Search Engine Optimization: Why Pharma and Device Brands Should Pay Attention

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a marketing tactic most marketers are aware of. But not all brands focus on this important practice—one that supports inbound marketing initiatives.

Not to be confused with search engine marketing (which refers to paid advertising on Google, Bing, and others), SEO covers technical and content-related factors that can improve your organic ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Why is SEO Important?

SEO is practiced to increase both the quantity and quality of website traffic. Healthcare consumers and professionals are searching for answers and solutions. In fact, 93% of online experiences start with a search query. SERPs are answer libraries, and your brand needs to be near the top to get engagement.

Of course, visibility is only part of the equation. The real goal is to drive traffic to your site via a click-through traffic. So, to have a chance at being found on page one of a Google SERP, your pages need to be optimized.

The first organic result in Google Search has an average click-through rate of 28.5%, which is good compared to other channels such as email or social media. The challenge is that search visibility and user engagement both drop significantly after the first page.

The bottom line is: if you’re going to create content, it might as well be optimized to have a chance to appear on the first page.

Key Stats on Search Behavior

Data supports the need for SEO to drive traffic to your website. Here are some key findings.

• Organic search drives over 53% of all site traffic. Source
• 66% of distinct search queries resulted in one or more clicks on Google's results. Source
• Only 2.6% of total queries result in a click on a paid ad. Source
• Over 40 percent of revenue is captured by organic traffic. Source

These numbers suggest a need to focus on ranking for organic search results. So, let’s look at a few key areas to focus on when you’re optimizing your digital content.

Four Focus Areas for Optimization

Page Load Time

Take steps to minimize the time it takes for pages to load. Google penalizes slow page load speed, partly because 40% of visitors will abandon websites if the page takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

Avoid using large images, extensive scripts, lengthy style sheets, and other elements that often slow loading times. Hosting servers, CSS and JavaScript file sizes, and uncompressed files impact load speed as well. So it’s important to address these technical SEO impacts that affect page load.

On-Page Content

Quality content matters in order to build authority and earn social shares, which helps lift your ranking. Google puts emphasis on expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (EAT), so digital marketing collateral has to be valuable to rank.

Pages should be keyword-optimized for multiple variations of your target keywords. Avoid focusing on a single keyword; rather, use semantic terms related to your keywords to provide context that engines use for to improve indexing and ranking pages.

Images should be optimized as well using alt-text copy that includes targeted keywords.

Off-Page Influences

Backlinks—links that point to your pages from other sites—remain an important ranking factor, as they represent votes of confidence in your brand in its content. Earning links from others in the right way helps establish your EAT and increase your site’s quality score.

Social media marketing, brand mentions, and influencer campaigns also contribute to better off-page optimization.

Keyword Selection

Keywords are the driver for search engine queries. Therefore, a comprehensive yet detailed analysis of keywords is important. Your keyword can include high-volume, relevant terms, but your keyword targeting should also include long-tail keywords that often get more engagement.

Pharma and medical device brands face regulatory challenges about messaging, so appropriate keyword selection will be critical to executing a winning optimization strategy.

Despite the challenges, SEO should be on your radar as part of your overall marketing activities. And when you combine optimization with advertising in respected industry journals, you increase reach while improving authority. See what Elsevier offer to help your brand improve your visibility. 

Article Written by: Alex Brown