Good digital marketers understand the importance of a solid SEO strategy. We all want to stay ahead of the Google algorithms and achieve SEO greatness – or that elusive number one position in organic searches – but how do we accomplish this? This blog delivers some key insights into SEO in life sciences digital marketing, and strategies to help improve your rankings today.

 

What is SEO?

In its simplest terms, SEO (search engine optimisation) is the process of continuously improving a website so that it shows up higher in search results when people look for something online. The aim is to get more visitors on your site by making it easier for search engines – especially Google, because it’s the most popular – to understand your products and services.

 

SEO for the life sciences: why it’s important

Organisations and individuals in the life sciences sector generally use search engines as a first port of call for information relating to a potential purchase. However, they also go online for numerous other reasons, from looking for information about a scientific method or application, to accessing papers and the latest research, to finding jobs, funding, conferences and exhibitions in their field. If your website adds value to these users, it keeps them scrolling. Even if a visitor isn’t looking to buy straight away, an engaging website makes them more likely to return when they are ready to purchase. Investing in SEO makes sure you are as visible to these potential customers as possible.

 

How does SEO work?

Search engines use ‘bots’ or ‘spiders’ to scan your website and look at pages, images, videos, links and content to understand what you’re offering. Your site is then stored in their index – effectively a giant library of websites – and, when someone searches for something, the search engine will pull from this index to show the most relevant results. Literally hundreds of factors influence how search engines decide relevance, including:

• Keywords and phrases – does the content match what people are searching for?
• Quality of content – is it helpful, engaging, interesting and valuable?
• Links – do other trusted websites link to your website?
• User experience – does the site load quickly and work well on mobile devices?
• Technical SEO – is your site easy for search engines to read and understand?

A high ranking site means that more people will see it and, ultimately, visit. More visitors generate more potential customers, resulting in more leads or engagement.

SEO strategies for life science websites

There are some key strategies to focus on to improve your SEO:

• Optimise your titles, headers and content for relevant keywords – such as ‘next generation sequencing solutions’ or ‘mass spectrometry workflows’ – and don’t be afraid to use long-tail keywords that match how your potential customers search for information online.
• Avoid keyword cannibalisation, where multiple pages compete for the same keyword or search intent.
• Populate and update your site with high quality, authoritative content. You are the subject matter experts and thought leaders in your field, so publish on your website accordingly. A good place to start is to optimise your content according to the E-E-A-T – experience, expertise, authority, trustworthiness – guidelines that Google uses to evaluate credibility and quality.
• Use visual and video content to increase engagement – including ‘how to’ and customer testimonial videos, webinar recaps, podcasts and product demos – and optimise all of these with alt text and descriptive file names.
• Add interactive elements, such as calculators and infographics, to boost user engagement.

Technical audits

Unless you are SEO savvy, technical audits are best done by a specialist third party. Even so, it’s useful to have some idea of what they are going to be looking at:

• Crawlability and indexing – ensuring that search engines can access important pages and your site map is set up correctly, identifying any broken links – ‘404 errors’ – and making sure redirects are properly implemented.
• Site speed and performance – optimising images and videos, reducing JavaScript and enabling caching to make your site load as quickly as possible. They will also look at your core web vitals and check Google’s speed and UX metrics.
• Mobile and touchscreen friendliness.
• The use of schema markup for technical content to improve search visibility, and breadcrumbs and FAQs to improve navigation.
• The use of clean, descriptive URL slugs, as well as internal links across the site where relevant.
• Ensuring your site is secure (HTTPS SSL certificate), fixing any HTTP content loading, and identifying any downtime or slow server responses.
• Making sure every page has unique metadata, and identifying any duplicate or low value content.
• Making sure hreflang tags are working properly for international versions of your site, and that it is optimised for country-specific domains.

Keyword research

Keyword research allows you to understand what words and phrases your potential customers are searching for. You can then incorporate these words and phrases into your own web content, so that your website ranks higher. Whatever you do, do not over-stuff them into your content, and ensure your content is informative and engaging, as well as scientifically accurate.

Quality content creation

This should take different forms and really resonate with or be useful to your target audience, such as:

• In-depth, research-backed articles, useful ‘how to’ blogs, and well-referenced technical notes, white papers and case studies.
• Ensure your content is easily readable and well structured, and includes visual elements like tables, bulleted lists and images.
• Write for your target audience using their language, so it is easy to read and digest. A golden rule is to not over-complicate something that can be explained simply.
• Don’t just stick to the written word! Videos, podcasts, webinars, infographics and animations all provide site visitors with different and interesting ways to engage with your brand.

Relevant link building

This is the process of getting other websites to link to your website. Links need to be from authoritative sites related to your industry, for example, scientific publishers, institutions, organisations or partner companies. A backlink effectively provides search engines with a ‘vote of confidence’ in your site, boosts its trustworthiness and, ultimately, drives traffic to your site!

UX design

Many of the things we’ve already mentioned feed into a good UX, but clear navigation and site structure are essential. Make it as easy as possible for site visitors to find what they are looking for, which will reduce bounce rates, and increase engagement and the time spent on your site – improving your SEO ranking. For example, employing a ‘sticky’ navigation bar – one that remains visible at the top or side of the page as you scroll down – gives users a quick way to always access key pages, as does the use of CTAs (calls to action).

SEO reporting

SEO reporting is vital to track your website’s performance and follow improvements over time. Whether you are working with a digital SEO agency or in-house experts, your SEO reports should cover the following areas:

• Organic traffic and rankings
• Technical SEO and site health
• On-page SEO and content performance
• Backlinks and domain authority
• User engagement and behaviour metrics (bounce rates, time on page, pages per session, click through rates, etc.)
• Mobile-friendliness and core web vitals
• Competitor analysis and opportunities

The importance of partnering with an SEO expert 

SEO is not a static discipline. Search engine algorithms change all the time, and a digital marketing agency can keep on top of these changes on your behalf. Or you could go one better and partner with a specialist scientific digital marketing agency that not only knows the technical SEO bits, but also has the ability to generate high level technical content that people across the life sciences industries are looking for online.

If that sounds like just the help you need, don’t hesitate to reach out. We work with some of the biggest names in science, helping our clients elevate their brands and shine as the trusted experts they are in their fields.