Personal branding, good online presence, or digital footprint, … Whatever you call it, you must pay attention to it. Not only is it essential to your modern-day success, but it is also in your hands to revamp and keep updated.
Everything that can be found about you, your personal life, or your private practice is relevant and affects your reputation. Even if you think something will fall through the cracks, the reality is that… it most likely won’t. People will see it and make assumptions about you based on it. For this reason, being diligent and ensuring a great online first impression to people searching about you will translate to long term success.
Improve SEO search engine ranking
To have a competitive ranking on Google, you must work on your web page’s search engine positioning. That is, to make improvements to the web page so that it appears organically among the first results of Google or other search engines.
Users follow patterns to search the internet. Everybody types a few words in the search engine and expects results according to the search. These terms are called keywords and when we talk about patients and healthcare, they usually look for medical specialists or treatments they suffer from or need. For example, “orthopaedic surgeon in London” or “breast augmentation in Manchester.”
Google offers many links but only the first ones capture the majority of user clicks, hence the need to be among the top positions.
To do this, the search engine considers:
- the quality and originality of the content
- if the page can adapt to a mobile display for phones/tablets
- how fast the pages load.
SEO is mainly for the long-term game; it is the hard work that cannot be achieved overnight.
Presence on Google Maps
Google is a digital giant. With over 86% of mobile traffic, Google is undoubtedly the most popular search engine. When searching on the platform, Google maps is often the first result shown. Occasionally you will see advertisements above the map, and you’ll always see the best positioned web pages below it. However, Google maps occupies practically the entire screen and is the most visually attractive option, drawing searchers to click and read more about the page than they otherwise would if there was just a website link being shown.
Creating a company profile on Google Business Profile Manager and adding your business to Google My Business (GMB) is not only free, but it is also easy to create. By doing so, you will drive more patients to your website who are looking for verified, local results that are easily accessible to them through a showcase of images, reviews and more.
This map not only shows the physical location of your building, but it can also provide your phone number, hours, consultation details, ratings, your website link, and if anyone has any questions, you can even post a Q&A board to interact and connect with possible prospects and existing patients.
Becoming relevant on Google Maps is a critical channel, with 86% of local businesses receiving more than 25 views per month in Maps. Taking those quality pictures, interacting with your clientele, and staying updated and consistent will display your credibility and value to all those who search.
If this feels daunting, we’re here to help! Top Doctors is a Google Partner Company, giving us access to be able to register your practice in GMB and manage it in the most efficient way possible.
Google Adwords
We all want to be the first result shown in Google. As the main search engine used, this spot is competitive, but there are ways to beat the competition for that top search result.
We know that the first result captures 50% more than the second and this continues decreasing until it is no longer relevant. Most first results are covered by paid Google Ads: advertising that is done through Google and that seeks to help companies highlight their service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users. These ads are based on the keywords that the user uses to search for information on Google. Making these Google Ad campaigns will help your practice gain a better position on Google based on the specific key words that you select to reach the relevant online target markets.
Google has a very intuitive and easy-to-use system to manage ads. However, like any advertising campaign, in the hands of an expert it can multiply your results. Google will charge you on a per click basis, but they also provide budgeting tools for daily average spending and informative tips and instructions on how to get started.
By creating and having your ads go live, you have already taken the step it takes to be noticed by prospects and Google alike. Google recognises excellence in their ads by awarding accomplished marketing objectives in categories such as brand awareness, lead generation, online sales, app growth, international growth, and workplace excellence.
Although Google Ads are a short term or otherwise an immediate fix to get traffic flow to your website, they can lead to great success in the long term by acquiring new patients and by building your online profile.
Social Media
There are 4.65 billion social media users around the world which accounts for more than half the world. Of these people, they average a usage time of around 2.5 hours on the platforms each day. Because of this increase in use, social media has created promotional opportunities for businesses with the aim of gaining traffic to their websites by sharing interesting content, making ads, and being able to segment the recipients. By accomplishing these things, the practice can build a better image of their brand by strengthening their online presence.
Another point to make is that social media needs to be seen as holistic work. Not only do you want to pay attention to your practices’ accounts and running ad campaigns, but also to your personal account/s. Remember that everything affects your reputation, things don’t fall through the cracks, and controlling the information that patients can find out about you on your Google search is important.
Social networks require care and maintenance, so before starting to work with them it is necessary to define the ones you need for your objectives.
The first questions we must ask ourselves are: Why do we want social networks? What kind of audience do I want to reach? What personal and economic resources can I invest?
From there, decide which platform best aligns with your goals.
With whatever you decide to do, remember the importance of SEO. You must make sure that the content you are creating and uploading can be identified as interesting by both your patients and Google. Although hard to achieve without someone who has specialised in SEO, it is not impossible, and the work put into it will not disappear overnight.
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