Nowadays more and more patients are searching for their next doctor online. For example, patients searching for an orthopedic surgeon in Miami will likely Google “orthopedic surgeon miami”. They are then likely to call one of the practices on the first page of results.
This is where SEO comes in. Orthopedic surgeons need to ensure that their website is appearing on the first page of Google search results for relevant searches. So if your practice is to succeed in the modern healthcare arena, then it needs to position its website to come top of Google’s search results for relevant keywords, such as “orthopedic surgeon + your city” and “orthopedic surgery + your city”.
SEO can increase your share of private pay patients. Private pay patients are not restricted by their Managed Care Organization (MCO). They are free to choose whichever doctor they want. This is why – instead of going to their MCO’s website to choose a doctor, they will likely use Google instead.
If you want your orthopedic practice to get a share of this private pay business in today’s competitive marketing environment – and definitely in tomorrow’s – then you need to position your practice’s website to appear on the first page of Google results.
In order to answer this question, let us just clarify the difference between Organic SEO and Adwords. Adwords is when you pay Google for your practice’s website to appear as one of the four advertisements at the top of the Google search results page.
By contrast, Organic SEO is positioning your website to appear in the real search results (as one of the 10 search results below the ads). Now to answer the question: The short answer is that both of them have their advantages. Adwords allows your practice to immediately be at the top of the page, however it comes at a cost.
First, it can be very expensive – especially if the keywords you are targeting have high levels of competition. Second, as soon as you stop paying Google, your ads will stop appearing. Organic SEO, on the other hand, is a more affordable and more long term strategy. Your orthopedic website can be positioned to be top of the real search results on Google, so that patients are genuinely finding the most relevant practice for their needs.
Furthermore, organic SEO is longer lasting than Adwords. Once at the top of Google, it will likely stay there for several months (and if SEO services are continued then it can stay there indefinitely). Plus – best of all – it is more affordable. Red Castle’s SEO orthopedics package is very affordable and has proven to be very cost effective in terms of providing many more patients than the monthly cost of services.
If you are interested in strategically positioning your practice for the long term trend (that more and more patients will find their next doctor online), then organic SEO is something you should seriously consider.
Red Castle typically includes 10 keywords in our orthopedic SEO campaigns. But how do we decide which 10 keywords to select?
First, we make sure that the keywords are actually being used. After all, there is no point being top of Google for keywords which patients are not searching for!
Second, we select keywords which correctly identify the orthopedic services you offer. For example, if you are an orthopedic surgeon, then we may include keywords for the particular surgery for which you would like to increase your volume of patients.
Furthermore, to avoid competing with orthopedic doctors across the world, we recommend that keywords include your geographical area (usually the nearest city and/or county). Here is a set of example keywords below:
Please note that the Latin spelling “orthopaedic” is deliberately not used, as the number of people who search for this is far less than the number of people who search for “orthopedic”.
Red Castle provides monthly reports, so that our orthopedic practices can clearly track the performance of the SEO campaign. Most importantly, the reports include the position of the keywords and the position change over time.
For example, perhaps at the beginning your keyword “orthopedic surgeon Miami’ was in 89th position on Google, but 3 months later it is in 2nd place.
Plus, we also include other useful data, such as website traffic and the source of this traffic. Tracking the traffic source is important, as it allows us to see where prospective patients are finding your website. Is it via social media? Or Google? Or from other sources?
By closely monitoring this we can demonstrate how positioning your practice on the first page of Google greatly increases traffic to your website via Google.
SEO for orthopedics can cost thousands of dollars. Red Castle Services, however, believes in charging a modest monthly fee, because we believe in helping our clients in the long term. Plus, we always want our services to cost less than the money they generate.
We know that our monthly fee has an excellent Return On Investment, which we can backup with monthly reports. View our SEO Pricing and Packages.
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