When you’re creating a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy for your medical practice, one of the main goals is to help boost your online visibility to expand brand awareness and encourage organic traffic. However, the state of your business process operations can have an impact on your digital visibility in ways you may not realize.
Business process operations is a fancy way of referring to the processes that get the job done at your business. It means the day-to-day stuff. It’s the structure of how a task gets done to provide the best service and treatment possible for your patients. While a majority of those things don’t involve digital marketing, they can still play a role in how your brand is presented online.
Read on to learn how business process operations are connected to SEO, including the benefits that can come from combining the two concepts. Then we’ll discuss the steps you can take to align them and how BURG+CO. can help you along the way.
Why operations and SEO go hand in hand
When you’re filling out paperwork or sending out appointment reminders, you might not think that these everyday tasks have any connection to your digital efforts. But how well your processes run inside your practice can affect the quality of patient care that’s showcased online.
If your operations are inefficient or mistakes slip through the cracks, it can lead to bad reviews and inconsistent patient communication, affecting your reputation and authority. The negativity can affect your SEO if the algorithm decides that you aren’t providing quality, credible care. Without ranking highly on relevant search engine results pages (SERPs), it can be difficult to get the traffic, engagement and conversions you need to grow your practice.
By aligning your business process operations with your SEO strategy, you’ll gain several benefits:
- Improved patient retention
- Increased efficiency to reduce staff issues and burnout
- Higher local SEO rankings on relevant results pages to attract new patients
How to align your SEO with your business process operations
It’s possible to get the SEO results you’re looking for by taking your day-to-day operations into account while creating your digital strategy. Here are a few steps that you can follow:
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Streamline patient communication.
Patient communication plays a pivotal role in building the trust that’s needed for retention as well as being in good standing with the algorithm. Consistent communication includes appointment confirmations, reminders and follow-up messages.
You can streamline these processes using a variety of features, including:
- Patient portals
- Secure messaging platforms
- Automated messaging systems
The goal of these processes is to reduce the risk of mismanaged communication that could lead to negative reviews on your Google Business Profile, affecting your overall SEO performance. Constant communication also improves your show rate. Patients want to know that they’re not just a number to you, and that you’re there to guide them along the entirety of their journey with you.
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Optimize appointment scheduling and intake.
All digital marketing efforts share the same goal: Increase patient appointments. But the search engine algorithm considers your overall patient experience, and that includes the ease of booking an appointment.
There’s no doubt that, at some point in your life, you tried to call a facility for an appointment, only for them to never call you back. If a patient thinks it’s too much trouble to schedule with your office, they might not even bother.
By optimizing the appointment booking process with straightforward, accessible online scheduling systems, you can reduce potential frustration and increase your conversion rate. When it’s a quick and easy task, patients are more likely to write positive reviews and return for future concerns.
You can also optimize the intake process through automated digital forms and mobile check-in options.
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Standardize content creation processes.
Content marketing is a pillar of SEO strategy, and for good reason. It allows your patients to connect the dots between their concerns and your treatments.
The creation of digital marketing efforts, such as blog posts and social media content, requires several internal processes, from production to posting. By standardizing these processes, the internal alignment ensures consistency when it comes to creating blog posts, service pages and FAQ pages.
By streamlining the content creation tasks, you’re encouraging consistency that builds trust with patients and establishes your brand identity. You can standardize the processes in multiple ways. Some options include automated scheduling using a content calendar and creating a collection of templates.
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Ensure accuracy in online listings.
Healthcare providers pride themselves on giving the most accurate information possible to ensure that patients get the answers they need. The same idea goes for your digital presence. Potential patients should be able to trust that what they’re seeing on your online listings is accurate, including:
- Phone number
- Hours
- Services provided
- Accepted insurance
Your business operations should include regular audits of your practice’s online profiles to ensure that they are accurate and consistent across the internet.
When online listings aren’t accurate, you’re not only missing out on potential patients, but you’re also reducing your credibility in the eyes of the algorithm.
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Collect and manage reviews proactively.
Reviews are critical for your reputation, an important consideration for both patients and local SEO.
Your reviews and testimonials help potential patients decide whether they want to seek your services. Positive reviews that sing your praises will help them feel confident in your ability to provide them with quality care. Negative reviews can make them feel more tentative in their decision, and they’ll likely continue exploring other options. Either way, all reviews require proper management.
You can create internal processes that help you to gather and manage reviews, including:
- Recognizing the right time for your staff to ask patients for reviews
- Tracking new reviews on your Google Business Profile
- Including feedback requests in automated follow-up messages
Handling all feedback, including negative reviews, is part of operations. Be sure to provide empathetic, appropriate responses to all reviews on your Google Business Profile. Not only does this strengthen your patient-provider relationships, but it also helps you to be aware of potential issues and take accountability if necessary.
Want to attract new patients to your website? BURG+CO. can help you connect your business process operations with your SEO
From improving patient trust to higher rankings on local search engine results pages, it’s easy to see why you should consider your SEO when tweaking your business process operations. By thinking about the impact that your internal processes can have on your SEO performance, you can make sure that the right steps are taken to increase your metrics as you move throughout your daily to-do list.
At BURG+CO., we know the ins and outs of SEO, including how it can be affected by everyday tasks in your practice. We’ll help you strategize on streamlining your operations and optimizing your efforts so that you can get to the top of the SERPs.
We also have a content marketing team that can make the creation process as seamless and effective as possible to boost your engagement and conversions.
Our team has years of experience in helping healthcare brands improve their digital presence to attract new patients and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more potential patients to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help.
Want expert support with your digital marketing? Connect with BURG+CO. today to explore how we can help your healthcare brand grow.