As healthcare providers, optometrists offer a critical service to the community. Communicating your services is critical, but what you may not realize is that your current patients can help you grow your local reputation, brand, and search engine rankings.
Building a strong, local patient base is critical for optometrists. Yet most people only see an eye doctor once a year or less often. When they need vision care and support, many turn to a simple Google search to find a professional. They rely on other patient reviews to make their personal decisions.
As an optometrist, then, to build a strong patient base and local reputation, it’s critical to utilize online reviews. Not only is it necessary to have positive reviews, but to ensure your potential patients can see them. Doing so has another benefit as well: it could help you boost your rankings in the search engines, putting your business within reach of those searching for help.
Local reputation management strategies for optometrists can help achieve these goals. These strategies help you obtain positive reviews and boost your local search rankings as a direct result.
Understanding the Impact of Online Reviews
When a person visits your location, receives care, and leaves an online review about their experience, they could be contributing to your business’s growth and reputation. To understand how this works, first think about the way in which reviews enhance consumer decisions.
A recent study found that 93% of consumers state online reviews impact their decision-making, including what they buy and who they turn to for care. Even more to the point, a Bright Local survey found that 96% of healthcare consumers say online reviews are an “integral part” of their decision-making process.
Consider why this is.
As a patient seeing an eye doctor for the first time, you need to be able to trust the provider. There’s no way to know what the provider is like until you visit the office. That’s where online reviews help. They create a clear opportunity to learn about the provider, services, and even the staff long before making an appointment. This can reduce fears while also enhancing trust.
With local businesses, this is even more critical. Unlike large medical facilities and healthcare practices, most small optometrist practices don’t have the marketing budget to engage in high-tech, high-end branding campaigns. You may not have the time to develop radio and TV commercials or view being on a billboard as a wise spend to building your practice. That’s okay because consumers typically Google before they turn to any provider. By having a presence on review sites, you’re attracting the people who need your services and giving them a reason to turn to you over the competition.
Local optometrist practices can compete with online reviews.
This is a critical part of building a local practice today. When you invest in building a local reputation management strategy for your optometry practice, you encourage consumers to leave reviews. Those reviews provide the information patients need to make the decision to work with you or another provider.
Online reviews are one of the best ways to localize your business’s online presence. This allows you to boost the visibility of your practice within the communities you want to serve. When someone is looking for an optometrist within your community, your business’s profile may be displayed within the Google Business Profile section of the search results. They can instantly see your 5-star rating from patient reviews. With your phone number clearly presented or a link to book an appointment, it’s fast and easy for a would-be patient to book an appointment with you.
Be warned of the risk of negative reviews.
Some optometrists and other medical practices may have avoided the use of online reviews for fear of a negative one. There are a few things to keep in mind here.
Yes, negative reviews can influence a patient’s decision to use another service. Studies have shown that negative reviews have a greater effect on a consumer’s physical selection than the physician’s response to their call.
However, there are strategies available to help you take negative reviews and turn them into positive outcomes. Don’t limit your ability to reach customers for fear of a negative experience.
Steps to Localize Your Online Presence Through Reviews
Now that you know the importance of having a local review strategy for your optometrist practice, consider the steps you can take to build them.
Build a Positive Reputation
When a patient comes in and receives great care, ask them to leave a review for your practice. Make it as easy as possible for them to do so. For example, if you send follow-up emails to your patients, include a link directly to the review site. Send a follow-up text message asking for a review.
Once reviews begin to populate, respond promptly and professionally. Make sure to incorporate local details in your response. For example, you could thank a patient for visiting you at your office in a specific city or on a specific street.
Utilize Local SEO Strategies
It’s also very important to utilize local SEO strategies to influence your rankings. Online reviews can help you. For example, incorporate location-based keywords in your practice’s description on Google and other review sites. Make sure your profile incorporates your physical location and the cities you serve.
Make sure to optimize online review profiles for local search algorithms.
- Create a profile on the main review platforms. That should include Google Business Profile, Yelp listings, and Facebook pages.
- Ensure you are incorporating local keywords, including descriptions of your office, local terminology, and city information.
- Ensure your services are clearly outlined within your business description. If you have advanced technology available, make sure it’s clearly documented within your profile.
Leverage Review Platforms
As noted, you’ll want to establish a review on each of the main platforms within your community. That includes Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Facebook as starting places. Then, consider these tips:
- Start with just these three before adding more platforms to capture reviews.
- Claim your profile on these sites. This means alerting the tool that this is your business and proving it. This helps the platform recognize your business and accurately assign reviews to it.
- Ensure the platform’s profile of your business is accurate. Update it with all the information you want your potential patients to know, such as practice services, hours of operation, how to contact you, and what to expect.
- Add photos of your location and office. That helps pinpoint your location on a map.
Ask your current patients to leave a review for you. If you have an email newsletter, that’s a great way to provide a link to them. If most of your patients use text messages, you’ll want to send a link to your profile through these messages.
Once you have a few reviews up, respond to them, as noted previously. That’s going to help you create a strong reputation.
Encourage User-Generated Content
Now that your profile is up and ready to go, you need to provide it with content that can help increase your rankings in the search engines. User-generated content is one of the best forms.
Encourage your patients to leave a review of their appointment and perhaps a photo of their new glasses. You can also share photos of your waiting areas and exam rooms to help facilitate recognition and make your location seem authentic to would-be patients.
Then, showcase your content on your social media channels. Be sure you are always communicating within HIPAA requirements, and getting the permission of patients before posting.
Monitor and Analyze Online Reviews
Set up review alerts on most review platforms to know when someone sends a review. This allows you to monitor those reviews in real-time.
Use that information to guide your practice. Are your patients looking for something different? Did they have trouble with your service? Make informed decisions about your practice using these insights shared by your patients.
Optometrists Are Busy, and We Can Help You
Local reputation management strategies for optometrists like these empower you to build your practice with confidence. Online reviews are a critical component of building your reputation. The more you do that, the better you’ll rank in the search engines.
As a small business owner, prioritizing and actively managing your online reviews is essential, but it doesn’t have to be time-consuming or challenging.
Surefire Local can help you. We offer localized online marketing tools that streamline the entire process. We will help you create your online presence through the use of local signals across platforms and all profiles. This makes it easy for new patients to find you.
Surefire Local does this through our all-in-one marketing platform, designed specifically for local businesses like optometrists. It offers the features you need, including:
- Online review management – send review requests, write responses to reviews, and analyze your brand sentiment to learn what customers think about your practice.
- Directories management – claim, edit, and publish new content like photos or a special offer for your business across 80+ online directory listings platforms (and do it without having to hire someone to manage the process for you!)
- Content marketing – tools to create locally targeted and relevant content on your blog, Google Business Profile, business directories, and social media profiles.
- Analytics and reporting – Transparency into campaign performance and how much revenue your marketing dollars are generating, with AI-generated recommendations on specific actions you can take to see improvements right away.
- Educational resources – webinars and blogs designed to help small businesses learn all things local online marketing – we empower you to continue to succeed.
You can attend a Surefire Local demo to see firsthand how you can take control of your online reputation and increase local visibility through positive reviews.