Building Local Awareness For Your Health Clinics
When serving rural areas, Federally Qualified Health Centers typically treat patients across several communities, so building local awareness about the clinic is important to continually bring patient care to those in the surrounding areas. Eliminating the need for patients to travel to larger markets, proper marketing can boost your exposure among the communities you serve. By utilizing a well-designed and optimized website as well as various social media platforms that drive patients back to your website, your clinic can better serve patients in your communities.
Boost Your Health Clinic’s Local SEO
Beyond a visually engaging website that is responsive on both desktop and mobile devices, it is important that you properly utilize SEO (Search Engine Optimization) throughout your website’s content to climb to the top of search results. Simply speaking, SEO is to websites as hashtags are to social media.
Healthcare SEO stats and research indicates that three out of four patients use internet searches when looking for a new healthcare provider. With such diversified treatment options provided by health clinics, using high quality content and keywords that are optimized to your services allows you to improve your local search engine ranking and avoid missing prospective patients.
Why is Local SEO Important for Health Clinics?
- Rank higher in searches for keywords specific to various treatments
-
-
- Driving more traffic to your website by using targeted keywords throughout your website content. Creating an optimized landing page that loads rapidly is more likely to capture the attention of potential patients over those that lag. Page loading speed, in addition to keywords, factor into search engine ranking results.
-
- Attract new patients
-
-
- When patients are looking for medical facilities near them, search results combined with a complete Google Business Profile allows for potential patients to access your business easily. This listing should include hours of operation, services, and contact information including address and phone number. When viewed on a mobile device, this search result also provides a handy “Call” button that makes contacting your facility even easier!
-
- Generate patient reviews
-
-
- Patient reviews also help to boost your FQHCs ranking in search results. By taking the initiative to request reviews, you can capture the praise of satisfied patients that will help to drive more patients to the facility. Sending out patient satisfaction surveys following treatment and inviting patients to write a review help to foster patient-provider feedback and prove invaluable for prospective patients. One patient experience survey finds that 74% of patients find online reviews very important when seeking a new healthcare provider.
-
- Increase profile of physicians within the center
-
-
- Giving patients reassurance of the quality of care that they will receive at your FQHC, reviews and testimonials can also help to increase the profile of physicians affiliated with your center. For many patients, their decision to visit or avoid a particular practice has more to do with the doctor-patient relationship than the location of the facility. Those providers with better reputations are more likely to attract potential patients than those with unfavorable reviews.
-
They’ve gotta find you first.
How can I get my business on Google Maps?
Making certain that your health center is properly listed on Google Maps is integral in getting patients through your doors. And it’s absolutely FREE! An accurate listing can also increase traffic to your center’s website and broaden your reach to potential new patients. When patients are searching for providers in their area, an accurate Google Business Profile listing will provide vital information about your location, hours, and an easy-to-use Call button that makes it easy to convert a potential lead into a patient.
Three Easy Steps
- Search for your business on Google Maps. If it is not listed, you’ll see a prompt to add a missing location
- To add your business, click on the prompt and provide your name, address, and category – this is important so that your center shows up when potential patients are searching broad terms for different industries.
- Once listed, Claim your listing. Select your verification option and follow the on-screen prompts, either for online verification or confirmation via mail, in which Google will send you a postcard with a verification PIN that allows you to fully claim your business listing. You can now optimize your listing with links to your website, business hours, and more! Here’s a video demonstrating how to claim your listing!
Now that your website keywords are optimized to attract new patients, and you have properly listed your clinic on Google Maps, you can focus on other Marketing Guidelines and SEO Tips that will increase the exposure of your FQHC to potential patients in your community.
About the Author: Hunter Euchaski
