Orthopaedic or Orthopedic...that is the question?.
When it comes to digital marketing, keywords are consistently at the heart of what we do..
- Where are our keywords ranking?
- How expensive are our keywords?
- What keywords lead to conversions?
- Can you do some keyword research?
As well as analysing and refining the list of brand and subject related keywords we can also understand what stage of the sales funnel people are by the types of keywords use.
For example here is a list of some Google searches starting from the initial broad research searches to the specific searches for surgeons names, indicating what stage the user is in the sales funnel:
This is really helpful in understanding how to bring people back to the website or ensure you have content to support what information they need for each stage of the purchasing decision.
Healthcare, can be even more complex due to the medical terms that are used by professionals. Sometimes there are correct medical terms and more slang terms for the same procedure or condition, this means that keyword research can take time and testing is key when it comes to using Google AdWords.
Many medical terms originate from other countries (via journals and research) and therefore the spelling becomes confused.
Here is a list of some common spelling differences in medical terms in British and America English.
|
British |
American |
|
anaemia |
anemia |
|
anaesthetic |
anesthetic |
|
caesarean |
cesarean |
|
gynaecology |
gynecology |
|
haemoglobin |
hemoglobin |
|
haemorrhage |
hemorrhage |
|
leukaemia |
leukemia |
|
orthopaedic |
orthopedic |
|
paediatric |
pediatric |
|
oesophagus |
esophagus |
|
tumour |
tumor |
|
labour |
labor |
|
analyse |
analyze |
|
theatre |
theater |
A full list is available online from:
Source: http://translation-clinic.com/spelling-medical-terms-british-american-english/
Why is mis-spelling/language variations important?
Organically - If you find that the american spelling of ‘Orthopedics’ has a higher search volume in the UK than the British spelling ‘Orthopaedics’ then you should optimise your website content accordingly to rank for the correct terms. Google is likely to be clever enough to realise the spelling variations, however it doesn’t hurt to include both spelling variations in your meta data.
Paid - In relation to Google AdWords, you can target the different spelling variations and mis-spellings to ensure you are targeting all the relevant searches.
This is especially important when you are targeting a niche keyword that does not get much search traffic. If can also have lower competition as less of your competitors are bidding on these.
So, what spelling are people most likely to use?
If you look at Google trends at some of the examples above you can see the search volumes for the different spellings:
Orthopaedic Vs Orthopedic
Tumour vs Tumor
Here we can see that over the past 12 years UK searches of the British spelling has increased steadily but the American spelling has increased significantly, narrowing the gap. Therefore both spellings are important if you are targeting people searching for ‘Tumour’.
Source: https://www.google.co.uk/trends
Google using autocomplete
It is worth taking into consideration that Google has over the last couple of years rolled out autocomplete in search browsers, so when users start to search for a term, it will automatically suggest options. This will then influence the searches made. This is a handy function, especially for mobile searches (which is a growing trend).
If you would like to to us about your digital marketing requirements, please get in touch! You can email me at lucie@sagittarius.agency or call 01233 467800, I look forward to hearing from you!
Whatever your business, be it a regional or global brand, the content you produce plays a vital role in your success. You know that… hence you’re reading this.
A well formulated and executed content strategy not only drives more traffic, at the core, it defines what your business is and helps build a strong connection between you and your audiences.
So let's quickly look at why developing a coherent content strategy is important and how setting clear goals and understanding your audience will elevate your online performance.
What is a Content Strategy?
It's basic right? Content is at the core of how you define the way your business presents itself and an effective strategy should look to ensure that tone of voice, messaging and the core values are surfaced across all channels, from service or product pages on your website, to blog posts, through social media updates blah blah blah.
But let's keep it simple - your content strategy should be a clear roadmap that connects your marketing activities to your business goals. Align to your customer’s wants and needs and engage them at every interaction point and boom, you're in business.
Who are my Audience?
You likely start all your projects with this chalked on the wall because your business knows “exactly” who its customers are right? Sounds obvious but we often find its not been done forensically enough (not based on data), is too old (more than 12 months ago - forget it) or its a spin off from some brand work that was legitimately aspirational but doesn’t face the reality of who you your business is actually engaging today.
So start (or circle back) with audience research, building out those personas to understand their ambitions, their lifestyle, their pain points or concerns, and crucially their wants and needs - in your context.
Do I need to tailor content?
As part of your research find out where your audiences spend their time online and how they interact with content: Some may spend time thoroughly researching a product or service, whereas other audiences may want their content to be quick, snappy or easily digestible in the form of a video, infographic or short blog posts.
Ultimately, the key is to produce a strategy that creates the type of content your customers want to see:
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What are the problems that your product or service will help them solve?
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Who are they most influenced by?
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What voices influence their behaviour?
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What type of content do they consume?
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Where do they consume content and engage with brands?
Different Content, Different Objectives
All content is not born equal: When producing your strategy, it is important that the objectives for each individual piece are defined, that these fulfil your marketing objectives and tie to the overarching goals for your business.
There are various content frameworks that exist to aid content development in this way, but one that is popular and effective is Google’s hero, hub and hygiene method: It provides a framework on developing content to achieve different goals and gives guidance on the effort needed to create each type of content.
Hero Content
Hero content is essentially campaign content, it is big splash ideas designed to appeal to a large audience with the aim of telling your brand’s story at scale.
Ways of measuring hero include the amount of PR mentions or links from authoritative domains plus social interactions and mentions of your brand across all channels.
Considering the scale of hero campaigns, this content is not regularly produced and is reserved for peak promotional times where it’s important for a business to stand out from their competitors.
Hub Content
Hub content is the stuff that keeps your audience engaged, it expands on the themes of product or service level content, educates users and helps create a connection between themselves and your brand.
Hygiene Content
Hygiene content is the bread and butter of any website, it is the BAU content for products and services, it is SEO focused and targets important keywords at a product, service or guide level.
How do I manage all this?
Content development is only one part of the ongoing work needed when working with an effective content strategy. We call it “feeding the beast” because it really is the fuel in your brand vehicle and once you start you really can’t stop (if it’s delivering results) but that’s where performance measurement comes in.
Your greatest gift in managing the outputs from your hero/hub/hygiene style efforts is to understand If your content is working. To truly deliver results your business must first understand the objectives and goals of each piece of content to effectively measure its success. That as a guiding light from day 1 will let you slow down, speed up, stop or start new content briefs and projects.
Remember - content strategies are not set in stone. They are living breathing things and should adapt and pivot as insights become available and your brand naturally evolves.
If ever you want to chat content and explore new initiatives we’re always here to help.
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