SEO Medical Writer

The title of your article is one of the most important SEO factors and every content writer knows this. Always bear in mind that your article title should not exceed 65 characters due to search engine indexing. The subtitles designated by the heading tags (H1, H2, H3) is also of importance in SEO content creation and should be used appropriately throughout your article. The first point to bear in mind when optimizing your titles and subtitles is that your title should always contain your main (primary) keywords while your subtitles should include your secondary keywords.

The main issue around titles and subtitles is that writers try to create catchy and witty titles or subtitles. This is typical of print media but with online content writing, you are also writing for the search engines. As mentioned, your title should contain your primary keywords but does not have to make grammatical sense. Internet readers are used to this and as long as the title contains the keywords, phrases and concepts they are looking for, they will click on it.

Long tail keywords, containing 3 or 4 keywords or more, is becoming more popular as search engine users move towards longer search queries than was previously the norm. Your keyword orientation is therefore important and ordering your keywords to match popular searches as indicated by a keyword tool is crucial. For example if a popular search term is “bronchitis smoker’s cough” then you should ensure that your title wording follows this order and not “smoker’s bronchitis cough” or “smoker’s cough bronchitis”.

Another important point to bear in mind is that more search engine users now search for information by asking questions. Using a question as your title often performs well but it may not be practical for a title in some instances. You can still score on this search trend by using appropriate subtitles using this question style format. However, if you have a secondary title for your article title, it may also be a good idea to include it under the H1 tag at the beginning of your article.

For example, you are unsure whether your article title should be “Chronic Bronchitis Smoker’s Cough” or “What is Chronic Bronchitis, Smoker’s Cough?”. An option would be to title your article as “Chronic Bronchitis Smoker’s Cough” and then before you start the introduction paragraph, include a subtitle marked as H1 with “What is Chronic Bronchitis, Smoker’s Cough?”. Remember you can only use H1 once in your article so use it carefully, if at all.

You can be more liberal with your use of H2, H3 and so on and use it multiple times in an article. Most writers will not proceed beyond an H4 subtitle heading tag. Do not get carried away with your use of heading tags and only use it when and as necessary. Heading tags will not have the same SEO value as your title or URL although the latter is often not in the control of most content writers.

Apart from the SEO value of subtitles when designated with heading tags, another important aspect of subtitles is that it breaks up your article. Remember that most internet readers do not read but scan an article. If they find the points they are looking for then they are more likely to read the entire article carefully. Subtitles serves this function. It attracts the reader’s attention at a glimpse and tells the reader what aspects of the subject matter are contained within your article. Often a reader will form an opinion about your article just by scanning the subtitles so with medical content, it is important to give your subtitles a professional tone.

You may have noticed that we did not use a single subtitle in this article. The reason for this was to illustrate that it is not necessary to put a subtitle in every article. Don’t force the use of subtitles. Use it appropriately.