Dr. Google is the very definition of convenience.
Dr. Google doesn’t need a waiting room, doesn’t require health insurance, and always makes house calls. So it’s no wonder 1 out of every 10 Google searches are related to healthcare. And nearly two-thirds of all patients connect with over-the-counter brands on social media, rather than their local physician.
Google has become the de facto medical authority for comparing prices and services, reading testimonials and looking into non – traditional remedies.
As modern marketers, you can put Google to work for you by providing convenient, accessible information that personalizes and simplifies the patient journey. Search drives 3x more visitors to hospital sites compared to traditional advertising and is by far the preferred way for patients to find healthcare providers online. (Source: Google)
TAKE NOTE: Healthcare Providers Are Held to a Higher Standard of Quality
For businesses and websites, namely in Finance, Healthcare and Wellness sectors – Google pays extra close attention to the quality of information that each puts out which has direct-line impacts on SEO.
The terms that are important to know to ensure your site and content is recognized by Google are:
YMYL:
A category and term that stands for Your Money or Your Life. Google classifies certain businesses and websites that publish information which can directly have an effect on a reader’s finances, level of happiness, success or wellbeing. YMYL sites must adhere to strict quality guidelines which are measured by algorithms before ranking pages. The algorithm checks for the quality of content based on 3 factors.
E.A.T. (Expertise. Authoritativeness. Trustworthiness):
These are the three key factors Google uses to evaluate content for quality of information before ranking pages.
For healthcare sites where users are going to the web to seek out advice or information related to specific health conditions, symptoms, ways to diagnose, and potential treatments – Google wants to send these users to highly reputed websites. One wrong move based on an incorrect medical suggestion can have an everlasting effect on the users’ life.
11 Ways to Stay on Google’s Good Side as a Healthcare Brand
- Create and produce “expert” content using subject matter experts in your field.
- Provide contact information on the site plus a clear path for how users can reach.
- Associate the website with a physical location of an office, clinic or hospital address.
- Make available a Terms of Business or Service page, which is easily accessible to users.
Make sure that the website’s domain name is secure with a HTTPS to ensure user’s data won’t be intercepted by a nefarious 3rd party.- Have a Privacy Policy which is clearly accessible to users (usually found in the footer).
- Have a Wikipedia page for the brand and/or people in the company signaling that you’re a credible authority in your field.
- Include bylines with backlinks as reference to original sources and authors in any blog articles or postings.
- Routinely review your website to edit or delete low-quality content.
- Enhance the “About Us” page to include any publications that the brand has been featured in.
- Be active on relevant social media platforms sharing content with target audience’s and other known and credible influencers within the sector.