Quality content may be hard to come by as the internet gets flooded with articles intended for SEO rankings. As websites battle for the top spot in search engines, the more that companies attempt to find strategies to stay on the lead.
Healthcare professionals already have the advantage of niche marketing, which means that their websites can be found by people who specifically look for certain health-related search terms. However, simply generating hundreds of articles may be pointless if they don’t have a fool-proof content strategy.
Content quantity goes well along with content quality because it isn’t just bots looking to rank websites, but also people who will be reading articles and placing their trust in a company’s products and services.
What does quality content mean?
If you are a healthcare professional seeking to market your business online, it should be well-known to you that making a blog for your website is crucial to getting ranked in search engines. Unless you are already a public figure of some sort, people won’t be readily searching for your name. They would be looking for terms such as “psychological assessment”, “prenatal care”, “orthopedic clinic”, or anything else health-rated for that matter.
Thus, creating a blog with helpful articles relating to your healthcare professional is important. This brings a lot of benefits not only to get searched but to build trust among your potential clients. Making quality articles consistently helps generate an influx of interested readers who will likely be your customers.
However, many healthcare professionals are stumped when it comes to creating content. Is there a specific guideline that can help them define what quality content is? According to Search Engine Land, there are general guidelines that can help content creators produce quality articles for websites.
● Using a friendly, conversational tone
● Articles backed up with research
● Proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation
● Have outbound links to other quality websites
● Have inbound links to other quality articles and pages
● Have more than 500 words per article
● Proper use of headers and HTML tags
● Proper targeting of specific highly-searched keyword(s) related to the article
These are some of the ways a beginner content creator can create articles that will likely be indexed by search engines. As for healthcare professionals, what are some of the benefits of following these guidelines for quality content?
Benefits of creating quality content for healthcare professionals
1. Healthcare professionals can help build their authority both online and in their actual practice.
This is helpful for healthcare professionals who are fresh graduates, or those who relocated on another state. It is difficult to build authority unless you have years of experience, yet making your voice known through helpful articles is one way of fast-tracking this process.
For example, a dentist just opened up a clinic in a new state as a fresh graduate. Many people would look for articles relating to dental care as well as reviews for dentists around the area. They are more likely to book an appointment with a dentist whom they found through a helpful website, rather than some obscure individual they haven’t heard at all.
This process actually goes in a cycle–once you get clients through quality content in your website, you can ask them to give you reviews and testimonials you can post online. This will help you get referrals, recommendations, and eventually, build your authority not just on the internet but also in your professional life.
2. Quality content also helps in geo-targeting.
In case you are not familiar with geo-targeting, this is a term used in the digital sphere to look for potential leads that are within a specific area. As healthcare professionals, you would likely own a clinic, have consultation services, or any other physical office that serves the local community. Aside from word-of-mouth and using traditional marketing methods (e.g., posters, flyers and other print ads), you can create quality content that has location-specific keywords.
For example, you may be a pediatrician serving in Los Angeles, California. You can use keywords such as “Pediatrician Los Angeles California” or “Pediatric Services Los Angeles California” to be included in your articles. This will signal the search engines that your website contains content that can be useful for people who search for these terms. Additionally, there will be people who are likely within the area which means that they are relevant leads to your business.
3. Producing quality articles can also improve your rank in the search engines.
Not only does producing quality content help you find leads, but it also boosts your chances of getting ahead in search engines. Search engines work in certain algorithms that tell which websites to show or not. There are parameters of which these algorithms work, such as the type of content shown, how often content is being uploaded, and how many people are engaged through the content.
These guidelines are calculated, thus making website shift ranks depending on their performance. As you consistently produce content, search engines will be notified that your company’s website generates quality articles, prompting them to move your ranking higher than the rest.
Make sure to always perform keyword research for topics relevant to your healthcare professional in order to get the best results.
4. Producing quality content is also a gateway for other marketing tools.
As a healthcare professional, it is important to utilize different marketing tools. Content marketing is one way, but there are other ways to build your audience online. In fact, you can combine these strategies to generate more readers and eventually pull in more leads.
As you plan and formulate your quality content, these can be reproduced into other forms and shown through other channels of media. For example, you can create a video version of your article and upload it on Youtube for video marketing. You can also share the same content by linking back to your website using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Alternatively, you can invite your followers to attend webinars where you will discuss the quality content you have already prepared.
Conclusion
Quality content is not just added fluff to your website as a healthcare professional. In fact, if you are serious about getting traction online, you should consider having a content marketing strategy for your business. These content marketing benefits are all for improving the goals of your business. It will boost your authority as a healthcare professional, help you gain trust within your audience, and help generate leads through digital means.