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Pharmaceutical websites

Pharmaceutical websites

16 November 2016 | News and Insights

3 ways pharmaceutical websites can increase brand awareness with SEO

Pharmaceutical companies are known for constantly developing and embracing new innovations. And consumers are doing the same. They’re searching for (and finding) medical information every day, in just a few clicks. Pharmaceutical websites have a unique opportunity to offer a helpful source of information and advice.

According to a 2014 NHS report, almost half of the UK regularly take prescription medicine. This means pharmaceutical websites could be engaging with a huge audience. But, unfortunately, they may not be getting the recognition they deserve.

How can SEO improve your business?

Consumers will know the name of their medicine, but not necessarily who makes it. So it’s important that pharmaceutical companies make use of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategies to raise brand awareness.

You’ve probably heard the term ‘SEO’. But you might be unsure what its value is to your business. Pharmaceutical websites that are SEO-friendly can benefit from increased traffic, improved brand perception and increased conversion. For pharmaceutical websites that could mean generating leads from health services or practices, partnerships and recruitment.

1. Drive traffic with effective keyword planning

A successful SEO strategy will help pharmaceutical companies drive traffic to their website. To make sure you’re getting the right kind of traffic, you need to know what your target audiences search for. So your first step should be to identify what products or services you offer. Keywords that are irrelevant to your website won’t help your SEO strategy. Even if the phrases have high search volumes, users will quickly realise they’ve been misled. And so will Google.

Keyword planning should revolve around what you can offer users. If, for example, you specialise in dermatology treatments you could research keywords around “skin diseases” or “treatments for skin conditions”. Try to focus on specific traits that set you apart from your competition. So, for example, if you make generic pharmaceuticals, you can look at keywords around “cheapest brand of [type of medicine]” or “difference between [brand name] and generic [medicine]”. This will help you build up a keyword plan to drive quality traffic to your site.

Keyword targeting can also be effective on a local scale. You may be looking to recruit people in a specific region or generate interest in an upcoming clinical trial. Marketing personalisation can help you target audiences in specific regions and take your SEO efforts further.

2. Increase engagement with SEO-friendly content

Once you have your keyword plan laid out, you can focus on your website content. Top pharmaceutical websites offer their users plenty of engaging and informative content. Users might be coming to your site confused, upset or just overwhelmed. So it’s important to maintain a sympathetic, helpful tone.

Pharmaceutical websites should include some kind of blog, news or FAQ area. This will give you a space to answer common questions, provide helpful advice and industry updates. All of which helps improve your brand’s perception as patient-focused professionals and thought-leaders.

If you already have lots of content, look at how you can use your keyword plan to improve it. Do you have an article about diabetes research trials that generates enquiries but isn’t getting much traffic? Optimising this content with relevant keywords will increase traffic to the page and generate even more leads.

Pharmaceutical companies can show users they care with content that keeps the conversation going. Allow users to add comments to your blog or set up forums to encourage discussion. This will help keep your users involved and engaged. And don’t underestimate social media’s role in SEO. Make sure your content is easy to share and continue engaging with users across platforms. This will help to enhance your brand perception and reach target audiences.

3. Make good UX a priority

Offering good user experiences (UX) may not seem like an SEO task. But Google picks up on things like page errors, slow page loads and poor accessibility. Great pharmaceutical websites help users get exactly what they came for. With as little hassle as possible.

A big part of creating great UX depends on pharmaceutical companies knowing what consumers want. Think about your keyword planning and identify what drives people to your site.  And include this in your usability testing plan.

Once you know where your users want to go, make it easy for them to get there. Consider whether your site is mobile adaptive or responsive? Is it quick to load? If your site is confusing or frustrating, users will give up. When they come to your site and stay put, Google takes it as a good sign. But if they land on a page and immediately bounce back to search, it knocks your rankings down.

Improve your pharmaceutical website with Sitecore

Pharmaceutical websites need a powerful enterprise website content management system (WCMS). Sitecore is a leading WCMS and customer experience platform, recommended by Gartner.

Sitecore has all the tools pharmaceutical companies need to harness SEO marketing and raise brand awareness. Starting from the ground-up. The scalability of the Sitecore architecture helps pharmaceutical websites manage tons of content, media and data. And because it’s object-based, marketers can put together new pages, posts and lead generation forms without further development work.

On top of its stability, Sitecore is built for security. The pharmaceutical industry battles hefty regulations and your website needs to reflect your commitment to security. Sitecore helps you manage sensitive information with secure servers and multiple servers, if you need them. You can also control user permissions so that editors and designers can only access the information they need.

The Sitecore content management system gives you the power to add and edit content, as well as track and analyse SEO marketing campaigns. Plus, plenty of Sitecore SEO capabilities are built right in. All from a single, easy to manage platform.

Find out what Kagool and Sitecore can do for you

We’ve worked with a number of enterprise level health and pharmaceutical companies, like Allergan and Nelsons Natural World. We’ve helped them get the best from Sitecore. And we’d love to show you what Sitecore can do for your business.

If you’re new to Sitecore, get in touch with us for a free Sitecore demo. Or, if you’re already on Sitecore, ask us about a Sitecore audit to make sure you’re getting the most from your investment.

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