What can sometimes be exhausting for doctors is everyday life for most patients: Even before they entrust themselves to a doctor, they search in search engines. In many cases, patients then find out about their suspected illness on non-scientific sites. That is precisely why doctors should optimize their own website and keep it up to date. But this is difficult for many.
Practice marketing is becoming increasingly important
Your own practice website is basically nothing more than a marketing platform on the Internet. And this was heavily regulated until not too long ago: Advertising for doctors was prohibited until 2000. It is only since 2002 that doctors have been allowed to advertise their treatments “for the purpose of providing factual information.” For this reason, many doctors have not engaged in marketing for a long time.
But times have changed. Practice marketing — and in particular optimising your online presence — should now be an integral part of your work. This is because most patients now do their research online. This is also confirmed by a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation: 72 percent of respondents find out about illnesses and other health topics on Wikipedia and other online encyclopedias. In contrast, only around 38 percent of users visit medical practice websites.
Accordingly, the demand is clearly there, but unfortunately this is not met by medical experts, but by portals such as Wikipedia. A clear sign that doctors should focus more on their online presence in order to provide patients with safe and competent information.
What kind of practice marketing options are there in principle?
Traditionally, doctors have mainly advertised in industry books and newspapers. But you guessed it: There is less and less demand for these forms of advertising, as most patients are no longer looking for their specialist doctor in the newspaper but on the Internet.
This means: In most cases, you should focus your marketing activities on the Internet. For example, your website should be up to date (including visually). They should also be present on selected social media and increase their reach online with content marketing.
Search engine optimization for medical practices
This is possible, for example, with search engine optimized texts that patients find on Google as soon as they search for a specific symptom or treatment. Here are three tips on what you should pay attention to when writing texts for your website.
Tip 1: Look for the right keywords
Before you get started and write a text for your website, first look at which keywords users are looking for online. Keywords are search terms that users enter online on Google to find a solution to a specific problem. Well-known keyword research portals include UberSuggest and SEMrush. Here is an example of the wide-reaching keyword “veneers”, which is searched 74,000 times per month in Germany:
Tip 2: Pay attention to links
Once you've found the right keyword and written the text, you should link to the article in a meaningful way. These could be links that lead to another internal page on your website. External links to pages that are as trustworthy as possible are the most valuable for you. This may be the case, for example, if you are mentioned in an article from a renowned specialist portal. If a link is then set on this external page that leads to your practice website, this can bring your website up in the Google ranking.
Tip 3: Write for your patients and not for the search engine!
But with all your love for search engine optimized texts, please don't forget who you're writing for: for your patients! This means that you don't have to constantly repeat the keyword or collect as many external links as possible. In particular, you shouldn't buy them! In the worst case scenario, both “optimization measures” can result in your website being penalized by Google. That's why you simply write easy-to-read texts that inform your users in the best possible way. Google will reward that!
Online appointment scheduling
The fully automated scheduling of appointments in German medical practices could now be standard practice. Most patients even want an easy online appointment booking. Many medical professionals are still afraid of the conversion effort or have concerns about data protection law.
Nonetheless, you should be open-minded about this new technological opportunity. Because online appointments are also relieved for your medical professionals, as this reduces telephone calls and emails. The MFAs and ZFAs are certainly very grateful for that! Do they work particularly often at their personal limits since the start of the pandemic.
Create a Google My Business profile
A simple and free marketing measure that unfortunately often goes unused is Google My Business. If you create a profile for your medical practice here, you will be more easily found in Google search and also listed on Google Maps. In addition, you can collect positive reviews from patients on your Google My Business profile, which in turn brings your website higher in search results.
But it is precisely this evaluation function that prevents some doctors from creating a Google My Business profile. They fear that they might receive unfair negative reviews. It is undeniable that this is a risk. But if you get mostly positive reviews on your Google profile, the benefits far outweigh the risk!
Run Google Ads
All marketing measures mentioned so far take a few months before they actually pay off in more traffic for the website or, quite tangibly, in more appointment bookings. But there is another faster way to get to the top of Google: with Google Ads.
The performance marketing agency has focused on this searchperts specializes, which has already been able to get many medical practices and orthodontists to book more appointments. For example, an orthodontic medical care center, as managing director Damian Zielinski reports.
It's so easy to collect more positive reviews with Nelly
In addition to Google Ads, reviews for medical practices have also become extremely important. To get new positive reviews faster, simply work with Nelly. With the software, you can not only Your statement and patient admission digitize, but also ask your satisfied patients for reviews on Google, Jameda and Co. Now you too can create a digital workflow in your practice. We advise you non-binding and free to your individual case!
The personal names used in this article always refer equally to all persons. Dual naming and alternate names are omitted in order to improve readability.
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