7 Ways Doctors Can Protect Online Reputation
Janaya Jensen • October 30, 2019
Are you running a clinic and facing several negative online reviews about your business? Are you receiving flak from media? Did you become entangled in a lawsuit for malpractice?
If you are in the midst of any of these unfortunate circumstances, then this guide can help you get back on your feet.
Medical experts are different from other professionals. Doctors are responsible to save lives and restore the health of injured patients, which is a noble task.
For this reason, a doctor’s reputation is far more important than a professional from another field. If a doctor’s reputation is ruined, then the patients turn to other healthcare experts.
More importantly, doctors are expected to act in a way such that their actions do not discredit their profession. This implies that doctors should be extra vigilant with their practice. Hence, medical experts must familiarise themselves with the right techniques that can improve a doctor’s reputation.
Have you given a thought to online reputation management for doctors? Simply put, online reputation management for doctors involves a series of marketing tactics that are designed to restore and enhance the online prestige of a doctor. It holds the key to success in the medical world.
Negative medical reviews are detrimental to a doctor’s practice. Time and again, they have proved to be the leading reason behind the reduction of patient visits and interaction. The notoriety from the online world can reflect heavily on a doctor’s finances.
If you find yourself facing negative online reviews, then you can improve your reputation by reading and following this guide for online reputation management for doctors. Consider the following tactics and become one of the top names in your country.
1. Designing a Website – Tell Your Story
If you do not have a website of your own, now is the perfect time to invest in one. You can use it to describe your professional services and information.
A website can serve as your own advertisement where you can tell your story about how you got into medical practice, how motivated you are to heal the injured, and what are your core values.
You can also place your patient testimonials to build credibility. While outsourcing your website to a professional web developer, make sure to abide by the following tips.
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The website domain name has to contain your name. For instance, a doctor’s website can be www.drmikejason.com .
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To improve a doctor’s reputation, the website must include a detailed and thorough biography including the entire journey along with achievements of the doctor.
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Add a section for blogs. Blogs can be handy for two reasons. Firstly, they are good for SEO and can rank your website better on Google. Secondly, they can help you to impart experience and knowledge to help you stand out from other doctors.
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Request your regular patients to provide positive feedback and post it on your website.
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Encourage your online traffic to post comments on your website to foster meaning relationships.
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Add a “contact us” section and make sure that it is placed in all the web pages of your website so it is easy to reach you. Many websites add contact information at the bottom of all of their web pages.
2. Blogging Your Way to Success
Visit the website of any major healthcare brand or doctor, and you will find something common in all of them: a blog section. This is because all marketing companies view it as an integral part of their efforts to improve a doctor’s reputation.
A blog establishes a link between you and your target audience. You can leverage it to present your skill-set to others. Maintaining a blog section helps you showcase your expertise in your field, and it also attracts more leads to your website.
While a prominent and popular blog can add a huge boost to your career, it may appear tricky to begin writing blogs. You may have questions like the following.
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How much and how often am I supposed to write?
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Can I allocate time for blogging from my hectic routine?
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Is the effort actually worth it?
When physicians publish high-quality blogs, they are able to attract requests from established names in the media like journalists and bloggers to appear in an interview. Therefore, they get a good platform to improve a doctor’s reputation.
One of the major factors associated with online reputation management for doctors is Google’s results. Google especially ranks doctor posts with a higher ranking. Hence, in comparison to other industries, you have a head-start.
The key is to realise the fact that creating a blog is not a hobby or effort. In fact, it is an “investment” which can positively influence your online standing. Hence, coming back to your question, yes the time spend in blogging is worth all the effort.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media encompasses online voices from all over the world. Search engines like Google are influenced by social media posts. When blogs and website get traffic from Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media platforms, then Google rewards the increased traffic in the form of improved rankings.
The relationship between social media and Google’s results has made social media marketing as one of the focal points of online reputation management for doctors.
This strategy entails the production of social media pages and profiles which are regularly updated with high-quality posts. In the span of three months, a powerful social media marketing strategy can propel the online presence of a doctor to unprecedented levels and prove effective in improving a doctor’s reputation.
Similarly, you can use it as a communicate tool to connect with your existing and prospective patients. The best thing about social media is that it encourages “sharing”.
Therefore, it is often used by doctors to dispel common misconceptions in the healthcare industry. You can do the same and educate your clients so they can adapt a healthier lifestyle.
As you continue helping others to change for the better, your online reputation can climb vigorously to bigger heights, thereby etching your name as one of the best in your field.
4. Show Your Details for Online Listings
Google claims that more than 95% people use Google to search local businesses along with the name of their owners. Therefore, to address this practice, we recommend local SEO for online reputation management for doctors.
Local SEO refers to a strategy in which you can make sure that the search results are tailored in such a way that users can find you easily while looking for local services.
Therefore, you should make it a necessary part of your marketing plan so the locals can always find your name among the top results.
For starters, you can make sure that you are mentioned in the local Google business listing. For example, if you write the name of “Jacqueline Olivo”, a doctor who lives in Chicago, then Google can provide the following listing.
You can see the photos associated with her clinic. Likewise, her name, address, contact information, map, website, and timings are listed here. Learn from Dr. Olivo’s example.
You have to make sure that whenever your name is searched on Google, then your name, photos, and details show up like the above results.
Similarly, while we searched results for “doctors in Fairfax (Virginia)”, the results were the following.
You can see how two doctors name Dr. Monica and Dr. David popped out on the top without any explicit mention. This is exactly what you need to target. Depending on your city, you have to target the top position in the local list for healthcare professionals.
Bear in mind that optimisation is an absolute necessity for business listings. Since Google provides the option to publish mini posts, it can be used to improve a doctor’s reputation.
5. Constructing Replies for Online Reviews
Reviews on Yelp and Google carry weight. Many people use it as their primary source of research to judge a doctor. Reviews are a double-edged sword.
If your practice is already going well, then you can use the positive online reviews to generate more leads for your business. On the other hand, if your practice is suffering due to unsatisfied patients and negative media coverage, then reviews can make matters worse.
Since most doctors have little to no knowledge of marketing and client relationship management, they don’t have a clue on how to respond to negative online reviews.
A few years back, it was revealed that many doctors broke HIPAA rules while replying back to negative reviews. There were some whose responses were rude and aggressive. As a consequence, they attracted further ire and the number of negative reviews increased rapidly.
Doctors are not wrong to get swept away with emotions like anger and rage. However, in such a situation, a doctor has to make sure not to reply anyone with an inappropriate response in the heat of moment.
If you believe you cannot react calmly, then you can get help from a company that provides online reputation management for doctors. These professionals can carefully choose the right words to soften angry clients with their responses.
Likewise, another strategy which can improve a doctor’s reputation is making sure that each review gets answered. Regardless of the fact that a person has left a positive or negative review, they must hear your side of the story.
6. Create Profiles on Medical Directories
Similar to placing yourself on Google’s business listings, you have to look for all the popular healthcare platforms like WebMD, Doximity, Sharecare, CareDash, and others to create a medical profile as part of your tactic to build your digital presence.
Similar to the way that general social media platforms like Facebook and Linkedin boost the online presence of doctors, social media platforms which are dedicated to the medical industry allow you to become more visible in the online healthcare world.
Creating a profile in online directories is not a rocket science. You are just required to fill your personal and professional information and verify your identity. For search engines like Google, these directories hold a great deal of authenticity and hence they rank the profiles in these directories in their results.
Therefore, regardless of the status of one’s practice—active or non-active—listing on directories can do wonders to improve a doctor’s reputation.
7. Help Yourself by Helping Others
Perhaps, one of the most overlooked tactics to improve a doctor’s reputation is to overlook the impact that Q&A websites can generate.
If you create a profile on a popular Q&A website and offer your knowledge to aid others then your popularity can skyrocket quickly on the website and others can look at you as a reliable and kind soul.
For instance, among the top 100 most visited website in the word, one of them is a Q&A website known as Quora. If you search medical questions in the website then you can see many prominent names from the healthcare industry to offer their advice in response several questions.
In Quora, the best answers are voted up. Hence, it can make quality content stand out by default. These answers become more visible in search engines. Therefore, if you can generate a profile on Quora, add your information and answer questions related to your specialisation then users who search from similar issues can find your presence in Quora’s search results.
If you follow these recommendations to the tee then you can greatly improve your online presence. If you have any queries then you can contact us to address your concerns.
