Episode 79: How Doctors Can Use the Internet to Get New Patients
What was discussed?
Quote of the day: “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou Be sure to check out our blog post on this topic for more information!
Create an Engaging Website:
Websites can no longer be static, unchanging, brochure type websites. You need a website that provides value to the visitor. If you’re looking for a website that accurately portrays who you are, what your business is about, and why visitors should come to you — you’ll most likely need to pay more than a couple hundred dollars. Look for an agency that understands the concept of a well-designed website. A well-designed website takes a lot more than just images and text. You’ll want a website that turns visitors into patients and that means the website needs to be engaging.
Understand the Value of SEO:
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization; something that used to be easy but has since evolved into something more complex. A true SEO professional understands the evolving nature of SEO and especially understands Conversion Rate Optimization. Conversion Rate Optimization is optimizing your website to get the most amount of conversions as possible. Once you’re ranking well in the search engines, you’ll be able to change things on your website to ensure that you’re getting the most conversions possible from the visitors that go to your website. It’s important that the SEO professionals you’re working with understand all of those concepts plus the importance of keywords. They’ll especially need to know the difference between long-tail keywords (example: zoom teeth whitening salt lake city) vs short-tail keywords (example: Salt Lake City dentist). An SEO professional will be able to determine which keywords your website needs to rank higher for in order to turn visitors into patients. Someone who’s searching for a general Salt Lake City dentist is a lot further from becoming a patient as opposed to someone searching for a specific service (zoom whitening, Invisalign) offered by dentists in Salt Lake City.
Use Local SEO to your Advantage:
Make sure that your website is optimized for dental local SEO. Local SEO is a part of SEO that’s more focused on the area of your business. Your website needs to be set up so Google understands where you are, what you do, and what you offer. Your website especially needs to be optimized for mobile visitors since they’re much more likely to buy compared to a desktop searcher. According to Google, 50% of consumers that look up a store on their cellphone and 34% of consumers who look up a store on their tablet will visit the store that same day.
Understand Pay Per Click or Google Ads:
Dental Pay Per Click and Google Ads can be one of the most effective ways to get new patients. When you type something into Google, you’ll see two or three options at the top that are labeled ‘ads’. Those are ads set up by people to drive traffic to their websites using Google Ads. This is usually something that takes attention, time, and patience to see the increase in results but can be really helpful in driving traffic to your website.
Interact:
Use Social Media! This can be an extremely powerful tool for online marketing. Don’t just set up scheduled posts. Make sure that you’re actively engaging with your community and with your visitors. You need to make sure that you’re responding to anyone that comments on a post that you create or left a comment on your page. Be personable and make sure to show them who you are. It doesn’t have to be business all the time, show them some of your personality!
Use Re-targeting:
Re-targeting is a technique that you can use with Pay per Click. This is how it works: Someone comes to your website and they get a little piece of code that’s placed on their browser. If they leave your website and are browsing through the internet, they’ll start to see ads for your practice show up. This keeps your business fresh in their mind and when they’re ready, they’ll click on one of your ads and book an appointment. This is a great (and inexpensive) way to build your brand and to keep your name fresh in the minds of visitors!
Leverage Referrals:
Referrals are some of the best kinds of patients you can get. You can leverage these by getting more reviews, putting some of your testimonials up on your site, and by providing excellent service. Word of mouth referrals are still a great thing to get, but positioning your business in a way that showcases the reviews you’ve had will drive more traffic to your business. When people type in “reviews of Dr. Jones” and they see a ton of positive reviews on a lot of different sites (Yelp, Facebook, Google), they’re much more likely to follow through with visiting your office! If you’d like to know more about how you can increase traffic to your website so that you can show up higher in the search engines, check out our free SEO Analysis form. Every website has a score and you’ll need to know what yours is! We’ll compare you against your competition, look at your main keywords and see where you rank, look at your social interaction (and that of your competitors), and we’ll look at your backlinks! This report is manually done and manually reviewed and we present all of the information you’ll need in a beautiful PDF report. To pick up the report, head to our Analysis page and we’ll be happy to get started. If you need assistance in improving your online presence or are feeling overwhelmed, fill out our free Consultation Form and let us know what you need help with. We’ll set up a time where we can talk and we’ll be happy to help you. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @TitanWebAgency to keep up to date on all of our latest news!