If you are a practice owner wanting to help more patients, maximise the growth your business, or even just keep your associates busy, you need to grab every opportunity to get new patients in the door. And that means being everywhere people might be looking for your services.

So, where are they looking?

Ten years ago the Yellow Pages dominated as the source of new business to local health and medical practices. The Yellow Pages worked so well because it was the place to advertise your business to local customers. Everyone knew that every business was in there, and that was because business owners knew everyone went straight to the Yellow Pages first.

Take a look a what has happened to the Yellow Pages over the last ten or so years…

… and since 2012 they are publishing all the old listings for free – even businesses that have closed. Yes, the Yellow Pages book is dead.

Now, of course, everyone goes straight to the Internet first.

But the Internet doesn’t work like the Yellow Pages.

Where the YP concentrated everyone’s attention to one channel, the Internet dilutes it. When people jump online to search for local services they aren’t looking in one place.

To get your message in front of the same people you need to be in more and more places. Can you be found easily in Google and Bing search for the right searches? What about Google Local and Maps, Google Adwords, social media sites, online business and industry directories, practitioner ratings sites, and more?

It’s the same thing that has happened with TV advertising. Ten years ago we all watched just handful of free-to-air channels, and it was dead easy for businesses to get our attention. Then Foxtel came along, followed by YouTube and Netflix and Apple TV.

And it’s expanding all the time. You need to know where people are looking, how they go about finding you, and the most cost effective way to get potential patients’ attention in each channel. Especially when you’re trying to grow.

We spend a lot of time reviewing health practitioner’s online presence

…and have noticed some very common mistakes:

• Poorly structured and outdated websites that don’t inspire immediate trust.
• Amateur or absent website search optimisation strategy and resulting low rankings for important search terms.
• Limited visibly on the dozens of important websites where people find health practitioners online.
• Paying for Google display ads on terms that will never result in an appointment.

Perhaps you recognise some of these as areas for improvement in your own business.

With a seamless brand presence online & offline you will see a significant improvement in the number of new patients coming to your practice. I encourage you to take some time over the next few days and think about your web presence. Do you have all the ground covered online? Are you ranking well in Google and Bing for the most important search terms for your services? When people visit your website do they see you looking like a much better choice than your competition up the road?

If you think there are gaps you need to fix, we can help.