The Importance of the Right Recommendations

ByJulianC

The Importance of the Right Recommendations

Good physicians tend to build extremely loyal patient families, often seeing the same patients and their children for generations. Physicians find that those loyal patients often are some of the best advertisements for their practices. It is impressive how much impact a few passionate and credible sources can have on a business’ reputation, and highly satisfied repeat customers can be some of a practice’s most effective marketing tools.

What’s Important to the Patient?2nd opinion on surgery

The layperson looking for a physician expects to see impressive professional credentials and fellowships in prestigious societies and academies. A long list of degrees and accomplishments is unlikely to be the deciding factor in searching for a new doctor. Likewise, a magazine poll that rates local physicians might offer some insights, but it gives you no real idea of whether a physician is not only competent, but a good fit for you.

The advice of someone who has personal experience with a particular physician is much more likely to sway a person’s opinion than a rating in a poll or a flashy ad in a magazine. People are more likely to trust the recommendation of family members and friends over the opinions of strangers, even those who are considered “experts”.  The more patients who recommend a practice, the more reliable and competent its image. Conversely, if former patients consistently criticize a practice, potential patients are likely to see it in a negative light.

Links: Virtual Recommendations

Having recommendations from trusted sources is just as important to the success of your website as it is to the success of your practice. This means having links to your site from other sites that are related to your practice and respected within your profession. These links – called backlinks, show how widely known your “brand” is on the Internet and who is aware of it. Just as with patient recommendations, more links is better than fewer, and links from trusted and relevant sites are better than those from random or unrelated sites.

Integrated Internet Marketing

The principal value of a strong backlink portfolio is that increases your website’s ranking in search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Highly-ranked sites appear closer to the top of query results generated by these search engines, which means they are likely to get the most visitors. However, just having lots of backlinks doesn’t ensure a strong ranking. Search engines give much more weight to links from sites with content that is relevant to that on your website. Quality is every bit as important as quantity.

Let Axiom Administrative Services show you how we can build a backlink portfolio for your site that gets you noticed in online searches. We combine high-level IT expertise with extensive healthcare industry experience so we know what sites provide the most value in your backlink portfolio. We can also help you create new content for outside sites that will keep your online presence fresh.  Contact us today to learn how we can optimize your links, boost your online profile, and help drive business to your practice.

 

Posted by Axiom Health Care Marketing

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