Reaching Patients Online: 5 Keys to Optimize Your Audiology Website for More Business

Abstract

Sixty-one percent of consumers now use the internet to find a health care provider, reveals a 2022 paper from health enterprise solutions company Kyruus. 1 And, according to a separate 2022 report by Reputation 2, 72% of surveyed Americans read online reviews and ratings when selecting a physician. As Americans grow increasingly reliant on online channels to find and choose their care provider, how can an audiology practice meet them there?www.shutterstock.com. Website, search engine optimization, testimonials, mobile-friendliness, blog, rankings.The Hearing Journal conversed with John Gorecki, owner and head strategist at Infocus Web Marketing, and Sozina Alamban, managing partner at PS Creatives Co., to highlight key recommendations in crafting an audiology practice website that helps generate new business. 1. USE POSITIVE, PATIENT-ORIENTED IMAGERY. “A successful audiologist website should not look too ‘clinical’ and ‘medical’ and dull and boring,” said Gorecki. “It should have lots of positive imagery.” He added that the visual content should speak to the goals and desires of potential patients, showing them “what life would be like after they get their hearing issues fixed.” Today’s business websites commonly use videos and still images throughout their pages, especially on their home page. According to Alamban, these visual elements serve multiple functions: they showcase the services and benefits the business could provide to potential patients, and they engage the attention of any average website visitor. Alamban, who has produced multimedia content for organizations such as the World Surgical Foundation, also recommended a vital feature specifically for audiology websites: transcripts and closed captioning or subtitles for visitors who have hearing problems. “As an audiologist, you need to make sure that all features in your website and digital marketing platforms are very accessible,” she said. 2. INCLUDE TESTIMONIALS AND BLOG POSTS. Recent surveys suggest that online customer feedback is now more than just an auxiliary feature—it is a crucial factor for consumers choosing their providers. Patient reviews, ratings, and testimonials are forms of social proof, which an audiology practice website should offer to visitors who might be shopping around for a care provider. “Patient testimonials are very important, whether written or on video,” said Alamban. “It helps your company build trust and shows your track record from the real, positive experiences of your existing clients. This will help attract new potential clients.” Gorecki agrees, adding that it’s vital for a clinician’s website to “overcome objections.” Potential patients, he explained, have fears or worries in their minds: “things like worrying if they are going to be overcharged for hearing aids, or is the process of getting a hear aid long and cumbersome, what happens if the hearing aids don’t work well after they have bought them, et cetera.” Positive testimonials are an example of content that can help overcome these fears. To complement patient testimonials, an audiology website can also include blog posts, regular articles, and a Frequently Asked Questions section, all aimed at “answering questions related to their products and the kinds of issues their clients might be facing,” shared Gorecki. “Some example blog posts might be: Is it common to start losing hearing in your 40s? How long does a cochlear implant last? Alamban echoed this, emphasizing that “by providing helpful information, you become an authority that they can approach for advice.” 3. MAKE IT EASY TO REACH YOU. Gorecki, who has run Infocus Web Marketing for over 10 years and works with clients across North America, noted that one of the weaknesses of some clinicians’ websites is that they don’t have clear and multiple calls to action. A call to action is a piece of text or visual that directs a website visitor to do a specific action. Examples are “Click here to schedule” or “Search for locations here.” Gorecki said that an audiology website should have clear, easy-to-find calls to action such as a phone number displayed large on the top of every page. He also recommended that the website have an alternative mode of contact, such as a fillable form or an online scheduling calendar, for potential patients who cannot or do not want to call. In addition, an audiology practice should consider the mobile-friendliness of their website, as many consumers now browse the internet on their mobile phones. One useful feature that can be included in the mobile version of a site is a “Click To Call” or “Tap to Call” button, which dials the clinic number when tapped. 4. WORK ON YOUR SEARCH RANKINGS. When a consumer wants to look for providers online, they might go to Google or any other search engine and type keywords such as “hearing aids in Philadelphia.” The first few results of this search are the most visible to the consumer, hence clinic websites will want to appear at these first-page spots if they want to gain a website visitor. There is a whole industry dedicated to search engine optimization (SEO), the process of enhancing a website so that it is highly ranked among search engine results. Text articles, blog posts, videos, and other multimedia elements are all valuable to this process, as they are forms of content that Google’s algorithm likes to find. But there are more behind-the-scenes elements that affect a website’s search engine ranking. For example, Gorecki cited meta tags, which are text snippets in the website’s code that aren’t visible on the website itself but are seen by search engines. Meta tags help a website get matched to what people search. A hearing aid center in Texas, for instance, may use the meta title tag “Hearing Aids Plano TX | Thompson Hearing Center” in the code of their home page, Gorecki explained. 5. BUILD WITH PROFESSIONALS. Website optimization is a meticulous process that needs to stay on top of consumer behaviors. To build and maintain an effective audiology practice website, it helps to work with professionals in web marketing and digital media. Gorecki recommends that a clinician work with a digital marketing agency, which does more than just designing the website. “They can take into consideration the SEO, mobile-friendliness, content writing, and [lead] conversion aspects,” he said. When the website is up, it can be continually filled with various forms of content. Alamban said a clinician can hire content writers for the marketing copy and blog posts, graphic designers for static images, and video production teams for custom videos such as testimonials. But before hiring digital professionals, Alamban emphasized that an audiology practice needs to know exactly what they want out of their website. “You need to effectively communicate [to the designer] what you need, your objectives, and how you want all the elements to come together with a specific branding in mind.”