire an expert to take care of your SEO needs.
Surgeons continuously retrain to learn best surgical practices. Elderly care coordinators complete continuing education to learn about the best strategies in caring for the aged. SEO experts are also continuously learning how to improve a business’ Google rankings. This is necessary because Google is always changing their “formulas” on how they rank websites.
2. It is important to be patient when working with an SEO strategist.
If you work in the healthcare industry, you probably have seen patients who have abused their bodies for decades but still want overnight cures for their medical problems. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. It takes time to feel better after being sick.
If you are hiring an SEO strategist, it is important to realize that the best results come from long-term commitments. You can’t fix your Google ranking overnight. It takes time and perseverance.
If you are interested in committing to a marketing strategy that will increase the number of visitors to your website, contact the SEO experts at Virtual Surge. Although we are located in Maryland, we serve national and international clients. Even though we specialize in healthcare and the senior care industry, we work in a variety of other sectors as well.
This article was originally posted at Virtual Surge.
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by admin | Jul 14, 2020 | Baltimore SEO, Posts
Best Content Checker Websites
As your Washington DC SEO expert, specializing in health care SEO, we have recommended that our clients add quality content to their websites to improve their Google rankings. In fact, we have assisted some of our clients with both reworking existing blogs and creating new articles to improve where their business shows up on a Google search.
While there are certain tricks to the trade when adding content to a website that will help customers find your business, those tricks can not provide quality, informative, and original articles that have high value to your customers. After all, your website is the face of your company, and poor quality content will reflect poorly on your business’ image.
That’s why we would like to recommend some of our favorite quality content checker websites. While we have not used all of these on the list, we have scoured reviews and will provide you the positive and negative feedback that users have shared.
1. Grammarly
Our favorite “grammar” service is Grammarly. We almost hate to label it merely as a “grammar website” because it does so much more.
Grammarly assists users with comma placement, subject/verb agreement, and other nitpicky errors that your high school English teacher loved to point out with a bright red pen. But Grammarly also assists users in word choice, fixing repetitive words and phrasing, and alerting the writer when they use passive voice.
Grammarly has improved even more in recent months. The website gives users suggestions on how to fix awkwardly-phrased sentences. Although there are some gimmicky aspects to the site, such as giving the writer a “score” based on correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery, we recommend it as our top pick of content quality checker websites.
2. Readability
Unless you are writing for the New Yorker, your readers want and expect short sentences and paragraphs. They want to be able to scan your article for information. If you tend to be long-winded or have a difficult time dumbing down your technical content, you might want to check out Readability.
3. Copyscape
If you are hiring freelancers to add copy to your website, it is highly recommended that you run their articles through Copyscape. Copyscape is the industry standard for finding plagiarized content. It allows you to look at the most similar piece side by side with your writer’s work to see whether the duplicate phrasing was accidental or intentional.
4. Content Analysis by SEO Review Tools
When you open up Content Analysis, it looks like a word processing program. After you complete the article, you will see friendly reminders at the bottom that give recommendations on how to make your text more SEO friendly. For example, your Content Analysis may recommend that you add a meta description, an image using the keywords as the image name, or H1s or H2s.
5. Hemingway
Hemingway is a grammar/readability application, but we don’t like it nearly as much as Grammarly. Its interface is much more attractive than some of its competitors, but it seems to dumb down even the most straightforward content. We aren’t sure why, but the application also points out each adverb that you use in a piece.
6. Fact Checking
As far as we know, there aren’t any applications that will fact check your content. Regardless, we decided to add it to our list because we think that it is crucial. The Karens of the world love to find errors, and when they see them, they like to shout them from the rooftops. Ensure your business is spreading the best and most reliable information by fact-checking all the information that your website provides.
7. Content SEO Checker
Content SEO Checker is similar to Content Analysis. While reviewers tend to prefer Content Analysis by SEO Review Tools, they are quick to point out that this application tells how relevant your content is to your target keywords. This is important because Google seems to penalize websites that try to trick the readers by using keywords that have nothing to do with the article.
8. Check My Links
Check My Links is an extension that does just what it says it does. It makes sure that the internal and external links in your content are working correctly. Readers become frustrated if they need more information only to find that the links in the article don’t work. Frustrated readers are unhappy readers.
As always, the staff at Virtual Surge is happy to help you with your website content. We have writers on staff who will help manage your content, and our SEO team is at the ready to help you earn that Google rank that your business deserves.
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by admin | May 7, 2020 | Baltimore SEO, Digital Marketing, Local SEO
How To Be A Flexible Leader During Pandemic
As our nation faces one of the biggest challenges in its history, we would like to salute the health care industry in Washington, D.C. and across the country. We understand what sacrifices you are making by merely going to work every day. We know that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused you to do your job with limited supplies. We know that you can’t come home at night and hug your kids. We know that you, too, are worried about your aging parents.
The American public has learned several things from health care professionals in Washington, D.C. and across the world.
They have been reminded of the power of perseverance. Even with an increased hospital population and a limited supply of resources, doctors and nurses are successfully treating patients with the coronavirus.
Americans have learned a new definition of bravery. Some of our healthcare workers have risk factors themselves, but they still show up for work because they are needed.
Finally, Americans are learning the importance of adaptability. Healthcare workers in Maryland and around the world have had to adapt to this new reality. They didn’t have a choice.
As a business leader who is facing unchartered territories caused by a worldwide pandemic, you don’t have a choice. You know that you need to adapt your business strategies quickly — your company’s survival depends upon your ability to act.
Someone once said, “A wise man adapts himself to circumstances as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it.” Here are some tips on how to reshape your company for a successful future.
1. Focus on your digital marketing campaign.
Whether you are a brick and mortar shop in Baltimore or a healthcare facility in Annapolis, it is time to focus on your company’s digital marketing strategies. And it’s time to pull out all the stops.
This means that you need to re-look at your website. This is the public face of your business for the unforeseeable future. Are you proud of what your potential customers will see or does the idea make you cringe?
You also need to evaluate and potentially expand your social media presence — especially if your customers are a part of the general public. Are you producing share-worthy content? Do you give customers the ability to connect and ask questions through Facebook?
Since your salespeople will no longer be able to do a face-to-face sales pitch to your customers, have you created video content to share with your potential customers? Have you worked out a way to train your customers to use your product without face-to-face interaction?
We know there are a lot of things to consider when analyzing your digital media campaign, and we know that these discussions may be out of your comfort zone. Regardless, you can’t ignore digital media any longer.
2. Learn how to network without trade shows.
Companies who work mainly with other businesses will need to learn how to network without trade shows and face-to-face interaction. How will your business adapt to this situation?
You may need to adapt by opening new channels over social media or web platforms. This may be the new way of opening new channels and making new relationships.
Do you have an attractive LinkedIn profile? What about your employees? Do they all have a professional presence on this networking website?
You may thrive in a face-to-face environment, and this new way of making connections may make you uncomfortable. Unfortunately, you aren’t going to be invited to anyone’s office to make a sales pitch soon, so you need to figure out how you are going to adapt.
3. Prioritize your SEO strategy.
The time is now to prioritize your company’s search engine optimization strategy. This means that when customers search for products or services that you provide, they need to be able to find you on the first page of a Google search.
The only way to make that happen is to have a smart, well-researched SEO strategy, which leads us to the next point . . .
4. Work with a professional digital marketing firm.
It is essential that you seek professional help as you adapt your marketing model for this new era. The staff of Virtual Surge is ready and willing to assist you.
We have been working with companies to increase their Google rankings long before corona. In fact, we are known as one of the Washington D.C. SEO leaders (specializing in health care SEO).
The staff of Virtual Surge are experts in digital marketing advertising. Let us assist you as you learn to adapt your business strategies in the face of COVID-19.
This article was originally posted at Virtual Surge.
by admin | Apr 1, 2020 | Recent News
Virtual Surge is offering a One-Time Web Design Promotion for a Limited Time!
We at Virtual Surge, understand that businesses, especially local small businesses, are struggling through a difficult time due to the Corvid-19 Pandemic. As a small business ourselves, we wanted to offer a special website promotion.
We have partnered with our website development partner to come up with a deeply discounted price with a turnaround time of 7 days.
Click Below to Learn More
WEB DESIGN PARTNER PROMOTION
by admin | Mar 31, 2020 | Baltimore SEO, Healthcare SEO, Local SEO
Modern SEO Practices To Promote Your Health Care Website
We know there is a lot to learn about healthcare SEO. In fact, the staff of Virtual Surge is continually learning, so they can stay current on modern SEO practices. Today, we would like to talk about one aspect of healthcare SEO strategies that we will use in making sure your patients can find your practice on the web. Let’s discuss title tags, meta descriptions, and headings.
Keywords
We have already discussed how essential keyword research is for your SEO strategy. Our staff at Virtual Surge are experts in evaluating what keywords and phrases you should use in your healthcare website. For example, we know how to measure the difference in traffic between “Washington DC SEO” with “SEO services in Washington D.C.” We can also tell you about related words or topics you may want to use on your website to drive traffic.
Once we have completed our keyword analysis for your practice or business, we will then use those keywords in strategic locations throughout your website.
Title Tags
One reason you should hire an SEO strategist for your healthcare business in the Baltimore area is that they are familiar with the inner workings of your website. For example, you may or may not be familiar with the concept of a title tag.
When a person completes a Google search to find a doctor in his local area, a list of websites will appear from the search. The website’s name that appears in blue is called the title tag.
When Virtual Surge creates your website, we will make sure your title tag is formatted correctly and includes the best keywords and phrases to win traffic to your business’ page. We know how many characters to include and how to phrase the keywords naturally.
Meta Description
Underneath the blue text, searchers will find a meta description. This text, of course, is fully customizable by the owner of the site, but Google reserves the right to change it and use content from the page if the original description is not deemed accurate.
You want to be in charge of your own meta description, and Virtual Surge will show you how to make this happen. We know how long the meta description should be and how to format it. We will also make sure that the keywords in the meta description are used within the text of your actual website — as title pages or headers.
Headers
Finally, Virtual Surge will use headers throughout your content to help Google and other search engines know what content is included on your website. These, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, and h6 tags will enable search engines to scan the site to quickly determine what information will be helpful for the person searching for information.
Headings within your content will help your reader as well. Most online readers do not look at each word. Instead, they scan through the material, looking for the phrases that are most important to them at the moment. Using appropriate headers throughout the text will assist readers in finding the relevant information.
Let Virtual Surge Help
While this article was not meant to offer instructions on how to complete your own SEO for your healthcare website, it is intended to illustrate how complicated and essential the process is. You are the best doctor for your patients, and your nursing home is the best place for the aging members of the community. The people who need you won’t be able to find you if you ignore this part of your business operation. Let Virtual Surge assist you with your healthcare or nursing facility website.
Our staff is practiced in improving the Google rankings for our clients. We are experts in keyword research and website development. We can even provide professionally-written, original content to help improve your website’s rankings.
Even though we are based in the Washington DC area, our healthcare and nursing home clients are scattered throughout the country. We are happy to provide you with reviews from satisfied clients who have increased business as their Google rankings have improved.
We know that reputation management is one of the primary concerns for doctors and healthcare facilities. We understand that you work with people when they are in a highly emotive state. Sometimes patients and families look for someone to blame when their loved ones are ailing. Virtual Surge will monitor the review websites for positive and negative feedback, and we will assist you in how to respond to it.
Please fill out our contact page on our website, and our staff will get back to your ASAP. We want to help your patients and clients find you.
