Question
Are paid Internet searches or pay per click advertising worth the investment to help market my practice on the Web?
Answer
Before you think about optimizing your search results or advertising your website, ask yourself if your site is worth visiting in the first place. If your site only provides basic logistical information such as your hours, who works there, your location and maybe some audiologic rehabilitation material, it is not a website that will get people excited. They may visit it once, but they will not check back, or share it on Facebook, for example. But if you have an interactive site where people can post comments, answer polls, and interact, it is going to be a lot more exciting to the user.
Once you've achieved an exciting website, you can use free Google tools such as Google analytics and Google key words and others to optimize your website, simply by setting up a Google account.
Search engine optimization is also something you can outsource. If time is of the essence and your skills or interests are better suited to the clinic and managing patients, it's absolutely worth outsourcing. Pay per click advertising may be worth the investment for some practices since it allows you to set the budget. You can run multiple ads all over the Web on various sites. You'll then be able to see which ads work, keep the ones that are working and get rid of the ones that don't.
These are just a few quick tips from our experience in helping independent hearing practices with their website marketing.
This Ask the Expert was taken from recorded course #16385, Grow and Prosper in Uncertain Times. To view the course, click here to register.
Markus Hilbert obtained his Au.D. at Salus University and his MS from Portland State University. He has worked in Audiology in Canada, and has organized and executed outreaches to Malawi and India. He lives in Calgary Canada with his wife and two daughters. He sold his private practice and now works there in patient care for new owners while also managing Ear Works Inc., a solutions provider for independent hearing clinics. For more information, visit https://earworksinc.com/ or the Ear Works web channel on AudiologyOnline