Gone are the dark days of keyword stuffing and other black hat tactics that didn’t benefit actual human readers. In this 20-minute webinar, we’ll cover rules for writing a webpage that competes in online searches.
You’ll learn:
Download this whitepaper and learn the seven must-have features that will help your organization:
From Amazon to Netflix, consumers are increasingly familiar using ratings to evaluate products and services. Often these take the form of the iconic star rating system that has become the go-to method for indicating user satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
It’s clearly not just for movies and books anymore. You’ve seen the statistics: 84% of health consumers view digital solutions as the most effective way to search for a doctor. And when asked about the last time they looked up health or medical information, 77% of online health consumers say they began with search engines.
Healthcare marketers monitor these trends in consumer behavior and use them to shift the strategies they use to promote physicians, giving rise to the popularity and effectiveness of online ratings and reviews.
The number of patients who used online reviews jumped 68% from 2013 to 2014. And our research indicates by the end of 2017, 60% of health systems and hospitals will have launched ratings and reviews.
Even if you do not have the advantage of having adopted this technique when it first started, there are still incredible benefits to be had by starting now. Obviously, it meets patients’ needs. According to industry research, 61% of patients use reviews before selecting a provider, 19% use them after selecting a provider, and 20% have used ratings and reviews to evaluate their current doctor.
In addition to patient experience benefits, implementing ratings and reviews has numerous search and optimization advantages.
If built correctly, Google will display current rating information in rich snippets right in search results. And for some organizations, their own ratings and reviews will outrank reviews from other organizations, such as Healthgrades or WebMD. Many organizations also see increased appointment requests. Together with the rating information in your profile, these kinds of rich snippets drive traffic from organic search, increase engagement with existing profiles, and ultimately lead to more appointments with your physicians.
How big of an SEO boost can you expect from adding ratings? While there are no guarantees, the University of Utah Health Care reported a significant increase in traffic from organic search since implementing physician ratings on their website. After investing in ratings and reviews, one of our clients saw a 55% increase in URLs ranked 1–4 on search results pages.
And because research reveals that 77% of patients use search prior to booking an online appointment, it’s clear that physician ratings are a potent means of promoting physicians and converting site visitors into scheduled patients.
With the innovators and early adopters having led the charge, the majority of healthcare organizations now have a clear path forward on how to implement ratings and reviews. And, if your competitors haven’t already gone to market with the feature, you can still be seen as an early mover in your region. Even if you’re competitors beat you to the punch, implementing ratings and reviews is still an effective way to ensure your providers remain at the top of search results pages.
If your organization is on the fence about adding ratings and reviews to your site, let us help. Organizations of all sizes have turned to us to help them navigate the technical and political challenges that may arise and reap the rewards of improved patient acquisition and increased URL rankings.
What you think might be nothing more than a copy-and-paste process gets mighty complicated if you’re looking to actually improve your website’s future. Content migration is often the default option for bringing content into a redesign or new content management system (CMS), rather than starting from scratch.
It may be a pipe dream to get some A-plus content to complement a new user-friendly and responsive design, but content is the monster in the corner that you need to face every step of the way. Unfortunately, we often feel that content migration is usually the best we can get.
Usually. But it doesn’t have to be.
Here’s how you can create a strategy for content migration that leads to success both inside and outside your organization.
Content auditing is a lot like cleaning out your closet. Eventually, each one of us gets to a time in our lives when it’s time to go through our drawers and closets to see what we need to need to sell, donate, or keep forever and ever. Don’t throw away that jean jacket — you never know when they might make a comeback!
Reviewing each item or page, deciding what works, what doesn’t, and whether or not it’s valuable enough to keep is a fundamental part of a website redesign. Fortunately, in the world of digital content, even if the content needs some reshaping, you can hang onto it and do something great with it. Consider it like bedazzling that old jean jacket you found to give it new life.
Moz recently released an updated version of how to audit content, and it’s extremely helpful. While Moz’s recommendations get into the nitty-gritty, it’s also a great way to fully understand the nuts-and-bolts to make you a confident content auditor. Content Marketing Institute, too, has suggestions for completing a content audit in only a few hours.
There’s a chance you have a good set of content on your current site that’s in great shape already. There’s also a chance you have some pages that have aged past their prime and need to be archived.
Start with a content inventory – a complete list of all the pages of your site. Then, visit each page and review for certain criteria. This is where you get to decide what makes quality content on your site? For example, you may want to review:
Once you’ve answered your criteria for each page, decide if that page is worth keeping, editing, or archiving. You may have a nice, even mix of all three, or maybe your site only needs some refreshing. An audit is a perfect place to make these decisions.
After your audit, tackle what needs editing, especially what doesn’t meet the criteria you set for quality content.
Editing content or even completely re-writing content might require discussions with stakeholders or subject matter experts, depending on your organization. They also might need to go through a few layers of approval if you’re working in a large group.
Once you’ve established what needs to be edited, put your nose to the grindstone and get to work. Whether you’re writing directly in the CMS or using an outside tool (GatherContent, Microsoft Word, or Google docs, etc.) set a process for editing and placing if necessary.
If you do have a delegation process for editing and placement, consider adding columns for these on your new inventory or content matrix, so your team can visibly see who’s responsible for certain pages of content and where those pages are at in the redesign process.
Based on your audit, take a look at the content that’s been tagged “keep.” These are likely pages that can be migrated as-is from your current site. However, you’ll want to double-check your headings and subheads, paragraph lengths, etc. It might not hurt to do a quick review for grammar and style, even if it looked good at first glance.
Decide where the page belongs in your new site structure or information architecture (IA). In healthcare, for example, new service lines are often added to the IA, or combined if you’re building a more system-focused website approach. You should also address gaps in content (like, “Hey! We need to a page about our new aquatic rehab program!”) to make sure you’ve placed that content in a place that’s intuitive to your users. Of course, don’t forget about critical metadata like the page title and description.
If your old site isn’t using Schema.org, consider adding it to the new site. A lot of things may have changed between your old site and your new one, so it’s always good to employ best practices when you can.
As for content you or your team decided could be archived, don’t even bother migrating it. However, if some of this old or outdated content could be repurposed later, keep a copy handy so you can return to it in the future. Maybe it’s the basis for a good blog post?
Anything that’s listed as “archive” is best left behind. If these are pages that someone else provided or wrote, however, it may not hurt to let them know what you’re doing with it, as to avoid any unseen concerns.
As a content strategist who’s helped migrate and re-shape hundreds of healthcare content pages, here are some tips that will help you move forward:
If you didn’t already have a style guide, consider creating one based on the criteria you used in the audit. Voice, style, usage, brand colors and more can be essential resources later as you develop campaigns, content marketing, and additional website content.
And hang onto that audit or matrix! Spreadsheets might feel like a headache, but these tools can be helpful for you and your team to govern the content. And, with the average healthcare organization redesigning or re-platforming every three or four years, all of this work makes for an even easier redesign in the future.
Want more? Check out this post from LunaMetrics for more technical aspects to consider during a migration.
You probably know that WordPress powers more than a quarter of the entire internet. What you may not know is if it is a good fit for your next healthcare marketing project. In this webinar, you’ll learn veteran tips on how to take full advantage of this ubiquitous platform or how to keep your current site delivering value. Whether you’re considering building your next main site on WordPress, or creating a blog, content marketing hub, or microsite with the platform, it’s important to ensure it supports your overall digital strategy. From choosing plugins and custom themes to building healthcare-specific functionality to meeting security and privacy requirements, we’ll provide guidance on both implementation and ongoing site management. No digging into development technicalities here: This webinar will answer the big picture questions and help marketing strategists know if this is the right platform for your next digital initiative.
Watch now and learn how to:
Millions of Americans have disabilities that affect how they use the web. And your chances of acquiring one of these disabilities increases as you age. But thanks to technology that can assist using the web is still possible in everyday lives.
It’s your job to make sure the way your website is built aids those assistive technologies, rather than hindering them. From ensuring your code can be read by screen readers to adding closed captioning on videos, there’s a lot you can do.
There are many guidelines and legal requirements that in some way touch on digital accessibility, but these two are the main ones healthcare marketers tend to focus on.
Most websites do not lawfully comply with all these guidelines. And recent lawsuits are making more healthcare organizations take notice of accessibility guidelines.
In 2017, the United States Access Board announced updates to national accessibility requests under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. The refresh, as they are calling it, is scheduled to go into effect January 18, 2018, and updates accessibility requirements for federal organizations as well as harmonizes these requirements with other guidelines and standards such as the WCAG.
Specifically, this refresh references Level A and Level AA of the WCAG 2.0 guidelines and applies them to websites as well as other electronic documents and software.
While these updates directly apply to federal agencies, most healthcare organizations are required by ACA Section 1557 to address the accessibility of their digital communications. Section 508 provides a clear legal standard.
Regardless of future laws or potential lawsuits, making your website accessible now for those with disabilities is a recommended best practice for healthcare organizations – and it prepares you to better meet any future legal requirements.
Not to mention, there’s also an inherent SEO benefit for implementing many accessibility best practices. That’s because accessible content and optimized content are both machine readable.
So now that we’ve convinced you, what are your next steps?
If you’re about to undertake a redesign or CMS change, it’s the perfect time to talk about accessibility. It’s easier to create and maintain an accessible site than to retrofit a non-accessible site – but even that is still possible!
It’s important to remember accessibility is never “done.” As changes and updates are made to your site over time, it increases the risk of violations. With these new changes taking effect soon – and with mobile accessibility criteria likely coming later in 2018 – there’s a lot to tackle.
We’d love to discuss your accessibility needs and help put you on track. We’ve been developing and designing websites for healthcare organizations with accessibility in mind for over a decade. And we’re already developing our sites to meet mobile accessibility best practices. That’s because we don’t wait for regulations to build accessible websites. It’s just part of what we do.
Website accessibility isn’t just about avoiding litigation – it’s about serving all of your audiences equally and fairly. And for healthcare organizations, that’s a rallying cry that’s easy to get behind.
Contact us today to get started.
Editorial calendars help you define and control the process of creating content, from idea generation through writing and publication and even into promotion. It keeps everyone on track and gives transparency to the content creation process.
But just as no two hospitals are exactly alike, neither are two editorial calendars. What works for your team won’t necessarily work for others – and that’s true of both the format of your calendar and the information you include.
There’s no shortage of options when it comes to editorial calendars – as a quick Google search will confirm. Many of the marketing teams we work with here at Geonetric rely on Excel. It’s free, already on your computer, and pretty customizable. Other popular formats include Trello (what our internal marketing team uses), Google Docs, and Google Calendar. There are certainly paid options available, but we’ve also seen teams have success simply using a printed calendar and Post-It notes.
If you’re new to building an editorial calendar, start with something easy to use and free. Build it and start using it. Then you can see where the limitations are and find something else if it’s not working.
Not sure how to organize your calendar? You can always organize it the way you currently work — which often is by month. This works well if you tend to develop content around events – such as monthly health observances, new doctor hires, offline campaigns, or events your organization sponsors.
Or, consider organizing by topic clusters – especially if you are taking advantage of this strategy on your website. When you organize your site by topic cluster, such as service line, it can help you rank higher in search engine results pages and provide a more organized user experience.
Remember, the key is to see your calendar as a living document that needs updated regularly. You know things are going to change. Make sure you use your calendar like a map; you can see where you going but you’re able to change directions as new opportunities emerge.
Regardless of what format your calendar takes, here are some fundamental fields that should be included:
Ready to use what you’ve learned so far? Here’s a sample of a healthcare editorial calendar using many of these fields to use as a starting place.
But remember, this is just the beginning of what you could cover in your calendar. For example, take the above foundation to next level by also including:
As you already know, most organizations are investing in content marketing. But many of those same organizations that are reporting their efforts aren’t necessarily producing a return on investment. In fact, this study reported that 69 percent of healthcare organizations use content marketing, but only 28 percent feel their efforts are “very effective.”
How do you make those investments pay off? Be sure the content you’re investing in aligns with broader organizational goals. For example, if your organization prioritized increasing volume to a certain service line, you’ll want to focus content efforts on that service line.
As mentioned earlier, it’s also essential to ensure you have a call to action in your content, which can be an online form or a trackable phone number. This ties the visitor experience back to the end goal.
Another way to prove value is to record your rankings for valuable keywords before you publish content and then again a few months later. Rankings you can achieve organically can save money, especially if that’s traffic you are currently buying through paid search advertising.
As you can see, there’s a lot to consider when starting an editorial calendar for your healthcare marketing team. From format to elements to tracking success, a lot goes into a successful content marketing effort.
Don’t get overwhelmed by how big or complex your editorial calendar could become – especially if you’re a multi-hospital system or considering integrating other types of content such as email campaigns, print magazines, media, health observances, etc. Start small and build on it as your team and processes become more sophisticated.
Looking for other tips as you develop a content marketing plan? Check our Content Marketing for Healthcare guide.
And while the previous years had a slow adoption of voice search, 2017 saw a boon. According to Search Engine Watch, 60.5 million Americans used Siri, Cortana, or other voice assistants at least once a month. But a 2017 Forrester’s study revealed many people still aren’t quite committed to using voice features all the time.
So with those mixed messages, is focusing on voice search worth your time? Yes! Because at its core, preparing for voice search means focusing on great content and great user experience.
According to MindMeld’s 2016 Voice Assistants Research Report, most users (61 percent) rely on voice for hands-free searching, or when their vision is otherwise occupied, but there are other conveniences to voice search, too:
The study also revealed that 43 percent of respondents use their voice search in the home, another 36 percent in the car, and 19 percent on-the-go. Approximately 3 percent of respondents rely on voice search at the office or at work.
As digital marketers, we’re still in the early phases of understanding the complexity and intent of voice search. Fortunately, we can get our arms around some things we’re able to control as marketers, especially as it relates to voice search. And Google recently released some of the criteria for ranking content for voice, which gives us a good path forward.
Based on that knowledge, here are five helpful things healthcare marketers should know about voice search.
As this post is written, the majority of featured snippets that answer searchers’ questions are text-based. In a voice search study by Moz in 2017, approximately 65 percent of all featured snippets are text based, with a list format coming in at 30 percent (but let’s be honest: even lists are in text-format).
To help compete in the voice search landscape, put your efforts in answering user questions with content on your website. Tools like Moz’s Keyword Explorer, Google Trends, and your own search engine queries provide insight for voice-friendly content.
But keep an eye on other formats. Tables and videos account for less than 10 percent of query results, but that could change as voice search evolves.
While we may be accustomed to typing grammatically awkward queries into search engines on desktop (e.g. foot pain cramping), voice search studies reveal we’re more likely to use full questions or statements with our voice assistants, like “OK Google, why is my foot cramping?”
Consider how to structure your content so it hits a happy medium and addresses both of the types of queries, and in turn meets the needs of the most users. On a page of content, are you discussing high-importance topics that readers need to know? Can you set off the information with a question-oriented subheading?
Based on Google’s recently released criteria for voice search ranking, the formulation of content – including grammar and spelling – play a big role in the voice search being a success by user standards.
Text length matters, too. While a desktop search gives us more freedom and comfortability to read longer answers, voice search (and the listener) appreciate content that’s short-and-sweet sentences and paragraphs.
You’ve probably been hit over the head enough with “local, local, local” from other marketing experts, but we’re going to do it again. If you haven’t claimed your local business listings on search engines like Google and Bing, do it now. This ensures each listing of your business is up-to-date, especially since mobile voice-related searches are three-times more likely to be local-based, like directions to doctor’s offices.
Until we hear otherwise, Google has made it clear that consistent, unique, audience-focused content is still the bread-and-butter of connecting searchers with information they need. Strong, clear headings and subheadings, user-first language, and quick-to-browse elements like bulleted lists, are a great way to ensure your content is still easy to digest by web visitors, search engines, and now voice search results.
Before you lock yourself in your office to decode the mysteries of voice search, know that if you’re putting efforts into good content – from your website copy to content marketing efforts – you’re likely connecting with your target audiences somewhere.
So if you want to make sure you’re covering your bases for voice search, just keep investing in unique, user-friendly content. Consider, too, the literacy of your content. Is it easy to read? In the medical field, we have a particularly essential responsibility to translate difficult topics and content into easy-to-understand language.
If you need help developing compelling content for your website or blog, contact us. Our team is skilled in creating content that educates and converts.
Since this popular guide’s original publication in 2014, the healthcare landscape has evolved. Patients are increasingly more informed about and more connected to their healthcare options, with 84 percent viewing digital solutions as the most effective way to search for a doctor. The healthcare industry and provider setting are both also evolving, shifting the way healthcare marketers engage with consumers and market providers.
In this new edition, you’ll learn about the impact of healthcare consumerism on the changing provider landscape. You’ll discover current, new, and emerging promotion tactics and what they mean for your marketing mix. You’ll also learn actionable tips for using the web to successfully promote your providers and see examples of successful online provider promotion techniques that healthcare organizations are currently using.
Check out these recent healthcare digital-advertising campaigns and see how investments in keyword research paid off in results — and recognition.
*Author’s Note: Due to the popularity of this post I’ve updated it with a new example.
Best practices around digital advertising continue to evolve each year. See how this award-winning campaign uses paid campaigns to generate appointments and awareness.
Wayne UNC Health Care, a nationally-recognized affiliate of UNC Health Care, used eye-catching and awareness-building campaigns throughout social media, Spotify, and other streaming services to promote their new mammogram technology and support breast cancer awareness month.
Wayne UNC Health Care’s creative digital ads won Platinum for the eHealthcare Leadership Award for Best Integrated Marketing Campaign. The focus of each campaign was that one in eight women receive a breast cancer diagnosis in their lifetime and the benefits of early detection.
Campaign messaging also highlights the new, innovative technology at Wayne UNC Health Care using their brand voice as an effective way to generate engagement throughout their demographic and geographic target audience.
Each year gives us new strategies to take advantage of online and this year was no different. Check out this award-winning campaign that leveraged advanced ad types.
When Owensboro Health, Owensboro, KY, began construction on three Healthplex outpatient facilities in their region, they needed to build awareness for the convenient access and wide range of services available.
Before the grand openings, Owensboro Health focused on building awareness through a Google Ads paid text campaign.
After each of the facilities opened in mid-January 2018, the campaign transitioned to a conversion-focused paid search campaign. The campaigns used a variety of paid tactics, including ad extensions and call-only ads.
One tactic included using an advanced Google Ads feature called dynamic keyword insertion. This technique dynamically updates ad text to include selected keywords that also matches a user’s search query. In the image below, you can see the search query was dynamically added to the headline.
This web advertising campaign took home a Platinum Award from MarCom in the digital media – PPC category.
Let’s take a look back at previous award winners as well.
Pella Regional Health Center began offering a lung cancer screening and wanted to fill their appointment books. The Iowa-based health center turned to Geonetric to build and optimize display and text ads and run a five-month campaign.
The campaign not only increased appointments, it also received a Gold Award for Best Marketing Campaign from the eHealthcare Leadership Awards.
What else do these campaigns have in common? Their digital agency. Geonetric manages comprehensive, multi-channel digital advertising campaigns for hospitals and health systems that do more than win awards — they deliver real results. Check out more of our campaign work and then give us a call.
