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For healthcare content marketers, finding the right keywords can feel daunting. Determining your keyword strategy is critical in reaching audiences and driving traffic to your website. But how exactly do you do that?
The content strategists at WG Content have a proven process for improving your keyword research strategy so you can stand out online. We’ll explain what you need to do. But first, let’s cover some important keyword background information.
What is a keyword?
A keyword is a word or phrase consumers enter into a search engine’s query box. These answers appear in search engine results pages (SERPs). Keywords also help search engines rank your page’s content on specific SERPs, which change all the time.
Short-tail keywords and long-tail keywords
Keywords are either short-tailed or long-tailed. A short-tail keyword, or head term, is a one- or two-word phrase that covers a broad topic. It often has a higher search volume.
Long-tail keywords are often misunderstood as simply consisting of three-or-more word phrases. While they often are longer phrases, long-tail keywords are more topic specific than short-tail keywords. This means long-tail keywords often have a lower search volume, but they have a higher value since users are looking for more detail and closing in on conversion — becoming a patient, signing up for your newsletter, etc.
Here’s an example:
Short-tail keyword: “pain” or “back pain”
Long-term keyword: “chronic back pain treatment”
Depending on your business goals, marketing strategy, brand voice or target audience, focusing only on short-tailed keywords with their high volumes may not be ideal. In most cases, it’s important to leverage both short- and long-tail keywords.
Now, let’s get to how to build a solid keyword research strategy.
1. Determine search intent
Search intent, or user intent, is what the person is trying to achieve with their search query. Determining their search intent is important when identifying which keywords align with the content you should create.
There are several types of search intent:
Commercial intent — Desire to do more research before making a purchase decision, such as deciding which specialist or health system to select
Informational intent — Seek to learn more about a topic, such as a health condition or treatment
Navigational intent — Need to find a particular page or website
Transactional intent — Want to complete an action, such as sign up for a newsletter or schedule an appointment online
As you dive into your keyword research, you’ll find that your consumers’ search intent is important because the SERPs (and, thus, keywords you want to choose) vary accordingly. Plus, some SERPs have a higher mix of search intent than others. For example, a search using the keyword “diabetes” brings up several search intents: what is it, symptoms, causes, treatments and news.
However, a search for “diabetes treatment” brings up fewer and more targeted search intents: diagnosis and treatments.
It’s important to not skip over this step of determining search intent when creating your keyword strategy.
2. Look at competitors
Investigating the keywords your competitors use can be very helpful in determining what to include — and avoid — when choosing your keywords.
When creating a list of keywords, look at your direct brand competitors (other organizations in your field) and SERP competitors (top SERP articles when you enter a keyword). The top SERPs get the most traffic. If they have a lot of SEO or topic authority (produce high-quality content that follows SEO best practices to rank high in SERPs often), you may or may not want to try competing for top SERPs.
If you find the top SERPs don’t align with your user intent, you can rule out that keyword and try another keyword and phrase that will create the return on investment you’re hoping for.
Tools like SEMRush or Conductor Chrome Extension show your competitors’ ranking keywords and which ones pull in the most of their traffic. Some tools also show which pages get the most traffic. All of this information points to which topics — and keywords — interest your target audience, as well as ones to avoid.
Data from these tools also show which search terms your audience uses. For example, are they searching for “cancer care” or “oncology services”? Google Trends is another quick way to see if one keyword performs better in a particular region. You can also glean what information your audience wants to know. Are they searching for symptoms, specialists, treatments, how to manage a condition in daily life, etc.?
Be sure to test keywords that work well for your competitors. Just enter the keywords into a search engine and review the top articles on the first page. Ensure those keywords align with your target user intent and your business strategy.
For example, let’s say you want to write a post on managing diabetes during the holidays. The top SERPs might be recipes on food blog sites. But recipes don’t align with the user intent you’re targeting, and as a healthcare marketer, you don’t want to compete with food websites. So, instead, you’ll want to choose a keyword that generates results with a healthcare angle.
3. Use keyword research tools
When whittling down your keyword selection and keyword volumes for SEO, several tools offer keyword research and show general data about search traffic.
You can also tailor your search by location to find out what consumers are looking for in your area. Keep in mind that while parts of some tools are free, such as Google’s Keyword Planner Tool, more in-depth information is available through the paid platform.
Here are some other SEO tools:
Another invaluable resource is your website’s analytics. Tools like Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics and others house valuable data to mine. Pay attention to queries that consumers enter on your website, what keywords are driving your traffic and what your most popular pages are. This information can help drive your content and keyword strategy.
Watch our on-demand webinar to hear more from Nikki on SEO and AI.
4. Think like a consumer
Put yourself in your consumer’s shoes. How would you search for something? What do you search for when you have questions about your health?
Chances are you’re not typing general or vague terms into a search engine like “cancer diagnosis” or “diabetes.” Long-tail keywords are more effective in helping consumers zero in on the information they want to find.
For example, a consumer looking for advice on preventing heart disease isn’t necessarily going to search for “heart health.” This short-tail keyword pulls too many user intents, making it hard for consumers to find what they want.
Instead, they may try specific phrases such as:
- Heart-healthy meals
- How do I prevent heart disease?
- Heart attack signs
A helpful place to find what consumers want to know and how they ask is in Google’s People Also Ask section of SERPs and tools like AnswerThePublic.
It’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole and create a long list of keywords. Remember to be sure your keywords also align with how your consumers think, which will give you a more effective content strategy.
5. Use primary keywords and secondary keywords
Each piece of content you create should have a unique search intent. A single intent equates to using one or possibly two target keywords for the page. A primary keyword, or target keyword, is the word or phrase that is the main topic and focus of the page that consumers will most likely look for in their search.
Your page should also include several secondary keywords. Secondary or supporting keywords are words or phrases related to the target keyword. These could be long-tail keywords, synonyms or related subtopics. They help to reach more specific segments of your audience.
If you’re creating a pillar page (a page that covers multiple aspects of a topic on a high level, such as a service line page), you’ll need more secondary keywords — in the ballpark of 10. However, a more niche page, like a blog post, only needs about five secondary keywords.
For example, a service line page may have a primary keyword of “heart care.” Its secondary keywords may include “cardiologists,” “heart conditions,” “heart disease,” “heart surgery” and a few other terms.
6. Stay up to date on search changes, including AI
Search engines constantly update their algorithms, and SEO is constantly changing, which affects how your website ranks for certain keywords. With the emergence of generative search, such as ChatGPT and AI Overviews, it’s important to stay current on these changes and adapt your SEO strategy as needed.
With generative search, conversational-style questions are even more important than ever, leading to higher-quality results for consumers. Instead of receiving a list of websites based on search terms, like we’ve been used to with Google, you can now ask a question and get a direct answer from ChatGPT and AI Overviews — what’s referred to as “zero click search.”
Now, searching “What is the best treatment for type 2 diabetes?” generates a more conversational response with information from websites that provide the most relevant information.
What do these changes mean for your content strategy? You need to optimize your content to answer conversational-style questions.
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is now an important component of SEO. Creating content that answers common questions related to your industry can greatly improve your chances of appearing in featured snippets, AI Overviews or voice search results.
How do you keep up with search and SEO changes?
Following sites that provide up-to-date information and how-to advice can help you keep up in this quickly changing environment. Some of our content strategists’ favorites include:
7. Find the right partner
The right partner can help you identify the best keywords for your target audience.
In healthcare marketing, look for a partner with experience in the industry. Search strategy is constantly evolving. It pays to have an expert who’s on top of the latest trends and can help shape your organization’s digital approach.
When you’re evaluating content partners, look for someone who:
- Speaks knowledgeably about the latest trends and best practices in search
- Answers your questions completely and backs up their approach with research
- Can connect the latest trends specifically to your organization’s strategy
Let WG Content help you with your SEO
Even if your organization has all the tools to do keyword research, it doesn’t mean you have the expertise or the time to do so.
The content strategists and writers at WG Content help healthcare organizations strengthen their position in the marketplace (and in SERPs). We can create engaging, informative content to improve your website’s SEO and drive more traffic.
Contact us to learn how we can help take your SEO and content strategy to the next level.
Follow-up questions about keyword research and strategy