The Nurse Writer and the Bot: A Quality Love Story

Quality is the name of the game not only in health care but also in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Nurses know that quality is largely determined by payers in the U.S. health care system. These payers care about certain outcomes. For example, high patient satisfaction and low infection rates. Arriving at these results requires research into existing operations and then strategic planning for improvement.

The human engineers behind search engines also focus on targeted outcomes. According to The BBS agency, these operators evaluate the algorithms that steer internet bots toward meaningful results. The goal is to provide the reader with the best match to the entered words or phrases. This is called relevance.

Google as the industry leader doesn’t publicize the details of its search methodology. However, the analysts whose jobs depend upon it have surmised foundational elements of Google’s quality formula within the ever-evolving SEO landscape.

The following are two such elements known well in content marketing:

• Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
• YMYL (Your Money Your Life)

Incorporating lessons from Julia McCoy and Erika Varagouli on Semrush, let me illustrate next how nurse authorship naturally boosts webpage quality.

 

E-A-T. Google, Firefox, Edge and other bots slow their crawl for expertise like nurse writer content. Credentials such as APRN or advanced practice registered nurse, convey medical education and insider knowledge. I am an APRN and freelance health writer. Having subject matter experts craft content means competence and accuracy are inherent in the material. The prize is a competitive rank because of the quality of the piece.

Consider these questions when evaluating digital content:

1. Expertise – Is the author an expert on the topic? As referenced above, this is guaranteed by retaining professional sources such as myself. Be sure to include evidence of the author’s specialization.
2. Authority– Is the site sought after by consumers as an authority? Key to achieving authority for a website gaining popularity via backlinks. Simply put, backlinks are intentional references that guide readers toward external information. This is often done using embedded hyperlinks.
3. Trustworthiness– Does the information inspire trust and therefore click-throughs? A click-through is when the searcher continues to move within the site’s internal links and follows a call to action.

YMYL. YMYL means Your Money Your Life and refers to digital information that could positively or negatively impact a person’s health, livelihood or safety. Authoritative sources are therefore paramount when creating content around such topics. The most recent page quality rating guidelines for Google define health content as:

Topics that could harm mental, physical and emotional health, or any form of safety such as physical safety or safety online.

The guidelines offer the following as illustrations :

1. You’d want a nurse or other health expert to advise when to go to the emergency room. Giving related information that is incorrect, incomplete or misleading is likely to lead to a bad outcome for the reader.
2. A less hazardous subject would be when to change out a toothbrush.
3. A safe topic would be how often to launder your jeans.

 

• What if ghostwriting is involved or there is no byline for the copy?

 

Regardless, you must still consider the most reliable and knowledgeable person to write Your Money Your Life pages.

 

Hire a Nurse Writer and Find Purpose. A nurse writer is an expert as far as health and wellness content is concerned and will therefore strengthen a company’s E-A-T. Another quality indicator in SEO is verifying that a webpage fulfills a beneficial purpose.

Nurses understand the health care industry and the infrastructure of clinical medicine. They can assist in SEO strategy, which is a long-term practice. To improve relevance, nurse writers can do more than identify and incorporate keywords into visible text.

Other health media nurses are well-positioned to optimize for clients:

• Headings
• Images
• Videos
• Meta descriptions
• Alt tags

A basic goal of SEO for a marketing team is attracting a well-defined audience in greater numbers to its webpage or product. The nurse writer’s success hinges on the ability to assist the marketing client in reaching that audience with relatable and relevant copy. For both outfits, the method is to produce superior content. Partnering to this end makes good sense…even to Googlebot!