I have been writing a lot about tactics and best practices for marketing in the health and wellness space. This is a consolidation of those thoughts so that everything is in one neat list!

Use this SEO and Search Essentials Checklist to help you get the most out of your search and marketing budget. 

Focus on E-E-A-T to Keep Google Happy

Google wants YMYL brands to deliver high-quality content that showcases experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust (E-E-A-T). 

1. Demonstrate expertise and experience in your field. Use your About Us page to prove your expertise and experience. This helps Google and your customers trust you. 
2. Prove domain authority. Every single blog, whitepaper, and case study needs an author byline and bio. 
3. Demonstrate your website is trustworthy. Use endnotes and references to support all statements of fact, benefits, and research – Google and the FDA expect this. Include customer reviews on every page to prove trust.

Read Giving Google and Your Customers What They Want to learn more about helpful content and Google expectations. Hint: this is critically important as we move into a new era of search.

Recession-Busting Marketing Tactics

1. Review and update your keywords. People have new priorities, your keywords should reflect these. 
2. Stay active on social media. Avoid going silent. Maintain an active and engaging presence.
3. Refresh your content strategy. People search differently during a recession. Your content strategy needs an update to reflect changing search intent. 
4. Keep communicating. Send your newsletter, post on social media and to your blog. Make it obvious that you’re still here and available.
5. Update your paid search strategy. Include your new keywords and search intent in your ads and landing pages. 

Read Why Marketing Matters Most During a Recession for more on how to succeed during a recession.

Put the Customer First

Customer—this word sums up the 3 marketing trends you need to know. Make it about your customer.

1. Content for real people. Create content that provides answers, resolves problems, adds value, and uses a relatable and friendly tone.
2. Customer experience first. Know what your customers want and deliver it with easy-to-read content, an accessible website, clean menus, and thought leadership. 
3. AI tools can add value. From predictive analytics, idea brainstorming, website traffic analysis, and streamlining day-to-day processes – AI tools can help you turn clicks into sales. 

Read 2023 Marketing and SEO Trends Your Brand Needs to Succeed for a refresh on how to use SEO in 2023 and beyond. 

SEO Must-Do’s for Health and Wellness Brands

Every SEO strategy must include these SEO tactics:

1. Technical Audit. A technical audit reveals how well your website is optimized for search engines and AI tools.
2. Competitive Keyword Gap Analysis. You need to know what your competitors are and are not ranking for and the keywords you’re ranking in the top 20 of the search engine results page (SERP) with. 
3. Search Intent. Search intent tells you what people are looking for and need. This is important – read my blog about search intent.  
4. Internal Linking. Search engines and your readers use internal links to find their way around your website and find your most important pages. 
5. High-Quality Content. Search engines prioritize ranking reliable content that helps people. Be aware of medium-quality content – this can hurt your search engine rankings.
6. E-E-A-T. As a YMYL brand, it’s critical you prove experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust (E-E-A-T). 

Read Essential SEO Tactics You Need to Know to learn how long SEO takes and the keys to a higher search engine ranking.

Focus on Search Intent

Search intent is the need, challenge, goal, or question your customer wants to solve. Search intent compels people to open a web browser and type (or ask) their question.

Ask these questions to optimize for search intent:

1. What does the customer want and need?
2. What type of search intent are you writing for? 
3. Where do you want to be in the customer journey?
4. What is your point of view for your content?
5. How are you delivering the content?

Read How Search Intent Unlocks Customer Challenges and Desires for information you need to know about delivering customer satisfaction.

Maximize Your Marketing Budget

Optimizing paid and organic search is your secret advantage. 

Do this to maximize your marketing budget:

1. Really understand your search data. Why are people clicking, what happens after the click, who is at the top of the SERP?
2. Repurpose and reuse high-performing PPC ads and landing pages. People like familiarity – it builds trust and confidence.
3. Focus on search intent. Give people what they want with your ads and content.
4. E-E-A-T and YMYL. This matters for your entire digital presence.
5. Optimize your technical SEO. The best PPC ads and organic search strategy cannot compensate for a poorly designed and managed website. 

Read Maximize Your Marketing Budget: Balancing Paid and Organic Search – so you can build a resilient and affordable search strategy.

As a YMYL brand, you need to get the essentials of SEO and search right. Fail to do this, and Google will ignore you.