SEMrush Healthcare Study Microsite
Healthcare Industry Study | 41 pages
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY STUDY BY SEMRUSH
Table 03 17 35 of Contents Introduction Part 2. How to Advertise Part 4. How to get your Spending on ads website fixed Most expensive states Top Errors 04 Trigger Words in Ads What it means to you as a marketer Top services in Ads How SEMrush helps? Part 1. How to drive traffic Top publishers Traffic in Healthcare industry What it means to you as a marketer Top websites How SEMrush helps? 40 Sources of Traffic Conclusion Devices breakdown Branded and Non-branded Traffic Share 28 SERP features Part 3. What people are most What it means to you as a marketer interested in How SEMrush helps? Top questions Most searched products and symptoms What it means to you as a marketer How SEMrush helps? CONTENTS
Introduction Marketing has always been about communicating your brand message to the right audience in the most effective way possible. In a digitally trans- formed world, that means understanding your audience and devising plans that are tailored to their specific needs. How can you drive traffic that con- verts, advertise that sells, and execute marketing strategies that give you a competitive edge over the rest? The answer to all these important ques- tions fundamentally lies in your ability to make use of data. In the online realm where platforms, touchpoints, and trends are constantly changing, data is your North Star. And if you are the forward-thinking brand that puts market intelligence at the heart every strategy it devises, you can as well lead the pack. This 2019 guide analyzes the current state of the global healthcare sector. From exploring the key trends in advertising to analyzing user behavior to highlighting the key issues that are impacting the way healthcare con- sumers and search engines view websites, the study provides a compre- hensive review of everything relevant to marketers, business owners, and strategy makers in the global healthcare space. It also includes important suggestions to help these individuals refine their strategies and get ready for the future. As you go along, we hope that you find the insights provided in our research useful in helping you formulate effective strategies for your healthcare business in 2019 and beyond. INTRO
How To Drive Traffic PART 1
DRIVE One of the key objectives of every business is to gain more customers that means attracting more traffic to your web- site first. This makes it absolutely necessary for marketers and business owners to learn what they can do to drive traffic that converts. Fortunately, pharmaceutical com- panies in the U.S. and elsewhere will have a lot to benefit from this study when it comes to driving traffic. Two of the most relevant metrics we have considered analyzing are branded/non-branded traffic and SERP features (that are mostly being utilized by pharmaceutical domains on Google). Grouping the analysis into branded and non-branded categories, we hope that this study is going to help marketers understand the key trends and devel- opments within the pharmaceutical niche and implement their strategies in more effective ways.
Traffic in Healthcare Industry Hospital networks/healthcare providers received more online traffic than pharmaceutical companies and dental providers. More and more healthcare providers are realiz- ing that being mobile-friendly can make their organizations more patient-centric. Mayo clinic alone drove the highest traffic among hospital networks at over 40 million.
7 TOP WEBSITES
Sources of traffic It is clear that the direct traffic (45.78%) means that patients already know where they want to go and it shows the brand awareness of the centers. Compared with other traffic channels such as refer- rals (19.7%), paid shares (0.82%) and social media (0.6%), the search (33.0%) is the second source from where people come to healthcare websites. TRA FFICSHARE &
Devices Breakdown Recent data from 2018–2019 shows that mobile platforms drive two times more traffic to healthcare companies compared with desktop. In fact, August 2018 was the month that desktop reached its peak with 36.14% share before tailing off progressively to 28.98% in June 2019.
Branded/ Non Branded NON By branded traffic we mean the portion of web traffic generated through keywords that include a brand name or some variation of it. Non branded traffic is generated when users type in keywords that don’t represent any specific brand or any part of it. As we analyze the overall traffic on healthcare domains by dividing it into branded and non-branded sections, it appears that non-branded traffic gets the lion’s share. In the twelve months period leading up to June 2019, non-branded traffic accounts for about 77% of all the traf- fic on healthcare domains (which is more than three times the traffic produced by branded searches). The trend hardly shows any divergence as non-branded traffic ap- pears to be in the lead by a wide margin for the individual categories as well. For the most part of the observed period, we don’t see any significant variation per se. However, June’s (2019) data indicates that branded traffic has improved for domains across all categories. BRANDED
SERP Features SERP features are any results on Google SERP (Search Engine Re- sults Page) other than traditional organic results that are intended to help users find the right information faster and with the minimum ne- cessity to click on the results. For pharmaceutical domains, however, eleven SERP features appear more frequently on Google. And of all the SERP features, “Image” ap- pears to be the most popular features by far with over 22 million times by all analyzed domains. In terms of domain categories, Hospital Networks/Healthcare pro- viders appear to be in the lead when it comes to taking advantage of SERP features on Google. For example, about 30% of “images” re- sult are accounted for domains in the Hospital Networks/Healthcare Providers category; while only 17% and 0.9% of images results have been shown for Pharmaceutical and Dental categories, respectively. A similar pattern is observed for other SERP features, with healthcare domains in the Hospital Networks category enjoying a far greater ex- posure compared to the domains in other categories. It’s also worth noting that the sum of all SERP features attributed to mayoclinic.org is 5,521,937, which is at least 1200% more than the to- tal number of SERP features shown for upmc.com (the second most successful website in terms of number of SERP features) in Google searches during the observed period.
SERP FEATURES
DENTA
What It Means to You WHA as a Marketer As you set out to prepare a digital marketing plan for your company, key- Another important takeaway is to know how the majority of health- word research is one of the many things you need to put on your priority care domains are focusing on SERP features to get premium ex- list. Carefully chosen keywords will positively impact your search results posure on Google. Sure enough, getting your website in any of the and help you reach the right audience. Incorrectly chosen keywords will SERP features is an excellent way you can improve your website’s do the exact opposite. If anything, they will help you reach the wrong au- authority and click-through rate. SERP features are providing you dience. Your goal as a marketer, therefore, is to identify what keywords with a unique opportunity to do so. Make sure that your healthcare relate to your audience the most. And as you do your research, it’s very website makes the most of these features as do the other success- TITM likely that you will come across both branded and non-branded keywords ful domains in the healthcare niche. having the utmost potential for your website. The findings we have come across in our research are reflective of the same scenario. Although the majority of healthcare domains appear to depend more on non-branded traffic, it’s obvious they cannot downplay the importance of branded key- words when it comes to driving traffic. EANS TOYO
How SEMrush helps? Traffic Analytics PPC Keyword Tool Backlinks Analytics Provides estimations of a competing domain’s desktop Helps create, optimize, and improve your keywords strat- Helps you conduct a deep link analysis of all referring do- and mobile traffic. Gives you insight into traffic data for any egy. From collecting keywords through multiple chan- mains’ authority, gain competitive link intelligence on your website: total traffic volume, mobile traffic volume, visitors nels to managing and fine-tuning your list by eliminating rivals’ backlinks, spot new referral traffic sources, and im- engagement and behaviour, countries breakdown, traffic duplicate and competing keywords, the tool helps you prove your link building strategy with the insights gained. sources and destinations. Our analysis is based on the an- find best keywords for PPC campaigns and, as a result, View the types and geolocaton of all your site’s incoming onymized proprietary and clickstream data from multiple achieve your ROI goals. links, see anchor texts, and discover both the referring site’s third-party data sources and behavior of over 200 million and your site’s target webpages. real internet users Analyze competitors’ traffic Set up your profitable PPC campaign Check your backlinks
How to Advertise PART 2
Spend on advertising The traffic cost analysis we performed includes the We also looked at where, in general, average ad spending of over 500 domains in the the accumulative advertising spend of healthcare niche. Accordingly, we have found that the healthcare domains is heading. Clearly, vast majority of healthcare domains either spent very the data we have gathered indicates an little on paid advertising or didn’t participate in it at all. upward movement for the six months About 90% remain below $5000 in terms of their aver- period (from June till July 2019) with age monthly spending on digital ads. some fluctuations in the month of April. Overall, we see a staggering So, among the top spenders, walgreens.com is ahead 270% growth in paid advertising, with of the pack with an average monthly spend of around total monthly spend reaching as high $745,000. Aetna.com follows with $431,000. Care.com as $5.8 million in Jun 2019 from just and cigna.com are close contenders for the third spot $2.2 million in Jan 2019. with the average monthly spending of $289,000 and $229,00, respectively. ADVERTISING
Most Expensive States Our analysis of the cost per click of advertising across fifty-two states in America indicates a dif- ferent scenario for each of the three categories. For the Pharmaceutical category, California, New Jersey, and New York appear to be the most expensive states. For the Dental category, Arizona, Texas, and Colorado are the top three highly expensive states. And for the Hospital Network/ Healthcare Providers category, Texas, California, and Florida happen to be most expensive states (in the respective order).
DENT However, the cost per click of advertising for each of the three categories considerably vary across these states. For example, Arizona is the most expensive state with an average CPC of $4.98 in the Dental category. While the average CPC for California, which is the most expensive state in the Phar- maceutical category, is only $2.29 — i.e. about less than half the cost advertiser in Arizona pay for dental-related keywords. The average CPC for the Hospital Network/Healthcare is even cheaper. With an average CPC of $1.61, Texas tops the list as the most expensive state for the given category. And when you compare the price with those of the other two categories, it couldn’t be cheaper.
HOS PITAL
There are a number of trigger words utilized by advertisers in pointment online”, and “schedule appointment”. Although most of Trigger Words the healthcare niche. The two most popular phrases that appear these trigger words seem to be focused on appointment sched- on more than 50% of the healthcare ads happen to be “online ules, the overall list is far from exhaustive. We have keywords like appt” and “appt scheduling”. “Service emergency” is another “free trial”, “try beauty risk free”, and “money back guarantee”, etc. popular term showing on about 48% of the ads. Other frequent- that primarily focus on generating immediate sales. in Ads ly used keywords include “work insurance”, “free shipping”, “ap-
Top services in Ads TOP Our analysis of titles and descriptions used in healthcare ads indicates that some products are being more frequently targeted than others in each of the three categories. In the Dental category, “dental care” hap- pens to be the most frequently targeted term by dental service providers across the United States and elsewhere. For the Hospital Networks/Healthcare Providers category, “outpatient care”, “seamless outpatient”, and “cancer care” appear to be in the top three. Other frequently used phrases include gamma knife, leaders neu- rosurgery, invasive treatment, complex spine, weight loss, and services cancer. For the Pharmaceutical category, “beauty riskfree” appears to stand out as the most frequently targeted term (used in over 73% of the ads in this category). Of the total twelve most popular keywords in the Pharmaceu- tical category. We can also notice keywords like “beauty product” and “vitamins supplements” which appear to target entire product categories instead of individual brands.
SERVICES
Top Publishers Knowing the top publishers helps advertisers to dupli- cate their success in the online space. Accordingly, most of the popular publisher domains that serve the majority of healthcare ads are primarily niche domains. They are dedicated to delivering ads to the healthcare audience and are, therefore, more advantageous for advertisers in the healthcare niche. For example, www.drugs.com, www.healthboards. com, and allnurses.com — three of top publisher do- mains. Together, the top ten publishers account for 22800 ads or about 16% percent of all the ads served on 7000+ publisher domains. TOP
What It Means to You WHA as a Marketer Competitive intelligence in the online realm is an im- your scare resources and miss out on your key cam- portant asset. Marketers can use it to develop solid paign objectives when you fail to plan, execute, and strategies for how they plan and execute advertising monitor your digital strategy the way you should. By campaigns to attract more customers. No matter the providing a broader picture of the current state of ad- size of the advertising budget, every company needs vertising affairs in the healthcare niche, we are helping to plan efficiently when it comes to allocating budget, healthcare marketers overcome many potential chal- bidding on keywords, selecting ad networks, crafting lenges they could face at the planning stage. Using the TITM advertising copy, and choosing target locations. Pre- statistics and analysis provided in our guide, they can pared wrong, an online marketing strategy can hurt prepare better advertising strategies, compete well, your campaign more than it helps. It’s easy to drain and achieve their goals more efficiently. EANS TOYO
How SEMrush helps? CPC MAP Advertising Research Display Advertising Provides an easy way to evaluate the potential of a par- Helps you devise a competitor-focused advertising strate- Helps you make informed choices by gathering compet- ticular state or region in terms of cost per click and search gy and succeed in online advertising. With Advertising Re- itive intelligence on your top competitors from across demand for your services. The tool allows you to compare search you can identify the number of ads run by the com- Google Display Network. You can get a deeper insight into PPC costs and search volume of keywords on a local level petitors in your niche, their estimated advertising budget, your competitors’ target audience and display marketing in multiple industries. and the keywords they are bidding on to attract more strategies by knowing where their ads are showing, how business. The tool comes with a unique capability to pull they are designed, which devices their ads appear on the historical data and identify the number of changes applied most, and which ad formats (responsive HTML vs stand- by your competitor during the campaign. You’ll be able to ard images) they tend to prefer for display ads. learn how much traffic your competitors are generating from their ads and use that insight to craft a strategy that ensures better results and ROI. Explore your industry’s local CPC Discover your ad campaign’s best option Create winning advertising strategy
What People are Most Interested in PART 3
Top Questions As we analyze keywords that have been used in searches in the form of questions between June 2018 and June 2019, it appears that most of the top ques- tions are informative in nature. If we look at the frequency of these questions, the Healthcare Providers category far outnumbers the oth- er two categories. For the aforementioned three ques- tions, for instance, the Healthcare Providers category generates about 162,500 monthly searches on aver- age, while the Dental and Pharmaceutical categories generate about 32,700 and 13,400 monthly searches on average, respectively.
TOP QUESTIONS
Most Searched Products and Symptoms In the Healthcare providers category, people tend to search for disease symptoms and healthcare prob- lems in quite a large volume. For the twelve months period leading up to June 2019, mono symptoms, pneumonia symptoms, and depression symptoms appear to be the most popular symptom keywords on Google. Their average monthly search volume has reached 270,500, 267,800 and 183,500, respectively. Other highly searched keywords in this category in- clude lyme disease symptoms, strep throat symptoms, anxiety symptoms, lupus symptoms, bronchitis symp- toms, and kidney stone symptoms.
In the pharmaceutical category, buy viagra, buy tramadol, and buy oxycodone stand out as the top three product keywords with average monthly searches of about 7,200, 2,000, 1,800, respectively. Other popular product keywords in the top ten cat- egory include buy hydrocodone, buy percocet, buy metformin, buy metronidazole, buy melatonin, and buy prednisone. MOST
What It Means to You WHA as a Marketer Knowing the search behavior of your targeted audience is the beginning We have already covered many important metrics related to digital adver- step of how digital campaigns are mapped out. Whether you are optimiz- tising in previous sections. In this one, two other important metrics — ing your website for search engines or rolling out some PPC ads to gen- namely “top questions” and “most searched products and symptoms” — erate real-time results, you have to take into account the type of keywords were discussed and analyzed. Both the types of information can come in people mostly use to find information about your products and services in quite handy as marketers prioritize products and topics that have the ut- the online space. most potential for businesses in the healthcare industry. TITM EANS TOYO
How SEMrush helps? Keyword Magic Tool Organic Research Gives you millions keyword ideas for building a profitable Tells you about a website’s top organic search competi- SEO or PPC campaign. Discover long-tail keyword oppor- tors, what keywords they get their traffic from, if they are tunities for rich content and higher search rankings and ranking for any SERP Features and more. You can run re- select the best keywords for your campaign. Estimate how search on any domain in our database, so it is easy to ana- much traffic they’ll bring by determining their click potential lyze the SEO of any and all of your competitors. with real-time metrics of search volume, keyword difficulty, competitive density and CPC data. Research keywords See your competitor’s est performing keywords
How to Get Your Website Fixed PART 4
Getting your website fixed for search engines and human users requires you to look into a host of im- portant SEO and user experience elements. As per our findings, most of the analyzed domains in the healthcare industry are not up to par with these crucial on-page elements. With an average total score (health scores) of 40 — a score we cal- culated based on the ratio of the website issues to the number of performance checks — most of the healthcare domains need quite a bit of improvement on the on-page front. Although the average load time for the analyzed domains is not very alarming (at 0.33 seconds), there’s still room for improve- ment. The fact that a one-second delay in web page speed can decrease conversions by about 7 per- cent, according to Kissmetrics, tells us that every second counts. Besides, the vast majority of healthcare domains don’t seem to take advantage of the AMP (Accelerat- ed Mobile Pages) framework. With only about 1.4% of the analyzed domains implementing AMP to cre- ate fast and smooth-loading experience for users, it’s obvious that the majority is either unaware of its potential benefits or is unwilling to adopt it in the first place. The implementation of https protocol is another factor which is not fully addressed on healthcare do- mains. On average, only about 57% of the web pages on these domains appear to function with https and are, therefore, secure for browsing or information sharing. FIXED
Top Errors If we look at the top errors affecting the performance of healthcare domains, most of them appear to be simple on-page errors that can be addressed with rel- ative ease. For example, low text to HTML ratio, low word count, and pages with only one incoming inter- nal link — these errors are not too technical to be fixed but they are found on almost 100% of the domains we chose to analyze for our study. Other common on-page quirks include 4xx errors, bro- ken internal links, missing h1, missing meta descrip- tion, long title element, URLs with a permanent redi- rect, multiple h1 tags, temporary redirects, duplicate content, and broken external links. All of these missing or unoptimized elements appear to exist on more than 90% of the analyzed domains.
What It Means to You WHA as a Marketer Creating a strong on-page foundation for a website is the very first thing digital marketers should focus on. A website that doesn’t follow search engine guidelines, is inefficient, and fails to provide the right experience is surely an ineffective website, if not useless. Focusing your energy on pro- moting or marketing such as website could, therefore, be a waste of time and valuable resources. To start with, marketers need to address things like website security, speed, responsiveness, UX el- ements, and other on-page quirks for them to achieve what they aspire to achieve in terms of sales and conversions. It’s only advisable that you go on to the next step of advertising and promoting TITM your website (through paid and organic channels) once it’s fully fine-tuned for search engines and human users who could be your future customers. EANS TOYO
How SEMrush helps? Site Audit On Page SEO Checker Ensures that your site adheres to search engines’ SEO Offers a complete and structured list of things you could guidelines and meets users’ expectations at the same do to improve the ranks of pages on your website. You’ll re- time. Through Site Audit, you gain important insight into ceive technical SEO ideas, target content length and reada- what pages on your site need mobile optimization to help bility, and backlink prospects it take advantage of the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) format that dominates mobile search results globally. Es- sentially, the tool analyzes every on-page factor important from the standpoint of both the search engine and human users, and, as a result, provides actionable insights to im- prove your site’s overall SEO health and user experience. Audit your website Check your website’s pages
Conclusion BEST Traditional or modern, the goal of marketing has al- of data, analyze it, and make better use of the insights ways been the same: to get and retain the audience’s to drive your goals. For marketers and healthcare attention. What changes over time is where the atten- businesses lacking the right tools and resources, this tion goes, and that’s exactly what this study aims to is no less of a challenge. help you leverage. Every year, we come across new Fortunately, there are many useful tactics and takea- technologies and find the old ones becoming better ways one can glean from the latest insights provided and smarter. The prospects are getting savvier and in this guide. We hope that they will come in handy as more equipped too, and so are the marketers. To be healthcare marketers strategize on how to grow, com- really able to compete and stay at the forefront of pete, and become successful in the online space. these changes, you need to dive deep into the ocean Best wishes for a successful business! WISHES
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