Online Reputation Management

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Are online reviews helping or hurting your practice? You could be losing thousands of dollars without even knowing it!

Did You Know?

  • 90% of patients review your business before visiting.
  • 82% say reviews impact their decisions.
  • Patients spent 31% more on doctors with excellent reviews.
  • 84% of Internet users trust customer reviews more than expert reviews.
  • 20% of all searches on Google are related to location.

Online reputation management is critical to any practice that wants to grow or maintain its business. A solid reputation can be established quickly, especially online. However, consistent positive feedback over a period of time is important to maintaining that reputation.

Online review sites are today’s version of word-of-mouth referrals. Studies show that even when referred to a doctor by another physician or friend, a patient will still research online reviews before actually making an appointment.

Reputation management websites include:
  • Yelp.com
  • Citysearch.com
  • Google+ Local
  • HealthGrades.com
  • Vitals.com
  • YahooMaps.com
  • RateMD.com
  • YellowBook.com
  • Realself.com
  • AngiesList.com
  • Avvo.com
  • Bing.com
  • EveryDayHealth.com
  • InsiderPages.com
  • UCompareHealthCare.com
  • LinkedIn.com
  • Manta.com
  • YellowBot.com
  • SuperDoctors.com
  • Wellness.com
  • ZocDoc.com

Goldman Marketing Group manages approximately 20-30 reputation management profiles for each of our clients. In addition to managing reviews for these sites, we post photos, add relevant keywords and update the information in your profile. Consistency is key with online reputation management. If the information is incorrect on these websites, prospective patients will often be led to competitors’ websites or get frustrated that something as simple as a phone number is inaccurate.

Ensuring these profiles are accurate can sometimes take months, since reputation sites are careful about their listings and require verification before changes are made. However, managing your online reputation is a key element of ensuring you rank well on search engines.

In fact, even if your website is not well optimized, a strong online reputation can help you appear on page one of a Google search. In general, Yelp listings with a high number of reviews are more likely to appear in Google search results. Additionally, listing your practice on reputation sites can help you gain backlinks to your website. Backlinks are important because they increase the number of referring websites, which increases your site’s SEO. Reputation management sites are also indexed and searched by Google, a fact which increases the ranking of the physician/practice name because it is being found in more places online.

Keep in mind that, even if a website is ranked #1 on Google, prospective patients will still likely cross reference review sites before making an appointment.

Online reputation management increases your website’s SEO, enhances your overall web presence, offers prospective patients more ways of finding your practice and is a great forum for patients to share their experiences with one another.

Next, learn about social media management.