Why Doctors Should Consider Their Online Presence?
For better or for worse, the internet plays a vital role in every area of ​​our lives. The world of health is no exception. The Patients research everything about their health online, from symptoms and medications to their doctors. Potential patients will search for their options in advance.
What are the Benefits of Online Presence to a Doctor?
Having an online presence is vital for a clinic, as this is how patients will find you. However, it is just not enough to be online. Online reputation is essential to promoting your practice. Patients not only search online to see if a doctor has a website. But they use the internet to read reviews from potential doctors and see what other patients think beforehand. Research has shown that about 84%Â of patients research healthcare professionals before setting foot in the clinic.
Patients are much more likely to go to a reputable doctor with a better online presence. In addition, they tend to spend more money on it. Reputed online doctors may have patients seeking help, even if they are out-of-Network.
How To Improve Your Online Presence
The first step to improve your online reputation is to check its current status. Take the first step by searching your practice name on the search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Observe what types of links appear in the search results. Do they favorably reflect your practice?
Then take a closer look at review websites, such as ZocDocs, WebMD, Yelp, or Healthgrades to see what patients are saying about you. You should also check out the reviews on Bing and Google.
Ask Your Patients for Reviews & Feedbacks
You can request feedback from your patients by email after their visit. It will not harm your reputation and can lead to a lot of positive reviews. However, you should only seek genuine reviews. It can be tempting to post fake reviews, but your account can get flagged for fraudulent reviews and feedbacks, which would negatively impact your reputation even more than a bad review.
Answer Over Reviews
It is always a good idea to respond to both positive and negative reviews. You can thank positive reviewers for their feedback. You can reply to negative reviews as long as you are careful not to violate patient confidentiality. You must be polite while responding to a negative review, which can help reverse any adverse effects on your online reputation.
Google Alerts?
You can set up Google to notify you via email whenever your clinic or name gets tagged by someone online. That will help you stay proactive in the face of any change, positive or negative, in your online prominence.
HOW TO SET UP GOOGLE ALERTS
To create a Google Alert, go to https://www.google.com/alerts and enter your practice name. You can set multiple Alerts. So that you can choose your name and also include the full name of your practice. Make sure you are signed in to your Google Account because this is the email address Google uses to send the Alerts.
Claim Your Business Listing Online?
When you search for a business by name, Google provides a business profile. If the business owner has not claimed the business listing, Google will pull information about the firm from the online listings. Claiming your business identity will allow you to control what information Google displays about your practice. If your business is not having an automatically created Google Business Listing, it can be a good idea to create one so that patients can find you more easily.
HOW TO CLAIM YOUR ONLINE GOOGLE BUSINESS LISTING
To claim your practice on Google, sign in to Google My Business. Click the Manage Now button and enter your practice name. There, Google will ask you to add your company profile to its listings. If so, you can search for your practice and then follow steps by Google to confirm that you are the business owner. Often this is done by sending a postcard to your location with a verification code. You can then update your company profile to make it easier for patients to find you.
Directories To Claim Your Business Online
Google is not the only list of online businesses. Since Google gets the information from online directories, you should claim your business in as many directories as possible.
Each Patient Has the Power to Affect Your Online Presence
The people who leave reviews about you and your clinic online are the patients. It is important to remember that every patient you treat is also a potential assessor. It means that you will need to make sure about leaving each patient the reputation you want for your practice. How you treat them during their visit is what they will report online.
Some Of the Best online directories For Medical Professionals & Practices:
- BetterDoctor
- Cured
- ZocDoc
- Healthgrades
- MD Connect
- MedlinePlus
- DocSpot
- Doximity
- Vitals
- WebMD
- Wellness
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