Point-of-Care Perspectives
from PatientPoint

With billions of users online daily, you need to work hard to ensure that your practice stands out among the crowd. How do you guarantee that your website pops up as one of the top results when your current and prospective patients search the Internet? One way to rise above the rest is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Great SEO means that when someone searches Google (or any other search engine), your website will be one of the first results they see. 

There are countless strategies for improving your SEO, including using strategic keywords and adding in-depth information to your website, but an especially powerful method is adding video content to your website. Today, we focus on three ways to use video content to improve your website’s SEO. 

1. Embed Videos Throughout Your Website 

The length of time a visitor stays on a web page is a key metric used by Google to rank websites. As AI continues to heighten people’s expectations when it comes to the type of content they digest, it’s essential to understand your practice’s website is no exception.  

Text and images alone are scanned quicker than ever these days. If you’re lucky enough to land on the first page of Google, prospective patients may glance at your images, briskly browse through text and move on to the next. People are constantly looking for ways to save time, meaning they're also highly likely to ditch a webpage full of text for something more appealing and straightforward. Why leave it up to your prospective patients to find what they’re looking for when you can get straight to the point with videos?  

One benefit of adding videos to your website is that your viewers’ attention can be held longer on each page as they take the time to watch the videos. With the proper integration of video content throughout your site—not just corralled into a special videos section or linked from another website—you can keep visitors on your site longer, increasing the average site visit time and, over time, your search engine rankings. 

2. Tell Your Visitors (and Google) About Your Videos 

When ranking sites for the web, Google’s web-crawling software (called Googlebot) “reads” your website to determine what makes up each page. This allows Google to refer your patients to the appropriate sections of your website. To incorporate this SEO hack when adding videos to your website, include a text description. Adding a description allows the Googlebot to understand what is on your web page, which helps you in two ways: not only will Google understand your videos better, but it can lead to additional mentions of keywords and phrases related to your patient’s search—sure to boost your SEO even higher! 

While accessibility and Google ranking might not seem directly connected, they share a significant relationship. Incorporating features such as text descriptors, Closed Captioning and alt text goes beyond mere compliance; it enhances the capacity of search engines to comprehend and index content effectively. By optimizing content for accessibility, not only do creators make their offerings available to a wider audience, but they also signal to search engines that their content is comprehensive and user-friendly. This, in turn, can contribute to higher search engine rankings, further aligning with the rapid information retrieval and decision-making processes that characterize today's digital landscape. 

3. Optimize Your Videos for SEO 

When you use your tools to increase the exposure of your videos, you are essentially telling search engines that your videos are valuable and worth ranking. This can lead to your website appearing higher in search results, leading to more traffic and new patients. Here are some ways to use your tools to increase the exposure of your videos: 

• Submit your videos to video-sharing websites: There are many video-sharing websites, such as YouTube and Vimeo. Submitting your videos to these websites will increase their visibility and reach.  

• Promote your videos on social media: Share your videos on your social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You can also use social media ads to promote your videos to a broader audience. 

• Embed your videos on your website: When you embed videos on your website, you make informative content more accessible to potential patients. You can also use video transcripts to make your videos more accessible to people with disabilities. 

• How can you get started with adding video content to your site today? If you already have an account with us, schedule time for a website strategy session with your Customer Success Manager! If you do not have an account with us, we make it easy to embed videos on your website, engage patients throughout your practice and share content with patients pre-and post-visit. Contact us for more information.