As more and more states begin to slowly open up, your practice may be wondering how to tackle marketing post-COVID. After all, there’s not a one size fits all guide for how to make your patients feel reassured and ready to come back to your practice.

But if you’re looking for some ideas, keep reading for some do’s and don’ts of marketing post-COVID-19!

顿辞鈥檚

Social Media:

• Make safety videos on how you鈥檙e following guidelines

These videos can be fun and lighthearted, but remember that the goal is to be informative. Because so many people are working from home right now, more of your target audience is likely to see these, so make sure they fit your brand and voice of your practice.

• Keep social media posting consistent

Consistency can be about posting the same amount of days per week but it’s also about the tone of what you’re posting. You don’t want to sound like a COVID-19 expert because you’re not one. Instead, be educational and informative.

• Post positive reviews on social media

A little positive reinforcement never hurts, especially during a pandemic. This is a great time to highlight any positive patient reviews you’ve received in the past.

Make sure these aren’t the only thing you’re posting so that you have a good mix of social content on your platforms.

• Post practice updates and how you鈥檙e handling reopening on social media

Are you implementing new safety and sanitizing measures that will take effect when you reopen? This is a great example of something that you can post about on social media.

If you’re going to have a smaller capacity, different waiting room protocols, or changing your check-in strategy for patients, let them know about this on social media as well. This gives them time to plan before they come in for appointments.

At the practice:

• Convert paper forms to paperless when possible, making sure they are HIPAA compliant

If you can, convert all forms over to a paperless format. Filling out forms, touching a clipboard, or using communal pens is one thing that patients are going to be nervous about when your practice re-opens.

Switching over to paperless forms puts their minds at ease and reduces the amount of contact between patients. Glacial offers HIPAA compliant online forms, so make sure to ask your client manager about these if you want more information!

• Don鈥檛 forget about your previous leads and have a follow-up plan with them

As you plan to reopen, don’t forget about your previous leads! Make sure to create a follow-up plan with them. This may mean scheduling them to come in for an appointment or putting them on a drip campaign.

Local SEO:

• Don鈥檛 forget to update your Google My Business listings before reopening

In the middle of reopening, it’s easy to let things that seem smaller slip by. But don’t let updating your Google My Business listings be one of them!

This is one of the key ways that your patients may be keeping up to date with your practice. This should include removing any notices about being temporarily closed as well.

Paid Search:

• Keep things brand-centric on Google display

Right now, use Google display to back up any branding ads you may already be running. It should go without saying, but your branding should always be consistent, no matter what kind of marketing you’re running.

• Stick with branding and stay away from anything that feels too sales heavy right now

Leads and patients don’t want to be sold to heavily right now, so don’t push any limited time offers on your paid search ads. It’s a delicate time for a lot of people, especially financially.

They may want to consider a procedure but the timing isn’t quite right for many.

顿辞苍鈥檛蝉

Social Media:

• Don鈥檛 pretend you鈥檙e a COVID-19 expert. Keep it simple. Just tell patients how you鈥檙e working your hardest to keep them safe.

Trying to seem like an expert right now is the opposite of what your patients want. If you want to make your patients feel safe at your practice, show them what you’re doing and what you will continue to do to put their safety first.

SEO:

• Don鈥檛 change your SEO strategy right now

The last thing you want to do right now is to change your SEO strategy. By ranking for important keywords, this is another crucial way that your patients and potential patients find you.

Don’t mess with your strategy if it’s already working!

Paid Search:

• Don鈥檛 have a flash sale or an aggressive limited time offer on paid search right now.

A limited time offer could come off as being callous, cheap, or even taking advantage of the situation right now. If you’re going to have an offer, make it something that people can redeem several months down the road when they are ready, instead of needing the urgency behind it.

Have more questions about how to approach your digital marketing once your practice reopens? 妻友破解版 is always here to help! Contact us today to discuss how to elevate your digital marketing post-COVID!

It’s been a great week and we’re so glad that everyone is getting so much out of 2020 Is Still Our Year! Worried that you missed Wednesday’s webinar talking about what kind of content you should be posting, as well as how to get the kind of engagement your practice needs to succeed?

Put your worries aside, because we have the recording available below, featuring Sarah Gelber, Content Marketing Specialist at 妻友破解版, Ryan Hill, SEO Specialist at 妻友破解版, and Bethany Powers, Assistant Director of Client Services at 妻友破解版. This is the deep dive into content and content marketing you never knew you needed, so check it out below!

Don’t forget, you can still sign up for office hours with the Client Managers of 妻友破解版 today, 5/15. If you want to sign up for a time, simply email clientmanagers@glacial.com along with your availability.

Please note, this will only take place during 妻友破解版’s office hours of 9 AM-5 PM, so please keep that in mind when you schedule a time with a Client Manager.

Forget about yesterday’s FAQ Happy Hour with Hannah Whitten, Director of Client Services, and Bethany Powers, Assistant Director of Client Services? Don’t worry, because we’ll be releasing a recording of it shortly as well!

We’ve had a great time putting 2020 Is Still Our Year together, so thank you again to everyone who has participated or sat in on a webinar. We hope it’s been an informative and fun learning experience for everyone involved!

Did you miss Tuesday’s webinar featuring the boss ladies of the refractive marketing community talking about how they’ve shifted their marketing strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic? You’re in luck because you can now watch this fantastic webinar, featuring Hannah Whitten, Director of Client Services at 妻友破解版, Kathy Otto, Director of Marketing at Fichte, Endl & Elmer Eyecare, Bev Hollingshead, Marketing Director at Frantz EyeCare, and Carol-Anne Poursaied, Refractive Practice Development Manager, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc.

This has been the most popular webinar for our 2020 Is Still Our Year virtual workshop and it contains plenty of advice and results that have worked for these practices. Check it out below right now!

For everyone that has attended a virtual webinar or participated in one, we just want to say thank you for making this a success! And it’s not over yet!

You can still sign up for office hours with the Client Managers of 妻友破解版 for Friday, 5/15. To sign up for your time, just email clientmanagers@glacial.com with your availability. This will be during our office hours of 9 AM-5 PM, so please be aware of that when scheduling your time with a Client Manager.

If you missed yesterday’s How to Use Content to Increase Traffic to Your Website webinar, we will be releasing the recording shortly as well for anyone that wants to review it. And don’t forget about today’s FAQ Happy Hour at 3 PM EST with Hannah Whitten, Director of Client Services, and Bethany Powers, Assistant Director of Client Services.

Registration is required, so sign up here for your spot:

Right about now, most practices would be gearing up to go to conferences around the country. We all know that things are different this year, but it doesn’t change the fact that more than never, now is the time to connect.

Though we can’t connect in person, 妻友破解版 has the next best thing! We’re hosting a virtual workshop in refractive marketing. Keep reading below to find out the details about our Virtual Workshop in Refractive Marketing!

Monday 5/11 & Friday 5/15 – Office Hours with the Client Managers of 妻友破解版

Our client managers are here for you. That’s why we want to give you the opportunity to chat one on one with a client manager regarding your marketing questions at this time.

To sign up for your time just simply email clientmanagers@glacial.com with your availability. Please note office hours are being honored Monday and Friday from 9 AM-5 PM.

Tuesday, May 12, 1 PM EST – How Practices Shifted Marketing Strategy During COVID-19

Join these boss ladies of the refractive marketing community to discuss how they鈥檝e shifted their marketing strategy during the pandemic. We鈥檒l be sitting down with:

Hannah Whitten, Director of Client Services, 妻友破解版

Kathy Otto, Director of Marketing, Fichte, Endl & Elmer Eyecare

Bev Hollingshead, Marketing Director, Frantz EyeCare

Carol-Anne Poursaied, Refractive Practice Development Manager, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc.

No one strategy is the same, so you won鈥檛 want to miss out on their advice and results. Registration is required, just click the link below:

Wednesday, May 13, 1 PM EST – How to Use Content to Increase Traffic to Your Website

This is a topic we see clients wanting to know more about over and over again. What are some of the ways you can increase traffic to your website to improve your ranking on Google? We welcome some of our specialists to give you the scoop:

Sarah Gelber, Content Marketing Specialist, 妻友破解版

Ryan Hill, SEO Specialist, 妻友破解版

Bethany Powers, Assistant Director of Client Services, 妻友破解版

This informative webinar will get you on track with what kind of content you should be posting and how to get the engagement you need to succeed. Registration is required, just click the link below:

Thursday, May 14, 3 PM EST – FAQ Happy Hour

Grab your favorite beverage (adult or not, we won鈥檛 judge) and join our Director and Assistant Director of Client Services at 妻友破解版 as they answer your most frequently asked questions. Webinar presented by:

Hannah Whitten, Director of Client Services, 妻友破解版

Bethany Powers, Assistant Director of Client Services, 妻友破解版

They鈥檒l be keeping it light and fun while going over FAQs from past and present. Registration is required, just click the link below:

Can’t make it to all of our webinars during our Virtual Workshop in Refractive Marketing? No problem at all! Attend what you can, we’d love to have you!

A lot has changed because of COVID-19 and we have the paid search data to prove it. Keep reading for part 2 of our COVID-19 Paid Search Trends!

Here鈥檚 something you already know: COVID-19 has had major impacts on businesses large and small, in particular those of you who do elective surgery. Here鈥檚 something you may not know: Doors being closed has not prevented people from seeking care online. 

For many practices, the question has not been 鈥渟hould I advertise?鈥�, it鈥檚 been 鈥渃an I advertise?鈥�. Regardless of whether or not you鈥檝e been able, our hope is that you find the below data useful and informative. 

This data compiles information from all of our Google Ad Search campaigns that have been active for the duration of the crisis, with the dates ranging from February 1st up until April 30th. 

LASIK Search Results

Let鈥檚 start with LASIK – the bread and butter of many Google Search campaigns. LASIK is generally a strong performer even in down months, so it鈥檚 been very interesting to watch the changes in performance over the last few months. 

Below we see Clicks (blue) versus Click-Through Rate (red). Not surprisingly, clicks for LASIK related searches dropped and continue to drop. We鈥檝e seen clicks start to increase towards the end of April, but generally have been massively impacted by the pandemic. 

CTR, on the other hand, has seen increases month over month. More on this further below.

Clicks and CTR are fun and all, but who really cares about those when you can look at conversions? In the chart below, we have Conversion Rate (blue) versus Cost Per Conversion (red).

We saw a jump from a 15% average conversion rate and a $107 average cost in February to a 19% conversion rate and a $69 cost in April. Some practices even saw more leads than before, despite far fewer clicks. These are really extraordinary improvements that can be explained by a few different factors:

• Limited to no competition. Many practices shut down their campaigns during this period, putting the practices that remained active in their markets in control. Not only did this result in cheaper click costs, but it also reduced the options people had to choose from. This helps explain both the higher CTRs and the improved conversion numbers. 
• The right demographic: The LASIK demographic is largely unafraid of the virus and is more bored than ever. 

Have questions about paid search? Check out our video below for answers to some common questions about how it works!

Cataract Search Results

Now, let’s talk about Cataract. In the chart below you鈥檒l see a very similar trend to LASIK on Clicks (blue) versus CTR (red). Unlike LASIK however, we have not really seen any major improvements in terms of clicks over the last few weeks, but they are starting to even out.

On conversions (below), though their paths are similar, the change was far less dramatic than what we saw with LASIK. Conversion Rate (blue) only saw an improvement of about 2% total, while cost per lead dropped about $19. We have a few thoughts as to why this may be:

• The Cataract demographic: COVID-19 has impacted this demographic the most, and we suspect this has had the largest role in why clicks have both dropped dramatically and have yet to start recovering. 
• The competition: Cataract Search campaigns already had minimal competition in many markets, so even if a few competing advertisers dropped out, it would have a minor impact on overall costs.

We will continue to monitor these trends and post updates regularly, though it feels like every day we take a small step closer to a normal life. Many practices are ramping up to open their doors very soon, with others still weeks or more away and we anticipate the trends changing dramatically over the course of the month. 

As it stands now if you鈥檙e able to continue or start advertising, LASIK is still a safe bet, especially while many practices continue to hold off on ads. You can currently get a lot more 鈥榖ang for your buck鈥� than you would have in February, so lower budgets can still succeed. 

We are less enthusiastic about Cataract given the stagnant trends over the last few weeks, but as you saw, even within that demographic our campaign performance improved. 

Nobody can predict what will come next with COVID-19. It鈥檚 somewhat humbling to know that everyone in the world is dealing with the same issues, and we鈥檙e all working together to make things as good as we can. 

If you鈥檙e considering re-starting or even starting a campaign, our paid search team at Glacial is happy to discuss your options from low-cost branding campaigns to gain some exposure or Search Ad campaigns to boost lead generation.

Contact your client manager to discuss how paid search can help your practice as we navigate a post-COVID world! 

When U.S. macroeconomics are shocked, causing unexpected downturns in revenues, business model operations are inevitably revealed. Small businesses are often the first to feel the effects of related risk exposures. Professional services organizations, such as independent medical practices, can be especially exposed largely because the tax structures do not favor retention of cash reserves to support operations when revenue productivity suffers.

For many independent medical practices, including eye care practices, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed business model vulnerabilities in record time. Summaries of the more pertinent are provided here. The purpose of this monograph is to create a guide to eye practice business model redesign as a safeguard to the next shock to practice economics.

Remedies to the inherent risks exist. The synthesis of priorities follows:

Practice legal structures and tax management for the owners:

Legal structures that are designed and operated to minimize tax exposures for owners which leave organizations under-capitalized and in a constant state of
cash insufficiency when faced with both opportunities for growth and development, as well as downturns in revenue performance productivity. The incentives for owners to drain cash to avoid double taxation often cause the practice to assume debt to maintain practice capitalizations at acceptable levels. Every organization has debt limits. Excessive debt is the principal governor on business growth, development and the ability to have sufficient balance sheet 鈥渄egrees of freedom.鈥� Debt becomes excessively problematic when assumed for paying owners compensation to levels that exceed the real financial productivity of the practice. Stated simply, practice investment potential is sacrificed by owners to pay themselves more than the practice can afford. Over the last 100 years, the business models that have produced the greatest returns for the owners, across industries, have been those that effectively reinvested reasonable proportions of free cash flow back into smart growth and development strategies.

Deceptive balance sheet risk:

Certain unfunded practice financial liabilities go unappreciated for their risk to the practice. Chief among these are unfunded and unbooked asset depreciation and paid time off (PTO) for employees. Each issue presents a unique risk to the practice. Both are encouraged by compelling taxation regulations that cause required funding to be diverted from the practice to owner compensation in the name of 鈥渟mart tax planning.鈥� The other side of the coin is under-investment in the practice, including its future financial and strategic productivity.

Economic/ financial productivity and operating 鈥渁t scale鈥�:

Real financial and economic productivity potential of a practice is rarely understood or effectively pursued and managed. A large number of practices operate to support each practitioner鈥檚 idiosyncratic plan for 鈥渢heir practice.鈥� The operating expense structure of most practices is largely fixed, including the human resource operating expense structure. When the business model of the practice favors unmanaged clinical practice models, the economic and financial models will invariably under-perform. Operating 鈥渁t economic scale鈥� means the productivity potential on a fixed and variable operating expense structure is optimized. Scaling the economics of a business model is especially important during an economic crisis.

Leadership culture:

Leadership culture is an underestimated and often under-appreciated practice asset. That is until the people of the practice face an imminent threat to their safety, security and stability. The leadership culture of an organization is a decision. It can be intentionally led and it is the most valuable asset of every organization. While the definitions of 鈥渃ulture鈥� may vary, the real meaning doesn鈥檛. The evidence is clear; culture is led. It is the intrinsic value of an organization. It binds people together and motivates them to pursue a mission with unity and purpose. It is what holds people together in times of trial. It is a real, tangible asset to draw upon when times are good and at their worst.

Practice buy-ins and buy-outs:

Practice buy-ins and buy-outs, including equity valuation methods, are seemingly built upon accepted business standards and practices. The failure of these models is often an underestimation of related business risk factors; examples include, the ability to sell equity to the next partner at an acceptable price, paid-in capital bypassing the practice going directly to the pockets of other owners, buy-out covenants failing to control the financial risk to the practice, new buyers locked into a model that often puts them at risk for high personal debt, and owners relying upon the uninterrupted and sufficient future financial productivity and cash flows to make the model work. Moreover, physician owners often become too reliant upon the value of practice equity to fund their retirement plans. This is, perhaps, the most significant, under-appreciated business risk, especially in the event of unplanned retirements and career interruptions.

Financial liquidity management:

Financial liquidity is defined here as the ability of a business to access discretionary cash on short notice, including in crisis. Sources are typically limited to cash on hand, bank credit, the encumbrance of practice accounts receivable and the pockets of the owners. As cited here, private practices avoid retention of cash reserves due to the taxation exposures of the corporate structure. Practices frequently exhaust their debt capacity (they become indebted up to balance sheet limits) and owners won鈥檛 typically preserve personal financial liquidity to draw upon for financial support of the business they own. Consequently, the most available form of liquidity generation is the owners鈥� ability to defer their compensation in favor of funding the operating expense structure. Here the most significant proportion of this structure is people expense. The cash productivity of the practice business model is equal to operating revenue potential minus the value of the owner compensation proportion of the total operating cost structure. Stated in its simplest form, in the absence of other avenues to cash, owners can elect to work at reduced compensation levels. As simple as that sounds, it is is not uncommon for practice owners to find this option to be untenable. So, when competitors can鈥檛 afford this option, the practices with the stronger balance sheets will expand market share.

Business model design is critical to economic stability in challenging times. Six design factors matter:

1. Creation of multiple clinical and surgical revenue streams (including facility fees.)
2. Effective clinical allocation of patients between ophthalmologists and the right number of optometrists based upon types of clinical encounters and clinical condition.
3. Work effort productivity scaled up to effectively meet required patient services demand and practice economic productivity potential.
4. A staffing and capital asset structure sized to the full productivity potential of clinical service capacity.
5. Practice brand positioning strategies focused on the predictable acquisition of a sufficient supply of new patients.
6. Business strategies that expand free cash flow productivity with a portion reinvested in disciplined profitable programmatic growth, as opposed to diverting all to owner compensation.

What the pandemic has taught eye practice owners and leaders are business lessons that were always there. Paramount among them is the independent practice business model is subject to all principles of economics, finance and free-market dynamics. While at their core, independent practices are operated from the business leadership and management philosophies of the owners, the difference in performance during economic and market challenges is based upon how the owners of the practice see, understand and manage business risk. For some owners, business risk management is a matter of course and is integral to ongoing business practice. For others, the risk is unseen or, at least, under-appreciated. For the latter, when challenges present, the ability to successfully respond is limited.

Practice owners and leaders are encouraged to set aside conventional thinking in favor of an open mind as a first step to creating a business model that is more resilient and resistant to macroeconomic assaults.

Authors:

Daniel K. Zismer, Ph.D.

Co-Chair and CEO Associated Eye Care Partners Endowed Professor Emeritus and Chair School of Public Health, University of Minnesota
dzismer@aecpmso.com

Gary S. Schwartz, MD, MHA

Co-Chair and Executive Medical Director Associated Eye Care Partners President Associated Eye Care
gschwartz@aecpmso.com

During this time of uncertainty, many patients are turning towards virtual care to fulfill their medical needs. The interest in telehealth and virtual care has risen dramatically during this time.

Because of this, Google has been pushing out a lot of new updates to Google My Business and Google Search. We’ve been keeping up to date on what’s going on, and you can view all the edits Google has made here.

Google even discussing how the need for virtual care options has increased since the start of the pandemic.

We understand that these times are like nothing many have seen before. Keep reading for telehealth options you may be missing in GMB!

Google updates are more frequent than ever before

Through this pandemic, Google has been making many updates to help businesses get through these tough times. More recently, Google has added three new fields in Google My Business and Google Search that will help inform the public of any business updates.

COVID-19 Info Link

Google has begun to automatically surface a brand new 鈥淪ee COVID-19 info for visitors鈥� link on business listings who have a COVID-19 info page on their site. When clicked, this link will send people directly to that page.

Google has placed this link very high on business knowledge panels in order to quickly get in front of searcher鈥檚 eyes.

Virtual Care Link

Along with the COVID-19 Info Link, Google has added a 鈥淕et Online Care鈥� link right below it for businesses that are offering telehealth. Clicking this link will send people to the business鈥檚 telehealth info page where they most likely will be able to schedule an appointment.

With social distancing becoming the new normal, Google is making it easier for people to find out if their local healthcare facility is offering virtual care.

Online Care

For people searching for 24/7 access to healthcare professionals online, Google now has a new knowledge panel. The knowledge panel is designed to show widely used virtual care platforms in the U.S.

This panel will show up under the maps when searching for urgent care or immediate care. This panel will also tell users what their out-of-pocket cost is for patients who don鈥檛 have insurance. Features like these are built to help people avoid exposure and reduce the risk of spreading the virus.

If you have Local SEO services with us, we are in the know about what is going on with your profiles and how to best use each update that is rolling out.

This is not the time to try and navigate your local profiles by yourself.

What is next?

No one at the moment can predict when life will go back to normal. There is a lot that has to happen between now and then.

What we do know is that you all want to be in the position to hire your staff again when the time comes. When you get to that point, you need to hit the ground running.

To do this, you need to continue to optimize and update your website content and local profiles as you would before this pandemic occurred. This alone will help maintain your presence on Google and make sure your practice stays top of mind.

This pandemic has been hard on everyone, businesses and people alike. Unsure about your SEO?

Think now might be the time to get your rankings in order? Contact 妻友破解版 and see how we can help you!

Concerned that your marketing will be less successful as we navigate COVID-19? Now is the time to turn to a more branding focused advertising plan with your digital marketing.

If you want to be top of mind and be where your patients are, branding is the best way to do it. But more than branding, it’s also about how you can continue to bring in more leads.

That’s why we’re offering a new Telemedicine Digital Marketing Program! Keep reading to find out why our new program will help you stay in front of patients and new leads and fill up your appointments, even in uncertain times.

Google Display Ads

If you want to be top of mind, one of the best ways to do it is by utilizing Google display ads. Using Google display ads allows your practice to stay within a more branding focused plan. Telemedicine allows practices to continue seeing patients without worrying about the consequences of seeing them in person.

Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are the perfect way to support the branding efforts that you’re already putting into place with Google display ads. For those that are working from home, Facebook is the place that everyone is right now.

That’s why your practice needs to be where your potential patients and leads are. To be top of mind, it takes more than one modality, which is the beauty of using a branding strategy.

Simple but visually appealing ads that call for a virtual consultation make it easier than ever for leads to fill out a form and nurtured through the leads funnel.

Landing Pages

If you want your branding initiatives to be successful, you must use a landing page. Directing leads to your website causes confusion and may lead to fewer conversions.

Having a landing page makes it a snap for potential patients to fill out the contact form and schedule their telemedicine appointment. The great thing about our new Telemedicine program, of course, is we do all the hard work for you.

Telemedicine Program Add-Ons

Want to take your telemedicine program to the next level? We’re offering the following add-ons:

Online Scheduling

With online scheduling, patients or potential patients can easily select an appointment time right from your website. This expedites the scheduling process, allowing you to see patients faster.

Your practice controls the available time slots, making it easier on your end as well.

Missed our webinar on how to fill your telemedicine slots? Click below to watch it now!

Email Responders

The telemedicine appointment with your patient should be the first step but not the last one! If you want to build a lasting relationship, especially with a new patient, nurturing the relationship is a must.

If you choose to add on with Email Responders, they include:

• Response to completing a contact form
• Post telemedicine appointment
• A set of 5 follow up emails

That’s a total of 7 responders! Want more information about this great new Telemedicine program?

Contact your client manager at Glacial to get all the details and find out how you can continue seeing your patients, even in the middle of this tough time. Stay healthy and safe!

In the rush of running a day-to-day business, it鈥檚 easy to let your online presence slide. Now is a great time to review your medical website and take a deep look at your search engine visibility.

When was the last time you looked at your website? Have you seen where your website ranks in Google search results if you try looking up your services?

It鈥檚 nothing to be ashamed of if it鈥檚 been a while since your last website check-up. But you do have to acknowledge that it’s a critical part of your business鈥� success to be visible.

If you鈥檙e not showing up for searches for your services, or if your competitor is ranking just above you, there are ways to turn the tide. You can gain greater visibility in Google search engine results.

While there is a lot that goes into making a website rank well, these two simple strategies go a long way in increasing your web visibility. They can even be effectively worked on from the comfort of your own home. They are:

1. Updating your website content
2. Claiming and optimizing your online profiles

Looking for advice on how? Keep reading to learn how to get started with these strategies and how you can double-down on your SEO efforts.

Update The Content On Your Website

The bots that crawl your website every so often are used by Google to determine how trustworthy and authoritative your website is.

They evaluate which websites are linking to yours, how your content is organized and written, and determine your ranking results based on these, and other, factors.

They also scan how often you update your content.

To rank well in Google, your content needs to have several things:

• Relevance to a search query
• A clear focus
• Original copy
• Appropriate length
• Regular updates

Taking a look at your content with these items in mind will help you build more engaging copy that can help enhance your rankings!

Relevance to a search query

This, for example, could be exemplified by a blogger trying to show up for searches about 鈥榚xercise routines鈥�. They could write a blog about top exercise routines to do at home.

They could also write one on ways to develop a routine that鈥檚 right for you. Correlating your content with the terms you want to rank for is crucial for building your strategy.

It鈥檚 essential to have a clear idea of which keywords are important to you. A good starting point is to make a list of your top services and locations, building terms around the structure of 鈥榌Service] [City Name]鈥�.

A clear focus

A clear focus means that the pages on your website have a primary topic and stick to it. They should explore the topic thoroughly, but avoid jumping to irrelevant information. An eye care website can have a page that describes all its services, but it鈥檚 even better to have one dedicated to each of those services, too.

Original copy

The content on your website should be unique. If you copy content from another website, Google鈥檚 bots will recognize this.

They may penalize your website, causing a drop in rankings. With that said, you should never buy content from a company that uses canned web-pages and blogs. This can harm your chances of showing up where you need to be to gain website visitors.

Appropriate length

If you really want a page to rank well, it needs to be fairly long. 1000 words or more is a great target to aim for when developing your content.

This should be true on both your blog and on the core pages of your website. It allows you to thoroughly explore the topic and answer questions users will be searching for.

One way to accomplish this is by adding a FAQ section to your services pages. This allows you to answer common questions your patients ask in a Q&A format, which is excellent for optimizing your content for Google search results.

Regular updates

Finally, the content on your website and blog should be updated regularly.

Imagine you鈥檝e written a page about your practice technology… in 2010. Now answer this: has your practice technology changed in the last ten years?

Keeping your content up to date is important! It keeps your information relevant and shows Google that you aren鈥檛 letting your website go stale, so to speak.

Blogs are a great way to do this: you can post topical, up-to-date information and share to your social media for an extra boost of external traffic to your website.

Claim and Optimize Your Online Profiles

Remember when we said that Google鈥檚 bots are crawling your website to see if your content should rank well?

They鈥檙e also scanning other websites, called citations. They scan these to see if the information you provide about your business on your website lines up with what others say about you.

NAPs are a good place to start – this stands for Name, Address, and Phone number. On websites like Yelp, Google My Business, YellowPages, Manta, etc., bots scan whether your business name, address and phone number appear to be accurate and consistent.

We regularly see businesses move or change their hours of operation and never update their online profiles, which can lead to confused, lost, or frustrated customers.

If your information is inconsistent, this can impact your visibility in Google鈥檚 Map Pack. The Map Pack is the mapped listing that shows up above organic search results. It can also impact your organic search results.

Another important factor in your local ranking results is reviews. Your reviews help your business to rank and secure patient leads. Working to gain new reviews from your patients is an excellent way to improve your local SEO and boost patient leads.

Responding to your reviews is important, as well. We recommend responding to all negative reviews, and at least 20% of your positive reviews. The more the better!

There are other ranking factors for these map results that claiming your profiles can help you to optimize for. Adding photos, responding to reviews, and making regular updates can help your visibility in Google鈥檚 map pack results significantly.

Not sure where to start?

We offer content and SEO services that can help improve and secure your ranking visibility. From website copy to blogs and search engine optimization, our team can supply you with engaging content that is SEO optimized and helps your rankings improve over time.

This can help keep you from spending hours writing, or from finding, claiming, and updating each one of your (many, many) citations.

Looking to identify where your SEO can improve? Contact 妻友破解版 for a free website evaluation.

COVID-19 has changed a lot of things as people work from home, social distance, and practices struggle to find new ways to communicate with patients during uncertain times. Although it feels uncertain, now is not the time to suspend services like PPC and Facebook advertising.

Keep reading for a breakdown of our data and how campaigns are performing right now!

Google Advertising

Our Google Ads team has been keeping a close eye on how the outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted lead generation and ad engagement. Starting on March 1st, our team has been tracking the overall average performance of our campaigns and comparing them to the previous period.

The numbers we鈥檝e seen so far paint a positive picture for those who are able to continue their Search campaigns with Google. We plan to update these weekly to keep track of the latest trends to keep you informed.

In all cases, traffic has dropped, but conversion rates have increased substantially. This simply shows that although overall traffic and impressions for services are reduced, the quality of the traffic is increased. Many practices are currently seeing increased Search leads as a result.

Interestingly, this is in sharp contrast to Facebook, which has seen large increases for Ad-based traffic over the past few weeks.

LASIK

March 11-20 (Compared to March 1-10)

LASIK, maybe unsurprisingly, had the biggest jump with a 109% increase in conversions. This makes sense when we consider that the LASIK demographic is staying/working at home, and finding things to do to fill their time.

• 78% increase in conversion rate
• 18% increase in total conversions
• 6.5% reduction in cost per conversion
• 31% reduction in clicks
• 20% reduction in impressions

Update (3/21-3/27):

The LASIK numbers continue to improve! Even as traffic drops, both total conversions and conversion rates have consistently improved over the last few days.

If you can manage it, these numbers show there is still plenty of merit in promoting your LASIK practice. If you鈥檙e looking for ideas, let us know and we鈥檒l be happy to talk.

• 3.5% increase in conversion rate
• 13% increase in total conversions
• 18% reduction in cost per conversion
• 13% increase in clicks
• 9.5% reduction in impressions

Cataract

March 11-20 (Compared to March 1-10)
Cataract advertising has seen a moderate increase in conversions at 45%. Our specialists were surprised to see an increase at all here, given that this is the demographic most impacted by COVID-19.

Although, like the LASIK demographic, this could be about future planning during forced downtime.

• 81% increase in conversion rate
• 109% increase in total conversions
• 26% reduction in cost per conversion
• 17% reduction in clicks
• 6% reduction in impressions

Update (3/21-3/27):

We鈥檙e starting to see a small drop in performance for cataract surgery campaigns. Considering how strong the previous period was, these drops are not dramatic but do indicate a slow decline in people seeking out cataract expertise.

Overall, the numbers are still up over pre-pandemic numbers. It will be interesting to see how they fare over the next few weeks.

• 11% reduction in conversion rate
• 26% reduction in total conversions
• 13% increase in cost per conversion
• 17% reduction in clicks
• 25% increase in impressions

Eye Care

March 11-20 (Compared to March 1-10)

Eye Care (鈥楨ye Glasses/Eye Exams, etc) saw conversion increases of 57% in this period. According to Spenser Pontbriand, Director of Search Services, this is the least surprising increase.

People have been rushing to get their appointments taken care of or order their contact lenses, etc. before practice closures hit home. If your practice offers online ordering for eye care supplies, there is ample opportunity to reach this audience using paid search.

• 45% increase in conversion rate
• 45% increase in total conversions
• 7% reduction in cost per conversion
• 7% reduction in clicks
• 11% reduction in impressions

Update (3/21-3/27):

There have been moderate drops across the board for general eye care terms this week. Unlike surgical procedures where people could simply be doing future research, we鈥檙e starting to see a reduction in the individuals seeking out more basic eye care needs.

If you offer an online store, there is still a huge opportunity for you here. Likewise, if you鈥檙e still open for emergencies, this may be worth promoting so people know where to find you when it really counts. Otherwise, this may be one to pull for now if you鈥檙e looking to save on advertising spend.

• 21% reduction in conversion rate
• 66% reduction in total conversions
• 40% increase in cost per conversion
• 57% reduction in clicks
• 46% reduction in impressions

What This Means For Your Practice

In summary, generally, we have seen a positive increase where it counts from the COVID-19 outbreak for those continuing to advertise their services using Google Ads. Although overall ad traffic is down, it seems those conducting eye care related searches are high intent users that are more likely to convert.

Our advice? Don鈥檛 withdraw your Google Ad marketing if possible. If you are looking to cut spending, we are happy to provide advice on ways to adjust your budget or look at lower-cost campaign types.

With other advertisers pulling their marketing, your business could gain more impression share alongside cheaper click costs.

It鈥檚 important to have a plan in place for scheduling appointments and consults with these leads once business restrictions are lifted, and your practice will be grateful to have a back-log of prospective patients ready to be booked.