When you manage a medical practice, you’re forced to compete with other medical practices in your community. Since word-of-mouth can’t provide all of the advertisement that you need (and since a majority of people Google their health-related issues first), it is important to make sure that you are employing SEO tactics to increase your practice’s rankings.
In order to give your search ranking a boost through medical marketing, try some of these 5 tips.
Tip #1: NAP
No, we aren’t telling you to take a snooze in order to boost your search rankings. NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number and it is important that your practice’s information should be incorporated on any external websites or other directories that are medical-related. Remember though that you can miss potential patients, as well as make people upset if your information is listed incorrectly. For example, nobody likes to get calls asking for a doctor’s office on their personal cellphone.
Tip #2: Employ ‘Google My Business’ and ‘Facebook Places’
One function that is still prevalent on Google+ is Google My Business. This provides a place for local businesses to create profiles to provide current and potential clients with information about your practice. On your Google My Business page, make sure to provide information like:
- Your practice specialties
- Hours of operation
- Address (make sure the address is correct so that Google Maps can find your practice)
- Phone number
Facebook Places works in much the same way.
Tip #3: Reviews
Especially in a small market, reviews can make or break a business. If you’ve ever moved into a new town, think back to how you learned about you or your child’s physician. Chances are you asked your friends and/or neighbors, or you read online reviews. Providing review areas to your potential and current customers shows that your practice is transparent and customer-centered.
Tip #4: Pictures
Adding relevant photos to your practice’s website is important, especially pictures of your physicians and staff. Adding photos will allow current and potential patients to feel like they can get to know your staff before ever walking in your office.
Tip #5: Content
Google is taking more stock in the content that businesses have on their webpages. The same is true for medical practices. In addition to helping to improve your search ranking, having good content can also help sway potential patients if they are undecided about becoming a patient. Typically, good websites have roughly 500 words of informative content per page.
Adding these elements to your website is something small (yet significant) you can do to boost your search engine rankings and attract more patients. For more professional internet marketing advice, browse our blog or contact the healthcare marketing professionals at SEO Medical today.