What Makes for Good Medical Content?

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Dec72021

At Omnizant Interactive, we design, write content for, and successfully market websites for many clients. Since we work with many healthcare providers, we are experienced in creating medical content that is not only informative, but engaging and accessible. 

Unlike many types of content, medical content does not deal with matters of taste or opinion, but focuses on facts that may seriously impact readers’ lives. This is why it’s important that medical content writers take the time to be careful, thorough, and attuned to their audience, whether they are writing blogs or website content. 

The Importance of SEO in Writing Medical Content

Because medical content as we’re discussing is written for marketing purposes, it is essential to be aware of meeting SEO requirements. This means using (not overusing) relevant words and phrases, in the title and in a few headings, as well as sprinkled sparingly throughout the text. Including links to sources also helps.

Using alternative words and phrases is also helpful. It is a good idea to alternate between “doctor” and “physician,” for example, or “digestive” and “gastrointestinal.”

Differences Between Medical Content Pages and Blogs

Blogs are generally shorter than medical content pages and less comprehensive. They may focus on answering a question or covering a timely topic, and should be informal, eye-catching, and perhaps humorous or entertaining. 

Website content, on the other hand, should be somewhat more formal and, to a feasible degree, inclusive. It is meant to inform and educate, but is intended for a lay audience so it should not be technical or difficult to understand. Nonetheless, you should avoid patronizing your readers by being overly simplistic. 

Though the length of medical content is variable, depending on subject matter and client needs, generally speaking a content page should be 800 to 1,000 words, whereas a blog should be about 500 to 650 words. The following areas each have significance when writing medical content:

Define Your Subject

In medical content, the subject should not only be named in the title, but defined in plain language at the outset. There is no point in providing elaboration on a topic when the reader does not know the meaning of the topic itself. Even when the subject seems to be easy to comprehend, it is important to give its definition. 

To illustrate, (congestive) heart failure is not simply “failure of the heart.” The term has a very specific medical meaning. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), heart failure is “a chronic, progressive condition in which the heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen.” Though “heart failure” may sound fatal and is undoubtedly a serious condition, patients can live with it for years.

Do Substantive Research

It is important to research your medical subject as thoroughly as possible in the time allotted. It is also imperative to use reliable sources, such as government agencies (e.g. NIH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and well-respected medical institutions like Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins). You should not use trending or popular materials from printed or internet sources since these may include opinionated, controversial information or downright falsehoods. 

Organize Your Content

Good medical content, like all good content, has an underlying structure. If you take a look at the information you’ve gathered, an organizational structure will likely present itself. For example, if you’re writing about an illness or injury the following will probably seem like natural categories:

  • Causes
  • Symptoms
  • Diagnostic methods
  • Treatments 
  • Risk Factors 

Once you establish your foundational structure, it will be easier to fill in your categories with accumulated information and relevant details.

Create Links When Necessary

If you put verified statistics, validated unfamiliar facts, or direct quotations into your medical content, make sure to give your source credit, either in the text or through a link (often both).  Plagiarism must be avoided at all costs. Even stealing from your own past copy is a serious mistake. All of your medical content should be freshly worded. As previously noted, source links are also valuable for SEO purposes.

Also, if you are writing a blog, it is important to put at least two links to the client’s website in your piece since the purpose of the blog is to draw traffic to the website. 

The Focus of Your Medical Content May Switch from Client to Client

Your medical content should be centered on your client’s practice. There will be noticeable differences, for instance, between herniated disc content written for a physiatrist and herniated disc content written for an orthopedic surgeon. 

Since the physiatrist has a nonsurgical practice, her/his content will concentrate on various nonsurgical treatment methods, whereas the content  for the orthopedic surgeon will discuss surgical procedures in some detail. Remember that in either case you will be linking to appropriate website pages of the client’s website. 

Looking for Highly Professional Medical Content? Contact Omnizant Interactive Today

Our medical content writers have the experience to know what it takes to create interesting, meaningful medical content. Get in touch with us so we can increase traffic to your website, provide you with new patients, and educate those you already serve.

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