Why SEO is Important for Your Hearing Practice

SEO is a term thrown around in the world of internet marketing that many still seem to have trouble wrapping their heads around. In many ways it has been unethically touted as some “magic bullet’ business in a box method while simultaneously being portrayed as some mystical power that only those with privileged knowledge can wield. It is because these misconceptions many hearing practices still lack respect and devalue SEO as a vital part of their overall marketing strategy. This applies for small, mid-sized and large practices.

It is an unfortunate circumstance because SEO is fundamentally the cornerstone of any successful online marketing strategy when combined with quality content. It is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience and bring your practice qualified leads and patients. It has been shown time and time again that when search engine optimization is properly applied it can have a much better ROI than traditional “brick and mortar” forms of marketing and advertising. However, that’s only one piece of the puzzle. Don’t let this confuse you and compound on those pesky misconceptions I mentioned earlier.

SEO alone will not single-handedly transform your hearing practice into a money making machine. The reality is no single form of advertising or marketing will do that. However, what SEO can do is provide your business with visibility, branding, traffic, a great ROI, credibility and further insight into the behavior of your prospective patients.

SEO is Good for Business Visibility and Branding

Of course the ultimate goal of any business, when it comes to SEO, is to appear as high as possible in search engine rankings for the products and services they provide. However, many fail to understand the process that searchers go through when performing these tasks in a search engine. Your prospective patients do not simply search one term, access one site and are done with it. They search various terms and visit multiple websites, consistently refining their search before they pull the trigger. Your practice should strive to rank for various terms related to your products and healthcare services so that there is a consistency and authority represented in the search rankings.

Why is this important for your Hearing Practice?

• If you continually appear in these search results you are gaining more “mindshare” through the eyes of your potential patients and obtaining more “online real estate.”
• You will increase the chances that they will eventually click through to your website. This is how trust is built in search.
• If you rank for their needs in various ways they will feel more compelled to investigate and learn more about what you have to offer.

SEO Provides Your Business Credibility

Today’s searchers are smart and very persistent investigators. They make mental notes of the rankings for the terms they find with each passing query. You may not believe it, but it is true. Because of this, every time one of your webpages appears in those rankings it acts as a vote of confidence for your practice. Searchers trust Google to deliver the most relevant results possible so if you are placed front and center that trust carries over to your business. This is something so many business owners overlook when it comes to understanding the true value of their search rankings. It’s not just about hitting that first page position for ONE term. It is about ranking on multiple pages for multiple terms because that is how you build credibility trough the eyes of your prospective patients.

SEO Brings Your Business Traffic

Sure, by itself, traffic is not going to make you any money. But would you rather set up your storefront on a backstreet in an empty lot or right in the middle of Times Square? All those people walking around in Times Square day and night by themselves aren’t going to make you any money, but chances are that quite a few of them will eventually become your customers. Just like Times Square, you still have to make your best effort to sell to your customers once they are on your website, but it’s better to do business on a crowded street corner than it is to set up shop on a deserted island. What’s better is that SEO is usually a good deal more affordable than store leases in Times Square.

SEO Has One of the Best ROI’s in Advertising

SEO rewards your business for its efforts at a higher rate than pretty much all traditional forms of offline advertising — the same can be said for almost all types of internet marketing. The reason for this is because  it allows you to market to people when they are looking for the products and hearing care services your practice offers. You don’t have to interrupt their favorite TV show, you don’t have to take up space on a page where they are reading a news article. You just show up when they are in need of hearing related goods and services. You don’t have to convince them they need your product or service; you just have to convince them that you are the right healthcare provider for them. In other words, with SEO, half the battle is won before it even starts.

SEO Gives You Unmatched Insight Into Your Customers

As I have already stated, SEO generates valuable traffic. Google Analytics tracks this traffic. Google Analytics is an amazing tool. The data and metrics are valuable because they give you insight into your patients: how they search, how they browse, the language they use, the technology they use, the region they live in, the days they are most active, the times of day they are most active, you name it. This is extremely valuable because it can help you make more informed decisions regarding your business and its strategies, both online and offline.

If you are ready to get started with SEO for your hearing practice, contact us and start ranking today!