Last Updated on: 31st January 2023, 10:09 am
According to a 2015 survey conducted by the American Hospital Association, over 80% of patients believe that healthcare reviews are useful in selecting care. As consumerism grows in healthcare, ensuring that your providers and facilities have proper online feedback is critical to increasing patient enrollment.
Consumers’ attitudes about healthcare providers and facilities have changed dramatically as a result of the pandemic, which has made reviews more important than ever. We’ve seen a staggering 132% increase in reviews given since the start of the pandemic, with 79% of customers believing that feedback is crucial in selecting a provider. As consumerism grows in medicine, managing your organization’s online reputation will be essential to attracting patients.
Healthcare reviews also affect your organization’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Google and other search engines use online feedback to inform their algorithms about the quality of care that a hospital or medical practice provides. In fact, studies have shown that hospitals with higher patient satisfaction ratings tend to rank higher in search results.
While these statistics show why feedback is critical to the patient’s experience, you may not be aware that they also significantly impact your SEO. Here’s how it works:
Objective Answers, Subjective Answers, and Your Search Ranking
To truly grasp the importance of reviews in your search strategy, you must first understand the many sorts of answers that people see in search results, goals versus subjective answers
Frequently, people inquire about things that have clear solutions, such as the address of a clinic or the nature of your insurance. You are the authority on these essential facts about your services, people, and locations since you can and should be in command of them at all times
You can’t deliver every single answer that patients and consumers need
Sometimes, they want to hear other people’s feedback, which means they’re looking for subjective answers. Subjective answers include opinions, reviews, and recommendations. Google reports an 80% increase in mobile searches including the phrase “should I” Over a two-year period. When consumers perform these sorts of searches on Google, things like your ratings and reviews might help you rank higher in the results.
These are the types of responses that organizations can’t manage directly. Most review sites have rules in place to keep review content as subjective as possible. However, you may affect the subjective answers people come up with about your company by promoting, monitoring, and responding to reviews on digital properties and acting on bad feedback to ensure consistency and quality. With Simply Be Found’s review generation feature, you can manage and respond to your patients’ feedback easily.
Look at the feedback people are giving you to get an idea of what they think
Your patients are telling you how to improve your services, all you have to do is listen. Respond to their comments about your healthcare professionals, treatments, and more, and make any improvements possible while encouraging them to continue leaving reviews so that search engines may rely on recent ratings when determining your ranking.
By focusing on the objective and subjective answers that people see when they search for information about you, you can take control of how your organization appears in the results. You may not be able to directly affect every answer, but by paying attention to reviews and other feedback, you can shape the conversation about your company which will positively affect SEO.
Remember, there’s no need to stress about getting new customers or making a name for your brand. Positive feelings from consumers will make them want to spread the word about your product or service. They’ll do it themselves if they think it’s wonderful and can be trusted.
Healthcare Reviews Influence Whether You Rank at All
You’re probably aware that such subjective assessments of your company online influence consumer perception and influence whether or not they come to see you. However, reviews may also have an impact on whether or not your business appears in search results at all. Google often pre-filters outcomes for searches having phrases like “best” (e.g., “best ENT near me”), and it will only show items from firms, organizations, or professionals with a 4-star rating or higher.
Similarly, when you ask Alexa or Siri for a suggestion for the “best” anything, they look to reviews to decide how to provide the “best” answer.
How Your Healthcare Reviews Get You Found by More Local Customers
Getting your local business found is an important aspect of running a profitable business. Simply Be Found shows you how to optimize your profile with our review generation feature in 5-10 minutes a day. You can generate reviews, respond to reviews and showcase your reviews to all of your platforms to improve your rankings online and get found locally at the top of local search. Simply Be Found helps you get more market share by helping you make sure your address and operating hours are correct across search engines so potential consumers can find you online. We help you claim and optimize your Google My Business listing which powers all local business results in Google Assistant. We help you make sure that your business information is updated and consistent, as it will impact your local SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Simply Be Found’s membership also includes allowing you to manage your business and holiday hours in advance, so your customers always know when to do business with you. You also boost your SEO by generating and responding to more reviews to get found by more consumers who are looking for your products and services. As a member of Simply Be Found you will have a well-executed local SEO strategy, to ensure that your potential clients see your business first on local search, directories, maps, and social media when they are searching for your industry type in your local area. Simply Be Found helps you make sure that the public details about your company are correct on time and consistent across multiple search engines, voice services, maps, apps, and other discovery tools that people use to help them decide where to shop when using Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana.
