Developing an integrated digital marketing strategy involves understanding all aspects of the consumer funnel because each digital channel and tactic provides unique benefits at different points in the user journey. In this webinar we highlight how paid search, search engine optimization and business listings help you own all aspects of a search engine results page when all are considered equally.

Geonetric’s 2022 Consumer Health Survey Report helps healthcare marketers like you get new insights and see where you need to invest to stay competitive in 2023. This research is part of an ongoing initiative to better understand the preferences and perceptions of health consumers relating to their use of technology throughout the healthcare journey.

Consumerism has been a growing force within healthcare and healthcare providers are under more pressure than ever to meet the expectations of health consumers. At the same time, health consumers have a growing array of care options, many of which are digital or have digital components.

As healthcare systems work to craft their digital front door strategies, this information should help you address consumer desires and meet them where they want you to be.

What Google is trying to achieve with the helpful content update

The new helpful content update from Google promises a robust people-focused change to how users search. Artificial intelligence takes a greater role in what appears on search engine results pages after being trained to think and analyze like the average user.

Educating artificial intelligence to be a much smarter version of traditional search algorithms serves three purposes:

• Ensuring the user receives the most accurate content for their search query.
• Removing irrelevant, false and harmful information from the first page of results.
• Allowing newer, more relevant sites and pages to rise in ranks faster than previously possible.

Google says that based on its testing, the update will have a greater initial impact on online educational materials, arts and entertainment, shopping, and tech-related content. This impact is due to the much higher amounts of accessible content for these industries. That does not mean the update will overlook healthcare.

Artificial intelligence never stops learning; as this update ages, it will become more refined and broad-reaching. It is not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when.

Sitewide analysis

One of the most interesting elements of this update is that it targets the whole site rather than individual pages. It will no longer be enough to hide lower quality, unoptimized content on separate pages to avoid dragging down stronger pages. Likewise, creating several pages irrelevant to the user to attract higher rankings is even less of a valid tactic than before.

The entire site must provide a strong, quality experience. This means you must address every aspect of your content to ensure success.

Over 50 possible points of impact when measuring helpful content

An important first step in identifying the most likely impacted content would be to study what Google believes should be considered when measuring content.

So far, Google has mentioned over 50 indicators of what constitutes helpful content across several title updates, including the helpful content update, product review update, core update and panda update.

The majority will have some impact on healthcare organizations. The key themes that Google appears to be stressing are your audience, expertise, credibility and the users’ wants and needs.

Artificial intelligence provides increasingly relevant results

To provide people-first rankings, Google turned to training artificial intelligence. This allows for a much more nuanced, relevant search experience than traditional search algorithms. In many ways, this method achieves what the search is intended for with greater accuracy—giving the most relevant results to the user.

The amount of content on the internet makes it necessary for search engines to rely on increasingly sophisticated systems. This ensures that the content that ranks in the top spots is accurate and helpful.

Artificial intelligence continues to learn even after launch, making it increasingly difficult for poor or false content to trick its way into the top search results spot. It’s an organic system. Even if something accidentally ranks, that might change next week.

This is not Google’s first use of artificial intelligence. However, it is their largest and a clear sign that this is the direction of updates moving forward.

We can’t predict the long-term ramifications of thinking algorithms. Still, we can confidently say that these early stages will cause massive fluctuations, traffic spikes, and declines for many organizations.

Reduced findability impacts conversion rates

If you have not kept up to date with optimization best practices, this update might hurt more than others because it’s redefining your findability.

If Google believes that your site no longer offers the most relevant or beneficial content, you will see fewer conversions. That’s because users will have a harder time finding your services when searching for local healthcare options. Pages that once ranked in the top spot in search engine results pages may now rank lower or completely vanish from the first page.

If you haven’t already, now is a great time to analyze your current data. Traffic fluctuations will have a ripple effect on all forms of conversions. This includes on-site data like phone inquiries, phone scheduling and online scheduling. It also impacts off-site data through how many users call, seek directions, or visit the site through business listings.

Consider every data point.

Ensure findability

How can you ensure that your findability optimization remains high-quality or benefits from the helpful content update? Use these steps:

• Refresh your local keyword portfolio
• Ensure that page titles and meta descriptions are updated regularly
• Refresh business listings to reflect on-site information
• Optimize for the three key tenants of local:
  • Locality
  • Relevancy
  • Actionability

The more hyper-local you can be with your on-page and meta content, the more relevant your site appears to Google. If your site currently lacks actionability, locality and relevancy, you could be accidentally competing with national brands and terms that do not serve your local audience. Appearing for the wrong search terms, outside of your coverage area can significantly impact your organic reach.

Likewise, suppose your business listings become out of sync with on-site location and provider information. In that case, Google will determine that these listings are low quality and refer users to your competition instead.

SEO experts are split on the Update impacts

As with any algorithm update, the impact will differ for every site, and it may take days or months to start seeing changes. Some experts in the field claim that the update has already rolled out for their site, and they see minimal traffic fluctuations. Meanwhile, users in the article’s comments report drastic drops in their overall user base.

While the update is still fresh and fully rolling out in the first days of September 2022, the consensus is that there is no consensus. The only absolute for this update is to take inventory of your current on-page and meta content, determine weaknesses or gaps and optimize your most important service lines, locations and providers.

Make sure your target audience will see your content

Determine whether your website content will outlive the helpful content update. We believe you can address the greatest shifts in findability by asking these content strategy-focused questions:

• Does each section and page serve the user’s needs?
• Does your site have an audience that would find the content useful if it came directly to you?
• Does the content serve the genuine interests of visitors, or does it guess what might rank well in search engines?
• Is the content written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well?
• Does the content provide unique, insightful analysis or interesting information that the user cannot find anywhere else?
• Is the content easy to read and understand?
• Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to your health?
• Is the content optimized to answer actual user questions so that someone reading the content leaves feeling like they’ve had a satisfying experience?

Answering “yes” to these questions means you’re probably using a people-first approach to your content strategy. Answering “no” to any of these questions means you must rethink your strategy and the content you’re creating.

Remember, high-quality content in one place and low-quality content in other places could keep your site from a high SERP ranking. Google wants your content to go beyond the bare minimum yet remain concise. Your organization must provide as much context as possible without going off-topic. This balancing act requires a sound content strategy to succeed.

Developing and maintaining high-quality content

Performing a content audit can help determine if your website has content gaps and opportunities to improve by demonstrating your expertise on healthcare topics. During the audit, consider whether your content follows best practices for web writing. That means you keep your content simple and understandable, scannable, user focused, optimized for search, and accessible.

Use natural language

Web writing best practices will also cover the Updateupdate’s emphasis on using natural language. Google can better understand when content relies heavily on targeting keywords at the expense of sentence and header structure.

Reflect on the main goals of your previous content optimization efforts. A major red flag would be if you were trying to integrate as many arbitrary keywords as possible. This is where seeing content through a user’s eyes can be particularly beneficial.

Seek user feedback about your content

Data does not always tell the whole story about your website content. Evaluate your content’s usefulness to real people through a user feedback form or user testing. This approach helps you gather qualitative data to determine if your content is helpful.

Next steps for your organization

If all of this seems overwhelming and potentially revolutionary, you are right. As Google and other search engines increase the integration of artificial intelligence, the deeper we reach into unknown territory.

The most important first step is a thorough, thoughtful optimization audit that considers findability, content strategy and technical SEO for the user experience. Without this, you will be guessing which content is already helpful. Often, we take the user for granted when determining what works. This is especially true when organizations are stretched thin and need to focus on many different pain points simultaneously.

Enlisting the help of an external agency can be extremely beneficial. Not only are you acquiring the aid of experts in the field, but you are also bringing fresh eyes to your site that may see what familiarity hides.

The experts at Geonetric provide a collaborative partnership in every step of the optimization process, including assessments, creation and optimization of findability and content, user testing and overarching user experience audits. Rather than taking on the full weight of this update on your own, reach out and let’s discuss your specific needs.

Consumers increasingly value their experience with a brand as much as the products and services themselves. And with brand loyalty seeming to have disappeared, it’s more critical than ever to create targeted, personal experiences that boost the results of your marketing efforts.

However, for healthcare marketers personalization can seem like an overwhelming topic. Sensitive topics and privacy concerns can add friction to the process. And it can be difficult to implement and operationalize the conversion points that tell a digital marketer what success looks like.

Whether you’re considering your first steps into personalization or are experiencing challenges further along your personalization journey, this webinar will give structure to the various approaches to personalization and demonstrate how to identify the tactics that have the most potential to deliver value.

This makes it more important than ever for healthcare to fully break down the digital roadblocks of the past and find new ways to serve today’s consumers. We all love consumers, just like we love our children, but it doesn’t mean that they aren’t accustomed to have the world at their fingertips.  

And in healthcare, there’s even more reason to keep a competitive edge. With a growing number of healthcare options available, healthcare providers feel the pressure to stay competitive. Not only are choices increasing in the healthcare market, but loyalty is decreasing. This creates a competitive advantage for healthcare companies that optimize their digital strategy to focus on user experience (UX) and keep consumers happy. Unlike our children, we can’t change the consumer, so we are forced to meet them where they are. Because if you don’t, you’re leaving money on the table and that can lead to a business that’s hurting..  

Have current consumer expectations left your  digital experience stuck in the past? If your healthcare organization needs a website redesign or new platform, here’s what to know when choosing a digital experience agency. 

1. What Kind of Digital Partner Would They Be?

When outsourcing any services, of course you want to know what doing business with this company will be like. The last thing you need is to pitch an idea to your boss, get the green light, fork out the dough, and then realize the company falls short on promises and results. Read the customer reviews, ask for references, and do your research on the company. There’s no faster moving industry than healthcare. There is no time to lose a turn and wait to roll the dice again.  There are specific needs in the digital world as well as the healthcare world. Make sure the agency you choose can provide strategy, support, and the right tools. They should be data driven, focus on consumer experience, and regardless of platform – be a strategic partner. A partner who can help you reimagine your digital front door and grow it over time. After all, a website is never done. A good digital experience agency will provide ongoing progress calls and support, digital strategy services, and technical services if applicable. Your digital partner should help you make an impact, and have a team that is dedicated to building, maintaining and growing your digital presence continuously throughout the relationship. Not just a help desk or someone taking orders. 

2. How Much Do They Know About Your Users Experiences?

Will the company need to do extensive research to understand your industry and the consumers in it? Do they support a broad range of industries, or just healthcare? If they solely focus on healthcare, it is very likely that they have already done extensive UX research specifically for the healthcare consumer. They may need to learn more about your business but finding an agency that already knows the healthcare industry leaves you light years ahead in the process.Find out more about the approach they would take with your project and custom needs. To create a new experience requires reconsidering what the healthcare consumer is trying to find, what action they need to take and how to guide their decisions along the way. User experience content strategy is the most important foundational element. Ask them what their thoughts are on UX content strategy.You want an agency that takes a holistic approach to content, information architecture and design based on UX research. Any digital agency can make things look pretty. That does no good if they don’t know the consumer journey and consumers can’t easily find what they need.

3. Do They Know Which  Platform is Best for Your Organization?

There are many things to take into consideration when choosing the best content management system (CMS) or digital experience platform (DXP) for you: organizational goals, existing websites and codebase, digital & content strategy, desired functionality & integration points, your team’s capacity & technical expertise, and competitive websites & experience. Selecting the right platform is striking a balance that works for you and your organization. Your digital agency partner should have options, understand the differences, and give you a recommendation based off your specific needs. Do you have a small but mighty team? Do you need the autonomy and power to quickly make changes on your own, but you’re not a developer? Perhaps a proprietary healthcare platform is your best option. Are you a complex healthcare system? Are you making a big investment in a more sophisticated digital experience? Do you want more developer access and input? Maybe an open-source DXP is a better fit for you. It’s not a simple formula to identify the right solution. That’s why you need an experienced healthcare agency who can guide you through the selection process because using the right tools will impact your team for years to come.  

So whether you’re a large or small hospital, national or regional health system, or medical group, the right digital strategy is vital in today’s market and having the right digital agency partner can make you stand out from the rest. The right partner can create an ongoing experience that gets better the more consumers use it, help you incorporate wellness into the experience and build a strong relationship between your brand and the consumer. Give today’s consumer what they want, an easy UX to get what they need to take advantage of your services, and watch your business grow.  

Learn more about how you can reimage your organization’s healthcare digital experience. Download the guide for healthcare leaders to build a digital front door and beyond.

Almost all sites on the internet have some form of data collection. In most cases, especially in healthcare, the goal is to collect as little potentially identifiable information as possible while still having enough to analyze user experiences. This data makes it easier to improve content, navigation and conversions. The same applies to the Meta pixel (previously known as the Facebook pixel), which is used to track engagement metrics from Facebook ad campaigns. A recent report uncovered websites that had applied the Meta pixel to their site(s) inadvertently allowed Facebook to gather sensitive data that, in some cases, included:

• Personally identifiable information (PII)
• Protected health information (PHI)

The first question that many of us and our clients asked was if the data collected was in violation of HIPAA. In at least one case, it was considered enough of a violation that a user filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta. Although it appears likely that the data collected is not in violation, many healthcare organizations are now aware of its suspicious ongoing practices. To determine the risks to your organization, we must ask what data Meta collects, when it collects the data and what you can do to prevent it from sending sensitive data.

What data does the Meta pixel collect?

Meta provides settings for customizing the specific data that it is allowed to receive. Depending on your current ad campaign settings, you might have the default setup which only collects the following:

• Information about the user’s device, web browser, operating system, and web session that are contained in HTTP headers. This includes the user’s IP address, the referring URL, page views, and more.
• Pixel-specific data including the pixel ID and the Facebook cookie.
• Button click data including any buttons clicked by the user, the labels of those buttons, and any pages visited as a result of the button clicks.
• The names of form fields on the site (e.g., ‘name’, ‘address’, ‘date of birth,’ etc.).

If you have turned on additional settings like Advanced Matching or made additional adjustments within your conversion tracking settings, Facebook may be collecting:

• Form field values for email, gender, address (city, state, ZIP code, and country), first and last name, phone number, date of birth, external ID
• Custom conversion data including URLs with their query parameter (e.g., https://www.abchospital.org/site-search/?term=cancer+treatment)

Meta has filters in place to catch and remove potentially sensitive information from query parameters. However, this data is still being sent to them in the first place.

When does the pixel collect data?

In most cases, the best practice for applying a data tracking pixel is to allow it to access all publicly accessible pages on a website in order to gain better data visibility as users move beyond your campaign’s initial landing page. If that is the case for your organization, and you have the Meta pixel deployed, any page which has the pixel code applied is collecting user data and sending data to Facebook. Just because you are not running ads on Facebook or have manually created an event for an active campaign does not mean you are not collecting visitor data and sending it to Facebook.

How can I limit data collection?

Meta—and other organizations in the data collection industry—make it extremely frustrating to remove tracking pixels because of how much you lose. Removing the Meta pixel means you will no longer have new data to analyze through the Facebook Ad Manager platform from users interacting with your website. Conversion tracking becomes even trickier. You lose the ability to perform remarketing efforts.

However, you have ways to limit this loss as well as mitigate data collection.

Restrict data collection to specific pages/sections

It is possible to limit the Meta pixel to only fire on the pages actively receiving traffic from campaigns through the use of Google Tag Manager. Rather than allowing the pixel to be placed on the entire site, you can specify exact pages where it is allowed to trigger.

If you appreciate these topics better in a metaphorical sense: Let’s say your site is a town. Each section is a house. The Meta pixel starts out being able to enter any home, follow any person and know everything that goes on within the town. If we limit the pixel to be in just one house, it can learn about anyone who comes to visit and watch where those people go to next but it can no longer see what those people were doing before or after the visit.

Of course, being as large as they are, Meta has other methods of still retrieving data even when its scope is limited. Much of that can be disabled in your Facebook Ads Manager settings. However, keep in mind that any amount of Meta having access risks the unwanted collection of data.

Rely on external, more secure platforms to collect data

As big as the organization is, Google has many additional protections and filters in place to prevent the collection of sensitive data.

Utilizing tags and triggers in Google Tag Manager can drastically reduce the pain of removing the Meta pixel. Setting up events that detect and fire on Facebook-specific conversions allows you to then build custom reports and dashboards within Google Analytics that provides all of the same data without risking the collection of protected health information.

What to consider moving forward with data security

Data security is increasingly important for the average user. As the population becomes aware of how much of their personal information is being collected, the more often we will see reports detailing unexpected, sneaky practices.

To protect your organization, it is important to ensure that your compliance team is aware of what tags or scripts are added to your site, as well as their tracking capabilities. Perform an audit of your privacy policies. Ensure that you are protected, keeping your users informed and remaining diligent in protecting user data.

If you are uncertain if your organization has implemented the Meta pixel, unsure of how to remove or restrict the pixel, or simply want additional consultation on tracking pixels, reach out to our digital marketing experts at Geonetric. We are happy to help.

In this webinar, we will share common hurdles to measuring ROI in healthcare and how your organization can identify the logical next steps you can take to close those gaps and achieve meaningful measurement. You’ll get a data-driven look into the patient journey conversion funnel and learn new insight into connecting data pipelines. We will also cover the new hot topic of how to ensure your health system isn’t impacted by the Meta pixel’s invasive tracking practices.

The demand for self-service digital transactions is increasing, and healthcare organizations who provide that option are the more appealing choice for consumers. In fact, 68% of consumers tell us that they’re more likely to use a provider offering appointment scheduling online (Accenture, 2019).

But it’s not enough to provide the option for online scheduling. You need to create a cohesive user experience that delights your consumers. Appointment scheduling is the most crucial moment in the consumer journey, and failure to provide a good user experience could mean the difference between acquiring a new patient and losing them to a competitor.

Unfortunately, most online appointment scheduling experiences today aren’t easy to use. If there are multiple back-end systems involved, the journey is often fragmented, placing the burden on the consumer to connect the dots. This creates a difficult scheduling experience and a frustrated consumer. Potential new patients are often left behind, especially if the patient portal is the only scheduling option. In some cases, this can be the deciding factor in them remaining a potential patient or becoming a new patient.

The result is an experience that at best is on par with your competition—not markedly better. Closing the appointment scheduling gap is critical for driving business growth and improving your consumer experience.

Meeting Consumer Needs Through User-Centered Design

How do we create a digital experience that resonates with consumers and moves our business forward? It starts by focusing on the end user: your consumers.

Too often, software developers allow internal bias, our own assumptions, technology, and cost and time savings to drive our strategic direction and design. But with a user-centered design approach, we use UX research to make evidence-based decisions and create a solution that truly works for our end user. This allows us to go beyond our assumptions and get to the hearts and minds of our consumers so we can better meet their needs.

While this process is often skipped for the sake of cost or time, it’s an investment that pays off in the long run by eliminating risk and reducing downstream costs. Even more importantly, you’ll create an experience that is better for the consumer and improves your ROI.

Creating a Consumer-First Online Appointment Scheduling Experience

As Geonetric set out to re-imagine the online appointment scheduling experience, we created our solution through a user-centered design process. It was important that the solution be fully optimized based on deep UX research, design thinking and user testing, so that it would exceed consumers’ expectations and deliver results for healthcare organizations.

We gathered initial inspiration for the solution by evaluating online booking experiences across many industries—travel, e-commerce, food and beverage, ride-sharing apps, and more. This gave us a solid understanding of the kinds of functionality and experiences consumers were familiar with and expect to see.

After gathering ideas for potential solutions, we didn’t move directly into design and development. We conducted UX research through user testing to gather consumer feedback and validate our ideas. This would identify barriers or areas of confusion that we needed to refine. While this research took additional time up-front, it will pay off in the long term by creating a better, more streamlined user experience.

To conduct this research, we created a functional prototype and tested the solution with actual consumers using real-life scenarios. What we learned was invaluable.

Some insights we uncovered were:

• The importance of insurance and how it affected consumers’ decision-making during the scheduling process
• Validation of ideas for new features, such as the option to select an appointment time that is the soonest available
• Areas of confusion in the user interface and functionality, such as the date selector, progress bar, and location filter
• Adjustments we needed to make to wording to provide more clarity, such as “preventative care”
• The desire for additional features, such as the ability to share appointment information with a family member after it was scheduled
• Validation that overall solution was desirable and very easy to use

“I don’t see where it would drop down. I don’t like it. I don’t understand what it’s going to do.”

“I didn’t know that the bar would drag it down. I assumed that meant scroll.”

With UX research, we can put ourselves in our consumer’s shoes and see things from their perspective. Because we did the research, we knew where the holes were in our solution: what was confusing and what users might struggle with, possibly even causing them to abandon the scheduling process. We got valuable insights to adjust and strengthen the design.

Even more importantly, we validated that our end solution was valuable to consumers, and they were excited to see it and use it. Here is a sample of our feedback.

“My mom isn’t tech savvy and I feel like she could do this easily. Very easy to use.”

“I hope this is something we get to see and use soon!”

This validation from the end user ensures that our time and dollar investments in the design and development will produce good results. Because it’s only through the user-centered design process that we can guarantee we’re creating great, consumer-first experiences that drive business success.

Start with Geonetric

Have you been considering integrating online appointment scheduling into your digital experience? Contact us – we can help from strategy to implementation to reach your digital goals.

It’s a project most healthcare marketers will only encounter a few times in their career. With more than twenty years’ experience launching hundreds of healthcare websites, we’ve seen it all — from the emergency “lift-and-shift” to a “burn the house down” approach. And while there’s usually time to plan, sometimes that’s not the case.

Whether you’re planning to change platforms or partners this year — or you want to be prepared for the unexpected — this webinar will shine a light on common blind spots and provide guidance for a successful relaunch.

What pushes most organizations into a redesign? It could be for internal reasons, like a brand change or an acquisition. Or, you’ve simply realized that your current site isn’t delivering value anymore.

Regardless of what is driving change, a website redesign offers your organization the opportunity to improve your online brand image, engage and connect with site visitors, and put them on a path to conversion. This popular guide, now in its second edition, will help you determine if it’s time to redesign your website and how to get started if a new CMS is in your future. Download it today, and learn:

• Common redesign triggers of a full website redesign
• Why an iterative approach to redesign might be the answer
• How to better understand your website’s lifecycle
• How to tell if you need to re-platform alongside your redesign
• What to consider in a CMS beyond content management, including transactional, personalization, and optimization considerations