Your Practice Website Can Be a Standout

Simple, cost-effective ideas that attract refractive patients

By David Evans, PhD

More than 175 million Americans use the Internet daily, and one of the most frequently researched topics is health care. Indeed, according to Pew Research, 84% of Internet users have searched for information about healthcare services.

Pew Research also found that more than 80% of the consumers who look for healthcare information online start their efforts on a search engine. Google is synonymous with search, but its 70% market share is kept in check by Yahoo (18%) and Microsoft's new Bing search engine (8%).

Support for Referrals

Word-of-mouth referrals remain the primary source of new business for many refractive surgery practices. However, in today's information environment, word-of-mouth is now supported by the Internet. Potential patients now use information they gather online to support their surgical decision. If a prospective patient hears about an ophthalmologist from a friend, the first thing he or she is will do is look that doctor up on the Internet. If that person cannot easily find the doctor online or if the Web site is not up to par — that is a big problem. The premium practice must be properly positioned online to capture patients who want to learn about the services the practice provides.

Elements of the Premium Practice Web site

Before beginning your Internet marketing campaign, it is important to know the two key components of successful Web-based marketing: (1) developing an effective practice Web site and (2) making the site easy for consumers to find.

Successful premier refractive Web sites contain several vital elements. It should be aesthetically attractive, have a good marketing message and be easy to navigate. It is also imperative that content is procedure- and service-oriented and can help patients in their decision-making process.

The Web site's marketing message must be clear. Often, practices feature the doctor or laser technology on the Web site. This information does not resonate with patients. They want to know how they will benefit from the procedure. Highlight the benefits of vision correction: the independence from glasses and contact lenses that represents an enhanced lifestyle. Enhanced vision is about being able to ski without glasses and play tennis at night.

The next step is to ensure that the Web site includes a prominent call to action that is highly visible, speaks to satisfying the patient's needs and prompts the patient to take action. By providing a call to action on your Web site — for example, “Free LASIK Consultation” — it supplies a prospective patient with the motivation to take the next step toward the purchase of your services.

It is important to engage your prospective patients. Once their decision to take action has been made, it is also vital that they can contact your practice easily. It is key to have your contact information or phone number clearly visible in more than one place. Many practices place the e-mail contact form and phone number only on a contact page.

Make the Practice Easy to Find

To develop a successful Internet marketing strategy, it is important to understand how consumers search for refractive surgery-related information. The keywords or phrases consumers use to search for elective health care information fall into two categories. The first category consists of root or global search terms, such as “LASIK” or “laser eye surgery.” The second category consists of local key phrases that are used to find specific surgeons to perform a procedure. These local or specific searches include the procedure name plus a location, as in “LASIK Los Angeles” or “LASIK NYC.”

A common misconception is that consumers primarily use local search terms when they are researching refractive surgery. This could not be further from the truth. In reality, research shows that consumers investigate the general topic they are interested in before they begin to look for a doctor. Global search terms make up about 80% of the consumer searches related to a refractive surgery procedure, while the local or specific searches encompass only about 20%.

An Internet Visibility Strategy

Because of the manner in which consumers search, it is best if your Web site is found on the search engine results pages for both global as well as local or specific searches. While individual practice Web sites can rank well for local terms, it is very difficult for an individual practice Web site to rank well for global terms. Often, individual practice Web sites are met with fierce competition from large well-established sites (FDA, Wikipedia, etc). For this kind of visibility, individual practice Web sites may need to be in a directory that is capable of ranking on Google for global search terms.

Search engines display two types of results to consumers when they search for information about refractive surgery; paid advertisements and organic listings. Paid advertisements or pay-per-click (PPC) refer to “sponsored advertisements” that appear at the top and along the side of the search results. Organic rankings are selected by the search engines and appear in the middle of the search results page. Practices can build visibility for their Web site through PPC ads and organic search results, as well as directories.

PPC advertising allows the practice to select the key words for which the advertisements will appear, what text will appear in the ad, the daily and monthly budget for the PPC initiative and over what geographic range the ad will appear. PPC campaigns can be easily set up and managed by someone in the practice; however, for larger budgets in excess of 3,000 to 4,000 clicks per month, we recommend hiring a company that specializes in PPC advertising. PPC ads can be purchased for both global and local search terms.

Optimizing Organic Listings

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process by which a Web site is structured so that it is “well liked” by the search engines. SEO activities can be performed onsite, which includes updates to the page titles, content and page headings, and also offsite, which includes increasing the number of incoming links to the site.

The best approach for a premium refractive surgery Web site is to focus on the local search terms, such as “LASIK Chicago.” This means that the page titles, content, page headings and links should include the location and procedure of interest. Common mistakes made by practices trying to perform SEO include the use of duplicate content, improper page titles and content and insufficient or poorly structured incoming links.

Organic vs PPC Listings

Both organic listings and PPC listings can be effective for driving traffic to your Web site. PPC campaigns are relatively easy to set up, run and manage the budget. From an overall perspective, it is important to note that consumers attribute significantly more credibility to organic listings and in fact, according to Jupiter Research, six out of seven consumers prefer to click on an organic listing rather than a PPC.

Another advantage of organic listings is that there is no cost per click and therefore no cost per visitor. The disadvantage of organic listings is that it takes time and skill to obtain first-page positioning for competitive (and therefore critical) keywords. The implementation of an organic listing strategy requires considerable SEO expertise, constant vigilance and continuous revision and updating of your Web site.

Directories: Why Be in a Directory?

Good refractive surgeon directories can be very beneficial for promoting your practice. E-marketer data shows that when Web sites are seen multiple times online, consumers are much more likely (about twice as likely) to convert. Consequently, if a consumer finds the practice Web site online and also finds the practice through a directory, conversion goes up. Furthermore, good directories are able to compete with other large sites (i.e., FDA) for first-page search engine rankings for global search terms. Since 80% of all healthcare searches are performed using global terms, a practice not listed in a good directory is potentially forfeiting visibility and branding for a large number of potential patients. Good directories have certain attributes:

► Rank well for global refractive surgery search terms.
► Contain highly informational, updated and accurate content that lends credibility to the listed surgeons.
► Offer ease of contacting the practice via the directory.

Summary

Effective Internet marketing includes a compelling, well-constructed Web site and a way to build visibility for the site on the Internet. Consumers search for refractive surgery information using mostly global search terms and a smaller percentage of local search terms. A combination of PPC advertising, Web site SEO and directory listings can be employed to reach potential patients online. OM

Dr. Evans is CEO of Ceatus Media Group, which owns and manages the most visible online directories for LASIK surgeons. He and his team also oversee the SEO and prominent search engine rankings for more than 100 LASIK and plastic surgeon Web sites. He often lectures about Internet marketing, Dr. Evans can be reached by e-mail at dwevans@ceatus.com