Preface
It is always the goal, especially for a physician enterprise group, to maximize appointments made and continually bring in new patients. This strategy, carried out digitally, was slower to catch on in the healthcare industry, but now is integral to attaining profitable growth as a practice.
Starting Point
There are many digital tools that can be utilized to buttress the ROI of a physician enterprise group, as it relates to driving appointments and converting those initial appointments into repeat patients. One of the most effective ways to do this is to engage in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is one of the single most important services a physician enterprise group can engage in. This is true because of the large number of pages dedicated to the countless different services, doctors, and locations in a physician enterprise group.
In 2015, Today’s Business developed a comprehensive plan to increase traffic to a physician enterprise group’s location pages throughout the website by implementing a backlinking campaign to not only correct current backlinks, but also to develop new backlinks that have increased the site’s Authority, which also provided new avenues for leads. This plan encompassed a large aspect of the SEO strategy that Today’s Business employed.
Results
The below table shows the traffic to different location pages of the physician group:
As can be seen, both the sessions and new users spiked starkly as time progressed. Additionally, over 8 months, there were 256 appointment forms submitted, an extremely positive development. This increase to location pages was a result of a concerted effort to send people to these specific pages, which is important because the user is then on the exact page they want to be, as opposed to just a more general page.
Another aspect of the offsite strategy was being able to locate and correct all business listings and citations that were directed to an individual properties’ website and redirect them to point to individual location pages. This is important because it presents the user with more relevant results and increases the odds of an appointment and potential conversion. By developing that unified offsite strategy, Today’s Business has been able to increase traffic and impressions to the newly formed physician enterprise group’s locations website.
Below is a chart demonstrating that increase in organic traffic:
By committing to this offsite strategy, the physician enterprise group saw their organic traffic increase pretty impressively. The primary reason for this being that the group’s pages would appear more frequently and more favorably in search results on a site like Google. With more access to users via search results, it is not surprising organic traffic steadily increased.
The last aspect of this offsite, SEO strategy is focusing on keywords. By being sure that pertinent keywords are included on and linked to on various offsite pages, this guarantees more results for these pages when a user searches Google using any one of those keywords. Put a different way, anyone searching on Google for a physician or practice in a certain area will almost certainly get the appropriate location from this physician enterprise group because Today’s Business ensured the proper keywords were used on the proper pages.
Below is one final chart highlighting the improvement in keyword rankings:
As can be seen, more and more keywords were drawing results in the top positions. This is undeniably important in driving more traffic and, ultimately, more conversions because users search on Google will normally not look past the first page of results. As of mid-November, there were 54 different keywords that would draw a #1 position on a Google search of a page from the physician group. In addition, there are 116 keywords that rank on the first page. And, maybe most importantly, keywords ranked #1 pertain to the physician enterprise group’s practice, brand name, and doctors – which all met the clients’ goals of what they wanted to primarily be ranked for.
Conclusion
With all this considered, Today’s Business completely revamped this physician enterprise group’s offsite business listings through an effective SEO strategy, focused on backlinking and keywords. Through more robust search results of relevant location pages, organic traffic has seen a large uptick and, in turn, more appointments have been made. This portends more accessibility and an overall increase in revenue for the physician enterprise group. By allowing Today’s Business to optimize their digital presence, this medical group is well positioned to succeed in the future.