SEO is often something that PT clinic's feel is restricted to their website, but in fact, it is possible to use social media to improve SEO. In fact, SEO and SMM are two marketing strategies which are very closely intertwined. Check out these tips for using social media to boost your SEO.
As social media becomes more and more popular, search engines are starting to index posts and returning them in search results. In order to take advantage of this you are going to need to make sure that your posts on Facebook and other social networks are optimized for search engines just as you would with a page of content on your website. Start with a strong piece of content as your anchor and make sure that you give it a title that is both accurate and descriptive – not forgetting to include the most appropriate keywords. This will improve the chances of your post appearing in the search rankings for those keywords.
One of the great things about using social media is that you have the opportunity to engage with your patients. A physical therapy practice is a business that is relying on local business and so it is important to add some local seo to your social media posts as well. Include the town and/or state that you serve in your chosen keywords and remember to use them in your posts. You can also boost your local SEO by posting about local community events that you and your physiotherapy practice are participating in.
It is also important to create a local listing on Google+ for your practice by signing up for Google My Businessand that you include a location map on your Facebook page. This is going to help patients find you and for them to check in via social media channels giving you another layer of promotion.
When you post your content on social media it is more likely to be shared by external sites. This creates organic inbound links for you. If you can build up a diverse link profile you will be considered to have more authority by Google thus giving you a higher placement in search engine results pages. The key is making sure that you are posting and/or sharing good quality content that others will want to share with their followers. Those sharing your content are going to have followers interested in physical therapy and they will get to see your content and will hopefully come looking for more information direct from the source.
Now that social media has so much influence, things like the number of followers and/or connections that your business has can impact your search engine rankings substantially. The more followers you have the better you will perform. However, they do need to be good quality, genuine followers. Having 100,000 fake profiles following you is certainly not going to do you any favours! Instead, you should be cultivating and growing a following by posting interesting content and trying to create a buzz by engaging your followers in a discussion about that topic. This will encourage them to comment, share and otherwise interact with you and you will gain authority.
If your practice could benefit from some extra SEO assistance, then take a look at some of the features that we have to offer here at PatientSites.com. Call today for a free demonstration of how we can help you to optimize your content and maximize your search results.