Doctors and SEO

Fifteen years ago as a doctor you needed to have a public presence. People had to know you in your community which you could establish through being at public events and making yourself known. You also had the option of directories where people could look up your office’s address and phone number. Now things are a little more complicated than that. People don’t look at local directories anymore and public events may be important but the internet has become increasingly important when it comes to any practice and medicine is no exception.

There are a lot of ways to promote yourself on the internet. SEO optimization is one of them and so is creating a FindaTopDoc profile. There are multiple reasons why having an online presence can boost your practice. Patients may be looking for a new doctor on the internet for instance. Another example is if your current patients lost your contact info and are looking for it it’s very unlikely that they’ll check their local directory. They’re more likely to look up your name. You need to always boost your practice and you do so by upgrading your services, skills, as well as marketing. The internet is a great tool to do so and can really boost your practice, but if you don’t utilize it you could end up falling behind. New doctors especially are familiar with the internet and how to make the most out of it. Just like staying updated with the latest medical information you also need to stay updated on how to keep your practice flourishing.

It’s estimated that about 72% of patients check the internet before reaching a doctor. In order for them to find you and contact you then you’ll need to be one of the first to appear in the search results. Google is the search engine used by the overwhelming majority of patients so that’s the one you’ll need to focus on in order for patients to see you. Climbing the SEO rankings isn’t an easy process but will actually take some time and effort to achieve. If you have a website, which you probably should, you’ll need to make sure your content is beneficial to those who read it and that you include keywords that attract those looking up certain things.

You’ll need to focus and work on your website to make sure it has the needed quality. Next up is Google which is the most used search engine where everything about your practice can show up on the right including reviews. You should also focus on Facebook where you can create a page that can also have reviews and patient comments.

When you look at your search results on Google you’ll notice that at the very top there may be a couple of paid ads. These are easier to acquire as you can just pay to have your name/website show up at the top. These aren’t really recommended because people know you simply paid for them rather than actually earned them. After these there are what are called organic results. These are at the top because Google deems them to be worthy of being at the top because of their quality. In order to achieve this you need to SEO your website’s content.

You should also enhance your website by posting articles relevant to your practice. If you’re an ophthalmologist for instance then you could post articles about laser eye surgery, eye care, and other topics people usually look up. You also need to make sure that your website is mobile friendly and can be accessed with relative ease using a smartphone so it doesn’t seem outdated.

Focusing on location is another thing that can boost your results. Google shows results based on location and it does this via IP address which gives a hint about where you are. This is one of the reasons Google results can vary greatly from one country to another. You encourage Google to boost your localization by adding words about your area to your website. That way you show up when people nearby are looking for a doctor. These are all things to focus on in order to boost your online presence.

FindaTopDoc is another way to do so. The website includes profiles for almost all the doctors in the United States which really helps patients find the doctor they’re looking for and a little about them. You need to make sure that your FindaTopDoc profile is up to date so that people who visit it get the correct information that will lead them to your office.

Another great feature that relies on locality is the questions feature on the website. On FindaTopDoc a person can post their medical question on the website for free in order to get answers from doctors who also do this free of charge. Doctors can provide help to patients by telling them to visit an ER as soon as possible or by telling them to wait and see for instance. This feature gives doctors an opportunity to build an online presence through helping patients. Another additional great feature is that next to the posted question on the right side a list of nearby doctors relevant to the question will show up. For instance if your question is about seizures then on the right you’ll notice a list of neurologists nearby that you can visit. As a doctor you can contact FindaTopDoc so that they can help make your name nearer to the top of that list.

There are a number of reasons why patients look up doctors online. For starters someone could be looking for a new doctor. They could simply be typing “cardiologists in Chicago, Illinois.” They could also be looking up a certain condition such as angina or arrhythmia. If they’re in your area and your website has relevant information regarding the topic they’re looking up then your website will be among the search results. This will lead patients to the website and most probably eventually to your office. The better the content on your website the higher it’ll rank in search results the more patients will access it.

Sometimes a patient already has a doctor but they’ve lost their contact information or address. The next logical step for them would be to look up their doctor’s name on the internet and hope the information shows up. The last thing a doctor needs is to have their information show up after 3 or 4 pages of search results or even worse to not show up at all. You can’t expect a patient to look through over 20 search results just to get to you. Odds are after one or two pages of results they’re just going to revisit the first page and click on one of the first results. After all it makes sense that the doctors who show up first must be more famous and if they’re famous they must be great. So even if you’re not looking to add more patients to your practice you need to maintain your current ones by not making it difficult for them to find you and your info.

SEO optimization and FindaTopDoc are not a luxury to a modern day practice. They’re actually essential in order to keep your practice alive and running. Making your website one of the first results on Google or any other search engine won’t be easy. It’ll take time and lots of effort and great content, but it’ll definitely be worth it as your site appears to anyone looking up something relevant to your practice. FindaTopDoc is also a very trusted website that is like a database for physician profiles. It’s a lot like an online directory basically and is simple to use and access. As a physician you need to focus on creating an online presence because the internet is the guide to everything these days including doctors.