ARTICLE
5 Tips to Seize Control of Your Online Reputation Help More Patients Find Your Chiropractic Practice As the internet evolves, so does the way patients hear about you. While in-person word-of-mouth recommendations and newspaper ads were once enough to drive traffic through your doors, they are no longer the most efficient or cost-effective marketing strategies. Word-of-mouth referrals are still the best way for patients to learn about your chiropractic practice, but now take the form of online listings and reviews. It's important to ensure that positive feedback is met with gratitude and negative feedback is addressed and used for practice improvement. Let's review how online directory listings and reviews can make or break a patient’s decision to choose you as a provider. 1. Online Directories: Where Most Patients Find You Your website may be your official platform, but it is only a fraction of your online presence. Did you know over half of all patients pick a provider based on information found outside their official website? You’ve probably used one before, like Yelp and Google Maps, but there are also online directories that cater to chiropractic practices as well, like ZocDoc and WebMD. Online directories enhance your practice’s visibility and help you rank higher on search engine results, so ensuring the information that is found is accurate and reflects positively on your practice is imperative. 2. Inaccurate Information Drives Patients Away Now you know your online presence goes beyond your practice’s website. You appear on many online directories, such as maps or review apps, even if you didn’t create these listings yourself. Did you know some of these online listings likely contain incorrect data about your practice? Directory sites combine web crawlers, user-submitted data, and business-submitted data with complex algorithms to determine what content is accurate and should be displayed online. However, these solutions sometimes get the data wrong, such as listing incorrect phone numbers, addresses, or hours. To avoid confusing your clients, you should ensure your practice information is accurate wherever you are listed online. 3. Quality Listings = Better Search Ranking Your listings influence your ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). Search engines, like Google, use algorithms to determine the consistency of your practice information wherever it appears online. Practices with consistent listings rank higher than those with outdated or incorrect data, and with 90% of US smartphone users counting on their devices for reviews, directions, and other location-based services, keeping these items updated will help them find you first above the competition. 4. The Dangers of Duplicate Listings & How to Avoid Them Duplicate directory listings are a data quality issue all types of businesses can face, but they can significantly impact your ranking. When web crawlers come across multiple versions. contact or location information, they cannot tell if that data belongs to the same practice or if it belongs to several different ones. This confusion prompts the directory to create duplicate listings, causing patients to leave reviews in various places instead of the primary listing associated with your practice. Avoiding this confusion will reflect on the organization and professionalism of your practice and keep newcomers well informed on your practice information. 5. Online Reviews Encourage Confidence in Your Practice Consumers’ appetite for information is voracious and still growing. 93% consult online reviews in their buying journey, but this doesn’t just matter to retail stores or restaurants. Consulting reviews have become a critical step in the patient process and can make or break their decision to choose you. Positive reviews give patients confidence and peace of mind in choosing your practice, while negative ones do the opposite. Healthcare ranks as one of the top industries where reviews influence credibility the most. In fact, 81% of patients rely on reviews to select a provider, and this reliance has nearly doubled since pre-pandemic days. Conclusion With technology constantly changing, keeping up with patient needs and staying ahead of competitors relies on the strength of your online presence. Maintaining your listings on Google Maps, Yelp, and wherever else you appear online improves your practice’s visibility, profitability, and patient base. If managing and enhancing your online presence feels overwhelming, it may be useful to outsource to a third party with industry insights like Online Chiro. These solutions can help you reach more patients, appear more credible, and improve your website while you focus on what matters most– your patients.