Search Engine Archives - Allison McCoin MPH

As public health marketers, it is important that we get the correct information out to the public in the most efficient way possible. Many people turn to search engines to find the answers to their health inquires. Using the right keywords for your page can help to expand your reach organically and disseminate important information more quickly.

Keyword Searches

The set of keywords selected for a given webpage is one of the main factors that determine where your page will show up in search results. To ensure your page is ranked near the top of relevant searches, it is helpful to include keywords naturally throughout the page. Keyword searches do not discriminate between truthful and misleading sites, so it is important to be one of the first pages a user sees.

Know Your Audience

Not everyone knows the exact medical or scientific terms for things that they have questions about. Even if they don’t know technical terminology, you still want users to see your site and to get the correct information. Make sure that search words include colloquialisms and common names to ensure results are shown and your audience is not limited.

Making sure you have good keywords can help your page be seen in search results and help users find information. Knowing your audience and what keywords they would use is also important. An effective strategy will organically include a range of keywords throughout your content in order to prioritize your site in searches while also reaching a broad and varied audience.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a key component to public health marketing as it helps your agency’s reputable information be shared instead of incorrect misinformation from less reliable sources. Search engines are not field experts, so they will show users anything that comes up as related. Too often, the top result for a health-related search is not a real authority on the subject and may even spread misinformation.

Misinformation in Public Health

Misinformation is one of the biggest hurdles for public health marketers to overcome. The rise of search engines has made it incredibly easy for pseudoscientific claims and misinformation to spread, hindering the efforts of agencies and putting the community’s health at risk.

SEO Growth

Public health marketers can counteract these bad actors by ensuring that their organizations’ page is at the top of the results page. One of the best ways to do this is by implementing SEO. SEO can boost traffic to your site organically, which makes your organization look more trustworthy. This strategy can be much more effective than inorganic marketing approaches such as paid pop up ads.

SEO Strategies

Designing a site with the users’ intent in mind is critical to SEO, along with keeping all information transparent and up to date. Partnering with local news outlets to offer partnered content can help increase traffic as well as boost your organizations reputation. Although it seems obvious, staying up to date with national and local health directories can also help.

There are a number of strategies that public health marketers can use to boost their SEO. It is important for public health marketers to assess what aspects their organization needs to improve upon. SEO improvement can help public health organizations get higher ranking than those who may be spreading misinformation.