What Health IT Marketers Need to Know About Google’s Helpful Content Update

This week, Google will start rolling out its “Helpful Content” update. Health IT marketers who depend on SEO to drive traffic need to be aware of the change and how it will impact their content strategy.

Google’s Helpful Content update promotes helpful, relevant, and trustworthy content. To do this, Google will look at factors such as engagement, freshness, and expertise. Why is this happening, you might ask? Well, you can blame AI content, but I digress.

Regardless of Google’s reasoning, as a healthcare marketer, you need to know how the update will impact your content. What this update means to health IT marketers is; that to ensure your content is visible in Google search results, you need to ensure it is truly helpful, relevant, and trustworthy. Now, I’m not saying that your content was untrustworthy in the past; I’m just saying, write for the crowd, not the cloud!

Here are some tips for doing this:

Write for your audience first and Google second.

For example, if you’re topic is FHIR and interoperability standards, write to your audience’s pain points. You might want to address data integration in your content, allowing you to write for your target audience while hitting those essential SEO terms. And, if your content is genuinely helpful and relevant to your audience, Google will take notice.

Keep your content fresh.

Google loves fresh content, so regularly update your website and blog with new articles, guides, and resources. I’ve been recommending weekly blog posts instead of monthly pieces. Getting out more relative content can’t be a bad thing. Have your team take a fresh look at your website’s content. If you outsource the content, check the source. Ensure the content is original, relative, and engaging. If your content is AI-generated, freshen it up and ensure it’s educational for your segment.

Make sure your content is expertly written.