‘Search listening’ to help people find answers to their health questions

 

It also gives an insight into the words and terms people are using. For example, official sources might use the term “myocardial infarction” when discussing their research and scientific research.

But the person on the street is not going to find that when they type “heart attack research” into Google.

Search engine results are only as effective as the terms people enter. This means your content is only effective if you rank for terms that the people you want to reach are actually using.

There are tools and resources you can use through Google, including Google’s suggestions, and the infographics of Answer the Public.

Google’s suggestions are so underrated. In an incognito search, they automatically input the most common search terms if you leave a space in the phrase.

Slight variations in the search term offer significant insights into people’s thoughts.

Look at the difference in these.

Information-seeking or reassurance-seeking

For health-related content, changing the search term from “what does a” to “what does my” can change the question significantly.

Changing it to a “why” question impacts the question yet again. Imagine the person who is typing into Google “why does my heart hurt when I breathe”. That person needs evidence-based, useable information, ideally resources that direct them to assistance from a medical professional.

This is what they get in the results. The first suggestion given in the drop-down box “What do you do when your heart hurts when you breathe” is ten home remedies, the first of which is to eat almonds.

I’m not a doctor but I would think this is not great medical advice. I expect seeking a medical professional’s view is important.

Content strategy through search results

 

Using search results and content optimisation, you can put the needs of health consumers at the centre. You can respond to what they need and provide it.

The writing also has to be in an easy-to-read format so everyone can understand it.

It seems a wasted opportunity that thousands of people are searching “what does a heart murmur mean”. Have they just come from being diagnosed and not understood?

 When you move in medical circles it’s easy to forget that not everyone understands all the health-related terms and what they mean.

Effective, evidence-based health content can help people – and the wider community – to have a better overall health literacy.

You’ve put so much work into it! The website is finally live and now you just need people to find it.

You’ve connected your Google analytics account but the numbers are small, or all coming from Russia.

You have a quality message that would be of value to people, so how do you get your website to show up on Google?

 

Search engine optimisation

Search engine optimisation or SEO is the process of driving traffic to your website by using the right terms and processes that google can use to match it with search queries.

It’s making sure your site’s words, images and other content can be found and matched when people search.

This is what is known as “organic search”. These are the results that come up as a listing on the clean white background that we know as Google.

Content writing for SEO takes time and effort but it is free. And the results can be long-lasting.

Marketing firm Caldwell Richards chief executive Michael Buchholz says SEO is a long-term play, but one that can continue to produce a return on investment over a longer period.

“SEO traditionally takes about three to six months to get results,” he says.

“If you get it right, it will continue to add value and drive your ROI for the long term.”

 

But it takes effort

Getting to page one on Google is important. The search engine says 95 per cent of click-throughs come from the first page.

The top result attracts one-third of the clicks, and the seventh gets only about 2 per cent.

This shows how important it is to get the copywriting right. Keywords that attract the right audience are critical. Writing the correct types of content and copy are equally vital.

“If you’re a startup or you have limited resources, then you really need to think about ROI,” Richards says.

“There’s no point driving everyone to your website if nobody buys anything. Are people actually engaging with you.

 

How do search engines work

There is no secret to how search engines work. They publish all their information in very long and detailed posts such as these.

The challenge is, however, to translate that information into useable detail for your situation.

Basically google sends out its bots or spiders to crawl sites and assess sites. This is all the text, images and other content.

Then they categorise and index that information.

The final step is displaying what they deem the best and most appropriate result for a search on the white Google search page that you see. This is the search engine results page (SERP).

 

What Google wants

Search engines are not shy about telling people what they want from their copywriting and websites. It might be complicated and there is no magic ingredient but there are key factors to determine what results are displayed for searches.

This are the five things Google says it is trying to do when people search:

 

Meaning of your query

Are there typos to correct? What language is it in? Are there words that suggest the searcher wants specific information? Google also wants recent content to give people so it is up-to-date.

“If you search for trending keywords, our freshness algorithms will interpret that as a signal that up-to-date information might be more useful than older pages.”

 

Relevance of webpages

This is where the content, copy and keywords come in, but not keyword stuffing or just repeating the words.

“If those keywords appear on the page, or if they appear in the headings or body of the text, the information is more likely to be relevant,” Google says.

“Beyond simple keyword matching, we use aggregated and anonymized interaction data to assess whether search results are relevant to queries. We transform that data into signals that help our machine-learned systems better estimate relevance.”

 

Quality of content

This is about links. When you are an authority in your field, others will link to you. And this is an important part of ranking higher.

Google is, of course, onto some of the scammy things people try to do with dodgy backlinks though.

“Our systems are designed to identify signals that can help determine which pages demonstrate expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness on a given topic,” Google says.

 

Usability of webpages

Make sure people can use your website easily.

It has to be fast, it has to work well on mobiles and computers, and in different browsers.

Have a good navigation bar that is easy to see and very simple to use. Not only it is good for your customer journey, it’s important to Google.

“These algorithms analyse signals that indicate whether all our users are able to view the result, like whether the site appears correctly in different browsers; whether it is designed for all device types and sizes, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones; and whether the page loading times work well for users with slow Internet connections.

 

 

Context and settings

This is about the way Google changes depending on each searcher.

What I see when I type your organisation name will be different to what you see.

“Information such as your location, past Search history and Search settings all help us to tailor your results to what is most useful and relevant for you in that moment,” Google says.

 

How I can help you with SEO for your website

Your website matters. It is your shopfront and where potential clients will do research before you’re able to speak with them.

Effective content that appeals to readers and search engines can build your presence online and showcase your authority.

I can help. Find out more here