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

Vaccinating healthcare workers and other segments of the population against COVID-19 will be the biggest public health effort of its kind in our history. Initially, there will be limited supply compared to the immediate, high demand. And distributing, storing, scheduling, vaccinating, and tracking is a huge task.

Early Access for Healthcare Workers

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel made recommendations in early December to give healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents the first vaccine doses.

There’s no question about the need to provide the nearly 21 million healthcare workers early access to the vaccine based on their exposure. The duty of communicating to them about the immunization process at your health system will fall to you as your organization’s communication team.

The CDC and its partners are already planning the vaccines’ delivery operations and recommended timelines. The government’s preplanning means the vaccine will roll out very quickly after FDA approval.

Is Your Internal Communication Plan Ready?

Reduce confusion and stop the inadvertent spread of misinformation with a solid internal communication plan about the vaccine. Make your organization the hub for accurate, timely messages.

Prepare communications now to:

• Deliver messages of assurance about the availability of vaccines for your healthcare workers. Make sure staff know your organization is laying the groundwork to be able to vaccinate them quickly. Address questions like:
  • When you’ll receive doses
  • Which workers get priority
  • Will vaccination be required to work at your organization, or can they wait, or not get the vaccine at all
• Educate staff about the vaccine you’ll offer, as well as the value and need to get vaccinated. Don’t assume just because your audience is healthcare workers that they trust the COVID-19 vaccine and want to get inoculated. Healthcare workers have the same concerns as the general population – see our tips for addressing vaccine objections.
• Communicate how to get vaccinated at your organization. Share logistics, such as:
  • Location
  • Appointment scheduling
  • What to expect
  • Possible side effects
  • When and how to receive the second dose
• Monitor the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine through
  • Internal monitoring and adverse events systems
  • Reporting vaccine safety and effectiveness to the CDC

Support Your Internal Team

As you know, this is a stressful time for healthcare professionals. Your staff will appreciate reminders about support and assistance in place to help them cope, such as:

• Employee assistance program for short-term counseling, referrals, and follow-up services
• Wellness programs
• Community well-being resources

Plan for Quick, Reliable Communications

Throughout the pandemic, you’ve been able to identify the best channels to communicate with your internal audiences. Perhaps it’s your employee intranet, weekly publications, staff meetings, or regular emails. Many of our healthcare clients favor using their intranet for timely, cost-effective messaging.

Keep your messaging simple and easy to understand. Simple messaging helps stop misinformation from spreading. Timestamp your communications to allow people to easily identify the most current information.

Now is the time to start moving important vaccine information out quickly and effectively to your internal team. See additional tips for communicating to internal audiences during a public health crisis from March 2020.

Flexibility is Key

Creating and following a plan is hard when news about the vaccine approval and delivery changes day-by-day. Flexibility is key to reducing chaos. Arm your organization with accurate and timely information and ways to adjust messaging rapidly and delivery channels when needed.

Curate Your Messages

Anticipate the information your internal teams want to know about COVID-19 vaccines and communicate it proactively. Start with the CDC’s Frequently Asked Questions about COVID-19 Vaccination page.

If you need more insight, ask your front-line clinical leaders what questions or concerns they’ve heard from their teams about the COVID-19 vaccination. You could also use keyword research to guide your question development. Possible questions include:

• If you’ve had the coronavirus and recovered, do you still need to get the vaccine?
• Can I get COVID-19 from the vaccine?
• Is the vaccine safe for pregnant or breastfeeding women, or women planning to become pregnant?
• How long after vaccination before you develop immunity?

Evolving Action Plans & Updates

As vaccine information evolves, continue to update your internal team on topics such as:

• Action plans – Detail what your organization is doing to ensure easy access to the vaccine, timing, and other measures to keep staff safe. Remember to update staff about your successes to build support and compliance.
• Supply status – Communicate your vaccine supply status, so people know what is available and when. Clarify how you’re working with the government or suppliers to get the vaccine.
• Staffing updates – Continue to inform your team on what they can expect regarding staffing during the inoculation period and your staff expectations.

Open the Door to Questions

Questions will arise even with the most informative communication plan. Listen and try to understand concerns about the vaccines. Use your intranet or a dedicated email to allow employees to submit vaccine questions and get answers promptly.

To save your team from answering questions more than once, create informative content on your intranet with answers to the most common questions. Most of the time, we favor this approach over creating Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) pages. However, a prioritized list of fewer than 20 questions and answers could be useful for your staff.

Inform Staff About Your Public Messaging

Be transparent about the messages your organization is releasing to patients, the community, and the media. This helps your internal team share correct information with the public. Your internal teams will value hearing from you first, not from news stations or social media.

As your plan for providing vaccines to the public firms up, update your staff about their involvement. This will prepare them for their participation in your plans. Vaccination education might be necessary to train staff to answer questions from people receiving the vaccine.

Contact Us to Help Your Team

Reach out to Geonetric for content services to support your team’s response to the coronavirus. And explore our COVID-19 resources hub.

Local health systems have a major role to play in not only providing Coronavirus vaccinations but also in combatting misinformation. In May, the Associated Press and the University of Chicago released a study showing that 50% of Americans were either hesitant or unwilling to take a COVID-19 vaccine. Couple that with the fact that Americans trust their local healthcare organizations more than ever before, and your hospital is poised to be a key player in answering your community’s top vaccine-related concerns.

Join David Sturtz, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, along with experts Stella Hart, Web Content Strategist & Writer, and Tim Lane, Director, Digital Marketing, for a timely discussion to help your marketing team hit the ground running. You’ll walk away with expert advice on battling general mistrust around COVID-19 and vaccinations and effectively sharing accurate information with your community.

Attend this webinar and learn how to:

• Develop the most effective messaging for your target audiences, including internal
• Keep empathy at the forefront of your vaccine-related messaging
• Write compelling web content and FAQs to aid site visitors in vaccine research
• Identify different communication vehicles and channels to reach different audiences, including blogs, email newsletters, and social media
• Utilize organic and paid search to connect with health consumers and get answers to them when they need it most

You probably remember a time when SEO wasn’t focused on human readers. But as search algorithms become more complex and sophisticated, optimizing content for search engines has become more about creating findable, quality content that real people value. When you’re trying to deliver the information your audience wants and understands, SEO is an essential tool for success.

Consider this your guide for writing a page that competes in online searches and provides relevant information to your users.

1. Narrow Down Your Topic

Choose one specific topic to explore on your page. This will help you optimize the page later for search terms. Focusing your topic also lets you provide the depth needed to answer users’ questions and fully communicate what your organization needs audiences to know.

To give your content direction, try to sum up in a sentence:

• What message you want users to leave with
• What action you want users to take

Then, you can determine what information you need on the page to support that message or call to action.

2. Give Your Content a Home

It’s important to determine early where your content will live on your site, especially if you write your pages directly in your content management system (CMS).

The Importance of Your Content’s Home

When you choose a place for your content to live on your site, you’re giving Google and other search engines clues about that page’s topic and its relationship to other site content. You should group related information and place content where it fits best for the user journey, but be aware that your decision can impact where the page ranks in search engine results.

The site structure is what web crawlers, like Googlebot, look at when indexing a site in order to return it in search results. Having an intentional site structure improves the user experience and also allows search engines to better understand your content. Another pro of a strong site structure is site links in search engine results pages, giving you more real estate and giving users a clear understanding of related links to what they are searching for.

Make sure your content is reachable through at least one link. Orphans, or pages that don’t have any inbound links, can be hard to find and hard for search engines to categorize.

Use Redirects to Your Advantage

Finally, if you move or delete a page, redirects are key. Think of a redirect as letting the post office know that you’re moving — it makes sure things don’t get lost in the shuffle. It also helps search engines pass the authority you built up on your previous pages onto your new pages. So if a page moves somewhere else on your site, set up a redirect from the old URL to the new address. If you delete a page, try to find a relevant page on your site to redirect the old URL.

3. Do Keyword Research

This is one of the most valuable steps you can take for SEO. You can put your term or topic into a keyword research tool and find out what related terms or phrases people search for online and how often they search. That means you don’t have to speculate about what people are searching for, what questions they’re asking, or even what words they use to describe what they want.

Use the results of keyword research as one factor to help you determine what to cover on a page and what specific terms to use. Doing so can boost your pages ranking in results for common queries.

Tools for Keyword Research

Some of the most commonly used keyword research tools are:

• Google Ads Keyword Planner
• KWFinder
• Moz’s Keyword Explorer
• SEMrush
• Keyword Tool
• Google Trends

Any of those tools can help you better understand your users’ search habits. Most require payment to access all their features, but if you use them regularly and apply what you learn, they’re worth the investment.

Narrowing Down Your Keywords

With any of those great tools, you’ll likely find lots of keywords to consider. But you probably can’t (and shouldn’t) use all of them. When you’re choosing which ones to use in your writing, consider:

• Relevance to your topic and to your organization — don’t try to force a term that doesn’t fit
• Search volume
• User search intent. If you’re writing foundational website content (about your services or providers), you’re probably more interested in terms that suggest a user is interested in converting, such as “knee pain appointment.” If you’re writing for content marketing, which is less focused on the moment of conversion or decision, it’s more appropriate to focus on queries made at an early stage of seeking information, such as “knee pain running.”
• Difficulty of ranking for a term, which you can see on some keyword research tools — let it inform you, but not stop you from writing information that needs to be shared

4. Optimize the Metadata

One important place to include keywords is in the metadata you write. Metadata briefly describes the content of the page and helps search engines determine when to display it to people searching online. There are two main types of metadata to consider: HTML page titles and meta descriptions.

Writing an HTML Page Title

When you write your HTML title, include a keyword (preferably high-volume) that accurately describes the topic of your page. Make sure your site doesn’t have another page with the same title — that will confuse search engines and make your pages compete against each other for rankings.

Most search engines will display about 60 characters in results listings, so make sure your page title is around 65-75 characters with spaces. If the title needs to go a little over, that’s okay — search engines won’t penalize you, they just may not show the full title. Instead, make sure to frontload the most important information in your page title.

Try This HTML Page Title Formula

Consider this formula when writing your HTML page titles:

Page Topic/Keyword | Geographic Location | Organization Name

For example, Chemotherapy | Cedar Rapids, IA | Benefit Cancer Center

Writing a Meta Description

Use this your chance to “sell” your content. Although Google doesn’t consider the content of the description as a ranking factor, this metadata may entice users to click on your page in search results, and Google does look at the click-through-rates of results in their ranking formula.

It’s valuable to include keywords in your meta descriptions. If your keywords match a user’s query, they will often be bolded in search results. That emphasis can help catch a user’s attention as they skim results.

Usually, Google results pages will display up to about 175 characters, including spaces. Try to write within this limit.

Try This Meta Description Formula

Meta descriptions can also benefit from a simple formula. Consider using this formula when writing your meta descriptions:

For example: “Reach your health goals at Benefit Health Fitness in Cedar Rapids, IA, where you’ll find support from certified athletic trainers to stay in shape.”

5. Optimize On-Page Content

Getting users to your content is only the first step — you also need to keep users on your page. Search engines pay attention when users click and then quickly bounce back to search results.

So follow these tips to keep users engaged and encourage them to stay on your site:

• Make it informative: Answer your users’ questions in ways that is easy to read and understand
• Localize it: Highlight your geographic area in your copy, so users know you can serve them
• Make it unique: Google doesn’t want to show users multiple pages with the same content
• Use keywords strategically: Focus on integrating them naturally into content in 2-3 places, especially in headers, body text, and metadata, as relevant
• Look for crosslinking opportunities: Adding strategic links to other relevant pages to boost the SEO of both the page you’re writing and the ones you’re linking to, while also providing additional content for your users

For even more information on optimizing your content, make sure to check out our writing for the web video — which offers in-depth training on making your content readable and accessible.

6. Measure the Results

After you publish your page, you want evidence that people are finding it through search. Consider monitoring:

• Pageviews resulting from organic search
• Page’s ranking in search engine results for certain queries
• Organic impressions (number of times your URL appears in search results)

Keep in mind that it’ll take time before you start to see the SEO boost that you’re trying to achieve — Google has said that it can take months. You can always request a Google crawl to make sure Google is taking your new page content into account.

Get Started

The time to get started on SEO improvements to your copy is now. Remember, your SEO work is never done — but if you keep your audience in mind as you approach your content, you will be building an excellent foundation for content that search engines like.

If the idea of making or measuring changes seems a little tricky, get an expert’s advice — contact us today! Our SEO and content specialists handle these matters every day, and they’re excited to help you get your search rankings where they need to be.