I Tried Search Engine Optimization and It Didn't Work....

If you are frustrated by the search engine optimization process, don't be. It is a process and it takes time and consistent effort. Your practice can have one of the dominant LASIK websites on the search engines in your market if you invest the time - or hire a website marketing firm with the necessary expertise and resources - to make a consistent effort over time to get the results you want.

For starters, make sure that you have optimized every page of your website for a narrow list of search phrases. We recommend focusing on your city and state on each page. In other words the search phrase you use for each page should include your city and/or your state (e.g., Denver LASIK Surgeon, Colorado LASIK Surgeon). The process of optimizing each page of your website tells the search engines how to index each page. It does not tell the search engines how to rank each page, but it does tell them what each page is about.

How do you optimize each page? That’s a great question. Start by making sure the caption for the page clearly identifies the subject of the page. In other words, if the page is about Glaucoma Management, make sure that is in the caption. In fact, you should also include the location of the practice – Denver, Colorado in the caption or sub caption if you can. It will help. Next, make sure these keywords and search phrases are also included in the body text and in the meta tags. For the meta tags, the most important one is the title tag. If these all have the search phrase in them, the search engines will know what the page is about.

The next part of search engine optimization is the hard part. You have to make sure that the search engines see your whole site as a credible resource. This means you have to have lots of links pointing into your LASIK website. This takes time. Register your site on as many directories as you can. Exchange links to a limited extent - but only with related sites. Finally, encourage other websites to link to you by making sure you have constantly updated relevant content. If you can become THE resource for your area of practice in your market area, more sites will link to you and the search engines will rank your pages higher when they index your site.

So, don't say it didn't work. Search Engine Optimization for LASIK practices is hard work, especially when you are competing with lots of other surgeons and practices’ who want to be on top of the search engines too. You have to keep at it. It will and does work. It just takes time.

Dan Goldstein
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