The healthcare industry is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world. Because the industry is constantly growing, there is constantly more and more competition for your practice. How can you stand out above your competition? Investing in online marketing can help drive traffic to your practice’s website, which brings more patients through your doors. Online marketing is made up of many different components. One of the major drivers to your practice’s website is Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
Key Components of SEM
Keyword Strategy
Every healthcare practice wants to show up as the top search result on Google for services they provide. If your practice has a terrible website that is not mobile friendly, best of luck even showing up on the second page on Google. Not only does Google penalize old and outdated websites, potential patients do not have a good site experience either. This leads to them bouncing off of your website and clicking on your competitor’s site.
SEM is a great tool to use if your healthcare practice already has a responsive website, or you are looking to update your website. If your practice does not utilize SEO (which I highly recommend you do), SEM will help you show up in the top search results on Google.
You may have noticed that sometimes you can search a doctor’s name on Google, and information about other doctors in the same field show up instead. What that means is that your competitor is bidding on your doctor’s name. By setting up your SEM campaign, you can begin bidding on your name. This will help ensure that you are always the number one result when someone is looking for you.
Ad Extensions
Ad Extensions are your best friend when you run a SEM campaign. This tool gives your text ads more visibility as it has more information and links that will help increase your Click Through Rate (CTR). CTR is one of the most important metrics to look at in your SEM campaigns. Some of the most popular Ad Extensions for Healthcare practices are sitelink extensions, call extensions, and location extensions.
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Sitelink Extensions
Sitelink extensions are key to increase your CTR and bring people to the exact pages you are looking for. They show links to specific pages on your website and they appear under your text ads. The great thing about these extensions is that you can add sitelinks for any pages you have on your website such as contact us, specific services, doctor bios, etc.
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Call Extensions
You have the ability to add phone numbers to show up under your text ads on Google. If you choose to create a Google forwarding number, you can directly track how many calls you get from your text ads. This is a great opportunity to drive in more conversions. According to Google, call extensions typically increase click through rate by 4 to 5 percent.
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Location Extensions
Location extensions show the businesses address, hours and other information about your practice. This is a great option so potential customers know exactly where you are located before clicking on your website. On mobile, customers can get directions to your business with one click. Location extensions also allow your Google reviews to show up on your ads, which can help entice the customer to call you or visit your business.
Conversions, Conversions, Conversions!
Every business wants to see an ROI, especially healthcare practices. Some of the best conversion points to track are phone calls and contact forms on your website. Keeping track of the number of phone calls and contact forms are filled out because of your SEM efforts is the easiest way to see how well your campaign is performing.
Start an SEM Campaign Today
If you’re new to the world of digital marketing, we would suggest trusting a SEM expert to bring you the highest ROI. You want to choose a company that can show you successful healthcare case studies, so you know they can produce the same (if not better) results for your practice.
Here at Today’s Business, we have many clients in various healthcare industries, including physical therapists, orthopedic practices, plastic surgeons, eye doctors, and urology practices, among others. With proper keywords, extensions, and conversion tracking, we can help take your healthcare practice to the next level. For more information on how we can help increase your digital presence, please contact us today.