Ranking on search engines is one of the most important elements of veterinary marketing. If you want people to know that your business exists, you must find a way to get your website visible on search engine results pages (SERPS). Both organic and paid search are cornerstones of ranking on SERPS. What is the difference between them and how can you use them to improve your website’s searchability? Keep reading to find out!

The Ins and Outs of Organic Search

Organic search is the bread and butter of website ranking. It is classified as any result that displays in search results (like Google, Bing, or Yahoo) that shows up because of the search engine’s algorithm. These results may change in ranking daily and may include: pages from a website, a Google Business profile, a facebook page, or online directory. 

Some of the factors that contribute to organic search results are:

• Keywords (like veterinarian near me, vet, pet wellness care, etc.)
• Technical SEO
• Website performance/speed
• Mobile responsiveness
• Search console indexing
• Website content including blogs
• Secondary pages (like social media profiles)

Optimizing Organic Search Potential

Just because these results are “organic” does not mean you can’t help improve them. Here are some tactics to help you improve your organic search results:

• Update your website content
• Do some competitor keyword analysis and incorporate these keywords into your site
• Add more internal links on your site 
• Add a link whenever you mention your hospital name
• Write more blogs to show industry knowledge
• Performance monitoring like time spent on page and bounce rate (increasing website speed and enhancing user experience)
• Google Business profiles
• Referral links—links on other websites pointing to yours
• Life of a website—how long has a domain/website been around

The Many Benefits of Paid Search

Paid search is classified as any result that displays in search results (Google, Bing, or Yahoo) search results that are displayed based on a payment for placement within search results. Google Ads, Microsoft ads, and Yahoo ads display paid search ads alongside organic results, but typically include a “sponsored” tag so they can be differentiated between organic search results. 

Some of the biggest benefits of paid search include:

• The ability to create different kinds of ads based on different goals 
• More control over where you display in search results—i.e. Preferring to rank for terms like “vet near me” or just your business name 
• Creating ads based on past interests
• Immediate visibility within search results

Optimizing Paid Search Results

There are certain tactics that help you make the most of your advertising dollars. These include:

• Constantly doing keyword research and using high-value terms in your ads
• Refining your targeting
• Matching your ad content with your landing page
• Maintaining your website’s loading speed (including for mobile)
• Thinking about mobile users when designing ads
• Creating different types of ads
• Paying to show up for keyword terms that rank on the first page of search results

The Best of Both Search Worlds

An effective veterinary marketing strategy incorporates both organic and paid search to ensure that potential clients are finding your business. Both organic and paid search require constant tweaking and attention to be as optimized as possible. If the thought of putting so much time and effort into your marketing gives you hives, Beyond Indigo Pets is here to help! Our proven SEO and advertising strategies keep your website at the top of SERPS so you are constantly encouraging new customers to book appointments. To learn more, please call (877) 244-9322 or fill out our form.