As a healthcare provider, exporting some of your business online is a must-do business step in today’s virtualized world of enterprise.
Back in the day, there was the maxim, ‘If you’re not on social media, it’s as if you don’t exist.’
Nowadays, it can be said that a business without an online presence is as good as non-existent outside of its immediate local community.
To propel your healthcare company to the next level, you will need a strong online presence that will paint what you do in the best possible light and give your existing and potential patients a reason to recommend you further.
Now, if you’re working hard to make your medical or dental practice the best it can be, you are entirely justified for not being at the top of your game in terms of setting up your company’s website.
What’s more, optimizing your company’s World Wide Web image and building a brand is a much tougher task than simply making a lorem ipsum placeholder blog.
In this article, we’re going to talk about a special breed of companies that can be of massive use to you when it comes to establishing an online presence for your healthcare-related business – medical SEO companies.
These enterprises can help you boost your online sway and help you attract new patients, as well as retain the old ones.
Read on to learn more.
Is Investment into Medical SEO Worth It?
Nowadays, for better or for worse, everyone who has a couple of symptoms of a cold will run to their computer first and consult Google rather than their physician.
The same principle goes for setting up medical appointments, getting medicine, treatments, and diagnostics, as well as choosing their healthcare provider.
For this reason, having a website with your brand displayed on it is of massive importance. You cannot afford to lose potential patients to competitors just because you neglected the massive pool of people looking for healthcare online.
Investing in a medical SEO company can be one of the smartest ways to spend your money as a healthcare business. Building a solid brand and reputation online can help you attract a number of high-quality patients.
How to Hire a Good Medical SEO Company?
Hiring an excellent SEO company that can provide you with all the necessary services that you need to make your business run like clockwork (well, at least its online component) is always a great idea.
That said, picking the right one is a matter of research and careful negotiations with the representatives of the company. High-quality SEO is often not that inexpensive, so choosing the SEO company that would suit your needs is a decision you should put some thought into.
At the same time, it is important to remember that seeing the benefits of SEO takes weeks and often months. So, getting to know the provider of these SEO services before you decide to commit to them is of great importance.
According to Google staff, who are in the know about all things SEO, there is a 4-step strategy you can use to get started with an SEO company:
1) Conduct a meeting
First things first, if you’re going to invest your hard-earned money into an elaborate branding and marketing campaign, it’s essential you have a good idea of who you’re working with.
You can set up a meeting online and the main goal should be learning as many pieces of information as possible about the company in question and what it can do for you.
At this point, you can also inquire about the pricing and what strategies they might implement to make your business better.
2) Check their references
A well-established SEO company will have a list of references of past successes with other clients.
They will have testimonials on their page where you can see if the clients they worked with improved their online status as a healthcare company.
Another easy way to check the worth of a medical SEO company would be to check its own ranking on Google by simply looking them up. A decent SEO company should be able to make themselves rank highly on this search engine.
3) Do a 3rd party test
Ask for the company you’re talking to for an example of a company they already worked with that has the same or at least a similar field of work as your company.
Let’s say you run a dental office and you want to increase your presence on the Internet.
What you want to do is ask the SEO representatives you’re talking to to give you an example of some other dental practice they worked with. Also, if you are from Pennsylvania, for example, it’s best to look for Pittsburgh SEO experts to help you reach your goals.
Next, you need to allocate a small sum to have an independent third-party analytics team audit if the SEO company’s services helped the medical practice in question.
The third-party auditing body, so to speak, will determine the success rate of this SEO business over time and compare the funds invested with the results.
This way, you can have a clear picture of the SEO business you’re talking to, thanks to research performed by a professional tester.
Of course, you might have to spend some money on this testing. That said, since you’ll only be doing this if you consider the SEO company in question a serious candidate, this small expenditure will likely be well worth it.
4) Make a decision to hire
Once you’ve closed in on your perfect company, making a decision to hire shouldn’t be too difficult.
If the SEO for their site is great and they have a history of success with other clients, you will likely also have success working with them.
Top 10 SEO services
There are quite a few healthcare SEO companies out there on the market and finding the best one for your needs can be a tad overwhelming – especially if you’re new to this way of improving your business.
Here’s a list of the 10 best SEO companies specializing in healthcare that currently operate on the market.
1) WEBFX – Medical SEO Company
With clients reporting scoring over 300% higher than the industry average in net promoter score (a leading metric in customer satisfaction), WEBFX is a medical SEO company with a long list of success stories.
They helped their clients amass a fortune of over 3 billion dollars in revenue, as well as attracted 7.8 million leads within the last 5 years alone. This success is backed by their so-called R.O.C.K.E.T strategy that is highly successful and highly repeatable.
The only downside to WEBFX is their rigid pricing structure – you can only choose 1 of 3 fixed plans, including Aggressive ($975/mo), Market Leader ($1.475/mo) and Trailblazer ($2975/mo) plans.
2) Sagapixel
One of the biggest advantages that Sagapixel boasts over its competitors would be the sheer number of healthcare branches they’ve been involved with.
Their clients include everything from plastic surgery clinics to urgent care centers, to senior care providers.
What makes this company attractive is that it appeals greatly to the small business owner, thus helping many private practices make headway in the market. Sadly, this is also its con, as Sagapixel solely focuses on those small businesses, and offers very little support for large enterprises.
As for pricing, the company doesn’t feature plans, but establishes prices for their service on a case-by-case basis with their clients.
3) Pearl Lemon
Well-known for being able to magically double the organic traffic to your website in 180 days, Pearl Lemon is a business that works like a charm when it comes to getting the best possible local recognition first.
The logic behind this company’s success has been to paraphrase, ‘Get the local leads first and then spread out farther into the unknown territory.’
One of the greatest pros for Pearl Lemon is that it’s a small company of only about 15 members that work round the clock to fulfill your SEO needs. This ensures a very personal touch when it comes to their service, but it can also be considered a con, because such a small team might not be able to satisfy a larger medical company’s needs.
4) Smartsites
Although not strictly a medical-oriented SEO company, Smartsites has had success in a wide range of industries, medicine included.
This makes Smartsites very versatile and highly experienced in running many kinds of SEO campaigns across multiple industries, making this one of their greatest strengths. However, we all know the old adage:”Jack of all trades, master of none”, meaning that such versatility can count against Smartsites when handling more complex campaigns.
Smartsites comes with three pricing plans – Design and Development will cost you $125/mo, PPC Management, starting at $500+/mo, and Organic SEO, which goes for $2.000/mo.
5) Serp Wizard
Concentrating heavily on patient privacy protection and building trust with your patient and customers, Serp Wizard is an SEO company perfect for a person in need of a reliable and effective SEO team that can get your medical business to the next level.
One of the greatest advantages of Serp Wizard is that they have immense experience when dealing with the medical industry. 5+ years of experience is plenty to convince any client to work with Serp Wizard, and their ability to develop your local SEO, as well as build up your links makes them the perfect SEO company for an up-and-coming medical practice.
The only downside to Serp Wizard is that their pricing isn’t clearly displayed, as they deal with each client on a case-by-case basis, so to get a ballpark figure for their services, you’ll have to get into contact with them.
6) Thrive
Thrive is a powerhouse in the SEO world, helping various medical entities increase their lead generation by almost as much as 120% on a regular basis. Thrive’s experts help their clients realize their full potential through improving optimization in various fields related to SERPs, as well as developing content for them that best shows their strengths to potential clients
However, though Thrive did work with those aforementioned medical entities, that is also where their experience within the medical field of industry stops. Thrive doesn’t focus on the medical industry, per se, so it’s important to keep in mind they’re still gathering experience, though they’re on the right track.
When it comes to pricing, Thrive also works on a case-by-case basis, and contacting them is the only way to get a feel for how much their services will cost you.
7) Lyfe Marketing
Lyfe marketing believes in one thing – innovation and modernization. This is why Lyfe Marketing experts put much of their efforts toward following the latest SEO trends that will ensure their clients’ top spots in the SERPs every time.
One of the greatest pros for going with Lyfe Marketing is their extensive list of services they provide, and how flexible they are when handling their clients. Lyfe offers specialized services, ranging from social media marketing, over PPC marketing and email marketing, down to short video campaigns to boost your engagement and generate new leads.
This, however, also means that their services can get spicy when it comes to pricing. Each of their services has its own 3-package system, but that means that if you need multiple services, the prices of packages you choose will quickly add up!
8) SEOworks
One thing that sets SEOworks apart from its competition is its experience in the field. This company believes firmly in the power of solid SEO fundamentals that will propel your SEO strategy to the next level, and ensure you always stay competitive.
SEOworks has experience working with many industries, including healthcare, and their services for this industry in particular are quite extensive.
However, as usual with such a pro, one reason you might not want to hire SEOworks is that their services tend to get expensive. They don’t have any specific pricing plans, but that amount of expertise and excellence of service is sure to bump up their price tag.
9) The Status Bureau
With 16 years of experience, The Status Bureau has more than enough expertise and experience to make itself a prime SEO expert anyone can turn to. Their Pay-Per-Click ad campaigns, covering all the major social media platforms, are some of the most well-researched and implemented, ensuring their clients are always able to bring in more leads and convert more customers.
On the other hand, just like SEOworks, that much experience also comes with a hefty price tag. Luckily, The Status Bureau remains flexible as ever, and you can adjust your costs based on the scope of the services you need performed by contacting the Bureau themselves.
10) SureOak
One of the most cost-effective ways of creating hype around your brand is by boosting your organic traffic, though that takes years of experience and a deep understanding of the target demographic.
Luckily, SureOak is here to help. SureOak pride themselves on their ability to fully understand their client’s goals, and bring them closer to their target audience through in-depth research of the market and their innate understanding of the social media environs.
The only con to SureOak’s incredible in-depth service is their quite rigid pricing plans. So far, SureOak has one all-encompassing $1.500 plan that covers all possible SEO angles, and a one-time payment $5.000 plan that is supposed to set you up for the long run. This, as you can see, doesn’t give you a lot of wiggle room, and smaller enterprises might choose not to work with SureOak, as their plans are just too large and too expensive for their taste.
Conclusion
Whether you’re only starting up your medical practice or you’re experienced in the field of medicine and SEO, hiring the services of Digital Strategy One a high-quality SEO company specializing in medicine can be a great way to increase your number of new patients.
Thanks to the excellent patient protection and care mechanisms that these companies are capable of setting up within your official website, you can also rest assured that the patients you do attract will be more likely to stick around.
