How Important Are Online Reviews for Medical Professionals?
Medical Professionals often ask if online reviews about their practice really matter. The short answer is; Yes, Online Reviews for Medical Professionals matter – for many reasons.
Recent studies suggest that over 90% of consumers take online reviews into consideration prior to selecting a service; so even if marketing the practice online is our only objective, it’s vitally important to have an effective strategy in place to accumulate online reviews.
Changes to Google’s Knowledge Panel
Google’s Knowledge Panel is a box that shows up at the right of search results and it shows more detailed information about your practice. And until recently, Google just showed reviews that were entered into Google. And that has changed. Now Google pulls reviews from other sources, like online directories and web review sites.
So in addition to showing reviews left on Google, the search results will now be showing reviews from other third-party review sites into a practices Knowledge Panel. This is a game changer because Google is broadening the number of reviews and where those reviews come from.
What 3rd Party Sites Are Taken into Consideration?
The answer is that just about any site that uses the correct code (markup) for reviews will be taken into consideration. And it’s reasonable to assume that the higher ranking sites will hold greater sway over what reviews Google chooses to use. It is safe to say that sites like Vitals, Health Grades, and even Yelp and Foursquare will matter most.
How to Get Patients to Give Online Reviews?
We have to Ask! And it never hurts to give your patients a handout or email with the links readily available. Remember to talk to your staff to ensure they know reviews are important. They need to reach out to each patient with a “Thank you for coming in today. Would you be willing to give us an online review so we can know how we did today?” Have the sheet available with the links to your review pages handy in case they say yes.
Make it part of your process and EMR system to send patients a follow-up email with links to review sites. Reiterate how happy you are they selected your practice and ask for feedback. Most people are happy to do so, as long as you make it easy for them.
Get Started Today!
Online Reviews are increasingly important to patients and search engine results. They matter and you need a focused strategy to obtain them.
Interested in learning more about what RH Medical Marketing to do for your practice? Why not ask for your complimentary internet marketing report? We specialize in proven ethical medical marketing practices that will grow your practice.
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