An online presence is your ‘footprint’ in the online world, influencing the perceptions people have of your hearing practice. It is the sum total of your website, social media profiles, and all the other pages that show up when your company or name is searched for on the internet.
When properly configured, your brand awareness will be spread far and wide and digital interactions with other online users could leave them with a positive opinion of your business. This makes them more likely to contact your practice for hearing tests and consultations in the future.
It may seem like a big task but with a little work, any hearing practice can substantially improve their visibility online. Here are six ways to boost your online presence:
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Rise up the search rankings
Search engine optimization (SEO) is about making it easier for search engines to find your practice. The aim of SEO is to generate traffic to your website by helping your website achieve a higher position in search-engine results.
Being higher in the search rankings helps improve your presence with those who are more likely to want your products, increase brand awareness and makes your hearing practice appear credible and professional. When using an effective local SEO strategy, you ensure that your site ranks higher than your local competitors. This improves the possibly that potential customers will contact you instead of your rivals when they or someone they know needs to have a hearing consultation.
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Use pay-per-click ads
While SEO is effective, sometimes the methods used to implement it can take months to pay off. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads on the other hand, can be a successful way to build traffic quickly.
Instead of waiting for you SEO strategy to pay dividends, you can purchase your way to the top of the results pages by selecting the right keywords and with a big enough budget. With a little skill you’ll even be able to get in front of potential customers at the exact moment they’re looking for your products.
Google AdWords also allows you to geographically target your searches that can help you get to potential customers who live close to your hearing practice.
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Optimize your website for mobile users
It may have been reiterated many times before, but it is important to have a good mobile website. People use their mobile phones to search for local information more often than any other device. Your website needs to be both visually appealing and optimized for the mobile user. Google looks at how friendly your website is when deciding where to place you on its search engine results.
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List your business on online directories
As mentioned earlier, most people surf the Internet via mobile devices, and search engines concentrate on what is local in the results of these searches. A profile with a link to your company’s website in a local business directory can increase your odds of being visible to potential customers.
You can make use of widely known directories like Google+ Local and Yelp to direct a large number of people to your website. The more directories you are listed in, the higher it is possible to rank in local search engines results.
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Publish regular content aimed at your target audience
By creating great local content that your customers love, you will help improve the search ranking of your business. The best way is to build content that will help address a problem or fulfill a need.
For example, your target audience may have problems communicating with their workmates. In this case, an article on how to deal with communication problems at work might be effective in bringing potential customers to your website. By publishing such content, you solve problems your customers have, helping them to see you as an authority on the subject, and improving your brand reputation.
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Use social media to your advantage
One of the best ways to connect with potential customers is through social media. You’ll find engaged audience who are ready to interact with your hearing practice by having accounts on major social media platforms. It can will help you to establish a strong relationship with potential customers and promote brand loyalty. This can help increase leads and improve the reputation of your hearing practice.
Nick Fitzgerald is the President and Owner of AuDSEO. With 13 years of digital marketing experience, Nick is a highly data-driven marketer, with expertise in search engine optimization, digital analytics and forensics, social media, digital advertising, and web development. He has been involved in the construction and optimization of nearly 1,000 web presences, including some of the largest Fortune 500 companies.
