High-Performing Content in Healthcare Marketing

Jenny: Hi friends! Welcome to today’s episode of We Are, Marketing Happy, a healthcare marketing podcast. My name is Jenny Bristow and I am your host today. And I’m also the CEO and founder at Hedy & Hopp, a full-service, fully healthcare marketing agency. I am super excited to have with me today, Sarah Zajicek. She is our copywriter and content editor, and she specializes in working with our practice marketing clients.

And we were talking about the topics that are trending with our clients, with the prospects that are coming in the door. And a lot of folks really are getting back to the basics, right. There’s all of these shiny objects that have kind of stolen people’s attention over the last couple of years, and in 2025, we really feel like it is an area of focus for marketers to get back to the basics.

So we wanted to do a multi-part part series on high-performing content. So today Sarah and I are going to talk about creating high-performing website content, and then I’m going to be joined with Haily Bartlett, our senior art director next week. And we’re going to talk about creating high-performing creative. So welcome, Sarah. We’re excited to have you on.

Sarah: Thank you. Thank you for having me. 

Jenny: So talk to me a little bit about your role at Hedy & Hopp. 

Sarah: Sure. So, primarily, right now I am writing website copy. I’m also editing that website copy. Primarily for our practice marketing clients. And these are clients that have private practices, or multi-location practices, usually under ten locations across the country.

And in that website copy, I am laying the foundation for strong SEO. So I work hand in hand with our SEO strategists, make sure that the copy is compliant with SEO standards and that we are also implementing those SEO keywords throughout the copy to help our practice marketing clients rank well on Google and Bing.

Jenny: Very nice. And also, I know that you and your team have implemented a lot of GEO content strategies as well. We’ve covered that on a lot of prior episodes, so we may sprinkle a little bit of that in on today’s episode. But definitely a fast-moving target. So talk to me a little bit about why content matters on the website, because I feel like lots of folks at conferences talk about how 50% of Google searches end up being zero click, meaning the answer to their question is found within the visible search results, whether it’s the practices phone number or a summary of services provided or the location.

So 50% of people don’t even need to click through to the website. So why does it still matter to focus on having high-performing website content? 

Sarah: Absolutely. So like I said before, high-performing content sort of lays the foundation for your SEO and also your AIO and your GEP. So, so having that content there helps drive organic traffic to your website, although you may not be seeing the clicks.

If you are structuring your content correctly and really trying to hit for those, AI overviews or general search options, you’re going to provide the users with the resources that they need to be able to contact you in the future and eventually convert into those new patients. So the relationship between your content and users, finding your contact information, and eventually finding their way to you, really go hand in hand.

Jenny: Absolutely. So, thinking specifically about our practice marketing client. So again, think about like an orthopedic group with eight locations across the state. If I was thinking about rebuilding a website for them, where would you start? When you’re thinking about content, you know, throw out their current website. Imagine you have to completely start from scratch. How would you start imagining the site architecture?

Sarah: Absolutely. So when it comes to the site architecture, you really want to lay things out in a way that your search engines are going to be crawling your site. A lot of this has to do with headings on your website, making sure that you’re heading tags are implemented correctly. Also, the way that your paragraphs are structured, you want to use short sentences.

Paragraphs that are pretty to the point, easy for not only the user to scan and read, but also for the search engines to scan and read. But you also want to be having those calls to action on your site, and you want them prominent not only for the user, but for those search engines, AIOs and whatever generated search engines that your users may be using or potential patients may be using to be able to find that call out information so you can convert more often.

Jenny: Yeah, that’s a really great point. Talk to me about length of content because in this industry it’s a pendulum, right? I feel like at one point everybody says, oh, it has to be long form content, like a thousand words per pages, and the pendulum swings to the other side and they say, oh, no. For a smaller practice, let’s do like one long landing page where everything’s on one page.

You know, people don’t have to navigate and click around. What is your team seeing as the best practice right now as far as serving the most ideal experience to the patient and those platforms like the search engines and GEO tools. 

Sarah: That is such a great question. So I think there really needs to be a balance. Typically with SEO standards, you do want to see some pages of longer form content.

Blogs, typically 750 to 1200 words. Those are really what the search engines rank as what we call authoritative content. So authoritative content is content that pretty much self-explanatory, drives authority. It helps the users know that you know what you’re talking about, and it helps the search engines know that you are credible as a resource. So when it comes to blogs on your website, I feel like that’s where the longer form content should come in, provide useful information to the user while creating that credibility and authority for the search engines to help rank your website as a higher ranking than other websites that may not be as resourceful for the users that are online.

When it comes to your main content. It should be shorter form. They say a typical page, about 500 words, is all you need in order to capture your user’s attention, and also the search engines attention for users to find you. Something that’s really quick and scannable. Lots of subheadings so users can find what they need on the page quickly.

And under those subheadings, I feel again short paragraphs, snappy sentences. A lot of bulleted lists have been favored by AIOs and generative search options just because they’re quick to scan, easy to read, easy to process. When it comes to those main pages, easy to process is the way to go. 

Jenny: Absolutely. That is such a good point.

And, I know something that we often have to educate our clients about. Also, is reading level, the way that you write that content. Right? Because physicians, especially if we’re working directly with the physicians or clinicians within the organization, they have much larger vocabularies than your average patient, right. So thinking about like, what grade level are we going to be writing our content at and really thinking about maybe like a fifth grade or so grade level, is really great, both for making sure that your content is easy to understand, but also making sure the vocabulary you use is actually what people are searching.

I remember whenever we were doing a big content program for a client a few years ago, we were working on the cardiology services section of the hospital’s website, and the cardiologist, the head of cardiology, hated the fact that we use the phrase heart doctor over and over, but that’s literally how people were searching for cardiologists on Google is heart doctor.

They didn’t know the word or didn’t know how to spell the word cardiologist, which may seem so weird to doctors when that is the name of their profession. But really understanding, you know what? How are people actually searching for these providers and making sure that we use the language that is approachable and understandable to them? 

Sarah: Absolutely. And that’s where the SEO and keyword research portion fits into our content is you do want to make sure that you’re hitting the right audiences at the right time by speaking their language, and a lot of times that does mean using some terms that our physicians or our practices may not typically favor but we do explain to them that, you know, some of these terms, like heart doctor for a cardiologist or, shoulder surgery instead of shoulder replacement. Some of these things, although they seem a little more elementary, it is just colloquial for the average person, and it’s what the average person would say and typically search for. So we do try to write, typically a sixth-grade reading level, for all of our clients.

And we try to also make sure that all of the content aligns with their values and their brand as a whole. Although content primarily serves a function for making sure that your users are informed and making sure that you rank well on search engines, a lot of it also has to do with your brand voice, and making sure that you’re clients and your patients know who you are, and that you understand that they need help and that you’re here for them.

Jenny: That is such a great point, and something that I feel like our practice clients often overlook. When you’re at a health system and you have a marketing team of 30, you have your brand tone defined. You know, the vocabulary that you use. You know the tone, you know, key messaging for your organization, whether you have it or you’re, you know, in the process of refining it, something exists.

A lot of our practices that we work with haven’t even thought about that. So, how do you help a practice really figure out brand tone? And then what’s an example? Perhaps if you can think of one of, you know, a way that a brand can really show up in a, you know, a certain way and really showcase their brand through the language they use?

Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing that I do when trying to help a practice figure out who they are and what they want to exude in their website is really just go through some adjectives with them. Do you want to be warm and compassionate? Do you want to be family-friendly or would you rather be more professional? More technical?

Definitely more medical. And that is the preference of the client. And we can go either way, and we’re happy to accommodate in either direction. I will say a majority of our practice clients tend to lean towards a warm, compassionate, family-friendly tone. Just because, again, with medical practices specifically, I think the goal is to make sure that the patients know that we are there for them and we want to help them in any way we can, and in guiding practices to helping develop that voice for themselves.

I think the best way to do that is just talk to the doctor, talk to you, the owner of the practice, talk to some of the employees and see where their core values lie. And once you find that and sort of have a conversation about where they want to go and what direction they want to go in, sometimes those things just sort of flow naturally.

Jenny: I love that. Well, Sarah, to wrap us up, I’d love to hear from your perspective some common pitfalls that we see practices fall into whenever they’re beginning to think about their website content. What are some things that we’ve seen frequently that perhaps are myths or things that people think is important to do within content, but definitely are pitfalls, and we should stay away from them?

Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. Like we said before, I think avoiding a lot of jargon, avoiding a lot of technical language, and really avoiding a lot of fluff, people that are coming to your website, yes, they do want to know you as a practice, but they they also want to get their answers, if they have any questions about a condition that they have or treatment that you offer, be as informative as possible and make sure that every piece of content that you have on your website truly has a purpose.

Whether that’s informing the reader about a service that you offer or a new surgery that one of your surgeons is starting to, implement at your practice, or even if it’s just an event that you’re holding a community event that you want others to participate in, make sure that everything that you’re publishing really has a purpose for the reader.

And in terms of SEO, just don’t stuff with keywords. I know can be hard to implement your keywords to rank well on SEO, but using them too often or adding them too many times can make things sound unnatural. And when things don’t sound natural, people aren’t going to respond to it well, and search engines aren’t going to respond to it well either.

Jenny: That’s such a great point, Sarah. So, thank you so much for joining us today. I think this is really helpful as just, overview and refresher for folks that are perhaps heading into a website rebuild process and are starting to think about the way that they want their organization to show up. At Hedy & Hopp, note that all of our clients are onboard with something that we call the foundation package.

And so all of our practice clients get two things in the foundation package. They get first compliant web analytics. So we set you up with a analytics platform that is fully compliant so you don’t have to worry about all of those compliance topics we talk about on here so often. And then also we go through a messaging framework and help you understand those key things Sara was talking about.

About how do you want to show up? How do you want to be perceived? And then, who are you targeting and what are the key areas of focus you want to talk about with your organization? So those things then serve as the North Star for all of the complete campaigns we run for you, whether it is designing and building a new website or activating something on a marketing services side to be able to actually drive new patients through your door.

So, thank you again for joining us. Listeners. Be sure to tune in next week for part two of our series, where we’re going to talk about high-performing creative. Be sure to like and share this episode with any of your coworkers who you think would benefit from the information, and we will see you next week. Cheers!