Luckily, it has never been easier for patients to find the information you’re seeking via search. 

Many doctors want to know: How does Quantum Digital optimise for search? 

At Quantum Digital we optimise thousands of medical websites, so I talked to our SEO, Content, Development, Social Media and Marketing Teams to find out some thoughts, and put together a few insider tips to share with you. 

Check out the tactics below, to start maximising organic traffic to your website’s blog.

1. Embrace Content Clusters

Search algorithms are ever-evolving, and in 2021 they are as smart as ever. Search engines are now capable of recognizing connections across search queries.

This has big implications for doctors. Gone are the days when the searcher typed in simple keywords. Searches today are complex, putting the heavy lifting back on Google and other search engines to connect the dots.

For example, if you type “doctors who help with joint pain” into Google the first results will be the various websites that seek to answer this question, like arthritis, this despite the fact that there is no overlap in the search terminology. 

The takeaway: search engines are incredibly intuitive. Google recognises what the searcher wants without the searcher explicitly stating their question. Try it for yourself!

Our Content Team realised this shifting behaviour, so they altered our blog strategy to focus on topic clusters, instead of specific keywords.

To do this, they first identified what topics to prioritize and then align blog posts with the various clusters. This strategy is working far better for our clients and ourselves.

Further enhancements including internal and external links building at every available opportunity, creating connection points between content that share the same topic cluster. By doing so, we signal to search engines exactly how the pieces fit together. While it can be time-consuming to reorganise existing content, the payoff is huge.

2. Prepare an Answer for Target Query

Let’s use the example of “doctors who help with joint pain” once more. If you type this search term into Google, you will see a small box with a short answer summarising a strong credible answer.

There’s no need to click a link to see the answer; instead, Google makes it easy to get the information at first glance. This answer box is a featured snippet. And if you’re not using your blog to optimize for featured snippets, start now.

Here’s the incentive: Google pulls the featured snippet from one of the pages that rank on page one of the search results, but the featured snippet does not necessarily need to exist in the #1 link. This is a huge opportunity to get content that is not in the #1 spot to actually appear above the #1 spot. 

To identify which content is good for featured snippets, Google frequently serves up answers for “Who, What, When, Where, Why and How” queries. If you think your content is addressing one of the aforementioned questions, prioritize writing a golden-nugget answer, and you may just see your content sitting right below the search bar.

Another key reason to prioritize the featured snippet is voice search. As voice search is on trend to become 50% of all mobile searches by 2022 -- a prediction by both Google and Bing -- featured snippets are now being tapped as the trigger response by virtual assistants. So, as search evolves, so should you.

3. Revamp Out of Date Posts

There are a number of benefits to creating new content like having additional pages to be indexed by search engines, providing education to your curious users, and it is a good way to stay relevant in your industry. However, content creator knows, new posts can take a while to build up steam. In fact, it is often slightly older posts that generate a large portion of traffic because they have had time to develop authority.

One of the most effective strategies we have observed with Client blogs posts is when we implement actions to boost SEO, is to historically optimise old posts. 

Historical optimisation is the process of taking old posts and making them new again with higher-quality, refreshed content, keywords, and links. 

By leveraging your already existing search authority on these posts, search engines will reward your freshness, which will then lead to a surge of new visits to your content.

Do You Know How Search Engines Determine Rank?

When we ask our clients the question “Do you know how search engines, like Google, rank the results you get after a search?” An astounding 85% of people answered “no.” 

As doctors rely more and more on their online ranking, it is important that their tactics evolve with SEO changes or loose key business opportunities to maximize your practice’s online presence. 

Want Improved Online Visitors

It may be time to understand, develop and capitalize on invaluable SEO tactics and other marketing strategies that can lift your practice toward the future.