For healthcare marketers, the “Health” category is a perfect starting point to browse to see what kind of topics people are searching, from the past hour to the past five years.

For example, after actor and comedian Robin Williams’ untimely death in 2014, Williams’ widow wrote about his suicide as a possible result of Lewy body dementia in a neurology journal. Searches spiked for the condition. For healthcare content marketers, it was an opportunity to answer patient questions and concerns around a rare, previously silent condition.

You can even sort Google Trends by category, or just browse the top-hit news as of late. Curious what was trending nearly 20 years ago? No worries — Google Trends offers a look at trending topics as far back as 2001.

Google Trends and Healthcare Topics

While Google Trends is a great place to see what’s going on around the world — what interests other people have, what topics are trending and why, what’s making headlines, and so on — it’s also a valuable place to harvest ideas for healthcare content marketing.

You can even take it a step further. While the image below is nationwide healthcare topics, you can whittle down the healthcare topics of interest in your city, county, or region with ease directly in the tool. You can also take advantage of keyword comparisons in Google Trends, to see which terms better resonate with your audience and target demographic.

Blog articles, Infographics, and More

First and foremost, Google Trends is a great place to capitalize on blog topics and categories. Whether you tie your blogs directly to topics, or reference topics to brainstorm new ideas, Trends is a handy launch pad if you’re stumped. HubSpot’s blog idea generator may be a good bookmark to keep close by to help get your creative juices flowing.

Taking the “ketogenic diet” Trends screenshot example from above, as a healthcare content marketer, I could build blogs or articles about the following:

• Ask the Expert: The Pros and Cons of the Ketogenic Diets
• Infographic: Differences Between Ketogenic Diet and Whole30
• Recipes: The Best Keto-friendly Cookie Recipes (They Do Exist!)
• Listicle: 5 Tips for Starting the Ketogenic Diets
• Patient Story: How to Manage a Ketogenic Diet with Chronic Conditions

Videos and Podcasts

Video marketing is on the rise, now becoming one of the preferred media for younger generations to access information. They’re especially popular on mobile devices.

The post-Millennial generation, known as Generation Z, has taken to video like ducks to water. Today, nearly 85 percent of today’s teens use YouTube, from engaging with their favorite brands to following video influencers, or even creating their own unique content.

On the audio-only front, podcasts are only a click away for most people thanks to apps like Spotify and Apple Music, especially on mobile devices. If you can find the time to create podcasts, audio interviews, or other video- and audio-friendly content, take the leap and tap into these popular media.

Revisiting the ketogenic diet example from above, how could we turn this into video or audio content for our audience? Take a look:

• Podcast (doctor interview): Keto Diet’s Impact on the Body
• Podcast (dietician interview): Is the Keto Diet Right for Me?
• Video: Keto & Coffee — Best and Worst Options for Keto Dieters
• Video: 3 Easy Keto-friendly Breakfast Recipes for Success
• Video: 5 Great Exercises to Assist Your Keto Diet Success

Social Posting

Tie your video, audio, blogging, and other formats (i.e., infographics) to your social campaigns. Post often. Use trending hashtags (also available on Twitter) to tie your audiences together with topics that interest them today.

• Twitter – #MotivationMonday tips to kickstart your keto diet
• Facebook – #RecipeWednesday has what you need for your #ketogenic meal this week

If juggling social posting and content marketing into your other marketing priorities seems overwhelming, create an editorial calendar to establish a cadence and to-do list for communicating with your social audiences.

Google Trend Topics Can Be Evergreen

In the summer of 2016, Pokemon Go! was sweeping the nation. This interactive smartphone game gave opportunities for families and kids alike to play outdoors and bring movement into their daily life. In response, I wrote a blog for Geonetric.com about how health systems can get involved with the craze by launching family-centric Pokemon hunts in their courtyards and playgrounds.

Good idea? Sure. But since then, Pokemon Go! has lost its viral steam. Instead, an article on overall mobile gaming experiences as a leap-pad to bring families to your hospital and inspire healthy, family-friendly events would be a better fit for evergreen content. Lesson learned.

As a healthcare content marketer, you know evergreen content is some of the best content you can have — it doesn’t age quickly and requires little upkeep. As you write content around trending topics, consider how your content options can be evergreen, too, by altering the direction or focal point of your article, rather than on the trending topic. Take a few tips when you want to keep your blog content evergreen:

• Avoid specific date references – months and years, especially. These take the shine off the topic, even if it’s evergreen, because it looks dated.
• Stay away from too many “currently trending” pop culture topics. References to memes, viral videos, or even trending celebrity news and gossip has a short shelf life in today’s on-the-go world, so it’s best to steer clear.
• If the topic you’re writing about is specific to this moment or topic in time, consider how can “zoom out” to a broader topic for longer-lasting content.

More than anything, Google Trends can deliver great content ideas right to your doorstep. Take a few minutes, poke around, jot some ideas, and see if it’s the kick in the pants you need to crank up your content marketing.

Learn how UNC Health Care used extensive web analytics and stakeholder feedback to create a comprehensive location strategy, with special attention paid to UNC Health Care’s specialty clinics. You’ll see first-hand how this new strategy delivered location pages that offer better user experience, are more relevant to local searches, and comply with accessibility standards. You’ll also learn tips for how to invest in a locations strategy that will set your organization up for future success – even as patients’ search motivations evolve.

Watch this free webinar and learn how to:

• Use data from Google Analytics, heatmapping, scrollmapping, site search, and stakeholder surveys to create a comprehensive strategy for your locations.
• Make decisions about content strategy, design, and functionality that balances consumer expectations and the needs of your organization.
• Create a strategy to improve your organization’s competitiveness in local search, while reducing the internal competition among your own locations.

Consider potential trade-offs between page speed performance and features benefiting your users. Always look at your website holistically and make intentional, informed decisions.

How Does Page Speed Impact My Rankings?

Mobile-First Indexing led many people to look at their page load speeds — and fear that the change could hurt their ability to rank high on search engine result pages (SERPs). However, the reality is more nuanced; consider this guidance directly from Google that went into effect in July 2018.

“…The “Speed Update,” as we’re calling it, will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries [emphasis added]. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content. We encourage developers to think broadly about how performance affects a user’s experience of their page and to consider a variety of user experience metrics.”

So, site speed is not as significant a factor in rankings as many digital marketers anticipated. Google is emphasizing improving the “slowest experiences” — what it calls out as a “small percentage of queries.” As it turns out, page speed measurement is not the universal equally-applied benchmark many supposed it would be.

The driving force behind Google’s focus on page speed? Promoting and improving UX on its platform. Tying page speed to your SEO is a way for Google to get you to care about this too. Faster page load times is just one tactic Google has prioritized — and it’s the one getting the most attention.

This isn’t to say we should ignore page speed. If your page is unbearably slow to load, Google may demote your site in search engine rankings. But, if you have a generally well-performing site today, improving your page speed isn’t likely to boost your rankings. What helps your rankings and what hurts your rankings aren’t always the same things.

How Does Page Speed Impact User Experience?

Though it’s likely page speed isn’t impacting your rankings, it may affect your UX and other measures of success. If a page takes more than a few second to load, users may get frustrated and leave your site. Look into page speed if you see a high hard bounce rate or low conversions. Remember to think about how your users experience your site, instead of simply how the page performs.

Page speed is a measurement of how fast your page content loads — so users can see and interact with your content. Page speed can be affected by many things, from the user’s browser to server configuration and front-end script management. Page load times can vary dramatically from user to user.

Key Page Load Metrics

How do we evaluate “page load”? The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) reminds us that, “Load is not a single moment in time — it’s an experience that no one metric can fully capture. There are multiple moments during the load experience that can affect whether a user perceives it as ‘fast’ or ‘slow.'”

Let’s take a look at some of the UX metrics that can help us better understand our users’ perceptions.

• First Paint (FP): Measurement of how quickly something different shows up on the user’s screen — it could be a background color or some other relatively insignificant object. First Paint confirms something is happening and lets users know they’re on the right track. Users look for visual feedback to confirm their expectations are being met.
• First Meaningful Paint (FMP): Measurement of when the site becomes useful. At First Meaningful Paint, the most important page elements or “above the fold” main content have loaded (e.g., the most recent posts when you log in to Facebook), while less-important content is not yet visible (e.g., older Facebook news feed posts “below the fold”). Like with First Paint, the user has visual feedback that the page is working as expected. Google acknowledges that, “Web pages almost always have parts that are more important than others. If the most important parts of a page load quickly, the user may not even notice if the rest of the page doesn’t.”
• Time to Interactive (TTI): Measurement of how long it takes your page to be useable. This means that the user can fully interact with your page, as all of its elements are clickable, scrollable, etc.

Since TTI is how quickly the page is “fully loaded,” it’s closest to what many of us think of when we think of page load speed. However, the other two metrics are also important indicators of user experience. Users may perceive two pages with the same TTI differently if one page has a faster FP or FMP than the other.

Looking at the measurements above helps you focus on what matters most: your users’ perspective. Rather than being hyper-focused on page load speed for its own sake, broaden your view. Take time to determine how your site is actually working for your users. A single metric can’t tell the whole story of how your site is performing. Examine how multiple factors work together to influence your overall UX.

Happily, when you focus on improving UX, you also end up improving SEO. Slow time to First Paint may result in a high bounce rate, which can hurt your rankings. An “average” load time won’t directly impact your rankings. But if it creates frustration for your users, you’ll end up with a higher bounce rate and fewer conversions – and those things will impact SEO. Your goal should be to consider the user’s entire path, from First Paint through conversion, and remove all barriers to a satisfying experience.

What You Should Do

The reality is not all pages on your site are equally important to SEO or UX. Your first step is to determine which pages are crucial to your UX or SEO efforts — and be aware of the pages that aren’t.

For example, many marketers note that search results pages take longer to load than other pages on their sites. Search results pages display dynamic content – personalized content that changes based on the user’s preferences or actions. Dynamic content inherently takes longer to load than static content, which is delivered to every user in the same way every time. Your performance expectations should take this into account. Further, you’re probably not driving traffic, especially organic traffic, to a search page — or trying to boost its rankings. So, although your search results pages may be some of your longer loading pages, they’re not as important to your SEO efforts. You’ll get more value out of focusing your attention on pages where you attract targeted organic traffic.

As websites become increasingly robust, you have more options for features that can enhance a user’s experience. Consider trade-offs between page load and site features to find the best balance for your audience. For example, advanced “Find a Doctor” search options can return results based on the provider’s distance from a user’s location and other significant selection criteria. The upside is clear: Users can narrow search results to providers that meet their exact needs. The downside? Results take longer to load because providing the dynamic interaction is process-intensive.

For example, many news-related websites can have noticeable page loads. On mobile, the New York Times homepage does not appear fully-loaded instantaneously. Rather, a user is likely to first see activity in a browser’s progress bar, next seeing the homepage top text appear, followed by the top image’s appearance before the user is able to interact with the page (see images). Although it has a slower overall load experience, the site is providing users with many visual indicators of active progress throughout which reinforces user expectations.

Focus on optimizing for your user’s entire experience — balancing speed performance with what your audience wants or needs to accomplish. Users won’t be satisfied if they get information quickly, but that information isn’t helpful.

Once you determine which pages matter most, you can study those pages’ load times using tools such as:

• Pingdom’s Website Speed Test — Allows you to identify individual page elements and their responsiveness
• Google’s PageSpeed Insights — Provides optimization suggestions specific to your page

For pages you’re concerned about, identify what’s affecting load performance. Frequent culprits include image management, script management, and browser caching. Then you can search for ways to address those root issues.

Next, the tough part — weighing your options. How meaningful is the impact of your potential solution? What trade-offs to other performance indicators might you have? Answers to questions like these can help you decide if a solution is worth pursuing.

Still Have Questions?

The truth about page speed and its impact on your site’s performance is complex. If you’re interested in looking into your site’s UX, page load speeds, or other metrics, know that Geonetric can help. From identifying the pages you should focus on to meaningfully measuring their performance, Geonetric is able to help develop strategies and tactics to enhance your site.

CMS’s stated intent is to make information more widely available in an attempt to empower consumers to make better decisions when they seek healthcare. This includes providing information to compare competing care-delivery options as well as reducing unexpected high bills after receiving medical services.

While providers have made great strides in increasing their transparency in the areas of quality and experience, pricing transparency has been a far more difficult problem to solve. As a result, CMS is requiring the following initial step (emphasis added):

“…effective January 1, 2019, we are updating our guidelines to require hospitals to make available a list of their current standard charges via the internet in a machine readable format and to update this information at least annually, or more often as appropriate. This could be in the form of the chargemaster itself or another form of the hospital’s choice, as long as the information is in machine readable format.”

The final rule includes significant insight from the comment period, particularly around a number of issues where CMS asked for feedback in the proposed rule. In addition, CMS has put together a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document to help us understand what’s required for hospitals.

• You must publish the information from the hospital’s current standard charges from its chargemaster.
• This information should be updated at least yearly or more often as appropriate.
• They understand the limitations of the usefulness of chargemaster data. Hospitals are welcome to provide more actionable information for consumers such as out-of-pocket cost calculators in addition to the required chargemaster information.
• The information is required to be in a machine readable format. CMS has not proposed a specific format or file structure to use but has made it clear that a PDF is not acceptable.
• There does not appear to be any requirement that this is presented in a human readable format. CMS, in fact, suggests some formats such as XML which are often difficult for consumers to view.
• Publishing this information through some other platform, as occurs in several states with their own transparency initiatives, does not satisfy the new CMS requirements nor does collaborative efforts with payers to improve pricing transparency.
• No hospitals in the United States are exempted from these requirements.

CMS questions the viewpoint that, for many, chargemaster data is not only irrelevant, but publishing such data is likely to create greater confusion among health consumers. However, they do encourage health systems to take steps above and beyond the new requirements.

With this in mind, CMS suggests that future steps are likely: “We also are considering other potential actions that would be appropriate…to further our objective of having hospitals undertake efforts to engage in consumer-friendly communication of their charges to help patients understand what their potential financial liability might be for services they obtain at the hospital, and to enable patients to compare charges for similar services across hospitals.”

What Do We Need To Do To Comply?

By January 1, 2019, all U.S.-based hospitals must make a machine readable file of their standard charges available on the internet.

No format is specifically defined, but the regulations do mention XML and CSV file formats as acceptable and PDF files as unacceptable.

The file must include “…a list of the hospital’s standard charges for items and services provided by the hospital, including for diagnosis-related groups established under section 1886(d)(4) of the Social Security Act.”

There are no requirements about the naming of this file or where it should be located. There is also no guidance as to whether this file must be available from your primary web presence, a microsite, or some other online platform — only that it is available on the internet.

Remember, these new regulations go into effect on January 1, 2019! If you have questions, you should consult your organization’s legal counsel.

Like any other advertising medium, it’s important to be intentional with your efforts. Paid search campaigns allow you to track precise return on investment (ROI). Likewise, without effective creation and management, it’s easy to overspend and underperform.

Download this white paper and learn ways to enhance your campaign efforts, including:

• What’s really key about your keyword research (hint: it’s more than just understanding your organic traffic, but that’s a great start!)
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