One of the most important things you can do to promote your healthcare practice online is to have a high-quality website. It must have unique and valuable information for your target audience(s). But a website alone isn’t enough. You need the right traffic targeting your medical service(s).
You might be unsure how to promote your website in a way that funnels the right quality of traffic consistently. There are things to consider when preparing a marketing plan to grow your online presence.
Your website and marketing campaigns must target mobile users. 51% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices. Social media makes up a chunk of that traffic, with YouTube and Facebook among the top five global websites that get traffic. With 2.7 billion active users on Facebook and 1 billion on Instagram, your promotional efforts should have high-engagement social channels.
Anyhow, let’s examine how to start generating traffic to your site.
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The number one channel for website traffic
Before social media, most websites relied on Google search traffic to get new visitors. Google holds a 92% market share of all search engine traffic worldwide. According to a recent BrightEdge report, organic search traffic represents 53% of all site traffic globally.
When you ask yourself how to promote your website, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should be at the top of your list. Effective promotion of your site to improve your ranking in search engines like Google can happen by doing the following:
- Posting new web content regularly – Update out-of-date info on your pages. Make sure to post on your blog or to a company blog consistently. Launch new campaigns periodically to keep your website fresh and relevant in search results.
- Submitting press releases and emailing related news sites- Share your new content, the service(s) you provide, and other announcements with news channels in your practice and related sites.
- Building links to your website from high-value sources- Work with a company that knows link building for SEO and how to target your niche. They can help build quality links from relevant websites that add credibility and power to your site’s profile.
- Optimize your site for speed and performance- Keep a close eye on your website’s performance reports for desktop and mobile on Google Analytics. If you suffer slower loading times or reduced user performance metrics like average session time or bounce rate, act quickly. You want to avoid any potential issues in the future.
There are three key takeaways to grow your online presence in an organic and lasting way:
- Regularly post new content and distribute it to relevant sources.
- Maintain a best-in-class user experience for both desktop and mobile devices.
- Build links to your site with the help of an SEO professional.
How to generate traffic right away
Organic search is the ultimate goal for many sites, especially if your healthcare practice is small. It takes time to rise in Google’s Search Engine Ranking Positions (SERPs) for your target keywords. It can take 6-12 months in some cases.
Okay, what about practitioners who want to grow their online presence right away? You build an audience and promote content on many channels. Social media offers an opportunity to engage with people immediately. You can build relationships in days and weeks instead of months.
Through 2020, Statista reports that 50% of the global population uses some form of social media. According to Emarketer, 90% of millennial users spend an average of two hours and 38 minutes online every day. That’s a huge, captive audience you can engage with to consume your content and visit your website.
There are tricks on how to promote your website on social media. Few people respond well to someone blasting self-promotional messages about their services. You must be creative. A part of your creativity will depend on the channels you use. In order of user-volume, the big five are:
- YouTube
The channels you leverage will depend mainly on your audience. General audiences and Millennial/Gen X users can be found on Facebook and Twitter. Younger audiences skew towards Instagram and newer media like Snapchat and TikTok. LinkedIn is a useful source since it’s the largest professional networking site in the world. Most people use YouTube, though demographics will determine how and where they are most likely to use the platform.
To effectively leverage social media, consider these tactics:
- Create varying types of content
- Post daily on your active channels
- Don’t spread yourself too thin
- Promote your channels on your website and print collateral
- Encourage reviews of your practice on sites that allow it
- Advertise
Now let’s uncover the final point: how to jump-start traffic quickly.
Paying for traffic to give your website a hot start
Organic traffic is a long game, and social media is the relationship game. Both require more hands-on effort before you’ll reap the benefits. But paid traffic is almost instant. In less than an hour, you can launch a new ad campaign and start driving traffic to pages on your website.
In fact, 15% of all website traffic is paid. There’s a reason many companies pay for clicks and conversions in Google, Facebook, and Instagram. The three major types of paid traffic you can leverage include the following:
- Pay-per-click (PPC) search campaigns- Search campaigns in Google or Bing allow you to target specific keyword phrases with your ads. They show relevant information when someone looks for what you are providing.
- Promoted content campaigns- Promote all high-quality content you’re creating on the social media channels you’re working hard to build up. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn offer ad solutions to increase the reach to one or more of your existing posts.
- Display and video display campaigns – Google offers a massive ad network where you can show display ads on some of the world’s largest websites. You can target specific audiences, including your website traffic via retargeting. The same is true for YouTube advertising if you have a video (or videos) representing your healthcare specialty.
For each campaign type, you can optimize for desktop vs. mobile, segment by specific audiences and locations, and adjust the landing page to drive traffic. While paid search can be leveraged into traffic almost immediately, doing it correctly is a sophisticated process. An expert’s guidance is often recommended.
Taking your healthcare practice to the next level online
Learning how to promote your website through SEO (organic search), social media, and paid traffic channels can help grow and showcase your medical practice. It takes careful consideration of your target audience and what your local competitors are doing. The current web traffic of your social media channels is also important.
In the end, support from an inbound marketing expert can help to deliver positive results and grow your online presence.
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