Google has changed drastically in the way it returns results for users’ search queries. Its algorithm is now based on many factors, figures and various other web content aspects. Therefore, it is important to understand these preferences for effective healthcare digital marketing. Today, it is difficult for low quality content to rank. In spite of paid traffic and perfect keyword density, poorly written, irrelevant content will not rank well. Along with optimized content, video is also an important element in healthcare marketing. It acts as a powerful marketing tool to drive targeted traffic and leads and can enhance your professional reputation. The general preference for higher quality content is true for any type of content. Google reads videos differently from the way it reads written content. According to a Cisco report, web content will be 80 percent video-based by the year 2019. Video content is essential for content marketing. It is observed that good explainer videos contribute much towards enhancing your reputation and establishing your brand. With good, informative videos, your medical website will receive more links, more views, and better results for targeted keywords. In other words, video content boosts your medical SEO efforts. Video content can also improve other SEO metrics such as bounce rate and CTR, with users staying longer on your website. Studies show that websites using videos can benefit from an almost 5% conversion rate compared to a 3% conversion rate of websites that don’t use video content.
So here are some ways in which videos can increase your website’s SERP ranking on Google:
- By persuading visitors and consumers to stay longer on your website: If your video content can spur conversions and sales, it is a great addition to your website. A good quality video has the potential to enhance your brand and also improve your reputation phenomenally. In an interview given to Michael Stelzner, Marcus Sheridan (author and speaker on sales, marketing and leadership), said that if you cannot make sales using your video, then the video is of no use. He also added that a business can start with 80 percent video, which means a video that can answer 80 percent of the most common questions visitors have about a medical product or service. Another type of video that can retain users on your website is a “get to know us” video that helps to communicate with the brand’s values, messages and composition to viewers. This helps to increase user engagement. One of the important factors measured in Google’s algorithm is how long a visitor spends time on the website or watches the video. The longer the user spends time on a website the more Google trusts the specific website, and this leads to higher SERP ranking. Presence of video content also makes search engines believe that the website has more relevant and vital information and this helps to increase SERP ranking and search traffic.
- Sharing on social media: Great videos are likely to be watched by more people as well as shared among them. So before starting to create videos understand your target audience. If you know your target audience, then you can design your video approach to cater to that specific group. Know what you want to achieve and what you want to educate your audience about. A strong social media presence is crucial for increasing your website’s visibility and you can share your videos or content on any social media platform. Creating a teaser video is very useful for the launch of any product/service and this opportunity can be used to give a thorough description about the new products as well as upcoming products or events or services. Another way is to publish videos about customer feedback and reviews. You can also include FAQ to provide answers to common doubts or because it makes your audience feel that they are heard. Consistent video publishing is vital to maintain a good relationship with your audience. So create a regular schedule for content publishing and this helps to build a rapport with the audience. You should take maximum effort not to lose customers or patients because it can quickly reflect in a significant drop in search rankings.
- YouTube sharing: YouTube is also a search engine like Google and healthcare marketers should use YouTube to its full potential. Videos on You Tube not only boost search ranking on YouTube but also in Google SERPs. You can start by inserting the right keyword planner tools into the description, metadata, title and tags of the video. This would help your video to gain more visibility and exposure. Also, include keywords in the title to rank on Google’s first SERP page. The video’s metadata should also have enough contextual information to ensure that your audience discovers your content.
- Use of snippets: The search engine result pages of Google are frequently updated through rich snippets. Snippets are pieces of information other than the meta description. It gives potential users an idea of what they will see in the website. In these snippets, Google will display the video’s title, thumbnail and a simple description. It is essential to ensure that your description and thumbnail is fully optimized and accurate and provide well-designed graphics.
- On-site conversion increase: The main objective of SEO is to increase onsite conversion. Video content is one of the most effective ways of converting users and this can be done by improving the overall quality of the content. Videos can prompt viewers to subscribe or follow you on social media and quickly engage with your brand in just a few seconds. It may not contribute much to your search ranking but helps to increase conversions and also boost your business.
In short, video content is as important as written content, it provides extra advantages as well. Apart from YouTube, focus on other social media platforms also like Instagram stories, You Tube Influencers and Snapchat ads to see the success and potential that video content can have for a website. Using optimized keywords and metadata along with good quality video content is among the effective healthcare digital marketing techniques that can help your medical business taste success.
