Find Patients Where They Are: Online

When people are looking for a new healthcare provider or hospital, more potential patients are using the internet for information than in the past. Research has shown that at least 1 in 3 patients investigate a medical condition before making a doctor’s appointment. A recent study showed 84% of patients turn to the web to research a hospital or physician. A website that’s not updated frequently is not enough for a robust web presence or high ranking in web searches. Physicians looking to attract new patients must ensure there’s updated content on the site at least weekly. Regular content updates are the prescription to a healthy digital presence.

Set yourself apart as an authority

Providing clear, accurate, helpful information about medical conditions and common healthcare concerns sets a medical provider apart as a trusted authority. Practices that consistently deliver easy to understand, useful information will attract more visitors to the site. Continually creating content about healthcare topics ultimately will help a website’s search engine rankings. Although providing content regularly on a site that is not optimized for SEO will not help SERP positioning. Secure, well-designed sites will help with search rankings but if there is no content to be found, this will not help attract patients. The best practice is to have a secure website that is updated consistently with fresh, authoritative content.

Buying time: how to provide content

Most healthcare providers realize the link between a strong web presence and a growing practice. The problem is that physicians are continually being asked to do more with less. Between seeing more patients, CME, new drugs, billing, staff, and constantly-changing regulations, finding the time to update a website every week is a low priority. Partnering with digital marketing experts can offer personalized content without monopolizing a doctor’s already limited time.

More than just a buzzword

Besides not having time to write blog posts, healthcare providers don’t have time to worry about search engine optimization. SEO is more than just a buzzword. An optimized website is a critical part of how patients will even find the site at all. However, SEO best practices and search algorithms are continuously changing. Staying abreast of the current trends, markup and metrics is a full-time job best left to digital agencies.

Attract the right patients

The beauty of providing content on a website is that people searching a new clinic, surgery center, pharmacy, hospital or healthcare provider can find the exact type of facility wanted. This allows doctors to attract the ideal patient. With more self-insured people, no longer are patients bound by an insurance carrier’s list of providers. Focusing on subject matters relevant to the type of ideal patient will allow physicians to attract more of the type of patient best for the practice.

Mobile responsive sites

How a site appears on a mobile device is also critical. In July 2019, Google began mobile-first indexing. This means that websites that are not mobile responsive will be penalized. More than 50% of all sites Google indexes are now mobile-first. The majority of Americans use a tablet, iPad or smartphone to do searches. When a website is mobile-friendly, secure and updated regularly the site gains domain authority in trustworthiness which helps with SERP positioning.

The secret sauce to growing your practice

All these factors combined make things clear: a healthy web presence is more than just typing words on a page and pressing publish. Creating an excellent digital presence takes strategy, expertise, and time. Working with a team of digital marketing experts can take a medical practice to the next level. A strong presence takes a holistic approach from semantic markup, SEO, keyword strategy, social media and authoritative content. A robust digital marketing strategy is the secret sauce for growing any successful practice.

Content marketing’s ROI

A growing website with weekly posts providing helpful information for potential future patients will help a practice grow more than any other marketing strategy. Furthermore, the content continues to grow in value as the site keeps getting new articles on current topics. These constant updates will increase the domain authority and create brand awareness for a doctor or hospital.

The prescription for growth

When a practice or facility is ready for patient growth, working with a digital marketing firm that specializes in healthcare can make creating a state of the art web presence a very easy task. While results don’t happen overnight, using a reputable firm with SEO experience will making growing a practice a much easier task.