In Part 1 of this blog series, we looked at why having a solid social presence will be a key asset for practices to stay competitive and attract new clients in the post-pandemic landscape. And in Part 2, we covered the basics of channel optimization, brand consistency, and how to keep it all on track.
In Part 3 of our four-part series, we look at the relationship between social media and your practice website, how social media helps boost your website’s SEO.
While social posts may not directly improve website SEO, they encourage people to visit your website, and more traffic helps improve ranking in search engines, which naturally means more chances of converting site visitors into clients. Social posts also encourage sharing, which further encourages more website traffic and helps increase SEO with more backlinks.
To get more website traffic from your social posts, Facebook is an optimal channel. According to a recent poll by Search Engine Journal, 62% of respondents said that Facebook delivered the most traffic to their websites, versus 22% from Twitter, 10% from LinkedIn, and 6% from Pinterest.
Here are three key tips to optimize your Facebook posts:
1. Post Often
People use Facebook’s search function just like people search for content on Google, and according to Facebook, results are ranked on “activity and the activity of the Facebook community,” which includes shares, post popularity, page follows, and other activities tied to your practice Facebook page. So, the more you post, the more you increase your chances of engagement, which ranks your social content higher in search results.
2. Post Links to Your Practice Website Content
Posting clinic photos, funny images, or links to third-party pet health information are all a great way to engage followers and encourage shares. And such posts should be part of any overall social media strategy. Yet to boost SEO for your practice website, posts should frequently contain links back to content on your website to drive traffic. To facilitate this, consistently writing and posting fresh website blog content is a vital SEO component, not only to attract traffic from Facebook (or any social channel) but directly improve website SEO. Google favors websites that frequently post new content, which means that fresh content on an ongoing basis helps improve your website’s ranking on search engine results pages.
3. Use Clear Calls to Action
Be direct in the action you would like pet owners to take, using simple and clear language. Posting a reminder that flea and tick season has returned, for example, is helpful pet health information but does not actively ask pet owners to speak to your clinic about a preventive. When you clearly and directly ask pet owners to find out more about flea and tick protection on your blog, or take some other action, you encourage more click throughs, which increases website traffic and SEO.
As we mentioned at the start of this blog, your practice social posts and website form a co-dependent relationship, and the ultimate success or failure of any click through from a social post can be determined by how your website looks and functions. Websites that look out of date or are difficult to navigate can drive visitors away, never to return. Clean, modern-looking websites that are easy to navigate encourage visitors to remain on your website and explore further, which increases your chances of converting visitors into clients.
For examples of the latter, WebDVM custom veterinary websites are designed to engage pet owners and convert those pet owners into clients by directly addressing the changing online preferences of pet owners and delivering what they want and expect.
Hosting a wide variety of tools to help you market your practice better while saving you time to focus on patient care, WebDVM websites come in three editions to offer:
- Weekly news automatically posted to your website to provide ongoing opportunities to link back to your practice on social
- Built-in blogging functionality to easily engage pet owners on social and keep them coming back to your website
- Search engine optimization
- User-friendly navigation
- Social media branding – provided graphics to help you create online design consistency
And much more.
Book your WebDVM consultation today
While you digest all this information in relation to your overall social media strategy for 2020 and beyond, there is one more important consideration.
In these unprecedented times, when practices face new and unique operational challenges that may go on longer than anyone wanted or expected, pet owners have many questions and want to know who they can trust for answers. With a suite of industry approved pet health content and online resources, WebDVM positions your practice as the go-to source of trusted information, which strengthens client engagement and keeps them coming back for more.
To support you while you support your clients and patients, we’re offering WebDVM custom veterinary websites first two months on us and waiving all design fees from April 6th – June 30th, 2020.
Book your WebDVM consultation today
