Your content (the articles your write, posts, videos, etc.) is the most important part of your digital marketing campaign. It is not only vital for any one interested in healthcare and medical Internet marketing, but for everyone who uses a website as a marketing tool.
Your content is the key to getting high rankings with the search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. Your content is also the key to converting readers into followers and then patients.
Every healthcare and medical website needs content.
SEO Rankings and Engagement
The content (articles, post, pages on your website) will get indexed and if properly optimized will get ranked by Google. The better, and more relevant, the higher your rankings. The best ranking webpages are those which have been written well and have been optimized.
The same content has another purpose. Your articles will be answering questions. Better yet, your content should be educating and informing your readers.
This brings value to your readers. From value, develops trust.
Value and trust are the first steps to engaging your readers to convert them to become a patient.
So website content has a dual purpose: to achieve and maintain high Google (i.e. search engine) rankings and patient engagement.
Sources of Content
Fortunately, we, as health providers, have an endless source of content. The answers and explanations we give routinely in response to commonly asked questions are great sources of content…they are well rehearsed and “written” exactly for our patients.
Use your explanations to serve as patient education articles, posts and pages.
Many of us also have patient education pamphlets adorning our clinic walls. Paraphrase the articles found in the pamphlets – avoid directly copying the content. Google frowns upon duplicate content.
You may also provide links to authoritative websites. While this is not great for your SEO, it still does provide value to your patients.
Curate medical journals. Analyze the articles you read in your medical journals and explain the relevance and significance to your readers. Your opinion and analysis can provide your readers with tremendous value.
Write to Engage Your Reader
Here are a few suggestions to make your writing more engaging.
- Write in the first person point of view (I, we, me, my)
- Limit each article to just 1 or 2 subjects – avoid the temptation to “show-off” your vast knowledge
- Length of articles should be 300-500 words. Too short may not get indexed and too long will bore your reader
- Avoid clinical jargon and fancy language, write at the level of an 8th grader
- Write as though your perfect patient were seated directly in front of you, do not write as though you were speaking to a packed auditorium
Podcast on Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing
Russ Faust, M.D and I just launched a podcast on Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing. I’d love if you tried us out and gave us a review on iTunes.
Thanks for reading, following…and listening.
If you have a comment, question or concern….just leave below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!
To Your Success,
“Randy”
Randall Wong, M.D.
Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing
Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social
