You built your website, sent out email announcements, and networked with other healthcare professionals about your practice.

And now you wait for the new clients to start calling and emailing to inquire about your services.

If you build it, they will come. Right?

Except that they don’t.

A Website Is Your Foundation

Now, this doesn’t mean that getting a website was a waste of your time and money.

You absolutely need a website to succeed these days.

It’s the foundation and first point of contact that prospective clients have with your practice.

But your website is only one of many places on the web that prospective clients find your practice.

Before your website can help your clients and your practice, they have to be able to find it.

Don’t Be Invisible In Search

If you’re not showing up in search results, you might as well be invisible.

Only 75% of users ever look past the first page of search results on Google.

You also need to make sure that your website is optimized to be indexed by search engines. This is a process called search engine optimization.

And if you can combine search engine optimization with pay-per-click advertising, you can significantly decrease the time that it takes for your practice to gain traction in search results.

But it doesn’t stop at search engines, like Google. New clients may find you in many other places on the web, too.

Maps, Mobile Apps, and Online Directories

In fact, they may search for you in over 60 maps, mobile applications, and healthcare or business directories across the web.

You don’t even have to create these listings yourself in order to be listed on them. Many of them are created by “bots” and other algorithms that search the web for businesses and add them to their directories.

Without having direct control over how your practice is listed online, you may be indirectly negatively affecting your clients’ experience before they even walk through the doors of your practice (or send them to another practice, entirely).

People Trust Online Reputation

The above issues deal with how clients find you. But what about dealing with what they think about you?

85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust a word-of-mouth recommendation. And that’s even if they got a referral.

Your online reputation is vital to the success of your practice. So if you want your practice to succeed, give prospective clients positive reviews to help them trust you.

57% of consumers won’t use a business that has fewer than 4 stars (up from 48% in 2017). And consumers require an average 40 reviews before believing a business’s star rating is accurate (up from 34 in 2017) (BrightLocal 2018).

Not to mention that the average revenue increase for each star in online reviews is 5 to 9% (Harvard Business School, 2016).

So you want to get to work right away on building a large collection of positive online reviews.

Online reviews are one part of your online reputation, but another is your social media presence.

Small Businesses Use Social Media

More than 50 million small businesses use Facebook to connect with their customers. And for healthcare practices, social media networks like Facebook represent a vast referral network of clients for your practice.

Establishing a social media presence for your practice gives you an opportunity to reach new clients.

76% of adults use Facebook on a daily basis, so it’s an excellent idea to have an active social media presence for your practice.

This always brings up the question of what do you share on your social media page?

Use Content To Keep People Engaged

Besides staying in touch with your client base, you can also use social media to share valuable content.

This turns your online presence into a valuable online resource clients can share day or night and use to stay engaged with your practice between appointments.

76% of people use their Facebook feed to find interesting content. (HubSpot, 2016) and client education combined with following best practices for content creation is a great way to fill your social media page with helpful content.

While a solid website follows best practice is indispensable for your practice will always be the foundation of your online presence, you should expand into these other areas as much as possible as you develop.

If you have any questions about how to take the next steps in building an online presence that helps your practice grow, contact TherapySites.