As Google Turns 23, What’s Next For Health Information Searching Online?
One in every 20 Google searches is related to health.
Twenty-three ago, two Stanford PhD. D. students launched a new search engine with a bold mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Now two decades later, at the first sign of a symptom, patients instinctively turn first to “Dr. Google” to find answers to their health questions.
Optimize Health Information Online
If you want more people to find you online, you need to optimize your website through good search engine optimization practices. SEO (the ability to optimize your site for search engines), is a detailed and sometimes confusing process, and you may want to hire an SEO expert to do it for you. There are however some steps you can take yourself right away as listed in the article below.
Optimize Your Content For Voice Search
The majority of patients searching for information on the web still trust search engines but the way people search for information online is changing. Increasingly, people are using voice search on their smartphones, tablets or voice assistants (like the Amazon Echo or Google Home devices) to search for information on the internet (yet another compelling reason to make sure that your site is optimized for mobile).
In essence, voice searches are largely about answering questions, not about focusing on individual keywords. SEO is fast becoming AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation).
To quote NewsCred, “If you’re a marketer, “What’s the Alexa strategy?” will be a question you’ll be expected to answer.”
Here are some tips to consider while generating content for voice activation devices:
- Write in a conversational tone
- Use long-tail keywords
- Account for misspelled/misinterpreted words (sometimes Siri or Alexa can misinterpret what you’re saying).
In a relatively short space of time, Google has fulfilled its mission to make information universally accessible and useful.
We know of course, that not all of the information on the Internet is useful, and some of it is downright dangerous.
All the more reason, therefore, to make sure that the information you provide to patients is accurate, useful, and easily accessible.
Why not set your own ambitious goal to be at the top of Google’s Search Page when patients google health information. Following the tips in this post will help you achieve this goal over the coming months and years.