Congratulations! For those who read the first three parts in our four-part series about how (and why) to create a solid social media strategy in 2020 (and beyond), you’re in the home stretch! For those reading this blog who did not read the previous blogs, here’s a quick recap:
- Part 1 examined why having a solid social presence will be a key asset for practices to stay competitive and attract new clients in the post-COVID-19 landscape.
- Part 2 covered the basics of channel optimization, brand consistency, and how to easily keep it all on track.
- Part 3 looked at the co-dependent relationship between your practice social channels and website, how traffic from social helps boost your website’s SEO, and the importance of your website’s look and functionality to turn visitors into clients.
In the conclusion of our series, which expands on website engagement and conversion, we look at website content, how to identify subjects of interest to pet owners, and content SEO tips.
How to Identify Subjects of Interest
Ask Your Clients
Under normal operating circumstances when clients are in your waiting room, you can ask them directly to fill out a short survey to identify what they would like to hear more about. If filling out a survey is too tough for clients while managing pets in your waiting room, or if your waiting room is closed because of physical distancing, you can email clients and ask them what pet health subjects interest them.
Services like SurveyMonkey or SurveyGizmo make it easy to create surveys and send them by email. Keep surveys short. Include topic prompts but leave space for clients to input their own answers. Whichever service you choose, and however you create your surveys, be sure to ask people to agree to a consent statement or privacy policy asking client permission to add their information to your database.
If you’re currently using ALLYDVM to manage client communications and automatically track missed reminders and appointment opportunities, ALLYDVM includes a mass email feature to easily send emails to some or all of your clients.
Note: If you don’t have the ALLYDVM system, ALLYDVM is currently offering their Two-Way Texting service at no charge until further notice for both new and existing clients. Plus, LifeLearn is waiving the setup fee for all new ALLYDVM clients. Click here to find out more.
Study Your Competitors and the Market in General
Check out the social feeds and websites of competing veterinary practices to see what others are writing about and think of new angles to write about the same subjects. Beyond that, keep tabs on the animal health market in general. Draw from information shared at veterinary conventions or through networking events, or any other sources of new knowledge that can help educate clients and answer common pet owner questions and concerns.
One you’ve planned out your website content calendar of subjects you want to write about, here are a few SEO tips to write content and evaluate its performance.
Keywords Still Matter
Included in blog content, page titles, image tags, and other components of your website, keywords are words or phrases that pet owners frequently search for online. While keywords do not have the same level of SEO significance as they once did, keywords still matter to Google ranking.
There are many keyword research tools available like Google Keyword Planner and the Keyword Magic Tool by SEMrush to help you discover what keywords pet owners are searching for at any given time. If you don’t have the time to do a lot of research (or don’t want the hassle), relevancy is the guiding principle when choosing keywords, and the simplest way to determine relevancy is to ask yourself, “What are my clients thinking about right now?”
During COVID-19, for example, pet owners are naturally thinking about how the coronavirus may affect their pets. So, keyword phrases worked into your content might include “pets and COVID-19,” “pets and coronavirus,” and “can pets get COVID-19?”
Use Google Analytics to Evaluate Content Performance
Google Analytics (a free service offered by Google) is a web analytics tool with five main categories that include content analytics. The overview page provides quick overall metrics on website content, including pageviews, unique pageviews, average time spent on a page, and bounce rate.
If you want to see which pages are visited most on your website, the Pages report provides this data. If you have search functionality built into your website, the Site Search report can show you what visitors are searching for most when they are on your website.
Logging into Google Analytics is the same as logging into a Gmail account. At the regular Gmail login screen, simply type in your regular Gmail password and you’ll immediately be taken to Google Analytics.
Getting the Writing Done
Veterinary practices do not lack animal health expertise to write website content that pet owners want to know, but time to write content on a consistent basis can be a challenge for busy practices. To remedy this, practices can hire a freelance writer, but they should be prepared for certain challenges.
While freelance writers can easily be found on sites like Upwork, many freelancers do not have specific expertise in animal health writing. They can certainly do online research, but that is not as effective as having subject matter experts themselves write content. Many freelance writers also work by volume. To generate a steady income, they must juggle multiple clients and turn out articles as quickly as possible, and in the process, article quality can suffer, which impacts your practice reputation.
And in a time when all businesses are struggling, no business can afford the risk of a damaged reputation.
To help both protect and build your practice reputation and make consistent, quality website content easier, WebDVM custom veterinary websites come with industry approved pet health content, online resources, and more to position your practice as the go-to source of trusted information.
Each website is search engine optimized to improve online discovery, attract new pet owners, and convert site visitors into clients. With user-friendly navigation, and mobile-ready design, your current and prospective clients can find and explore your website with ease.
And there’s one more thing to help you during these challenging times and those that may lay ahead.
To help your practice serve clients, improve efficiency, and stay connected through the current crisis and beyond, LifeLearn is offering WebDVM websites first two months on us and waiving all design fees.
This offer is valid on purchases from April 6th – June 30th, 2020.
Book your WebDVM consultation today.
