Search engine traffic is the Holy Grail of Internet Marketing.
All traffic has value and purpose. The trick is to understand the purpose and the benefit behind all of the traffic verticals. For addiction treatment sites, inbound traffic from Google will be the most valuable traffic because it has intent behind it. Therefore, it is the most likely to convert into a phone call and admission.
Site structure is one of the most overlooked, and most important factors in SEO. Site structure will determine whether a search engine understands what your site is about and how easily a search engine will index all of your pages.
Developing A Good Site Structure
Grab a pen and paper!
It is best to start out by drawing your site structure on a piece of paper or a whiteboard. If you want to keep it digital you could use Excel or even Visio. You want to create a flow chart of a balanced site structure. The structure should look like a pyramid.
To show that understanding site structure doesn’t require a PhD. in computer science here is an example I put together on a whiteboard.
Simple really is better! This is an important step that you need to have figured out before your site goes live. The reason behind this is that – as we said in step 2 – you want to have all the content written and posted on the site on the dev server. In order to know what content to write, it’s crucial to have to have your site structure figured out!
Interior Linking Your Site
This next topic is an area where we like to speak in “best case scenarios.” It is very difficult to maintain “perfect” interior linking on the site because we have to keep in mind usability and use common sense.
First, let’s define interior linking. It is simple. You want to link your pages to each other so that the user has many options to click through and also because Google will use these links to “crawl” from page to page to get an understanding of what your site is about.
Think of your website as a pyramid. Imagine your site links are pipes, and imagine you’re pouring a bottle of “juice” into the homepage. You want to set up your links (or in this example your pipes) so that the juice can get to the bottom of the pyramid as quickly and easily as possible.
Think of it this way. Link down, or across, never up.
In this picture, the blue arrows represent links that link down in your site pyramid. The red arrows represent links that link across to pages on the same “level.” Every website will be different depending on the site structure and addiction treatment methods, but use this model as a rule of thumb.
Filling Your Site With Content
Now for the fun part.
You’ve done a great job so far! You have designed your site for conversion. You have done all your keyword research. You have mapped out your “ideal site structure.” Your next step is to begin to assign targeted keywords to each page.
We recommend using your homepage to target your most difficult keyword. Also, be sure to brand your homepage for the company name so that you get your direct traffic. When people search for “company name,” you clearly want to be sure you rank first for that search. After your homepage, work your way down the pages one by one.
Go through each one of your pages, assign that page a keyword, and work your way down. Try to keep your keywords clean and relevant. Be sure to touch on your keyword research you did in step 2.
You’re not finished yet. You still have to write the content. Once you have assigned a keyword or key phrase to each page, you want to get good quality content on each page. There needs to be a balance. You want to be sure to include the keyword itself within your text, but you need to avoid using that keyword too many times. This is keyword stuffing and it will hurt you.
The best way to do this is to write for the user first, and the search engines second. Use different variations of the keyword, but be sure to have the exact match keyword in there at least a few times. Your biggest priority is to make this content informative and of value to anyone that is looking for treatment.
For added value, don’t hesitate to embed videos, block quotes, statistics and personal scenarios that may create bonding and rapport with the people on your site looking for treatment.
Understand Different Types Of Content
Content is not a “one size fits all” element. In later sections, we will break down into more depth the different forms of content, but for now, there are two types of content we want you to understand. These types of content are critical for your most important and most likely to convert pages. Stodzy uses a practice of combining different content styles to kill two birds with one stone.
Understanding this difference between informative content and copy.
1 – Informative Content.
This type of content should answer the basic questions. Who are you? How can you help? What makes you different? What are some facts and statistics about addiction and recovery? This content is specific to your facility and should give the reader a good understanding as to your brand identity and your company ethics.
But this content is worthless if it isn’t convincing. This is where copy comes into play.
2 – Copywriting – The Art Of Persuasion
Your copy is the persuasive language and storytelling methods you use to bring a reader down the “sales funnel.” If you simply fill your site with informative content, they will get a good understanding as to who you are, but there will be very little incentive for them to pick up the phone.
Your copy should follow a process that introduces a problem, shows how the problem is negatively affecting the reader, gives a solution to this problem, and then gives a reason for them to call you.
Copywriting is truly an art form that can take years to master. However, while writing the content for your most keyword targeted pages, you need to keep in mind that the language should persuade the reader to call you. Why would you call them? Because you will help them get sober and solve their addiction problem.
Putting It All Together
Take your time on this step. It is the most labor intensive of all the steps in our 7 part course to building the Perfect Addiction Treatment Marketing Plan.
By the completion of this step, you should have the site designed, developed, structured properly, filled with content and the site should be SEO’d properly with meta tags and keyword rich content.
Once all of this is complete, you are now ready to go live! Congratulations! You are on your way!
