laptop with Google showing on the screen

Looking for keyword research tips, but don’t know where to start?

You most likely know how important SEO is, but you may not be aware that there are some amazing FREE keyword research tips you can use for your physician side gig.

It’s also proven the people who come from organic search to your site are much more likely to spend more time and money, so generating more traffic from organic search can be really critical to your business success.

So, today I will share my keyword research tips to help you zero in on the best keywords to use in your organic search strategies.

Also, if found Episode 4 (Pro Tips To Improve Your Public Speaking Skills) of The Career Rx helpful, SEO will also help you get more speaking engagements. Or if you’re working on improving your online presence (Episode 2), SEO will play a key role in this.

 

In This Episode of The Career Rx You’ll Learn:

  • Why SEO keywords matter for your physician side gig website
  • How To evaluate page one search results
  • What ‘searcher intent’ means and why it matters
  • Why ads on the top of the page impact your keyword research decision process
  • Bonus tip: A overlooked but free and easy way to find more related keywords

 

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TRANSCRIPT AND SHOW NOTES

 

Hey there friends! Welcome to The Career Prescription (aka The Career Rx). I’m your host Marjorie Stiegler.

Today I’m going to go over three ways you can use Google for free to find out whether or not your keywords are the right keywords for your search engine optimization strategy.

Apart from being a physician, I have a decade of digital marketing experience both in healthcare and in retail. So, I share my learnings with other physicians so they can apply them to their businesses.

Note: Not all of my client’s businesses are medical. You, therefore, do not need to be medical in order to take this information and run with it. You can be in really any discipline whatsoever.

Some people want to get traffic to a website because that’s how their physician side gig makes money, and others simply want to establish themselves as an expert voice – a thought leader. Either way, SEO and keywords are important for getting found online AND for having a website that people actually want to visit.

If I’ve lost you already, and you’ve never thought about SEO or really what keywords belong on your website, come check out my free webinar on professional branding – you’ll see exactly what I mean.

 

Related: SEO 101 for Healthcare Professionals

 

3 SEO Keyword Research Tips For Your Physician Side Gig

3 Free SEO Keyword Research Tips

So we’re going to talk about three SEO keyword research tips you can use to improve your organic search traffic.

Your goal is to find search engine optimized keywords that you think are right for your business.

You’ll first want to create a handful of long tail keywords. Long tail keywords are a descriptive phrase, usually consisting of 3 to 5 words related to your business.

Next,

  • Put your computer in incognito mode so your searches aren’t based on previous activity, or you can use a public computer or a new browser that you don’t conduct searches on
  • Then simply put in your long tail keywords (phrases) into the search bar, hit return and see what comes up on the first page. This is a treasure trove of information!

Take a look at the top couple of results and look for three things.

 

3 SEO Keyword Research Tips To Use For Your Physician Side Gig

 

1. SEO Titles and Meta Descriptions

 

Look at the first page search results and specifically at the SEO titles and meta descriptions (this is the description under the title).

Do the search results look like they could be from your website or from a competitor website?

If the answer to that is yes, you are on the right track.

This means businesses like yours are showing up in the search results for specific keywords.

When a searcher clicks through on one of these search results there is a much higher chance of them staying on the website page longer.

Why? They are reading content, a solution or product they specifically searched for.

When searchers stay on the article or post page for a long time, Google rewards these websites by continuing to offer them in the search results.

Another key factor that Google looks at is the click-through rate (CTR). You won’t be able to determine exactly what the CTR is for the search results. However with these results showing on page one – this is an indicator that the CTR is very good.

If the information found on a website (that came from page one Google search) is similar to yours, then you’ve got a keyword that has already been time-tested and proven.

The best way to show up on this search results page is to use that long tail keyword AND make sure your article/blog post is better than the other results that show up on page one.

 

2. Look at Searcher Intent

 

The second thing you want to do is take a look at the search intent.

See if you can determine the intent by looking at the meta description.

What do I mean by intent? People are usually doing one of two things when they’re on the internet:

  • Information seeking: If searchers are interested in learning something quickly they’ll most likely go for a free resource or a content page (Wikipedia, Quora, etc). The only intention is to get the answer they are looking for.
  • Shopping: People are looking for things to buy, services to sign up for, subscriptions, etc.

If you are looking to sell something and you find that the intent in the top search results are information resource sites like Quora and Wikipedia then this may not be your keyword to target.

You have something to sell, you have something that you want people to do – specifically take action on.

  • You have a community, you want them to join
  • Download your video or PDF
  • Buy your book
  • Sign up for your course

So, when you find resource sites (like Wikipedia) on in the first 5 listings of the search engine results page (SERP) this means that people using that search term aren’t in the buying mode.

They’re in information mode.

On the other hand, you might be looking to provide information. For example, you have an informational website and your purpose is to grow your visibility as a thought leader and source of reliable information on your topic.

The titles and meta descriptions on the results page reveal purchase intent, you will know this is also not a keyword to target as these people are in shopping mode.

 

3. Are There Ads on Page One?

Google search shown on ipad

Check if there are ads on the search engine results page for your specific long tail keyword.

If you have chosen long tail keywords and you see ads on the search results page you may feel discouraged. You might be thinking ‘how will I compete with these big named companies?’

This may be true; you may not be able to compete, but I’ll tell you what you do know. You know that the keyword that you’ve chosen is a lucrative keyword. It’s a profitable keyword.

If this keyword wasn’t performing, these big businesses wouldn’t be spending money on it. Paid professionals who have strategy and research teams have decided this is a keyword worth paying for. So, if they think it’s a keyword worth paying for, it’s definitely a keyword worth using in your strategy.

I’m not suggesting you buy the keyword and try to outbid the ads, but it does mean this is a keyword that you can focus on. Use the keyword as the topic of a blog post or video and make sure to use the keyword in your titles and meta description.

This will obviously not be your only keyword strategy but it’s definitely something you can test.

Why use these ‘high competition’ keywords as part of your strategy?

Because you’ll be getting traffic to your website from other efforts – your other blog posts, your social media strategy, etc. And when people land on your website, you’ll have great content that the big companies have already shown are of high value to audiences. So, it may not get people to your website, but it will keep them engaged on your website.

 

Bonus Keyword Research Tip!

 

Look at the bottom of the search engine results page and find the section that says, ‘Searches related to…’.

This will show you 8 to 10 similar results to the keyword you selected. Write these down and repeat the same exercise.

Why?

Well, these related search terms are directly linked to the topic of your long tail keyword and people are regularly using these terms to search.

 

SEO Keyword Research Tips – Conclusion:

 

This exercise will show you how to look at the search engine results page and determine if a long tail keyword is right for you to focus on.

If you are not seeing search results that are similar to your business, then you know that it’s not the right keyword to target.

You want to find a keyword that represents business like yours.

  • Look at the competitors on the page one results
  • Look at the intent of the searcher (information or shopping)
  • See if there are ads on the results page

If you’re still reading this, you appreciate the value of SEO for making your business and website successful. So, I’ve got a free downloadable SEO cheat sheet for you. Come grab it here.

In addition to using the above keyword research tips, you can also, of course, hire somebody to help you figure out SEO for your business.

SEO is something that is ever-evolving because people’s interests are evolving, your content is going to be evolving, search engine algorithms are evolving, so you need to stay up to date on the right keywords to target for your business.

So go ahead now and test these exercises out!

I’d love to hear what you’re using as a keyword and what you found when you did this exercise. Were you on the right track with some of your original keywords?

Thanks for joining me on this episode of The Career Rx Podcast.

Please be sure to subscribe and leave me a review on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast or whatever podcast player you’re using to listen today. Also, be sure to send me your questions so that I can answer them and give you a shout out on a future episode.

Bye for now,

Marjorie

 

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