Most business owners and healthcare managers understand the importance of having favorable online reviews.
However, with everything business owners have going on, it’s easy to overlook such an obvious aspect of the business world – especially when people mistakenly think that having reviews on Google or Yelp are all you need.
Are Niche Review Sites Worth It?
Here are some stats if you still need convincing:
- Search engines are the most popular way to locate reviews with 63 percent of people locating them this way.
- Only a third of searchers use a facility’s own website first.
- Healthcare review sites are used by a third of patients to find a new doctor.
- Around 7 percent of localized ranking factors according to Moz are review signals.
Convinced yet?
Below are four of the top niche review sites in the healthcare industries.
1. Healthgrades
By searching physician’s name or specialty, users can find ratings about doctors and hospitals. Healthgrades also conducts an annual award system (the Patient Safety and Experience awards) to highlight the best hospitals around the US (the top 10 percent).
Additionally, of the 30 million plus monthly website visitors, many make appointments using the site.
2. RateMDs
Used by more than 160 million consumers, RateMDs has the ratings of upward of 2 million physician reviews. Users can then filter these physicians by city, gender and specialty. Hospitals are also rated for cleanliness and features. Best of all, signing up is free.
3. RealPatientRatings
RealPatientRatings.com primarily features plastic surgeons and boasts 150,000 verified reviews that come from actual patients. Users wanting to join will need to pay $329/month to have their practice listed.
4. SeniorAdvisor
Like RealPatientRatings, SeniorAdvisor only focuses on a group: senior care facilities. There are more than 100,000 senior care facilities (and home health providers) across both the U.S. and Canada. This site allows users to compare pricing and they give out an annual award (Annual Best of Awards) to recognize the top one percent.