NextGen blog playbook: what works, what to fix, what to write

The NextGen blog playbook: what works, what to fix, what to write next

You don't need to become SEO experts. You need to know one thing: on Google and in ChatGPT, our blog wins when it gives a short, plain answer to a question a practice leader actually types. Everything below is that one idea, backed by our own numbers.

Sources: Google Search Console (16 months, through May 2026), Google Analytics 4 (12 months, through Aug 2026), Semrush organic rankings (Sept 2026) and the live pages themselves.

Prepared by the digital team for the content team. September 2026.

Start here: the three words, in plain English

People find our blog in three places now. Same content, three doors. Each door rewards the same habit: answer the question directly, in the first two sentences.

SEO: showing up in Google's list of linksSomeone types "what is UDS" and our post is one of the blue links. This is the classic door. It still matters, but it's shrinking.
AEO: getting quoted in Google's answer boxGoogle now writes its own answer at the top (the AI Overview) and cites a few sources. When we write a clean definition, Google quotes us. When we bury it in paragraph four, Google quotes Tebra.
GEO: getting named by ChatGPT, Perplexity and ClaudeA buyer asks ChatGPT "how do AI scribes work?" and it answers from sources it trusts. Clear structure, real specifics and a question-shaped headline are how we become one of those sources.

What a winning NextGen post looks like

We looked at the 180 blog posts Google shows in search. The ones that earn clicks share the same shape. This isn't theory; it's what our own top ten have in common.

The biggest surprise: almost every non-branded keyword the blog ranks for has a Google AI Overview sitting above it. A post either gets quoted in that box or gets buried under it. There's very little middle ground anymore.

  • The title is the question"What is UDS+?", "What are AI scribes used for?", "EMR vs. EHR". Not "Reclaiming time for what matters most."
  • The answer is in the first 40 wordsA definition or a direct yes/no before any context. Google and ChatGPT both lift from the top.
  • It explains a thing our buyers have to deal withUDS reporting, claim scrubbing, payer adjudication, SaaS vs. license. Niche and practical beats broad and inspirational every time.
  • One post per questionWe have two live posts on EMR vs. EHR, two on "what is RCM" and two on interoperability. Google splits the credit and picks neither. Refresh the existing post instead of writing a sibling.
  • It gets refreshedThe winners were mostly written in 2023 and 2024. They still rank because they're evergreen questions. Refreshing beats replacing.

The brief: fill this in before you write

This is the entire method on one page. Every item in the 90-day plan links back here. If you can fill in the six boxes, the post will be in the winning shape before a word of body copy exists.

Eight to twelve words. If it doesn't have a question word or a "vs.", rewrite it.
What is UDS+ and how does it change health center reporting?
This is the first paragraph, verbatim. A definition or a direct answer. No "in today's healthcare landscape."
UDS+ is HRSA's patient-level version of the Uniform Data System report. Instead of sending yearly totals, health centers submit de-identified patient records using FHIR. It starts with Cohort 1 and eventually replaces the current spreadsheet submission.
These become the H2s. Pull them from what a reader would ask next, or from the RFP question bank.
How is UDS+ different from UDS? What data has to be submitted? When does my health center have to comply? What does it cost to prepare?
Goes at the bottom. This is what Google and ChatGPT lift most often, and digital will wrap it in FAQ schema.
Who submits UDS+, the vendor or the health center? Is UDS+ mandatory yet? Does UDS+ replace the annual UDS report?
Check the category dashboard below. If a similar post exists, refresh it at its current address rather than starting a new one.
/blog/health-it-101/what-is-uds-plus
A product manager, AE or services lead you'll interview for 20 minutes. Their specifics are what make us the source that gets quoted.
Jill Meredith, Sr. Product Manager, Government Reporting

Why these six and nothing else

Boxes 1 and 2 are what Google's answer box and ChatGPT read first. Box 3 is how they understand the structure. Box 4 is the part they quote. Box 5 stops us from competing with ourselves. Box 6 is what makes the post true.

Word count, keyword density and meta descriptions are not on this form on purpose. Digital handles the technical layer after you hand this over.

Hand-off

Send the filled-in brief and the draft to the digital team together. We add schema, fix links, handle redirects and check it against Search Console after 30 days.

The top 10, and what made each one work

Ranked by Google clicks over 16 months. The blog moved to categorized URLs in October 2025 with redirects, so each row combines a post's history across both addresses. Hover the column headings if a term is new.

PostClicksImpressionsPositionWhy it worked
A New Era for Mirth Connectindustry-news87761,0328.6Timely news about a product people already search for. Mirth users needed answers about the licensing change and we were the source. Lesson: when something changes in our world, publish the plain-English explainer fast.
CMS Medicaid appointment wait time standardsindustry-news31016,8578.7A regulation explainer. Practice leaders needed to know "what does this mean for me" and nobody else wrote it plainly. Regulatory news is a repeatable format.
Claim submission: make it clean, save timerevenue-cycle-management28813,38813.4A how-to on one narrow billing task. Small topic, high intent, low competition. Our best click-through rate on the list at 2.2 percent.
Claim creation and scrubbingrevenue-cycle-management25831,26921.1Same pattern: one billing step, explained end to end. RCM how-tos are the most reliable click earners we have.
What is UDS+?health-it-10125667,82914.3Our best non-branded post. Semrush shows it at positions 3 to 7 for "uds", "what is uds" and "what is uds in healthcare", and sitting inside the AI Overview. A definition nobody else owned, in our exact FQHC audience. Winner
What are AI scribes used for in healthcare?artificial-intelligence229118,26839.4Huge demand (118K impressions) and Semrush shows it at position 9 for "ai scribe". The question-shaped title is doing the work. The 39 average is dragged down by hundreds of loosely related queries.
How to document with AI-powered ambient listeninghealth-it-10122689,03636.4Rides the same AI-scribe wave. Shows up for 89K searches but competes with the post above and three product pages for the same terms, which caps it. Overlaps the AI scribes post
Become an EHR super userindustry-news1724,46016.8Small audience, very high click rate (3.9 percent). Written for existing customers, and they found it. A useful post for a narrow reader still pays.
What is revenue cycle management in healthcare?health-it-101160853,29844.3The most-seen page on the whole blog: 853K impressions. It's on this list on volume alone. At position 44 it converts 0.02 percent. Fix this one post and it could out-earn the rest of the top ten combined. Ranks too low
SaaS vs. professional license: which is better?health-it-10113963,85816.2Semrush shows it at positions 1 and 4 for "healthcare software as a service". A comparison question with a clear verdict. Buyers at the evaluation stage love a "which one" post. Winner
How to read the big gaps: 853,000 impressions and 160 clicks isn't a bad post. It's a post Google shows and then answers for the reader. Our job is to become the answer it quotes, and the way to do that is the brief above.

The first-sentence test

We pulled the actual opening lines from four posts. Read them side by side and the whole method is obvious.

What is UDS+?

256 clicks, position 14, quoted in the AI Overview
UDS Patient-Level Submission (UDS+) aims to streamline reporting components of the UDS. It does this by adhering to current interoperability standards and leveraging new capabilities of healthcare IT.
Names the thing, says what it does, done in two sentences. Google can quote this without editing it.

What is value-based care?

30 clicks from 138,893 impressions, position 67
Value-based care seeks to address challenges that have arisen from traditional fee-for-service healthcare, such as escalating costs, inconsistent quality, fragmented delivery of care, and inequities in care among different communities.
Tells you what VBC is against. Never says what it is. The title asks a question the post doesn't answer in its first 100 words.

What is revenue cycle management in healthcare?

160 clicks from 853,298 impressions, position 44, published Nov 2023
Revenue cycle management (RCM) is the process of managing the financial aspects of patient care. It starts when your practice schedules the patient appointment and continues until you receive and post the final payment.
The opener is fine. This one fails for a different reason: it's three years old and the body drifts into how to pick an RCM vendor. Fix is depth and freshness, not the first sentence.

Key strategies for effective revenue cycle management

Published Nov 2025, 2 clicks in Semrush's top keywords
Revenue cycle management (RCM) is vital for healthcare organizations. It ensures financial stability and efficient operations. RCM involves managing the financial processes from patient registration to final payment.
Recent, and it says "vital" before it says anything useful. Also a near-duplicate of the RCM 101 post. Two posts on the same question, neither winning.

The next 90 days: ten posts, in order

Fixes first, because they're cheaper and the demand is already there. New posts after. Each one gets a filled-in brief before drafting. Write the owner's name in the box.

    September and October: refresh what already gets seen
  1. Refresh

    What is revenue cycle management in healthcare?

    853,298 impressions, 160 clicks, position 44, published Nov 2023

    Keep the opening. Rebuild the body around "how RCM works, step by step" with the seven stages as question headings, add a three-question FAQ, and fold the "key strategies" post (item above, right) into it so there's one RCM explainer. Link to it from the RCM product page.

    Owner
    DueSeptember
    Digital doesRedirect the strategies post, add FAQ schema
  2. Consolidate

    EMR vs. EHR: what's the difference?

    Two live posts (this one and /health-it-101/emr-vs-ehr), 171,463 impressions between them, 99 clicks total; Semrush position 30 for "ehr vs emr" (2,400 searches a month)

    Two posts on one question and Google trusts neither. Keep this one. Open with a one-line answer and a five-row comparison table. Content writes one refreshed post; digital retires the other.

    Owner
    DueSeptember
    Digital doesRedirect the Health IT 101 version
  3. Rewrite

    What is value-based care and why does it matter?

    138,893 impressions, 30 clicks, position 67, published Nov 2023

    Failed the first-sentence test above. New opening: define VBC and contrast it with fee-for-service in 40 words. Then question headings: How does VBC payment work? What are the main VBC models? What does it mean for a small practice?

    Owner
    DueOctober
    Digital doesFAQ schema, internal links from the VBC solutions page
  4. Consolidate and extend

    What are AI scribes and how do you evaluate one?

    118,268 impressions on this post plus 89,036 on the ambient listening post; "AI in healthcare and medical scribing" is the largest AI-search topic where NextGen has zero mentions

    Make this the one educational post on the subject. Fold in the ambient listening post, then add the sections buyers ask ChatGPT for: how AI scribes work, what they cost, and a checklist for evaluating one (accuracy, specialty coverage, EHR integration, multi-speaker handling, how to pilot). Every product page points here as the explainer.

    Owner
    DueOctober
    Digital doesRedirect ambient post, resolve the product-page overlap
  5. Consolidate

    What is interoperability in healthcare?

    Old Health IT 101 version: 61,401 impressions, 12 clicks, position 66. New July 2026 version at a different URL now competes with it.

    Keep the July post. Rebuild its opening as a definition plus "the four levels of interoperability" as question headings and a three-question FAQ. Digital retires the old one.

    Owner
    DueOctober
    Digital doesRedirect the 2023 post
    6. November and December: write the questions we're missing
  6. New

    How is EHR software priced? Per provider, per encounter, percent of collections and SaaS explained

    Pricing is the number one objection in AI answers about NextGen. "Pricing model" and "pricing breakdown" are the two most repeated questions in the RFPs we receive.

    We don't have to publish our price list to own the question. Explain how the industry prices, what drives total cost over three to five years, and the fees buyers forget to ask about (clearinghouse, interfaces, training). Interview one AE for 20 minutes.

    Owner
    DueNovember
    SourceAn AE or sales engineer
  7. New

    What patients expect from scheduling and intake in 2026

    Self-scheduling, reminders, digital intake and secure messaging are all "very high" frequency RFP questions. "Patient intake" gets 2,007 impressions and 3 clicks. Our self-scheduling post (48K impressions, 68 clicks) gets folded into this one.

    The checklist practices use when they evaluate patient engagement tools, with each item answered plainly. Use the RFP question bank as the outline.

    Owner
    DueNovember
    SourcePatient experience product marketing
  8. Rewrite as new

    FHIR and HL7 explained for practice leaders (and where Mirth fits)

    The existing FHIR post has 94,620 impressions at position 24. "FHIR and HL7 standards" is the lowest-difficulty relevant topic in AI search (35K monthly). Interoperability questions appear in nearly every clinical RFP.

    Rebuild the FHIR post at its current URL into the non-technical explainer: what each standard does, why a practice should care, what to ask a vendor. Gives Mirth traffic somewhere useful to land.

    Owner
    DueNovember
    SourceA Mirth solutions engineer
  9. New

    Why claims get denied and how to find the revenue you're losing

    Denials, revenue leakage, A/R reporting and prior authorization are all high-frequency RFP questions. RCM how-tos are already our most reliable click earners.

    Extend the pattern that works. Top denial reasons, how to spot them in your own reports, what to fix first. A prior authorization post is the natural follow-up in Q1.

    Owner
    DueDecember
    SourceAn RCM services lead
  10. Rewrite as new

    How to choose medical scheduling software

    The existing post has 112,223 impressions and 28 clicks at position 53

    Huge demand on a page nobody reads. Rebuild at its current URL with a question title, a 40-word answer, and headings buyers actually ask: What features matter? How does it connect to the EHR? What does it cost? How long does setup take?

    Owner
    DueDecember
    Digital doesMove it out of industry-news into practice-management

Where the clicks come from

Three categories earn 4,364 of the blog's roughly 8,000 Google clicks: definitions, billing how-tos, and regulation explainers. Everything else is below. Bars show clicks relative to the best post in each category. Click a title to open it. Check here before starting a post, to see whether a version already exists.

Earning clicksSeen a lot, rarely clickedTwo live posts on the same question
The other 16 categories
Two things to keep in mind when you read the numbers

Google Search Console page data runs through May 13, 2026. Posts published in June and July 2026 are too new to judge here, so don't read their low numbers as failure.

"Uncategorized" in the list above is the old flat /blog/ address structure from before October 2025. Those URLs now redirect to the categorized versions, so the clicks shown there are history, not a second copy of the post. Anything you see in that bucket is already counted with its live post in the top 10.