Patients are increasingly researching their next doctor online BEFORE scheduling an appointment. According to a 2014 study by Software Advice the number of patients researching their next doctor online increased between 2013-2014 by 68%. The study also found that:
“nearly half of all respondents would go out-of-network for a doctor that has more favorable reviews.”
But what does this mean? What are the implications of this? In short, it means that a doctor’s online reputation is becoming an increasingly important factor for patients when deciding which doctor to choose. In other words, it’s vital that doctors have excellent websites which portray the image the practice wants to portray: Trustworthy, professional, experienced, and capable of successfully treating the patient.
In short, a responsive medical website is a website which works well – and looks good – not just on desktops and laptops, but also on smart phones and tablets. Specifically, it usually means:
Don’t forget to make your medical website easy-to-find (Medical SEO)
We have over a decade of experience in creating medical websites and running medical SEO campaigns. This includes SEO for doctors, SEO for medical practices, and SEO for most medical specialties (click to view a list of our medical SEO specialties). We even take care of the ‘social media marketing’ part of marketing (writing blogs, running social media campaigns including Facebook fan pages, Twitter, Google + and LinkedIn), and Online Reputation Management for Doctors. The combination of SEO and social media campaigns leads to significant increases in traffic to your practice’s website. Studies show that on average 4% of new website traffic converts into new patients. In other words, the more visits you get on your Medical website – the more patients you will have.
