TOPIC

-Application and Prospects of Search

Engine Optimization as Tools of Digital
Strategy

Name – Ahana Datta

Department – BBA
SEC-B
Enrolment number – 058
Batch – 2020-23
Sem- 5
 HEALTHCARE SECTOR
The healthcare sector consists of businesses that provide medical
services, manufacture medical equipment or drugs, provide medical
insurance, or otherwise facilitate the provision of healthcare to patients.

 The healthcare sector consists of all businesses involved in the

provision and coordination of medical and related goods and
services.
 This sector enjoys some significant advantages in the U.S. but is
also beset with a several factors that present potential economic
problems.
 The U.S. healthcare sector accounts for an outsized share of
spending relative to health outcomes, which has led to uncertainties
around politically driven reform of the industry.
 The Healthcare and Public Health Sector protects all sectors of the
economy from hazards such as terrorism, infectious disease
outbreaks, and natural disasters. Because the vast majority of the
sector's assets are privately owned and operated, collaboration and
information sharing between the public and private sectors is
essential to increasing resilience of the nation's Healthcare and
Public Health critical infrastructure. Operating in all U.S. states,
territories, and tribal areas, the sector plays a significant role in
response and recovery across all other sectors in the event of a
natural or manmade disaster. While healthcare tends to be delivered
and managed locally, the public health component of the sector,
focused primarily on population health, is managed across all levels
of government: national, state, regional, local, tribal, and territorial.
 The Healthcare and Public Health Sector is highly dependent on
fellow sectors for continuity of operations and service delivery,
including Communications, Emergency Services, Energy, Food and
Agriculture, Information Technology, Transportation Systems,
and Water and Wastewater Systems.
The Healthcare and Public Health Sector-Specific Plan details how
the National Infrastructure Protection Plan risk management framework is
implemented within the context of the unique characteristics and risk
landscape of the sector. Each Sector Risk Management Agency develops a
sector-specific plan through a coordinated effort involving its public and
private sector partners. The Department of Health and Human Services is
designated as the Sector Risk Management Agency for the Healthcare and
Public Health Sector.
For resources available to Healthcare and Public Health Sector partners,
go to the Department of Health and Human Services website.

HISTORY OF DIGITAL MARKETING IN HEALTHCARE SECTOR

What exactly is "digital healthcare marketing?" Does it mean that your

dentist is posting before and after snapshots in an online Smile Gallery on
Facebook? In addition, will your orthopedic surgeon share videos of
patients that have made a miraculous recovery from a partial knee
replacement? Does “online healthcare marketing” describe the newsletter
that you received from your primary physician reminding you of your
upcoming physical? Or does it mean all of the above? Take a look at the
history of healthcare advertising techniques. These have been evolving
and reinventing in the 21st century.

The Past — A Brief History of Healthcare Marketing

Around 200 AD, woodblock printing was invented. This heralded an era
for physicians, apothecaries, pharmacies, clinicians and healers. They
could alert the public using “outdoor advertising." Simply, a rudimentary
sign on the side of their wagon.

When doctors established an office, they would hang a shingle to let

passersby know that they were open for business. Local townsfolk could
be healed from whatever ailed them. The most advanced medical services
of the day were primitive.

The Introduction of the Typewriter

Johannes Gutenberg invented a movable type machine in 1440. And

printing presses throughout Europe increased in sophistication with
illustrated posters, handbills, and more. By the 1500s and 1600s, printed
flyers, news sheets, periodicals, and newspapers took healthcare marketing
to the next level. In America, the New-England Courant became one of the
first newspapers in the new world. Benjamin Franklin’s younger brother,
James, published it in 1721.

The Importance of Automobiles in Healthcare Advertising

For the next 200 years, the use of the advertising media continued to
expand and evolve. Furthermore when automobiles became popular in the
early 20th century, it launched the creation of outdoor board companies.
First with signs on buildings in town and on barns in rural communities.
And later, 30-sheet outdoor boards along America’s highways. Do you
remember the “Burma Shave” ads? Those ads were outdoor advertising at
its best – as an early healthcare advertising message for a medicated
shaving cream.

The Introduction of Radio Broadcasting

Pittsburgh’s KDKA introduced broadcasting to the world and became the

world's first radio station in the late 1920s. With it, physicians, doctors and
a wide range of healthcare products such as Lysol, Listerine, Carter’s Little
Liver Pills, hand soap and shampoo finally had the opportunity to reach
tens of thousands of listeners simultaneously with a 60-second jingle or
live announcer read. Throughout the 20th century, more sophisticated radio
ads followed.

Television Changes The Healthcare Advertising Landscape Forever

Next, television set the world on its ear in the 1950s. Finally, the audience
could hear and see the broadcast. Healthcare marketing by physicians and
products like pain relievers would never be the same.

And let’s not forget the Yellow Pages. Since 1883, the Yellow Pages was a
trusted resource by doctors and hospitals to advertise their services. Few
people refer to the printed Yellow Pages today. Most doctor listings are
available online, as well as everything else.

The Present — Healthcare Marketing Has Evolved to include Both Online

and Offline Media

During the mid-1990s, the Internet became mainstream and forever

changed the landscape of digital healthcare marketing. Hospitals led the
way in creating simple websites because they had the resources to invest.
Sites used a combination of original content, graphic design, hard-coded
webmasters, and original photography. The goal was to let the public know
about the healthcare services that their doctors, physicians and pharma
companies offered.

Related link: Strategic Healthcare Marketing

Today, a local private physician practice can compete with well-established

hospitals. Their healthcare marketing begins with their websites as a hub
for all advertising activities. There are a variety of ways to capture a
potential patient’s key information on a website, including:

 Contact forms –– These typically short, simple web forms ask you to

complete a few required fields, such as your name, email address and
phone number. The shorter the form, the higher the response rate for
key patient data.
 Updates with mobile/responsive design –– All websites should now
feature responsive design to enable a potential patient with an
optimal viewing and interaction experience (i.e, the patient digital
experience) across a range of mobile devices, from your desktop
computer to your tablet to your smartphone.
 Clear calls to action –– Most well-designed healthcare digital
marketing websites now feature an easy-to-find phone number at the
top and the bottom of each page, as well as an easy-to-find
address in the footer, and on the Contact Us page. You have to make
it easy for potential patients to respond.
  HIPAA-compliant websites –– The Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a law governing websites. It requires
that a website ensures that all protected health information is
transport encrypted.

Much more than websites: online and offline media. Websites are just the
tip of the iceberg of an overall healthcare advertising online/offline media
plan. In addition, organic search, paid search, landing pages, social media,
and reputation management to help a private practice compete and win.

 The importance of organic search –– The first and most dominant

way for a potential patient to find your practice’s particular services
online through healthcare marketing is through organic search. This
places specific keywords and keyword phrases on your website with
a formulaic density. According to Business Insider report
from Castor/Amperity, organic search totaled 22% of e-commerce
orders during Q1 2016, which was higher than any other online
medium. While this statistic was for online orders, it’s relevant
for organic search for any service. If you’ve hired an expert healthcare
SEO agency to manage keywords and Google Analytics reporting,
most savvy physicians can be found online with organic search.  
 The importance of paid search –– Google created the PPC (Pay-Per-
Click) ad industry and made billions and billions of dollars, pennies at
a time, with paid search marketing. PPC ads appear as the short,
three-line ads you see at the top and on the right side of most web
search pages with a green “Ad” logo. In the same report mentioned
above, paid search ads accounted for 20% of e-commerce orders
compared to 17% in Q1 2015. To be successful in reaching more
potential patients –– and to better compete with hospitals –– the
upper echelon of savvy, successful doctors deploy annual
digital healthcare marketing campaigns with budgets for paid search
ranging from several thousand to $10,000 or more per month. Paid
search is flexible, highly effective and can target men and women of
certain age groups. It can be turned on and off at a moment’s notice.
 As with organic search, PPC is best left to the experts who have
proven track records and understand the nuances of PPC ads.
 The importance of landing pages –– When a doctor or medical
practice promotes a specific healthcare service or medical product,
they may have their marketing agency create a website landing page.
Since this page is where potential patients “land” so that visitors can
read a "recap" of the offer they may have seen in an email, an online
newsletter, a print ad, radio or TV commercial.
 The importance of social media –– Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
Instagram, Yelp, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn, and many other social
media platforms continue to grow in popularity and fan bases. In
terms of popularity, Statista reports that as of January, 2020:
o Facebook had over 2.45 billion users worldwide.
o WhatsApp had over 1.6 billion users.
o Facebook Messenger had 1.3 billion users.
o WeChat 1.16 billion users.
o Instagram recently topped 1.0 billion monthly active users.
o Twitter had 340 million users.
o Pinterest has 322 million users. Your healthcare
advertising budget can be stretched thin quickly.
Why do you need SWOT analysis in healthcare?
Strategic planning not only helps you look for opportunities to expand
your medical practice, it also makes you analyze your current condition.
A good strategic plan includes a mission statement, which leads to
planning, documenting and executing all the milestones that will be
met.
Strategic planning for your medical practice is similar to driving a car
across the country. You must be aware of where you are, critically
examine your present condition and set milestones in order to reach
where you want to be. It can be achieved by implementing a technique
called SWOT analysis.
The data gathering process and performing a SWOT analysis may vary,
and there is no single correct method. The size of your medical practice,
the frequency of planning meetings and the changing markets are
significant factors that affect the process.
Swot Analysis –

Strengths: The idea is to identify your strengths and leverage their

power to establish your brand. You can quickly identify your strengths
through your dialogues with staff. Your internal strengths may include
skilled staff, few bad debts, a strong brand name, niche patient base,
excellent location, etc.
Some of the questions to be answered are:
  What inspires new patients to come to your practice?
 What advantages does your practice have over local competitors?

Weaknesses: A SWOT analysis is your opportunity for tackling

underperformance in your practice. It is often difficult to recognize
management and personnel weaknesses, except with hindsight.
While assessing your weaknesses, it is advisable to be realistic and
form a strategy to address your challenges. 
Some of the questions to be answered are:
 What factors cause you to lose patients or keep you from
attracting new ones?
 How do you measure up against competitors?

Opportunities: One of the most efficient approaches when looking at

opportunities is to analyze if your strengths present any opportunities
to your practice. For instance, changes in the law that requires patients
to purchase a product. Some of the opportunities may include great
location, convenient and ample parking, sufficient and well-trained
staff, cost-effectiveness, successful referral programs with physicians,
etc.
Some of the questions to be answered are:
 Where are the obvious opportunities facing you?
 Are there any upcoming medical trends that may provide
opportunity?
Threats: It is imperative to realistic about threats when conducting a
SWOT analysis in healthcare. This is because the sooner you accept and
face your threats, the sooner you can begin to handle them. Your aim
must be to identify where your practice is and where you expect it to be

in future.

The chart regarding the health care

sector.

The table of how the digital marketing is catching up in healthcare sector.

FEASIBILITY STUDY USING SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Working on healthcare SEO for your medical practice website is no different from
optimizing any other kind of site.

You do your keyword and competitor research, write your metadata and produce
high-quality content to draw in clients at every stage of the sales funnel.
SYMYL rules, also called Your Money or Your Life. Some of them are given below:
-

Quality Control
Many medical professionals think pay-per-click, or PPC, ads are enough to get them
the visitors they are looking for.

However, starting with PPC is like putting an adhesive bandage on your problem. It
will only be good for the short term. As a medical or healthcare business, you must
incorporate SEO into your digital marketing to bring potential patients to your
website. Consistently and in the long term. If your website and its content are not
considered quality in Google’s eyes, your search presence will suffer. Regarding
quality, two extremely important concepts for healthcare are E-A-T and YMYL.

The Most Important Healthcare SEO Strategies

By implementing the right kind of SEO to get your medical practice in front of the
right users’ eyes, you will put your website in a better position to outrank your
competitors.

The most important healthcare strategies are –

1. Use Appropriate Medical Keywords

When optimizing your content, you want to target the right keywords for your
industry. Your starting point should be the medical services you offer, as that’s what
most searchers will be looking for. Tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner can
help you find the best keywords for your industry, comparing what is and isn’t being
searched for. As in all cases, avoid “stuffing” keywords into the content.

2. Add Many Content Pages

Your content pages should be full of high-quality information that is optimized with
your keywords.

3. Optimize Visual Elements

Video is one of the most popular ways people consume content. Webpages with
videos can get more organic traffic and people spend more time on those pages
because they watch the video. Ensure any images on your site also include
appropriate alt text. Image alt text helps visually impaired users and Google crawlers
better understand what is displayed on the page.

4. Optimize For Website Speed, Security & Mobile Use

Your site speed, security, and mobile friendliness are all ranking factors.

5. Offsite Factors
Offsite indicators (e.g., links to your site and social media traffic) are just two areas
that can help influence your search rankings. Social media, while not a direct ranking
factor, should be one of your main priorities regarding offsite SEO.The content found
on a social media page can significantly influence a patient’s choice of hospital or
treatment center.

6. Local SEO
You also need to keep your Google Business Profile optimized and up to date.
Patients want local services, and for them to find you, your business needs to show
up in Google’s local pack. This grouping of four to five businesses appears above
organic search results.

The information contained in these listings comes primarily from your GBP, so you
should ensure the following information is accurate and available:

 The business categories.

 Your primary phone number.
 The business description.
 Your hours of operation (and any seasonal hours).

FINDINGS:
It is imperative for the healthcare industry to invest in digital marketing.
Traditional methods of marketing are becoming obsolete as a result of the
growth of the internet. In addition to improving the overall patient experience,
healthcare local SEO can also increase the patient’s likelihood of returning to
the healthcare organization. Therefore, it is crucial to integrate digital
marketing into your healthcare SEO strategy.

The following types of healthcare SEO campaigns will help increase the
visibility and reputation of your healthcare practice.

As people become more involved in their healthcare, more consumers are

searching for information online. A healthcare professional must therefore
leverage the power of the internet to reach out to a broader customer base. By
using healthcare SEO marketing to promote their services, they can expand
their local patient base and build a reputation as an honest practitioner. If you
want to maximize the value of your digital marketing efforts, you need to hire
a digital marketing expert.

Social media marketing is an essential element of any business. It allows

businesses to establish a more personal connection with their target
audience. It also helps build trust and transparency with your target audience.
Furthermore, healthcare organizations can enhance their reputation and
increase patient reach by implementing effective Healthcare SEO strategies. It
will help improve their bottom line and improve their patients’ overall health. It
will also help their patients choose the right healthcare provider.

CONCLUSION
The importance of digital marketing in the healthcare industry is undeniable.
As with any other business, the use of social media and website optimization
can help increase web traffic, leading to more patients. Moreover, a healthcare
website can provide information about medical conditions that patients may
have. By incorporating SEO for healthcare websites, you can attract more
patients. By leveraging digital marketing services for healthcare, you’ll be able
to reach a wider audience and increase your conversion rate, increasing both
the amount of people you are able to help and your bottom line.
At Max Effect Marketing, we know how important it is to leverage digital
marketing for the healthcare industry.

PROSPECTS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE  

Over the last two years, the Covid-19 pandemic presented the Indian healthcare system and industry with a
huge set of challenges. It highlighted all the gaps in the system and put a spotlight on the demand for a
medical revolution. However, despite the challenges, there were opportunities. Looking forward in a post-
pandemic universe, the Indian healthcare system has the golden chance to evolve while looking back, and
prepare to launch into the future keeping citizen welfare in mind. 
In the past few years, with active support of the government, India has presented itself as a valuable
investment for foreign private players, incentivising and inviting Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the
country. This has allowed investments in the development of hospitals, healthcare centres and medical device
manufacturing, boosting its growth and developing infrastructure. The government’s credit incentive
programme worth $6.8 billion will also provide an impetus to this burgeoning sector. This, combined with
India’s skilled and cost-efficient labour systems, provide for a fertile ground public-private partnership. 
While the urban population is already moving towards monitoring self-health and applying lifestyle changes
to prevent or manage disease, the pandemic has accelerated the need for fitness even further. As people’s
spending power increases and more youngsters join the workforce, there is a marked uplift in preventive
medication and health screening. The novel coronavirus put an emphasis on maintaining personal health and
hygiene, fitness and nutrition, and preventive monitoring and medical check-ups to keep tabs on one’s health.
With a rise in the number of cancer cases in the country, it is crucial that people notice the signs and get an
early diagnosis for the most effective course of treatment. 

ven with a steady growth profile, there are gaps in the healthcare industry which can be closed.
While India has the largest working-age population in the world, it still doesn’t have enough
medical practitioners to cater to everyone. According to a recent government response, the doctor-
patient ratio in India is 1:834. While this is better than WHO’s recommendation (1:1000), it is still
not at par with that of developed countries. Here are some recommendations which can ensure that
no patient falls through the cracks:

 Faster Implementation of the National Digital Health Mission would prove to be the
most important infrastructure initiative 
 Tele-radiology, AI based software for reporting would help bridge the Doctor to Patient
Ratio.

 India is known for its low-cost innovation as well as wide applications of innovation. By
supporting a culture of innovation, we can fast track the medical industry with the right
 support. The country has immense scope to cultivate and promote new and emerging
solutions not just to Indians but to people across the globe. 

 Innovation, supported by a culture of scientific research specific to the Indian subcontinent,

will not only help us treat patients better but also keep us abreast with physiology specific to
our country. 

With many factors working in its favour, India has the potential to become a healthcare giant.
To become a powerhouse in this field, it just needs to take the right steps in the right direction. 

REFERENCES

info@healthcaresuccess.com

https://www.dbswebsite.com/services/design/

https://www.dbswebsite.com/services/strategy/

https://www.dbswebsite.com/services/development/

https://www.amrihospitals.in/speciality/cardiac-sciences