Preface
Most things can be bought. Followers, impressions, and listings in search results all fall under this category. While some of these numbers may look significant, beneath the impressive numeric veneer, they are virtually meaningless. A more impactful way of highlighting the successes of campaigns or goals is told through organic growth. Organic growth in digital marketing is achieved by engaging in strategic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) campaigns, as well as broadening the company’s customer base.
Starting Point
In September 2015, a medical practice tasked Today’s Business with increasing their website performance organically. When specifically examining a medical practice that coveted improvement of its website performance, there are certain indicators that can be analyzed that illustrate an important story about how effectively the practice has grown organically.
Results
The goal of a medical practice is to get people to make appointments and eventually become patients. One of the most effective and logical ways to increase the number of patients a practice has is to increase the traffic to its website and increase the conversions on its contact forms. Accordingly, these are some of the key indicators that Today’s Business reviewed when attempting to gauge the success of growing the practice organically.
The below results comparing metrics that measure organic website performance from August 2016 to September 2016 speak for itself.
- Organic Search Impressions increased over 8.14% (79,793 vs. 73,789)
- Organic Contact Forms increased 11.9% (66 vs. 59)
- Organic search brought 3,377 New Users (73%)
Non Branded Organic Search Impressions increased 2.8% (75,324 vs. 73,239)
As evidenced by the above, impressions and organic contact forms increased by a healthy amounts with the real windfall being a staggering 73% increase in new users over the course of just one month. There is an excellent chance that a handful of those 3,377 new users will become patients, which means revenue from new sources for the medical group. Also, non-branded organic search results increased, which means that users searching online can find the medical practice without having to type in the name of the practice specifically.
While these numbers are very encouraging and highlight the kind of results that can be achieved on a monthly basis, to get a full perspective of how Today’s Business can improve website performance organically, a year over year analysis gives a more robust picture.
The below results compare metrics that measure organic website performance from September 2015 vs. September 2016.
- Organic Traffic increased 20% compared to September 2015 (4,919 vs. 4,074)
- Contact forms via Organic Search increased 3,200%(!) (66 vs. 2)
- Contact Form Conversion Rate increased 1.646% (1.34% vs. 0.08%)
- Non Branded Organic Traffic has increased 91% (276 vs. 144)
- New Users via Organic Search increased 117% (3,377 vs. 1,559)
Non Branded Search Impressions have increased by 22,824%(!) (11,691 vs. 51)
Mobile Traffic via Organic Search has increased 86% (2,100 vs. 1,128)
These year-over-year (YoY) results have some areas of improvement that are truly incredible. Namely, traffic to contact forms via organic search increased by a stunning 3,200% and non branded search impressions increased by a dizzying 22,824%. Herein lies the value of Today’s Business’s services, quantified. 3,200% more traffic to contact forms and 22,824% more impressions means the amount of potential patients this medical group is reaching undoubtedly has led to conversions and, in turn, revenue.
Conclusion
In summation, Today’s Business effectively took a medical practice’s organic website performance from virtually nonexistent to high performance in just a year’s time. With medical practices adjusting to the tough realities of remaining profitable in an ever-changing economic environment, increasing and maintaining organic website performance can be a difference-making competitive advantage.