Blogs are an important element of healthcare digital marketing and indeed marketing in all fields of business. In fact, blogs and social media optimization are the best ways to get to the heart of your target audience.
Blogging was once just a pastime, but now it’s a vital element of search engine optimization (SEO). It’s how you connect with your target audience, because ultimately you need to connect with them. And you need the search engine to notice you as well. So you need to blog with an SEO perspective while also creating content that is useful and simultaneously engaging, drawing your target audience from your geographic target locations. So your blogs need to reverberate with their interests while also being relevant to what your business deals with.
Start with Research into Your Target Audience
You need creativity for blogs, but more than that you need a great deal of research. Primarily, you need to approach blogging thinking of how a client would search for your business. Remember, not always would you have potential clients who are actually aware of your business. It’s just a search query related to what your business offers that they’d be typing in the search box. So you need to attract that kind of a potential client.
For that you need to regularly create blogs on various aspects of that search query. That wouldn’t be the only query, since people will be searching in many different ways, entering many different kinds of search terms or keyword phrases. So you need keyword research too, which can help you plan various blog topics.
Planning Your Blog Post
So once you’ve done all that research, and you’ve picked the keywords around which you can create your blogs, you actually need to go ahead and write one. But you must plan for that as well. The planning stage is quite important here, since you have specific objectives from blogging – you want to attract potential customers, bring them in either to your physical store or your website, and boost your conversions and earnings. Sometimes you may be blogging to keep your existing customers interested in you. Whatever be your objectives, you need to plan your blog accordingly.
Get an Outline Done and Stick to It
After the planning, you need to start by creating an outline for your blog post. The outline ensures that you stay true to your topic without digressing too much. Make sure you have an introduction and conclusion. The introduction warms up the readers to the main topic of your blog. But don’t make it too long. Get to the point right away because you want to keep your readers hooked to your blog. People have very short attention spans so you need to ensure they stay interested. A great introduction that directly addresses your readers’ concerns would be great, but you need to get to the main body of the blog soon.
Research Your Topic Extensively
But before you get to write the blog, you need specific research into what you’re writing. You need to spend as much time on this as you spent on researching your target audience, the keywords they search with and the topics to choose. You may be well versed with this topic since it is related to the products or services your organization offers, but you still need to research. Some topics could be unknown to you, though they are related with your business in some way.
So there really is no escaping from research. That’s because you don’t want any factual or conceptual errors in your blog. That could affect your credibility as an authority on the topic. It could seriously turn off your followers. Also, try to find out interesting aspects of your topic that could engage your readers. You can include anecdotes, stories and relevant metaphors.
Divide Blog Content to Topical Sections
Ensure that you divide the main body of your blog into different sections, each of them starting with a subheading. Within each section, you need to incorporate bullet points. Subheadings and bullet points help break the monotony for the reader. Large blocks of text are never attractive. Readers usually just skim through the content to just focus on details. So if you could avoid unnecessary content and long sentences, you can do your part in ensuring that readers actually read your entire blog. Otherwise, your efforts would get wasted if people don’t actually read all, or at least most of, what you’ve written just because it contains too large text blocks.
Make Blogs Interactive With Images, Infographics & Video
Another way you can cut the monotony of large blocks of text is by getting images and videos into the content. An interesting image that is also relevant to your content can grip the audience. Sometimes there are concepts or points you present that are quite hard to understand. An appropriate image could simplify them, while also entertaining the audience, making them think and sit up and take notice. Perhaps you need infographics rather than images in some parts of the blog. A well done infographic can make difficult concepts easily understandable.
If you can photograph images or digitally create appropriate pictures to be added to your blog, it would be ideal. Digital marketing companies have a team just for situations like these. If your company has a team for interactive marketing, they could create great images or pictures to add. Alternatively, you can turn to stock photo sites. The only challenge with stock photos is that you would really need to dig around to find an appropriate image that ticks all the right boxes. Make sure you also have attractive and attention-grabbing captions for your images.
Add Videos to Your Blogs While Also Posting Vlogs
Let’s not forget the ultimate medium for engagement – video. While you specifically have video blogs, called vlogs, adding short videos explaining a particular point in your textual blog posts can help increase your readership and followers. Videos are probably the first thing readers would actually want to check out when they see your blog post. A short video explaining a very important point could make readers think that the rest of the blog post will contain such important information. That could make them read the rest of your blog. Videos provide the appeal.
Of course, posting video blog posts is also essential. Why? Just look at how popular YouTube has become. Videos bring in the audiences. They can depict someone explaining a concept interestingly, or they could show the visuals with an invisible narrator. Sometimes you don’t even need a narrator. Subtitles can do that.
Add Links to the Source
Add reference links, when you quote research material or information from blog posts or articles by others. You may argue that this would actually help the blog or article you’re linking to, but remember that readers must know that you’ve been researching a lot. Linking gives that impression. It shows that you aren’t just sounding authoritative but are actually presenting research-based information. Besides, linking to other blog posts could also present the possibility of those bloggers linking back to you. That’s valuable, and can help massively in the search rankings. Also, link to other blogs or other pages in your website.
Now that you’ve got your blog post done, it’s time to popularize it and get it to your readers because it isn’t just enough to post the blog and expect Google’s algorithms to pick it up. That will take time, and there are tons of competitors out there. You need to share in the social networks. Research will tell you which networks are frequented by your target audience. It’s time to share your post in these networks.
Keep Posting and Updating
The more the blogs you post and keep updating, the greater are the chances for Google’s algorithms to spot you and rank you high when users search for relevant products or services. There must be consistency in the frequency of the blogs you post, since that indicates to Google that your blog and business are active.
With the services of companies offering SEO services in Long Island, blog marketing is more research-based and follows all the required steps to deliver results in terms of increased traffic and conversions to your site eventually.
Social media plays a vital role in promoting your brand online. Even for healthcare business, social media platforms can help to expand their reach to targeted healthcare consumers. For healthcare digital marketing, these platforms help to promote great content and also enhance the doctor-patient relationship. Patients also use social media to seek information about doctors and hospitals and make an informed decision, post reviews or comments about a medical practice or hospital.
The right keywords are crucial to optimize your website in the right way. Strong keyword research is the foundation of a good SEO campaign, as this would help you develop your content around the right keywords your target audience use to search. This is the first step digital marketers take to attract targeted customers to your website. An experienced SEO company can help any business find the right keywords and optimize content accordingly to gain maximum visibility for their services or products, all based on competition as well as search intent.
Keywords are categorized by type such as terms related to brand, product, competitor, substitute product, complementary product and audience.
Key Steps of Keyword Research
Step-1
Create an initial set of keyword ideas list. This list should be based on – relevant terms your audience uses to describe your services, search terms that are currently in use that can be checked using analytics tools like Google Webmaster, and keywords that competitors are bidding on.
Step-2
Expand your keyword list using Google AdWords or any other tools you prefer. In AdWords, you can search by grouping words and can enter more than one keyword at a time. “Exact Match” option will provide the number of searches for that specific term. AdWords’ Advanced Options and Filters provide results based on the chosen language and location of your interest.
Step-3
Now refine your list and eliminate less interesting words. For example, if you run a medical transcription company then “medical transcription services” will be a potential product term, but “medical transcription jobs” is an audience term and therefore less interesting. Find those words that might have an easier chance of winning. Also, make a list of potential negative keywords for any off-topic results you see. Now, create a column to group chosen keywords semantically.
Categorizing your keywords to capture the interest and intent of the searcher can help you develop, refine, and analyze your list.
Interest and intent matters
Search intent is more important than the keyword’s search volume. Readers will stick on to a page and they will be happy, only if they find what they really looked for. For example, if any one searches for “tips to choose a plastic surgeon” and if your page provides details only about your surgeon’s experience and qualification, readers will be disappointed. Different keywords represent different levels of interest and intent. While some search terms are used close to a conversion, others are used still in the early stages of research.
Google’s algorithm attempts to rank content that best matches the searcher intent behind the query. When researching and choosing keywords around which to create content it is important that you understand what your audience actually needs.
A 2018 blog in Search Engine Journal segmented search queries into three categories: Do, Know, and Go. With “do” or transactional queries, readers will be looking to achieve a specific action, such as purchasing a specific product or booking a service. At the same time a “know” or an informational query will be asked when the user wants to learn about a particular subject and they are almost always informative in intent. With “go” or navigational queries, the user will be looking to go to a specific website or location of any typical brand or known entity.
Also, remember that search intent and the results that Google displays can also change quickly. So, it is crucial to not only optimize for keywords that drive web traffic but also those that can provide user value and topical relevancy to the domain. Check your competitors’ traffic generating pages by using tools like Ahrefs Site Explorer or Moz’s Keyword Explorer. By analyzing what keywords your competitors are targeting, create new ideas for content and improve your site’s existing content which would help capture more organic search traffic.
PPC keyword research
A successful PPC campaign relies on choosing the best keywords to bid. Long-tail keywords with low individual search volume work for PPC ads. You can also include variations such as “Where can I find the best plastic surgery procedure in New York City?”Or “Which is the best restaurant in California?”
Four main search intent categories are informational, navigational, commercial investigation and transactional. For instance, while “how to design a website” is informational, “which is the best web design service” is commercial investigation.
Check what keywords your competitors are paying for, using tools like SEMrush. Make a list of those terms they are paying for and are generating highly qualified traffic. The smart way is to do is to try getting free traffic by ranking organically for those terms. Also consider choosing research-intent queries from your competitor’s paid keywords.
Neural matching, which is an artificial intelligence (AI) method to better connect words to searches is now making it easier for people to get answers based on what they mean, not what they type or speak. This Google algorithm generates more diverse search results. Google will be able to process the question to provide a result that answers the question properly through understanding it better.
While creating your keyword list, include negative keywords that you don’t want your ads to show up for. To find negative keywords for your PPC campaigns, check your search query reports and take keywords that are not a good fit for your account, and use phrase and exact match negatives to disqualify more specific queries that contain long-tail negative keywords.
No keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing refers to cramming keywords into the content. Stuffing a keyword into your content too many times can affect your search rankings.
To prevent keyword stuffing and to create rich content –
Ensure that each content page focuses on a single primary keyword that is closely representative of the content as a whole
Consider choosing a popular keyword with minimal competition
Focus on a separate keyword in each page, thus making it easier for search engines to understand what each page is about
Content pieces should include more than 300 words in the main body copy, which alerts search engines that the content is probably robust enough to offer valuable information
Incorporate secondary keywords, keyword synonyms, and long-tail variations of the primary keyword within content copy to support the topic’s focus
Try to include the primary keyword once within page elements, including the page title, one or more subheadings, the title tag, meta description, one or more image alt tags, the first paragraph, and near to the end of the content
As there are various options to perform keyword research, you can try out different analysis methods and tools to create the best list of keywords. Whether it is healthcare digital marketing or marketing for any other industry, proper keyword research is the key to achieving your SEO goals.
A great CMS platform is integral to any great website, healthcare practice or business institution that is looking to attract its target audience online. They can make creating and sharing easier and a lot more efficient. But there is a lot more great stuff you can do with a good content management system. Here, we’re focusing on platforms that help you create great apps without having to worry about coding.
Appery.io
Let’s start with a cloud-based app builder – Appery.io.
Since this functions in the cloud, you don’t have any software to download or install. You can start right away. It is claimed that it takes just 5 minutes to get an app done on Appery.io, and the created apps can work across devices.
Image Source: https://appery.io/
You create the user interface by dragging and dropping components with the help of a visual editor. The code for the components that you drag and drop is auto-generated by Appery.io. The plug-in catalog helps you improve the functionality of the app. Custom plug-ins can also be created which you can use in your apps. If user-friendliness and quick app design are what you’re looking for, Appery.io could be what you need. There are many integrated backend features such as server-side scripting, push notifications, cloud database, and so on that you can just import to use with the app builder. You can get a reasonably great app done without installing any software, and without too much complexity with this cloud-based service.
TheAppBuilder
From a cloud-based app builder to a mobile app builder with a great deal of features, here’s TheAppBuilder.
Image Source: https://www.theappbuilder.com/
This mobile app builder tool offers you a range of apps to use an intranet for a company. It has apps for events, clients, employees and brochures. It has a dedicated AppLibrary from which you can get a view of multiple apps. They can be customized with your branding and protected with passwords. They can be distributed though the app store. You’ve got the complete toolkit online to get the app structure defined, built up and populated with content initially.
The AppBuilder also directly helps you here. You are provided training for this. It is easy to update the content and structure of the apps, even after going live, since there are unlimited updates you can make, and in a single click you can publish on various mobile platforms. Updates go live in just 60 seconds after submission.
Mobile Roadie
The Mobile Roadie app creator enables you to create as well as manage your Android or iOS app. All media types are supported by the platform.
Mobile Roadie provides automatic importing of Google News, Twitter or RSS keywords. It also provides a fan wall that keeps refreshing itself so you can have real-time communication with your users. The backend of Mobile Roadie enables you to preview the app before releasing it. So you can know just how your users would see it on their devices. It also assists you with the submission process for the App Store, checking your content’s quality and relevance.
The tool helps you send push notifications, which could be content from your site or through the platform. Data can be pulled in various formats including JSON, XML, PHP, CSV and HTML. There are various layout options presented and these can be customized as well.
Appy Pie is a simple DIY tool for creating mobile apps. Like the first tool we mentioned, this is cloud-based. Even if you don’t have any programming skills, Appy Pie can help you build an app for just about any platform. No downloading or installation is needed. All you need to do is drag and drop the pages and create your mobile app online.
Image Source: https://gsuite.google.com/
On completion, what you get is a Progressive app and a hybrid HTML5-based app that can work in all platforms – Android, iOS and Windows. Real time revisions are possible. You can also detect live analytics, track the location of the app with GPS, monetize it with ads and send push notifications, not to forget integration of websites, blogs, social media feeds, radio, etc.
The code page helps you embed iframes and custom code. There are also other specific features that can be helpful for certain sections of the audience you’re targeting. For example, you get the appointment scheduler tool that can be quite helpful for doctors and businesses that meet their clients on a regular basis. This tool also comes with the one-touch call feature.
Apmato
This is a content management system and authoring tool specifically for mobile apps. Apmato helps you create apps by combining various modules. For reference, you can check out many possible layouts, modules and screens that can be used as examples for creating your app.
Apmato helps you create multifunctional mobile apps, particularly those that help businesses provide information to their customers and stay in touch with them in a more interactive manner. These app tools can also be used by healthcare practices in their outreach efforts. In fact, they can add greater effectiveness to their healthcare digital marketing strategy. And these tools aren’t hard to use. Their user-friendliness makes it quite easy to design great apps that fulfill the requirements of your target audience and strengthen your relationship with them.
In today’s digital world, medical SEO has become a fundamental part of healthcare marketing. The internet has become the new path for businesses to share information and market their services. Concepts like artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and improved wireless network capabilities are allowing people all across the globe to connect and share information like never before. Therefore, expanding online visibility is essential for any website including healthcare websites.
Healthcare digital marketing requires a different, unique approach compared to other industries. Making sure that your website page ranks high on Google is an important part of every medical practice’s online marketing efforts. Attaining a top Google page ranking is crucial for both existing patients looking for information on your medical practice (like your phone number or opening hours) and new patients who are interested in your practice’s services.
Getting
your website on the first page of Google is a great indicator of how well your
page is performing. Rankings of your medical web page will be based on a
combination of factors like the quality of content posted, search engine
optimization techniques, and links and viewership. Improving all of these
aspects will lead to an increase in your rank.
Concept of Building Page Rankings
Starts with Your Medical Website
Updating and correcting your medical website and the information contained therein is probably one of the prominent strategies for increasing your page rankings. Make sure that your healthcare website has a dedicated contact page that includes contact details (NAP name, address, and phone) that will be uniformly used on all other listings & reviews sites moving forward. Uniformity is the key factor in the whole scenario, so start off on the right foot here. Publish the contact details in the universal footer of the website and include it again on the contact page of your website as this is one of the first places Google will refer to for these details. Make sure you have a reviews/testimonials page on your website. Reviews are a strong indicator of page rank in Google’s eyes, so make sure you have some on your website. Include a good combination of first party and third party reviews.
Here are some important tips to improve your website rankings in search-engine results –
Make sure your healthcare website is listed on Google My Business(GMB) –In order to get ranked high on Google, make sure that your business is listed on “Google My Business (GMB)” and the details are up-to-date. This is a free service from Google that helps make sure that your practice appears in Google search results in the ‘map section’ as well as have your listing correct when patients use Google Maps to look for the exact location. The details include the medical practice address, phone number, website and normal opening hours.
Publish the most relevant information up front – Relevant, quality content is the number one driver of your search engine rankings and there is no substitute for great content. Identify and target a keyword phrase for each page and think on how a potential reader might search for that specific page. Potential visitors to your healthcare website will generally include – existing patients, new patients, allied health practitioners/specialists in your area and stakeholders like your PHN. Consider in detail what specific information each of these potential visitor groups would be looking to find out when they visit your website. For instance, new patients may be searching for phone numbers, address, online booking links and opening hours. Others may be looking for detailed information on the services your practice offers, or information on your doctors and practice staff.Therefore, make sure that the most important information is listed in the home page and easy for visitors to find. Information should be logically structured in plain English language (rather than jargons). In addition, update the content regularly as this is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevancy, so be sure to keep it fresh.
Make your website mobile friendly –Usage of smartphones, social media, and other technological advancements has made physician website marketing all the more relevant today. Most people search for medical practices and healthcare websites on their mobile phone. Make sure that your healthcare website works well when opened on a phone and that visitors can easily access all the vital information such as your location, phone number, opening hours and online bookings link (if you offer online bookings). This in turn will not only help increase the proportion of patients who visit your website on their phones, but also improve your Google search rankings.
Create and link your social media accounts –Social media is one of the strongest marketing channels for healthcare marketers to survive and thrive today. Reports suggest that around 80 percent of Americans use social media and therefore it is important for healthcare organizations to be visible on these channels. Creating social media pages and being active on these platforms can help directly connect with potential patients. Promoting relevant content and updating social media pages consistently is crucial for generating more followers while keeping loyal users genuinely interested in what you have to say. Cross-post your updates using multiple social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Hospitals can post short videos on how they save lives, videos about patient success stories or tips to lead a healthy life.Posting videos will help you get higher in search ranking and better connect with potential patients. However, it is important to create a regular posting schedule to prevent your followers from becoming bored or disinterested in your content.
Create relevant website page title and description tags– The title and description of each specific website page is part of what “Google matches” when it looks for pages that are relevant to the search query. Always make sure that the website title and description does not include –
Duplicated titles or descriptions across pages
Medical jargon or acronyms (that patients won’t understand)
Nonsensical text or gibberish
The
title and description pages should summarize what people would expect to see
after clicking the link.
Use alt tags – Make sure to describe your visual and video media using alt tags, or
alternative
text descriptions. These tags allow search engines to locate your healthcare
page, which is crucial especially for those who use text-only browsers or
screen readers.
Set up online booking platforms– Bookings, re-scheduling, cancellations, reminders and follow-ups can now be easily handled online. Millions of people book doctors’ appointments with the help of mobile devices – it’s the handiest way to find a doctor, read reviews, and get a consultation. Pocket healthcare online booking applications like HotDoc, HealthTap, ZocDocetc include several prominent features that help people skip lines in waiting rooms and receive medical consultations at the most convenient time.
Through
these specialized apps, patients can connect with doctors or nurse
practitioners from the comfort of their homes. Patients can communicate with
healthcare providers through text messages or live video chat and get
diagnoses, prescriptions, and lab test results.
A provider ofhealthcare SEO services can provide the necessary support to design a proper structure for your website, publish relevant content, claim listings and implement a solid ongoing SEO strategy. Though getting listed at the top of Google search results is not an overnight fix, it can be easily achieved if the proper process is followed and consistency is achieved. By utilizing local SEO services provided by an experienced SEO company, medical practices can achieve increased website traffic and overall new patient leads.
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