If you’re one of those doctors who doesn’t underestimate the power of online marketing and you already use online tools to grow your number of online patient referrals, then good for you - you are already ahead of many physicians that still ignore the fact that 62% of patients now research their next doctor online. If you’re already considering SEO to increase the patient flow into your practice, sooner rather than later you will have to ask yourself a question - where do the online referrals come from? Which strategies work, and which are not worth the time and money? According to Pareto Law, aka ‘80/20’, 20% of your efforts generate 80% of results. It’s in your best interest to identify those 20% and save yourself time, money and energy, targeting exactly what’s working best. One useful tool to analyze this is Google Analytic’s acquisition metrics. For example, in the screenshot below (let’s say for Dr. X), you can see that the majority of Dr. X’s patients last month found his website via Organic Search (in other words, Google), whereas only 33 patients found him via Social Media .
Social Media is a powerful SEO tool. Useful content is what it’s all about. Articles full of keywords can work both as an SEO tool (getting your website high in Google’s search) and improving your online reputation (posting valuable content adds to your prestige!). What’s best about Social Media is that it costs you nothing but your time so it can be a great asset on your quest to generate more online referrals. However, as a doctor, time is money, so then it becomes a basic question of return of income. Is your time best served doing this? Or can an agency do this better and more cost-effectively than you? Read more about SEO for doctors or Medical SEO.
Online Directories is another way to reach out to a bigger number of potential patients. The more directories you’re on, the better - that way it makes it easy for the patients to find you online. It’s a great tool to improve your online reputation as well, as the online directories usually allow the patients to leave you reviews. Some directories, like Yelp and Elocal, are free, others, such as Credibility and Uscity, you have to pay for, but they’re definitely worth considering. Not only do these directories help boost your website’s SEO, but they also represent many of the “referral” websites shown in the earlier screenshot. 
Paid Advertising can be very beneficial if you know how to do it. This include AdWords (Google) and Facebook ads, among others. Investing is some of those can really boost the number of your online referrals, but it comes with a risk if you have no idea what you’re doing. Throughout research and trying out different strategies can help you identify the paid advertising tools that work best for your business. All of the above can take up a lot of your time and energy and we know that as a doctor those two are usually in deficiency. This is why Red Castle Services was founded. We offer physicians a range of services connected to online reputation management for doctors and online patient referral generation, from building and maintaining the website to SEO, and online reputation to content creation and social media. Red Castle makes sure that they get the exposure they deserve. If you’d like to start capturing your fare share of the 62% of patients who now search for their next doctor online, then contact us today and see how we can help you achieve the top, starting with the top of Google’s search engine 🙂 Contact Redcastle Services today and see what we have to offer.
Find out more about RedCastle Services. RedCastle specializes in Online Marketing for Doctors, including Medical SEO, SEO for doctors, and Medical Website Design. Contact RedCastle Services today to find out how we can help your practice increase its number of online patient referrals.
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