Insider Talks: Shaping Successful Health Search Journeys in the Age of AI

Our organization’s approach to health search journeys matters.?

By understanding how consumers search for health information, we can ensure our platform delivers. Matt Smith, VP, SEO, drives a collaborative process across editorial, social, and product to help position our properties within the health search journey.

Q: How do you track key trends and integrate them into your work??

A: Our team is constantly testing to better understand how new ideas and trends might impact the user journey across search. We track a robust set of health data that allows us to watch trends closely and make changes.?

For example, we track over 30k health keywords within Google's AI Overviews . By tracking this large dataset, we can test content formats, optimizations, and user journey pathing to improve how frequently we show up in AI Overviews.?

Q: How do you use data and insights to better understand what our audiences need??

A: Recently, we worked with our user research team to run a user experience test with real people interacting with AI Overviews. We had those users go through a typical journey to research chronic conditions and drugs.?

We were able to see very clearly that "satisficers,” users satisfied by adequate results, are more likely to be impacted by AI Overview. For instance, someone in this category who is looking for "side effects of Mounjaro" will see all the side effects directly within the AI Overview and they are far less likely to validate the information they see and move down the funnel.?

On the other hand, a "maximizer,” a user who wants to maximize their results, will be more likely to dig deeper into a topic and validate sources. For example, "diet for type 2 diabetes" was one query where maximizers moved into the health funnel and relied less on AI Overviews.?

Through our research, we are able to better understand the user journey and areas that might be more or less impacted by AI Overviews and other large language models (LLMs). We can use this understanding of how users interact with AI to shape how we update or create new content.

Q: How is trust integral to the work you do??

A: Trust is at the core of all health for us. Healthline was one of the first websites to really push author bios and be transparent about who is writing and reviewing an article. Across our portfolio, we have been innovative in adding detailed article history, sources for information, and medical review processes of products and content — all important factors in the user health journey.

Q: How do you ensure your work makes an impact?

A: Our goal is to understand: Is the user having a good experience and can they find the resources and guidance they want? We always establish agreed-upon KPIs with any new work to provide a north star for our projects. That means using a combination of sessions, revenue, share of voice, page views per visit, bounce rate, and dwell time — alongside real-life impacts from user feedback and research insights.?

Stay tuned for more insights from diverse perspectives across our organization. We’re eager to share, educate, and connect.?

About Insider Talks?

A monthly newsletter for experts to discuss the trends, insights, and rigor driving their work and transforming the world of health. At Healthline Media, we drive wellbeing forward, leading 74 million people to take action and improve their lives with medically evidenced content, communities, and solutions. Visit HealthlineMedia.com .?