case study

How I Helped Forbes Rank on SERP 1 For A Keyword With 89% Difficulty

margaret etudo

About Forbes Health

Forbes Health is a trusted source for health and wellness information. Through steadfast research, professional advice and honest stories, they are helping people stay informed and inspired to live a healthy life.

They have authoritative content that covers a wide range of topics, including supplements, nutrition, healthy aging, mental health, and women’s and men’s health.

Forbes Health, with a team of experienced healthcare professionals, journalists, and editors, offers a unique perspective on the latest health trends, research, and breakthroughs.

The Project

Objective

To empower Forbes Health’s readers in identifying and addressing potential vitamin B deficiencies, promoting informed dietary choices, and potentially leading to consultations with healthcare professionals.

target audience

The content was written for people ranging from young adults to the elderly, including patients, business owners, investors, and anyone curious about Vitamin B deficiencies and how to treat them.

the challenge

Vitamin B deficiency is a highly competitive topic. Numerous blogs and health brands are vying to stay on Google’s first search result page. The challenge was to rank for a topic this competitive while creating authentic and helpful content that provides distinct information readers need about the topic.

Analyzing The Problem

Understanding Forbes Health’s unique angle

Forbes Health has a standard of creating helpful articles backed up with quality research.

My first step was to understand what Forbes Health was looking to achieve and what additional information would set them apart from other health blogs targeting ranking for the same topic. Setting out to do this led me to the second step.

Defining The Content Gap

Finding the content gaps in other published articles about Vitamin B deficiency helped me develop an outline that encompasses H2s, which competitors’ blogs have missed.

For example, if you search the keyword “what depletes b vitamins”, where I ranked this article on SERP 1, one of the H2s included in the article I wrote for Forbes Health is “What Happens If a Vitamin B Deficiency Is Left Untreated?” Other ranking blogs didn’t include this, and it’s an advantage that helped out-rank them for this search.

Content Strategy for TOFU

Because this piece was intended as Top of the Funnel (TOFU) content primarily for readers who need awareness and information about the topic, the article had to include important and helpful content to keep generating traffic.

Also, this content can push the audience to buy products that can help if they have Vitamin B deficiency.

Here’s how I created a strategy to drive home the point.

Authority Building and Scientific Proof

One thing that makes content written in this era of AI writing is the experience and advice put into it that can’t be found everywhere else. This is why expert-led content is getting more attention in content marketing now.

Because of the need to build authority, in the article, I quoted medical professionals that I interviewed because they have experience treating people with Vitamin B deficiency.

Also, you can see proof of research in the article, cited as in-text and end-text references.

Keyword Research and SEO Strategy

Research excites me when it comes to writing articles. It’s not easy, but I enjoy it, and it’s evident in my work.

I focused on high-value keywords that were specifically relevant to people who had questions about Vitamin B deficiency. This involved long-tail keywords that signified informational intent, such as “lack of b complex” and “what depletes b vitamins.”

This article currently ranks for the keyword “lack of b complex” on the first page as well.

Medical Writing with a Marketing Twist

As you may know, sometimes medical jargon can be hard to understand. You don’t want to read an article that’s supposed to inform you while you’re still googling the words used in it.

My skill as a Medical Writer in this role included breaking down the scientific findings from my research into worlds that the target audience can easily relate to and supplementing them with expert opinions.

A perfect example of this is an article (Best Home STD Tests) I worked on recently, which is still currently ranking for Forbes Health because I helped the reader see the feature of the kits and a major benefit.

SEO Optimization

As I said earlier, the goal of writing TOFU articles is traffic, and that’s why I’m big on optimizing my content for SEO, even while putting my readers first!

I included keywords I got during my research that will likely come to the mind of our target audience if they want to know about vitamin B deficiency. For me, this strategy goes beyond just ranking; it means ranking for the right keywords.

Engaging and Educational Content

I follow a rule when it comes to writing content: never bore your readers to death!

That’s why I’m creating simple, actionable, and engaging educational content, helping my audience understand everything the title means. And with this article, I wasn’t caught lacking.

All the H2s I wrote were highly informative and helpful to the reader, even while I showed authority by sprinkling experts’ advice around the heading.