Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an essential part of a digital marketing that biotech companies must strongly consider.
After all, who doesn’t want ‘free’ website traffic that works to generate website visitors and leads, 24 hours a day, seven days a week?
In this article, I am going to discuss what a good biotech strategy looks like, they key benefits, and how you can get started with planning and implementing an SEO strategy to generate impressive organic search traffic.
What is SEO?
To start, let’s take a closer look at what SEO actually means.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an inbound marketing strategy involving the process of improving the ranking of a website in search engine unpaid results. These results are often referred to as “organic” or “natural” search results. The higher a website or web page ranks in the search results, the more likely it is that the website or web page will be visited by users.
Using a range of different SEO strategies in harmony, the goal of SEO is to increase the quantity and quality of traffic to a website or web page from search engines.
This can be done by using four broad components that are typical of any great SEO strategy:
On Page Optimisation
On-page SEO refers to the process of optimising the content and layout of your website that you can control, unlike external (or off page) factors.
Different tactics of an on-page strategy can include things like optimising the titles, headings and URLs using keywords (see more on keywords below) resulting in content, and optimising the website’s structure and navigation.
Off Page Optimisation
Off-page SEO refers to the process of optimising external factors that can affect the ranking of a website in search engine results.
The purpose of off page SEO is help search engines find, and understand the context of your website, by using relevant signals that algorithms responsible for ranking search results can define.
These factors typically include the number and quality of backlinks from other websites, social signals from social media and relevant websites, and engagement that a website receives from users on social media platforms.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO can be broadly defined as the SEO factors that you can control on your website, that users don’t necessarily see, unlike on page SEO.
The elements of technical SEO can vary from simple to complex, but can include some of the following:
Website Architecture
This refers to how your content structure is defined by categorisation, and URL structure.
Website Navigation
How users (and search engines) are able to navigate their way through all content and URLs on your site.
Loading Speed
The time it takes for your website to load, and how quickly content is shown to a user.
Mobile Friendliness
Does your website look good on mobile? Does it function the same way for users, and search engine bots?
Core Web Vitals
This explains how your website adheres to Google’s new core web vitals, a set of metrics which focus on providing the greatest user experience for your visitors
Although this is just touching the surface of technical SEO, custom recommendations will be required based on the goals and aspirations of your biotech company.
Keyword Research & Content Creation
Keyword research and content creation are two essential components of an SEO strategy, often referred to interchangeably.
Keyword research involves identifying the words and phrases that people use when searching for products or services related to your business. By understanding the keywords – their average search volumes, and their competitiveness – and how they are relevant to your business goals, you can optimise your website accordingly.
Content creation involves creating valuable, informative, and engaging content that is created based on the keywords identified through a keyword research task. This content can include blog posts, articles, videos, and other forms of online media that provide value to users and help to improve your ranking in search engine results.
Keyword research and content creation are ongoing processes that require regular attention and maintenance.
Because search engine algorithms and user behaviour change over time, it is important to continually update your keyword research and content creation efforts to ensure that your website remains visible and relevant in search engine results.
The Key Benefits of a Biotech SEO Strategy
One of the main benefits of SEO that biotech companies reach out to me for, is the main goal of improving the ranking of their websites in search engine results, for relevant keywords and topics.
When potential customers search for keywords related to biotech products and services, well-optimised websites are more likely to appear near the top of the search results. This can increase the visibility of biotech companies and make it more likely that potential customers will click on their websites and learn more about their products and services.
SEO can also help biotech companies to attract more qualified traffic to their websites.
By targeting specific keywords and phrases that are relevant to their products and services, biotech companies can attract visitors who are genuinely interested in what they have to offer. This, in turn, can lead to higher conversion rates and more sales for biotech companies.
Another benefit of SEO for biotech companies is that it can help to improve the user experience of their websites. This can help to keep visitors on their websites longer and increase the chances that they will convert into paying customers.
Getting Started With Biotech SEO
To achieve success with SEO for biotech companies, it is essential to have a well-defined strategy and plan in place. There are a few things I recommend when getting started with biotech clients.
Identify Your Audience and Your Keywords
First off, you need to have a clear idea on your target customer(s) and the keywords you are going to target to reach them.
This stage is crucial for the foundations of any SEO work, and how well this is performed will determine the success (or failure) of your SEO.
Follow Up with an SEO Audit
Although this can be done without completing the first step mentioned above, you will get more out of it if you have the information.
A great SEO audit should identify how your website is set up and currently performing, as well as be able to determine whether it meets the needs of your target customers and keywords.
This initial audit will then be used determine a strategy moving forward, planning ahead for what time and resources and needed to make this happen against your goals.
Implement a Plan
It is very rare to be able to determine an SEO strategy and implement it over a short space of time. SEO is a long term strategy after all.
A good plan should be focused on achieving the goals of reaching your target customers, with your target keywords, and what you need to do to reach that.
Monitor, Review & Update
Even with the best SEO plan, the success of your work is determined by the ranking that Google (and other search engines) give you. After all, your success can be impacted by many things; Google updates, competitor activity, business trends and Government announcements.
But, setting up regular reporting with ongoing reviews, you can stay on top of updates, changes, successes and failures, and alter your strategy to ensure it performs to the best possible outcome at all times!
Work With A Consultant Like Me?
As a life science digital marketing consultant, I work exclusively with clients in the life science, biotech, pharmaceutical (and related industries).
And although the strategies that I have recommended throughout this post – and use with my clients – are general SEO strategies that mostly work in any industry, I specialise in having a science degree, real work experience in the industry, and most importantly, the knowledge to get keywords to rank.
If you are considering setting up and implementing a biotech SEO strategy for the first time, want to review your current strategy for increased performance, or want a second opinion on your current marketing agency, please reach out for a no obligation conversation!
