Popular keywords or unique keywords

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   ARaineyposted 8 years ago

   I have a question for those who are generating a lot of traffic.  I am still in the process of learning the ropes here.  I understand that SEO is important for attracting traffic to your hub.  In terms of ranking on google and other sites, do you find more success using the popular keywords from SEO tools or using unique keywords that will rank higher on a search.  Sorry if this question seems generic.  I'm trying to cut down on the learning curve.

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      DrMark1961posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      You have probably read a good share of bad writing on the internet. Do you know who puts out those dreadful, worthless articles? Those people who are writing for keywords, especially those they think are popular. How many articles on treating acne do we really need?
      The only way you are going to attract readers is to write about what you know. Since you are a physician, you have studied for several years and probably have a speciality that is interesting to a lot of people. I am a small animal practitioner but work mostly with dogs, and since I have been working with dogs for so many years have picked up a lot of information that readers find interesting. At this point I have had millions of page views, but not because I focus on keywords. I write about what I know, people share the articles and link to them on blogs and forums, then Google recognizes these natural links and rates my pages higher so that I get even more page views.
      In my opinion that is the way you should publish. There is another physician here that writes interesting and well read articles and I recommend you check out her works before proceeding. Her nick is Tahoe Doc. (I think she is an anesthesiologist.)
      Good luck.

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         Solarasposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         ++What DrMark said and...
         
         Look up Wrylilts forum post on finding topics via Google Suggest.  In a nutshell, start typing in a topic in the Google Search Field for a topic you have information on.  See what Google suggests  to complete the topic of your search - this is what other people have typed in regularly for a search.
         
         Then see what the competition is.  Very often Google returns articles that don't really address the search query. There you have a chance to answer a question people are searching for an answer to, but no good answer yet exists.
         
         One of my best performing articles, that I had no expectations for, came from a search I did for research on another topic.  No article existed that answered my question.  So I wrote the article to answer my first question, and in a few months it was getting regular views. It is now the number 4 overall article on my blog.  Who knew people wanted that info - certainly not Google Keyword Planner.

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            ARaineyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Solaras, thank you for the practice advice here.  I was able to read the article you suggested by Wrylilts and it is indeed sound advice.  It seems very reasonable to address questions as you suggested that people need answers too instead of writing a long boring article on X disease.  Thanks for the great advice!  You guys just helped me find an approach to writing here.  Thanks.

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               ARaineyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Edit:  *practical advice

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         ARaineyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Dr. Mark, thank you for your reply.  That is exactly what I need to do.  Thanks for telling me from personal experience what generates good traffic  I just need a unique approach to writing about common ailments because a lot of topics are completely saturated at this point.  I agree, there are a lot of dreadful articles out there that aren't doing anyone any good.  Thanks for reminding me to stick to the basics and write what I know.  Awesome advice!

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      tsmogposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Hello,
      
      Off topic regarding authoritativeness , maybe supportive and supplemental . . . at that Google General Guidelines 5.0 (At time of Hummingbird algorithm release) for human raters linked at my original response to your 1st? post has within a classification focus where medical articles fall into stating:
      
      2.3 Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) Pages
      
      "Some types of pages could potentially impact the future happiness, health, or wealth of users. We call such pages “Your Money or Your Life” pages, or YMYL. The following are for YMYL Content pages:
      
      • Shopping or financial transaction pages: webpages which allow users to make purchases, transfer money, pay bills, etc. online (such as online stores and online banking pages).
      • Financial information pages: webpages which provide advice or information about investments, taxes, retirement planning, home purchase, paying for college, buying insurance, etc.
      • Medical information pages: webpages which provide advice or information about health, drugs, specific diseases or conditions, mental health, nutrition, etc.
      • Legal information pages: webpages which provide legal advice or information on topics such as divorce, child custody, creating a will, becoming a citizen, etc.
      • Other: there are many other topics which you may consider YMYL, such as child adoption, car safety information, etc. Please use your judgment".
      
      For content YMYL is mentioned at 4.3, Expertise / Authoritativeness / Trustworthiness (E-A-T), 4.7, and then at 4.9 shows examples of high quality pages - Total YMYL = 14; Medical = 5. For content further found at 6.3, 6.4, 6.5.5 followed by 6.6 - Examples of Low Quality articles specific for YMYL; 3 with 1 for medical.
      
      Stated is "We have very high Page Quality rating standards for YMYL pages because low quality YMYL pages could potentially negatively impact users’ happiness, health, or wealth." Then the focus switches to Websites.

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         ARaineyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Tsmog, I understand what you are saying.  I think I will circumvent the issue by focusing on guidelines.  Guidelines come from established sources--from which physicians collectively make medical decisions.  I have my first blog up.  It's filled with the guidelines that I learned.  So technically the article is still authoritative.  Thanks again!

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            tsmogposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Congratulations and Hooray! Best of wishes on that new adventure

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   LeanManposted 8 years ago

   The advice to always write about what you know is the best advice - however if you are looking for traffic and earnings then you do still need to think about keywords with regards to what will people actually be searching for.. If you use keywords that no one is searching for then you will get zero traffic as simple as that... Sometimes you do need to look at a little research as what you may call something as a practitioner may not be what people would search for...
   
   When keywords have a high search volume more often than not they will have a lot of competition, the best way to assess this competition is to actually do the search in Google and to see what shows up in the results. If all of those sites are long established and respected then you are unlikely to be able to outrank them from hubpages. Sometimes however you can get lucky and you will find keywords with high traffic volumes and limited good competition.
   
   Best of luck with what you are doing, and remember if you want to be read you have to write about what people are looking for. So: "Why have I got a red rash on my ass" not "assititus diagnosis"

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      ARaineyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Lean man, thank you. I think that there are clearly some limitations based on what niche you are in.  It may be because of the saturation, that medical writing seems to require some degree of keyword searching involved due to the difficulty in outranking other sources.  I will definitely do some searching to find high traffic/limited competition topics and look them up as a patient would, as you suggested.

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   calculus-geometryposted 8 years ago

   I agree with LeanMan about writing what you know. Currently your profile says you are a "resident physician with training in Internal Medicine" so perhaps you could write about medical school, life as a medical resident, things that will appeal to other doctors in training and people considering going to medical school -- specific to the country you live in, of course. For example, being a resident physician in India is probably very different from being one in the US or Canada.
   
   The internet is saturated with medical content, and HP is a content farm, so it will be hard to rank if you are going to write about medicine and medical conditions. 
   
   People generally do not go to content farms for health information; they go to WebMD, Mayoclinic, Wiki, or forums. And anyone under the sun can write here create a profile that says they are a healthcare worker or doctor because HP doesn't verify credentials. But I suppose poor writing would betray a faker.
   
   Anyway, good luck!

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      ARaineyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for insight.  I will definitely not be doing any of those articles discussing diseases that have been talked about a trillion times already.  And you are right, people have legitimate webpages they prefer for that.  Thanks again.

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   Marisa Wrightposted 8 years ago

   What everyone else has said.
   
   If you try writing about medical conditions as a doctor, you're likely to be wasting your time.  You will always be outranked by the large medical websites that have been around for years.   You will sometimes see medical Hubs do well, but they are usually written by patients about their experience with the disease, not about the disease itself.
   
   The best way to use keyword tools is not before you choose your subject.  Choose your subject based on what you can write with authority on - then use the keyword tool to find words and phrases to use within your article.

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      ARaineyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you Marisa for your perspective.  It would be hard to be an authority on saturated topics.  A good approach, as  you suggested, is writing what I can be an authority on.  Very practical!  Thank you.  I will avoid the redundant articles.

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