If you’re trying to create an effective merger and acquisition strategy for your healthcare brand, you want to cover all the bases for the best outcome possible on both ends. One of those bases is marketing. More specifically, how your marketing can be used as a way to optimize the results of the collaborative process.
When your healthcare brand is going through a merger or acquisition, one goal is to make the transition as smooth as possible for both teams and their patients. By taking a look at how your organic search engine optimization (SEO) can benefit your strategies, you can set yourself up for the best outcome.
The role of SEO in merger and acquisition strategies
Organic SEO can help healthcare brands in merger and acquisition (M&A) negotiations figure out what strategies need to be implemented to continue getting traffic, engagement and conversions during the process and long after it’s completed. Without taking it into consideration, your metrics could plummet and you may be losing out on leverage in the deal.
Here are a few ways that SEO can be used to your advantage in merger and acquisition strategies:
- Audit for potential risks
- Find untapped opportunities for optimization
- Capitalize on effective SEO efforts
Developing a comprehensive SEO strategy for M&A
To get the most out of your SEO strategy during a healthcare M&A, you should look at the entirety of your organic SEO approach so that nothing slips through the cracks. A comprehensive SEO strategy should take several aspects into account, such as:
- Keyword research and analysis
By taking a look at the keywords that are most relevant for the intended demographic of the target company, you can gain a better understanding of their patients and what value the patients are looking to gain from working with the brand.
- Content development and optimization
Content is at the heart of organic SEO, because it’s how you’re able to relate your services to a patient’s needs. During M&A, your strategy should consider how your content needs to be adjusted to fit the new brand and how to get the content to rank high on search engine results pages (SERPs) through updated backlinks and engaging calls to action.
- Technical SEO considerations
A website is one of the only parts of an M&A that your patients can actually see, because it requires changes that can impact your SEO. It has to properly reflect the personality of the new brand while still taking the behavioral preferences of the current patients into account. Run a technical audit to see where there are gaps that need to be addressed before the launch (e.g., slow page loading speeds).
Challenges in implementing SEO in M&A
Like every other endeavor, creating merger and acquisition strategies with SEO can pose challenges that can be navigated with the right approaches. Here are a few roadblocks that you can prepare for and how you can work through them:
- Time needed to rank
SEO is an effective digital marketing approach, but it takes a bit of time for your site’s content to start ranking highly on SERPs. When you have to pivot your efforts with an M&A, it’s like restarting the clock. You’re likely to see a drop in traffic and click-throughs if you don’t implement the new SEO plan six months before the merger or acquisition.
- Maintaining SEO team consistency & focus
An M&A can entail a lot of adjustment needed for your team members, especially those responsible for marketing, from their department size to the scope of their job. Even though they will likely have a lot of other job duties, there should be bandwidth reserved for carrying out the SEO strategies.
- Determining how to integrate SEO strategies postmerger
After the merger takes place, continuing to focus on your SEO efforts helps ensure that you’re still on the right track for appealing to the algorithm with the brand changes. Postmerger SEO strategies should include tracking the analytics, keeping an eye on the technical performance of the new website and migrating relevant content over.
Trying to integrate SEO into your merger and acquisition strategies? BURG+CO. can help
An M&A is a big change for your healthcare brand, but it can also set you up for long-term success and scaling. Organic SEO can play a role in the success of that change when you use it to your advantage during the process, and during the postmerger processes as well. If you’re trying to navigate the integration of SEO into your merger and acquisition strategies, BURG+CO.’s services can help you make sure that every detail is accounted for.
Our team has years of experience in helping healthcare brands improve their digital presence to attract new patients and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more potential patients to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help.
Contact our team today for more information about digital marketing or to schedule a complimentary consultation.
