Using Linking Strategies to Bring in New Patients
In the highly competitive world of medicine in the 21st century, it’s essential that you use the right tools to cost-effectively increase your visibility and appeal to prospective patients. Link building offers an affordable and user-friendly way to get potential patients to reach out to you. Let’s look at why link building can help your practice, as well as some of the things you want to do as part of a successful link-building campaign.
The Benefits of Effective Link Building for Your Medical Practice
To generate contacts through organic online searches (as opposed to pay-per-click or other paid positioning), you need to be on the first page of a search engine results page (SERP), and you need to appear at or near the top. Statistics show that about one in three people who conduct an online search will click through to the top listing on the SERP. The click-through rate for the second listing drops by more than 50%.
While the Google algorithm is constantly changing and being refined, backlinks (inbound links to your website from other sites) still play an important role. To boost your ranking, backlinks should come from sites that are topically relevant and that have credibility or authority. They should not be paid or sponsored links.
Strategies for Link Building
Though fortune may smile on you and present you with unsolicited links to your website, the best way to build up your inbound links is by asking for them. Sounds like cold calling, doesn’t it? There are, however, a number of strategies you can employ to make it easier for others to want to link to your site.
- Resource link building—One of the most common ways to increase your inbound links is to increase your outbound links. Create a Resources page on your website, and link out to entities or organizations that can provide value to your existing and potential patients. Then ask those resources for a backlink to your site.
- Give to your community—Participate in charities and non-profit organizations, and ask them to provide backlinks to your site.
- Participate in business and professional associations—From the Chamber of Commerce or Rotary to the American Medical Association or other professional affiliations, membership may include backlinks from organization sites to your site.
- Ask your suppliers for backlinks—As a general rule, the more business you have, the more products you’ll purchase from suppliers. It can be an easy sell.
- Look for unlinked mentions—It’s not uncommon for you or your practice to be mentioned by name on another site. When that happens, contact the owner of that site and ask if they’ll include a link to your website. There are tools available to help you monitor the internet for any mention of your name or practice.
- Write a testimonial for another website—It’s common to look only at how testimonials from others can boost our image online. But when you write a testimonial for another person or entity, you can ask for a backlink from the site where your testimonial appears.
- Offer to be an authority for a blogger or journalist—In exchange for offering your insight or expertise on a medical issue, ask the blogger or journalist to link to your site.
Contact InjuredCarePracticeBuilder.com to Promote Online Visibility Through Link Building
At InjuredCarePracticeBuilder.com, we have decades of experience providing digital marketing services to professionals nationwide. We offer website development, search engine marketing and optimization, social media consulting and implementation, full video production, reputation management, and directory listings. To learn more about how we can improve the digital marketing of your medical practice, contact us online or call our offices today at 866-952-7045.
