Navigating the World of SEO
Hello!
We’re slightly delayed but better late than never.
This week I want to briefly cover the topic of search engine optimisation (SEO).
I can hear the exasperated sighs from here. But, bear with me, because it’s way more complicated than keywords.
If you're running a life science or biotech company, you know that getting your products or services in front of the right people is key to your success. Of course, there are many ways to put yourself out there but most companies fail to start at the most logical place. The beginning.
That's where SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) comes in.
SEO is the process of optimising your website and content to improve your ranking in search engine results pages. It may sound incredibly boring. But it’s a science in itself. It's like the secret sauce that helps people find your website when they're searching for the things you offer. And for life science and biotech companies, SEO is especially important.
Why? Because the people who are searching for your products or services are often looking for very specific things. Maybe they're researching a rare disease and looking for potential treatments. Or maybe they're trying to find a company that offers a particular service, like genome sequencing or drug discovery.
Whatever it is they're looking for, if your website isn't optimised for search engines, they may never find it. And that means you're missing out on potential customers, partners, or collaborators.
But with a little bit of SEO know-how, you can make sure your website is the one that shows up when people search for the things you offer. Here are a few tips to get you started:
Know your keywords:
Start by brainstorming and researching the words and phrases that people are likely to use when searching for your products, services, or industry. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to see what keywords your competitors are targeting and to get ideas for new ones.
Once you have a list of keywords, make sure to incorporate them naturally throughout your website, including in your page titles, headings, meta descriptions, URLs, and body text. This will help search engines understand what your website is about and match it with relevant search queries.
2. Use those keywords:
It's essential to use the keywords that you have identified throughout your website, but don't go overboard. Search engines have become much smarter over the years and can easily spot keyword stuffing. Instead, focus on writing high-quality content that answers your audience's questions and naturally includes your keywords.
3. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly:
With more than half of all web traffic coming from mobile devices, it's essential to have a mobile-friendly website. This means ensuring that your website is easy to navigate, loads quickly, and is optimised for smaller screens. Google also uses mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor, so it's essential to ensure that your website is responsive.
4. Get backlinks:
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website. They are an essential ranking factor for search engines as they are a signal of trust and authority. The more high-quality websites that link back to your site, the more authoritative and trustworthy your site appears to search engines.
To earn backlinks, create high-quality content that other websites will want to link to, such as informative blog posts, industry reports, or useful tools. You can also reach out to other websites in your industry and offer to contribute guest posts or collaborate on content.
What you shouldn’t do, is buy backlinks from dodgy agencies.
5. Resolve technical errors on your site - quickly.
Technical SEO is a field all by itself. Here are a few reasons why you shouldn’t ignore it.
You need your pages crawled: Search engines use crawlers or bots to scan your website's pages and content. Technical SEO helps ensure that your website is structured in a way that allows crawlers to find and index all of your pages effectively.
Don’t forget user experience: Technical SEO can improve user experience by ensuring that your website is fast, easy to navigate, and mobile-friendly. These factors are important for users and search engines alike.
Time is of the essence: The speed of your website is a crucial factor in SEO. Technical SEO can help identify and fix issues that slow down your website's loading time, which can improve your search engine rankings and user experience.
Get rich quick: Technical SEO can help you create rich snippets, which are enhanced search results that include additional information such as ratings, images, and descriptions. Rich snippets can increase click-through rates and improve your website's visibility in search results.
6. Create great content:
Content is queen when it comes to SEO. Great content not only attracts backlinks but also keeps visitors on your website longer and encourages them to share your content on social media.
Creating great content involves identifying the topics and questions your audience cares about and then creating comprehensive and informative content that answers those questions. This could include blog posts, infographics, videos, case studies, or white papers.
Don’t be fooled by marketers that tell you SEO is just for top-of-funnel content. SEO should be in use all the way down the funnel.
SEO is critical for life science and biotech companies as it helps ensure that your website appears in search engine results when people search for the products or services you offer. By understanding your keywords, optimising your website, earning backlinks, and creating great content, you can improve your website's search engine rankings and attract more of the right traffic to your site.
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