Three New Google Features and the Takeaways for Healthcare Marketers

1. Adding extra convenience to your Google Ads

In this ad for Immediate Care from NorthShore, you can see that Google is displaying the phone number as well as two location options (with a quick link to driving directions). This is a great way to give the user a clear sense of how close some of their locations are and make it even easier to take the next step in the path to care.

Takeaway: You can enable this feature by adding location extensions to your Google Ads by connecting your Google My Business account. While location extensions aren’t a new feature, Google continues to optimize the appearance of these features, particularly on mobile. This latest iteration gives users easier access to relevant information (such as distance from locations) and actions such as directions and phone numbers.

2.  Show your best side – in your location images

Another interesting feature that is starting to show up on search is the ability to look for a location via a photo slider. While this is a feature Google has been testing and slowly rolling out over the past year, this is the first time we’ve seen this within the healthcare vertical.

When clicking “View All,” we were taken to a page that featured a new set of options, more directly related to the type of location we were specifically interested in finding (an urgent care). While this option doesn’t give the user a lot of the information you might typically expect to find, it felt very intuitive to assess the options based on how good the pictures were. The images gave a sense of something that’s very hard to convey in text and answered questions such as “What is the place like?” and “Will I feel comfortable there?”

Takeaway: If you haven’t paid much attention to your location photos in the past, it might be worth giving them some attention. Not only are they important today for Google My Business listings, it’s quite possible in the near future they could play a more prominent role in search results. Consider reviewing your competitor’s photos and ensuring that yours are meeting – or beating – the standard they’re setting. At such a critical decision point, you don’t want to lose a prospective patient due to an unappealing photo.

3. The disruptors are coming

In healthcare, we’ve been aware for a while that there could be a significant source of disruption to the market at any moment. Just how quickly they’re coming was clear in these searches.

In searching for “urgent care near me” – immediately below the location pack, there was a new section to search for online care from non-traditional care providers, like Doctor on Demand. Complete with pricing information, these options give the user a lot of convenience and meets patients right in the moment of decision making. Whether or not this becomes a standard feature of search engine results pages (SERPs) has yet to be seen.

Takeaway: Likely, your organization has already started thinking about how you can provide more access to care options to your communities – including online appointments. Now, more than ever, it’s important to make sure access to care options can be clearly presented to your audience. Transparency of pricing — and the option to receive this care 24/7 — makes these disruptors particularly appealing, so make sure you’re doing what you can to promote your offerings in a user-friendly way. If you have questions about how else you can accomplish promoting your online care options, let us know and we’d be happy to help!

Be Prepared for Anything

Google tests features on a near-constant basis — and no one ever knows which features will stick until they do. Routinely searching for common keywords and terms yourself and checking the experience is a good way to make sure you’re keeping an eye on the ever-evolving SERP landscape. The fact is, Google is constantly changing, and the next big game-changing feature could be right around the corner!

If you’d like help managing Google’s constant changes or keeping your business listings up-to-date, reach out.

This update is a continuation of Google’s efforts to improve their own users’ experience by measuring different factors that contribute to the user experience (UX) of the ranking web pages.

When considering page experience, Google will look at Core Web Vitals, mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, HTTPS-security, and intrusive interstitial guidelines. Though still in the testing phase, Google also plans to introduce visual indicators. These indicators will show when a page meets all UX requirements. That means that not only will these factors affect ranking, but also that users will be able to choose to click or not to click on a search result based on Google’s UX indicators.

Google’s Page Experience Signals

These are the signals Google will use to determine your page experience score. As you’re working to update your health system’s website, focus on these signals and the factors that can affect them.

Core Web Vitals

Google’s Core Web Vitals measure the overall perceived UX of your web page, focusing on three main factors:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
• First Input Delay (FID)
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

Largest Contentful Paint

LCP measures your page’s loading speed by looking at how long it takes to render the largest visible image or text block. To be in good standing, your LPC should occur within 2.5 seconds of a user landing on the page. Curious how your site would rank? Visit Google’s PageSpeed Insights and see.

First Input Delay

FID measures your page’s responsiveness and interactivity by the milliseconds, with a “good” UX maxing at 100 ms. That means the time it takes between when a user first interacts with your page to when the browser can process the event handlers of the interaction should be less than 100 milliseconds.

Cumulative Layout Shift

The visual stability of your site is measured by your CLS score, which represents unexpected layout shifts on a page. Unexpected shifts in page content can be frustrating and sometimes harmful to your goals if calls-to-action or forms shift as users click. Your CLS score should be less than .1 to continue providing a good UX.

Mobile-friendliness

It may seem like a no-brainer in 2020, but mobile-friendliness continues to be an essential UX and ranking factor. You can easily test your web page’s mobile-friendliness with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.

Safe-browsing

The safety of users is one of Google’s main priorities and, if it isn’t already, needs to be one of yours as well. Google uses safe-browsing to ensure sites do not contain “malicious or deceptive” content, which you can test with a Security Issues report.

HTTPS-security

The safety of your site is also an essential factor, both for the security of your site and for ranking. Make sure your site is secure by serving it over HTTPS, not HTTP.

Intrusive Interstitials

Content accessibility is an important facet of your UX, which can be hindered by intrusive interstitials. Examples include:

• Screen-wide popups that appear when a page loads or as users scroll
• Offers that must be dismissed before reaching the main content
• Offers or information that take up the whole page and users must scroll past to get to the main content

Follow Google’s Intrusive Interstitial Guidelines to ensure you meet their UX requirements.

Page Experience Signals & Healthcare

UX is more important than ever across all sites, but especially in the healthcare industry. This year, users have turned to healthcare providers for information regarding COVID-19 symptoms and treatments, pandemic closures, and vaccine distribution. But a poor UX can mean fewer people finding or staying on your site.

As page experience signals gain more power, consider your own site’s UX. If you need help measuring the health of your page experience signals, contact us! Our digital experts are well-versed in optimizing for UX and Google rankings and are excited to help you provide the best possible web experience to your site visitors.

Join thought leaders Ben Dillon and David Sturtz for this webinar and learn healthcare digital marketing predictions for 2021 and how COVID-19 has either accelerated or reduced momentum around initiatives.

From the digital domination of hospital marketing spend to what do with pent up demand and the effects of delayed care on your community, you’ll walk away with ideas on how to better prepare and succeed in 2021.

Mistrust in vaccines isn’t new. In a December 2019 Gallop poll, 11% of U.S. adults said they believe vaccines are “more dangerous than the diseases they prevent.”

But the number of Americans who are hesitant to take a COVID-19 vaccine is even greater. In May, the Associated Press and the University of Chicago released a study showing 50% of Americans were either hesitant or unwilling to take a COVID-19 vaccine. The number of Americans willing to get vaccinated has only risen to 60% recently.

“Based on public opinion research… we think somewhere around 30% of Americans intend to refuse a coronavirus vaccine once one becomes available,” said Matthew Motta, assistant professor of political science at Oklahoma State University, in an interview aired by NPR’s On the Media in December.

Your organization’s role

As a healthcare marketer and communications professional, you’re facing an uphill battle addressing various objections effectively. The U.S. needs at least 60 to 70% of the public to be immunized to reach herd immunity and restore our society to a semblance of normalcy.

The good news? The pandemic has led to generally increased trust and respect of local hospitals, health systems, medical groups, and providers across the U.S. An August 2020 poll reported more than 80% of Americans see doctors, nurses, health systems, and their local hospitals as “somewhat” or “very” trustworthy. You have an advantage over national resources: government agencies, including the FDA and CDC, were ranked at least 10% lower.

How to identify and combat vaccination objections

There’s a wide range of reasons driving reluctance to this specific vaccine. How do we reach those various groups most effectively?

“When we connect with people on the very grounds that lead them to be skeptical about vaccines and present the alternative using similar terms, we can get people on the side of the science.”

–   Matt Motta, assistant professor of political science at Oklahoma State University

Understand your audiences

You’re the expert of your organization and target audiences. To identify objections and misinformation:

• Interview your providers and patients about common vaccination questions and concerns
• Monitor local news and social media conversations
• Analyze the demographic breakdown of your target populations by gender, race, religion, and political affiliation

With the caveat generalizations about demographic groups aren’t always the best way to look at populations, they may be somewhat revealing in this specific situation. According to Professor Motta and other sources, certain groups are less likely to report comfort or likelihood to get vaccinated. Those groups include:

• Women
• People of color, especially Latinx and Black people
• People with less than four years of higher education
• People with lower income levels
• Republicans, especially people who identify as supporters of President Trump

There are likely many systemic and societal reasons for this — poor past healthcare experiences attributed to misogyny or racism, scientific studies historically not including women or people of color in drug and treatment trials or performing treatments on them without informed consent, inaccessibility of the latest and best care due to cost, the hyper-politicization of the American healthcare landscape, etc.

To make your messaging as strategic as possible, analyze the demographics of your target audiences. Tailor your messaging and language about the vaccine to reassure them and meet their concerns head-on. For example:

• Highlight vaccine accessibility. Trumpet the vaccine is available for free. Explain how your organization is making it as easy as possible for patients to get vaccinated. Are you offering vaccination services at primary care offices or drive-up location? Can consumers schedule their appointment conveniently online?
• Feature providers and community leaders who represent demographic group in your content assets. Ask them to serve as influencers and spread your message where relevant.

Analyze and respond to specific objections

Different groups of people respond to different messaging due to their psychology, world views, and other factors. Once you have your list of your target audiences’ objections, analyze them and create specific responses tailored to resonate with the same people raising the objection. We’ve created a few examples below to show you how to get started.

Objection: General mistrust of science and any types of vaccinations.

Even before the pandemic, healthcare communicators fought against the debunked perceived link between childhood immunizations and autism, as well as general opposition to immunizations of any kind. However, “anti-vaxxers” make up only a small portion of those concerned about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine. Many people who typically trust science and vaccinations report concern with this vaccine specifically.

How to respond: Lead with empathy. A consumer who finds the vaccine suspect understandably cares deeply about the health and safety of themselves or their child — and that’s why they should get the vaccine, to protect themselves and their kids from a potentially deadly virus.

Objection: Partisanship and politicization.

People who identify as Democrats report mistrust of this vaccine specifically due to the presidential administration it was developed under.

How to respond: Overcome the partisan divide. Take a page from former presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton. Consider recruiting community leaders who represent a variety of political views to be part of your marketing, such as a video showing them receiving the vaccine together or appeal to civic duty and responsibility by talking about the importance of getting vaccinated as “the right thing to do” to save lives and improve public health.

Objection: Speed of the vaccine’s development and rollout.

Did the vaccine receive the customary safety trials? Can I really trust something developed by a private pharmaceutical company to have my best interests at heart instead of their bottom line?

How to respond: Explain in easily understood language the rigorous processes the vaccines have gone through to reach approval. Underscore the vaccine was developed quickly because of the unprecedented need for its widespread availability to save lives.

Objection: Potentially unpleasant side effects.

How to respond: Put the risks of the vaccine in understandable context.

Getting vaccinated prevents something more unpleasant than minor side effects: a severe or potentially fatal case of the coronavirus, or spreading the virus to others. Be transparent about the vaccine’s potential side effects, but make sure to emphasize they’re typically mild.

Thousands of people get the flu vaccine each year though it’s typically only about 40 to 60% effective. The COVID-19 vaccines are likely to be more than 90% effective at preventing severe disease, but their newness drives anxiety. If you’ve received a flu vaccine, messaging that compares the higher efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine may be convincing, as well as noting adverse vaccine side risks typically manifest in two to three months after inoculation, and the COVID-19 vaccines studies have studied participants for longer time frames than that.

How to respond: Make the risks of not getting vaccinated real. 

In addition to the risk of getting sick, potentially dying, or spreading the disease to others, 30% of people who have survived COVID-19 report chronic, long-term health problems, and that group includes people under 35 with no previous health problems. Vaccination is safer than natural immunity.

How to write and deploy your message

Read writing tips and tactics for sharing COVID-19 vaccination information with:

• Healthcare staff
• Patients and community members

Learn more

Watch our webinar about getting started with your external and internal vaccination messaging, whether you’re a small-but-mighty one-man-band or a larger team.

Add experts to your bench. Geonetric’s content strategists, writers, and digital marketers are ready to help you analyze and optimize your coronavirus communications. Visit our COVID-19 resources hub for more articles and support.

Marketing tactics and content strategy recommendations

Reach the widest audience possible by:

• Leveraging the same avenues you’ve found most effective for COVID-19 communications so far. Have consumers responded well to your blog, email newsletters, or social media?
• Deploying a COVID-19 vaccination FAQ page to answer common questions and concerns.
• Using your email, content marketing, and social media channels to provide timely, accurate information about your efforts.

“We’re all in this together”

For many, the most convincing argument to get vaccinated is a sense of duty to others. Consider:

• Making patients who have received the vaccine part of your marketing. For example, stickers that say “I Got Vaccinated,” similar to the “I Voted” stickers, help patients feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves and make it easy for them to become champions of your cause by spreading the word via social media.
• Featuring community leaders. Help overcome the politicization of the vaccine by including leaders representing different political views. Ask everyone involved to be an “influencer” and share the message where relevant.
• Highlight your organization’s “healthcare heroes”.

Writing about the coronavirus vaccine for healthcare consumers

Make your coronavirus vaccine content clear, convincing, and actionable to people in your community by following these guidelines:

• Use plain language that’s accessible to people of different health literacy levels. Make your message as engaging and clear as possible, aiming for an 9^th grade reading level or lower.
• Learn why people in your community are concerned about this vaccine. Then, use the same language they’re using to help educate them about benefits. Not only will this help readers better understand your content, it supports optimization for search engines like Google.
• Lead with empathy. Research and understand various objections and communicate that you understand and sympathize. Tailor your messaging to address and overcome common objections and misconceptions.
• Make your message impactful using different approaches. For some, statistics are most convincing, while for those, emotional messaging resonates.
• Combat misinformation with facts and stories from credible sources. Leverage the increased respect and trust for your organization and providers by featuring your doctors in blog posts, videos, Facebook Live events, and other promotional channels. For example, a video of a doctor talking about the safety of the vaccine while administering it to another staff member could be particularly impactful.
• Address access concerns. Highlight that the vaccine is free and trumpet ways you’re making it as accessible to your community as possible.
• Make it easy for readers to take the next step. Keep interactions digital whenever possible – online appointment scheduling, text message reminders, etc.
• Provide contact information or a chatbot feature so users can reach a helpful member of your staff if they have questions or concerns.
• Communicate the places and times that vaccines will be available. Optimize your location profiles accordingly for search engines.
• Explain in step-by-step detail what consumers can expect during their inoculation, what they should bring, and other helpful information. Not only will this make appointments go smoother for your organization’s staff, it helps dispel anxiety for consumers when they know what to expect.

Certain COVID-19 vaccinations require a second injection. If your organization is offering this type, messaging this clearly will be critical to the effectiveness of your vaccination efforts.

Align your team and providers around your public messaging

Make sure your internal team is on the same page. Follow our recommendations for educating your internal audiences about your vaccination efforts, as well as the messaging you want to share with patients, your community, and local media.

Learn more

View a free webinar to see more strategic recommendations about supporting your coronavirus vaccination efforts through your marketing and communications, or contact us today to learn how we can help.

Discover additional resources related to the COVID-19 pandemic in our dedicated resources hub