In the age of the mass adoption of digital technologies, it is essential for companies to maintain an online presence in order to make their products or services visible internationally. The targeted combination of search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine advertising (SEA) can optimize the marketing strategy, increase both organic and paid search traffic to the website, and support the efficient development of global markets.
As an international language service provider, we combine our linguistic expertise, our SEA & SEO expertise, and our specialization in medicine and pharmacy into a single service: international medical SEO & SEA.
In this blog post, we answer the question of how we, as an international language service provider, differ from an online marketing agency in this area.
The importance of international SEO and SEA in healthcare
International SEO and SEA are crucial for digital marketing in healthcare to make companies visible on a global level and reach patients and partners worldwide. Here are some of the most important aspects:
International SEO
International SEO aims to improve the visibility of medical websites in different countries and languages. To do this, the customer must answer a few questions in advance, such as what international corporate goals are we pursuing? Which target group are we trying to address? In what context are potential customers searching for the products? Based on this, appropriate SEO goals can be defined. The aim of international SEO measures is to optimize the websites for international target groups, to improve positioning in the search results of the target countries, and to increase reach across national borders. Targeted measures include:
- Keyword research for different languages and markets
- Creation of local, medically accurate content
- OnPage SEO (title, description, and heading structure)
- Technical search engine optimization (e.g., page speed)
- Consideration of country-specific regulations (e.g. HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
- Continuous maintenance and optimization of international online presence
Every country has its own defining characteristics, whether cultural or economic, and the search habits of the target groups are also often very different. International SEO is therefore essential for successful international websites.
Jennifer Bies, Online Marketing Manager
International SEA
With international SEA, companies can target their advertising to different countries. Target group-specific campaigns help to specifically address relevant target groups with paid ads and to react to the needs of the target group by making short-term adjustments. The advantage of SEA is that paid ads provide you with prominent placement in the top search results of the search engine. This may require both specialist as well as layman-friendly ad texts.
Special importance of language & target country
Language and target country are of great importance for the optimization measures. Although direct translations of search terms are linguistically correct, they may not be used by the target group . Therefore, the search terms that are chosen should be the ones actually used by the target group on the Internet . In addition, adaptation to the target country requires taking specific considerations into account. If you want to optimize your website for the target country of Switzerland, for example, the search terms should be adapted specifically for this country, as German-speaking Swiss people often search differently than Germans, or they may use different spellings of words.
Technical search engine optimization
Continuous technical search engine optimization is crucial for long-term success. It forms the basis for all further content-related SEO measures and ensures that users in international markets receive the right content in the right language. Important aspects include defining a clear domain structure, creating a sitemap, and implementing tracking measures, such as conversion tracking and remarketing pixels for SEA campaigns.
Special considerations for the medical field
The healthcare market is subject to stricter regulations in various countries with regard to advertisements and specifically online advertising. In Germany, for example, the Remedy Advertising Law (Heilmittelwerbegesetz, HWG) regulates advertisements in the healthcare sector to medical laypersons or specialists (doctors). Google and other platforms have certain restrictions and requirements for the advertising of medical products, treatments, and certain therapies. For example, advertisements for prescription-only medicines are prohibited in Germany, as is misleading advertising (such promises of success as “Guaranteed to help!”, creating false impressions, and untrue information).
The E-E-A-T principles (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) play a central role in the evaluation of websites in healthcare. Websites with a high E-E-A-T signal quality tend to have a better chance of being ranked higher in the search results.
Google places particular emphasis on trustworthiness and the expertise of the content, especially in healthcare. Companies can back this up with blog posts, qualifications, or even team pages on their health websites. By consistently applying the E-E-A-T principles, health websites can not only improve their visibility in search engines, but also gain the trust of users and make a valuable contribution to health information.
In summary, this means that the advertising guidelines of the respective platforms and countries must be observed. It is also important in targeting that the specific target groups be addressed precisely and accurately. When translating product texts, blog posts, or other types of text, it must be clearly specified whether medical terminology or layman search terms are to be used.
The holistic approach to international online marketing
Synergistic effects of combined SEO and SEA
The synergistic effects of combined organic and paid search strategies offer the following advantages:
- Increased visibility: Deploying SEO and SEA simultaneously can maximize visibility in search results, leading to greater reach and more traffic.
- Data-based optimization: Insights gained from SEA campaigns can be used to refine SEO strategies and vice versa. The same applies to identified search terms.
- Efficient resource usage: Data from SEA campaigns can be used for SEO optimization, which leads to more efficient use of resources.
A holistic approach to SEO and SEA makes it possible to simultaneously pursue short- and long-term goals. Paid ads make you more visible in new markets, and a strong organic presence makes you more cost-efficient over the long term.
Advantages of a specialized language service provider
Professional expertise
A thorough understanding of medical terminology is essential. Native-speaker translators and medical writers have extensive knowledge and experience in translating complex medical terminology, especially as adapted for the specific characteristics of a given country’s healthcare sector.
Linguistic expertise and cultural competence
Native translators and medical writers are able to write both specialist and lay texts that comply with SEO. To ensure that products are recognized in the international target market, the translation is adapted to the local search habits and cultures of the target countries. Particularly in healthcare, certain topics and messages must be communicated in a culturally sensitive way.
Can an international language service provider be an online marketing agency in the medical field?
As an international language service provider in the medical field, we not only translate your marketing content, but we also offer you comprehensive language services to help you be visible on the global market .
In addition to international SEO and SEA, we can help you with our medical writing service. As was mentioned above, search engines such as Google consider trustworthiness and expertise particularly important when determining the relevance of healthcare websites so that they appear high up in the search engine results. We can offer you our medical writing service to ensure that you are recognized as an expert in your healthcare sector online. Our experienced medical writers create unique medical articles or blog posts for specialist audiences, patients, and authorities. Our SEO experts ensure that the texts are adapted to the local search habits and cultures of the target countries. The more high-quality content you publish, the better it is for your search engine optimization. We use professional translation experts for digital marketing who are familiar with SEO and SEA best practices, cultural norms, and the languages they translate from.
In the area of multimedia (interviews, recordings, instructional videos, and multimedia content on social networks), we offer numerous options for your audio & video translation. Our language services include the subtitling of films and videos as well as the creation of accompanying commentaries, overlays, and transcriptions.
Our desktop publishing (DTP) service ensures that your advertising materials, such as brochures, flyers and other publications, maintain the same appearance even after translation. The target language translation may be longer or shorter than the source language. With our DTP service, we can adapt the layout of a file after translation while taking the source file into account.
We take your multilingual content in medicine and pharmacy to the next level! By bundling our language services, we cover the entire customer journey in medical communication for digital marketing. You benefit from a central contact person and various experts so that you can efficiently tap into global markets and make a contribution to health promotion worldwide.
Did you know? Machine translation and post-editing with international SEO and SEA in the medical field
We at mt-g support global medical communication with machine translation and rely on modern AI solutions that ensure accurate, effective, and safe communications for the healthcare sector without compromises! We can also generate automatic SEO translations if the source texts are suitable. Some marketing texts are not suitable for machine translation, because the machine does not (yet) have the cultural awareness to adequately translate context-specific references. The use of machine translation & post-editing allows for shorter delivery times and reduces costs while maintaining the same translation quality.
mt-g.com