In the past, if a person was looking for a recommendation for a reputable hearing provider, the old standby was to ask a friend or neighbor. Although some old-school, word-of-mouth referrals still exist, they are no longer enough to keep your practice growing.
In today’s world, hearing practices need to rely on a variety of marketing tactics to reach their target audience, stay top of mind, and stand out from their competitors.
Here are a few recommendations to improve your website and help you get more patients.
Unique Content
A practice’s website is oftentimes the first point of contact with a potential patient. A good website should provide visitors with answers to their questions and entice them to return. The user is searching for something specific, so be sure the information you provide is unique, well-written, and valuable.
Fresh content is also great for search engine optimization (SEO). By including a frequently updated blog or interacting in your social media feeds, you can keep your content relevant, informative, and engage with your audience.
Responsive Website
A responsive website automatically adjusts its appearance based on the size of the device’s display. In other words, the website should look great and be easy to navigate and access regardless of the device. This provides a good user experience and helps boost the amount of time a visitor spends on it.
Google also takes mobile responsiveness into account when determining a site’s ranking in search results.
Patient Reviews
The number of people who read reviews before visiting a website has increased dramatically in the last few years. This includes the number of potential patients who value online feedback as much as a personal recommendation. According to reports, reviews are used to reinforce your local listing, which is why they frequently improve your local search placement.
Search engines integrate visibility on consumer review sites into their algorithm to assess your search relevance in local search engine results.
Quality Videos
People who are searching for information pertaining to their hearing health are likely full of questions. Many of their questions can be answered through well-designed videos.
How-to’s, tutorials, and informational videos are extremely helpful to your website visitors and help your site stand out from the crowd.
Optimize Your Website
All of the elements that live on your site’s pages can be optimized. It takes time to optimize these elements, but you have complete control over the process, as you can alter your copy, content, and HTML to improve them. There are several variables you should think about while optimizing your website.
- Title tags: As the name says, the title tag for each page acts as the page’s title, and each page’s title tag should be unique. You only have a limited amount of space in search results, so your title tags are your best chance of getting them to click.
- Meta description: In search engine results, meta descriptions are the little snippets that appear beneath the title tag. A meta description should give a comprehensive overview of a page’s content and entice readers to explore.
- Alt-text: This is an HTML element that describes what is being shown in an image. Because search engines can’t see or understand images in the same way humans can, alt text helps them figure out what’s on the screen. Alt-text is also used to assist visually challenged individuals in understanding what is on a page.
Incorporating the techniques above, in addition to good-old, word-of-mouth recommendations, will go a long way in improving the experience on your website, help you rank better in a Google search, and ultimately, help you get more patients.
Nick Fitzgerald is the President and Owner of AuDSEO. He also serves as the Chief Marketing Officer at Hearing Health & Technology Matters. With 14 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.
