{"id":1038,"date":"2016-07-14T17:57:24","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T17:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orthorank.com\/?p=1038"},"modified":"2016-07-14T17:57:24","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T17:57:24","slug":"improve-your-medical-practice-online-visibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inboundmd.com\/improve-your-medical-practice-online-visibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Improve Your Practice\u2019s Visibility Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

Searches for online health information are the 3rd most popular online activity. According to Pew, 72% of Internet users looked online for health information in the past year.<\/p>\n

So you need to make sure your practice is listed with right directories<\/a> and ranks high for the relevant searches your ideal patients are making each day.<\/p>\n

Getting found online is imperative to growing your practice. Put it at the top of your marketing priorities.<\/p>\n

These guidelines will get you started.<\/p>\n

First, Quick Win \u2013 Keep Your Practice Listings Current<\/h2>\n

Improving your practice\u2019s search visibility is directly related to the quality of your practice listings. Maintaining accurate, consistent, and up\u00adto\u00addate practice listings will improve your search engine rankings.<\/p>\n

The more times your practice\u2019s name, address, phone number, and website are linked to from claimed listings, the higher your practice will appear in search engine results for related keyword searches. This simple best practice will ensure you have at least some level of presence on search engines.<\/p>\n

You should claim your business listings on search engines like Google My Business (GMB), Bing Places for Business, as well as online review sites like Yelp. Don’t forget about the medical-specific directories<\/a> like the Doctor Directory.<\/p>\n

If you need a place to start \u2013 here’s some background from Google on their Google My Business pages. Once you create your GMB page, anyone searching on your practice name will see that big box o’information, complete with pictures you upload for your practice, to the right of the search results.<\/p>\n

Whenever any information changes \u2013 your practice hours, a new contact email address \u2013 make sure to update your listings. Keep a list of every site where you have a listing. Add new listings as your office staff is able to get you listed on new directory sites.<\/p>\n

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A national consumer survey found that the average U.S. consumer spends almost 52 hours a year searching online for health information. Those searches will turn up somebody’s site – shouldn’t it be yours?<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Keywords – What Are Your Ideal Patients Searching For?<\/h2>\n

In that same Pew research, 55% of adult Internet users searched online for specific disease or medical problem. Seventy-seven percent of those searching for medical information say they started their research on a search engine like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. It also found that the most common topics they’re searching on are specific diseases, treatments or procedures, and for health professionals (not just doctors!).<\/p>\n

In order to develop a top presence and acquire large numbers of patients online, your website needs to get found on its own. This is called organic search and requires several steps.<\/p>\n

The first step is understanding what your target patients are searching for in relation to the conditions, treatments, procedures, and other elements specifically related to your practice.<\/p>\n

Jot down the terms patients use when describing what they see you for. Then, enhance and refine those descriptions with a third\u00adparty keyword research tool or a popular search engine, like Google. Keep in mind the terms the patients use, not the clinical terms you use. The key(word) is how are patients searching on these topics.<\/p>\n

Then, find out what SERP (Search Engine Results Page) result sets are displayed based on the keyword searches relevant to your practice. Each search engine displays a different result set based on a variety of factors, including the actual keyword searched, the location of the patient, and the device used to execute the search.<\/p>\n

For example, many medical \u00adrelated searches on Google show result sets based on Google My Business listings, not websites. In this case, you would want to focus your efforts on optimizing your GMB profile within your medical categories and solicit patients to leave positive reviews on your GMB profile.<\/p>\n

Here’s a quick keyword checklist:<\/strong><\/p>\n