High-quality backlinks are key to an effective online marketing strategy. They represent an important part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and can help your medical website be found in search engines and show up higher in search results. 

A higher ranking will drive more traffic to your website, and eventually more patients to your practice! If your website is ranked at the top of the search results, new and existing patients won’t have to scroll down too far on the page to find your practice.

WHAT ARE BACKLINKS?

Backlinks are when one website links to another website. This can also be referred to as “inbound links” because these are the links bringing traffic to your website. 

Backlinks are important to SEO strategy because links pass along both traffic and authority to your website. If a lot of high-quality websites have found your website useful enough to share a link, that communicates to Google and other search engines, that you are offering quality content. 

If you have more people linking to your website than your competitors do, that will signal to search engines that there are many people and businesses who have found your work to be valuable, and they should trust you as an authority in your field. 

This is especially important if you have a new website, or do not yet get a lot of traffic to your website. In an interview on the topic, John Mueller from Google stated: “Links are really important for us to find content initially… If nobody links to your website ever then we’re going to have a hard time recognizing that it even exists.”

TYPES OF BACKLINKS

The types of links you have pointing to your website is just as important as getting backlinks in the first place. You want links to be:

• High-quality

• Relevant to your website

• Include strategic anchor text 

Quality and relevance go hand in hand. Google is looking for links that help them understand your content better. If you are a medical site, you need links from other health-related websites that are known for sharing helpful, high-quality information. 

Links from websites in other industries will not help Google understand the quality of your site and the type of information that you offer. 

Anchor text is the term used for the specific words that are hyperlinked and directing to your website. Where possible, try to be sure that those words represent your website and what a reader will get when they click the link. Using words like “click here” as anchor text can still be helpful but is not going to provide the same benefit as strategic anchor text that uses some of your target keywords. 

HOW TO GET QUALITY BACKLINKS FOR A HEALTHCARE PRACTICE

It is important to note that you should never pay for a backlink to your website. This goes against Google’s best practices and can have a negative effect on your ranking in Google if they suspect that you may be paying for links. 

Here are two ways to begin building high-quality links back to your medical website. 

Take advantage of your connections and relationships. It’s important to develop and maintain real relationships with colleagues that work in your specific specialty. Reach out to them and ask if you can write a guest blog post to be posted on their website. When writing your blog, include strategic and relevant backlinks to your website to generate traffic. 

Reach out to relevant publications. Create a list of publications that are relevant to your practice and specialty. A good rule of thumb is to reach out to publications that you would want to read. Pitch yourself! Let them know why you're passionate about the content you want to share. Your request should be short and concise, letting them know what you are looking for – a guest post on their blog, writing an article on your practice or a specific service you offer, or even sharing your content on their social media platforms.

HOW TO UTILIZE BACKLINKS DURING COVID-19

As practices and businesses maintain continuity of care, it’s important to let people know you are open and caring for patients. In an effort to raise awareness of re-openings, local news sites, television, and radio stations are providing information to readers. Most sites even have a directory available where you can submit and list your company information and include a backlink to your business. Simply search the phrase “businesses open” along with the city of your healthcare practice and find a local website that will allow you to list your own business.

Building quality backlinks takes time and strategy. We can help! MOXY are experts at SEO and recognize how important backlinks are for your healthcare practice. Get in touch with our team today!