When someone you trust vouches for a person, a product, or a brand, you’re also likely to trust whatever it is they vouch for. In search engine optimization (SEO), links work the same way – the more (trustworthy) websites link back to you, the more trustworthy you’ll appear in the eyes of the search engines. That’s why link building is such a big deal.
However, there’s a lot that goes into link building.
In this article, we’ll break down the link building process, why it’s important for your medical website, and some tips and tricks to help you create and execute an effective link building strategy.
What is Link Building?
Link building refers to the strategy and underlying tactics to acquire backlinks (links leading to your own website) from other (preferably high authority) websites. The goals are to create a strong backlink profile, establish authority, and improve search engine rankings.
Before proceeding, it’s vital to understand the following key terminologies:
Link Equity
Also called “link juice,” this is a search engine ranking factor that suggests that if some conditions are met, links pass some of the authority or “value” from the linking sources to the linked pages.
The more authoritative and topically relevant the linking source, the more value flows to the linking destination.
NoFollow and DoFollow
“Nofollow” is an HTML tag that specifies whether or not to allow link equity from flowing from one link to another.
As the name suggests, “nofollow” tag prevents the equity from flowing in between links. Links with this tag are known as “nofollow links”.
In contrast, a “dofollow” link doesn’t use this tag and allows link juice to flow. All links are by default dofollows, unless they have the nofollow tag.
Backlink Profile
Your backlink profile is the collection of all the sources and websites linking to your website.
The more quality links you have, the stronger your backlink profile. When creating and executing a link building strategy, strive to get backlinks from high DA websites, such as Healthline, WebMD, etc.
Why is Link Building Important for Your Medical Practice
Here’s why an effective link building strategy is crucial for your medical practice:
- You’ll Seem More Trustworthy
If you create high quality content for other high authority websites, you increase your chances of getting backlinks from them.
When your potential patients see your medical website mentioned in trustworthy places, they’ll perceive your medical practice as trustworthy as well.
- You’ll Rank Higher for Competitive Keywords
Only one high-quality backlink (with high link equity) can tenfold the chances of your good content to rank higher on Google search.
Therefore, the greater the number of quality links acquired through white hat link building practices, the greater the chances of your content to rank on SERPs.
- More Traffic = More Patients
The main purpose of acquiring quality backlinks is to drive traffic from high authority websites to your website and eventually turn that traffic (potential patients) into consumers (loyal patients).
Link Building Tactics and Tips
Link building is a long journey of consistent hard work.
Having said that, here are a few tried-and-tested link building techniques/tips that you can use to guarantee long-term impact:
Strive to Acquire Dofollow Links from High DA Websites
As mentioned above, the more trustworthy the linking source, the more benefits you’ll reap.
While it’s difficult to acquire non-editorial links (natural links) from high authority websites, it is possible to pitch guest posts to them.
However, instead of sending outreach emails for guest posting great content to webmasters of high DA websites, you can also pitch images/infographics to them.
Furthermore, make sure that the links you get are mostly dofollows.
Avoid Link Schemes
The buying and selling of links, excessive link exchanges, press releases with keyword-rich anchor text, spammy links (links from shady, irrelevant, and low domain authority websites), or any other backlinks acquired in order to manipulate search engine rankings will eventually get you flagged.
Delve into Citation Management
When patients search for “clinics near me” on Google, chances are they’ll get results for certain online directories.
You should therefore build links on these websites. Just make sure to keep your NAP(Name, Address, Phone Number) consistent (Google considers this a good practice). You can check the local citations for your medical practice with Moz’s Check Presence tool. You just enter your information and scans these directories for you. If you’re seeing inconsistent information, it’s clear sign that your local SEO needs some help.
Conduct Backlink Audits from Time to Time
It is important to monitor your backlink profile from time to time. There are a number of steps that you can take in this context:
- Get rid of low-quality/spammy backlinks.
- Run a link reclamation campaign (broken link building and reclaiming lost links)
- Request unlinked brand mentions for hyperlinks.
- Evaluate your internal links.
- Disavowing links from missing websites.
Apart from the above, it is advisable to always look out for external link opportunities (including relevant resource pages where you can easily get your medical business listed).
Wrapping it Up
Out of everything, high quality backlinks matter the most to search engines.
You can have the fastest website, with decent content, but without a solid link building campaign, your SEO efforts won’t leave a lasting impact in the long-run.
