How Inbound Links Improve Your Website's Search Engine Ranking

Many medical practices have created websites to educate their patients and/or develop patient referrals. However, if your website doesn’t rank well in the search engines (such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN), people won’t be able to find your site easily—and you’ll miss out on possible new patients.

One of the best ways to ensure your site ranks well in search engines is to create inbound links. Inbound links are simply links on other websites that lead to your own website.

The search engines have a vested interest in delivering accurate useful information to their consumers. Search engines have (for the moment) concluded that the most likely way to establish the true relevance of a website is to see whether other websites “vote” for the site by linking to its content. In particular, the search engines highly value links to your website that come from other highly ranked or authoritative websites.

Creating Inbound Links
Your first step is to register your practice on SpineUniverse. This will provide you with an inbound link from a highly ranked and authoritative website.

If you have privileges at a hospital or there is a page on a hospital website that makes reference to you, request a link to your practice website. You should also be sure that your member listing on professional association websites incorporates a link to your own practice website.

If you are involved in local associations or organizations that have websites, be sure to request a link. Better Business Bureaus often provide a spot for your website address. Alumni associations also provide linking opportunities.

You might also consider mutual links to websites operated by your peers. For example, you may have a friend practicing medicine on the opposite coast. Both of you may benefit by providing links to each other’s website.

Warning!
As mentioned above, the search engines attempt to find related and valuable information for their users. Under no circumstances should you become involved in random link exchanges with unrelated websites. It’s not unusual to receive requests to link your website to retail websites of different kinds. The search engines long ago understood that mutual links from a medical website to a camping equipment website and vice versa had no meaning.

Even more important, do not become involved in paid link schemes. Google’s Terms of Service specifically prohibit this kind of linking. When search engines can identify paid link schemes, they punish the participants.

Be Relevant
Search engines strive to deliver useful content. If all the users of Yahoo decided that Yahoo’s search results were not valuable, Yahoo would very quickly go out of business because people would stop using it.

Accordingly, the search engines are continually refining their technology to deliver relevant information to the consumer. When a search engine encounters a link to your website, it examines the relevance of your content. The best inbound links point to relevant content that offers information or education to the consumer.

Remember, inbound links are the lifeblood of your website’s relevance to the search engines. Take every opportunity to build the number and quality of those links.