SCHWARTZ HEALTHCARE-IT BLOG

SEO in PR - Best Practices

Stepping away from our usual issue-oriented discussion, here is Part 12 in a continuing series on PR strategies and tactics for healthcare IT marketers

This week's post brings advice from colleague and CrossRoads blogger Chuck Tanowitz on how healthcare IT vendors can get better placement in Google searches through search engine optimization (SEO) practices in your press release writing.

• Tighten the Messaging - Do your market research and understand the key words and search terms. Your messaging should reflect those terms. Also, the messaging should be tighter, so just saying that a company is a "leading provider of healthcare IT solutions" doesn't help the search results.

• Cluster - Put the relevant terms in close physical proximity to the links back to the your site. Google looks at how words relate to one another as a way to decide whether something (like your company or product) should be associated with it.

• Headline Help - Search engines pay particular attention to headlines, so try to include keywords where possible. Still, don't let the headlines get out of hand; try to stick to 120 characters where possible.

• Link - Links act like a highlighter pen for certain words and also help drive traffic and attention back to your your site.

• Don't Forget to Write - SEO isn't an excuse for poor writing. Be creative while still trying to do the best work possible. If it's done right, SEO just complements what you're already doing.

· Be Consistent - An SEO effort, like a media relations effort, takes time to show results. Depending on the keyword(s) your targeting it could take 3 to 6 months to see significant results.

Free HCIT PR Webinar

Maximizing Healthcare IT PR to Impact the Bottom Line

Date & Time: Thursday, December 6th at 12:30pm EDT.

Please join us for a complimentary Webinar, "Maximizing Healthcare IT PR to Impact the Bottom Line" on Thursday, December 6th, at 12:30pm EDT. In this informative, free Webinar, I'll demystify the PR process, explain what it takes to keep the media alive when news is slow, show how PR can impact revenue and offer real-world examples. To register click here.

Posted by Shawn Whalen on November 16, 2007 at 1:09 PM
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