SEO or PPC Which Is the Better Strategy?

SEO or PPC Which Is the Better Strategy?

Today, most individuals rely on the internet for the information they need including healthcare information. According to Jupiter Research, a Forrester Research Company, 81 percent of the users find their desired destination through search engines. It has therefore become important for all businesses including medical entities to optimize their websites to improve online presence and drive more customers. Healthcare businesses meet this requirement with medical SEO services. Among the solutions available are – search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC). Both techniques help you to get on the front page of search engines for targeted audiences. However, each of these has its respective pros and cons.

SEO is indispensable for start-up businesses to establish authority, develop a good online reputation, and increase organic traffic. This strategy is also good to obtain back links and returning visitors. SEO is a long-term activity, and results don’t show up overnight. But when it starts showing results, you are ensured consistent and quality traffic. Experts consider it a more reliable digital marketing strategy because you achieve a high rank on Google via “natural” strategies with Google recognizing your website as reputable and trustworthy. The disadvantage of PPC strategy is that internet users often ignore sponsored ads and paid advertisements. Studies show that organic results are more likely to be clicked on than paid results. PPC requires heavy investment on your part to obtain advertising space for specific keywords. To be successful with PPC, you do need some basic search engine optimization to be performed on your website.

Let us look at these two strategies and the advantages they offer.

Search Engine Optimization

There are various methods available that help to increase the usability of the website and make it appear higher in organic search results and it is a combination of technical expertise, creative elements and strategic planning to increase traffic, rankings and conversions. Although search engines are intelligent, they require some assistance to understand what the website is about and to verify its credibility. With the help of some SEO tactics you can eliminate any confusion search engines may have at the time of positioning your website for success.

SEO
SEO Advantages

  • Increase organic traffic: One of the main reasons for web traffic across all sites is organic traffic from search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. Designing an appropriate healthcare digital marketing strategy and optimizing your medical website helps search engines to determine the value of your website. This will improve website traffic and allow the site to be found quickly.
  • Trust and Credibility: Having your website at the top of organic search results significantly increases your credibility in the perception of users searching for a business like yours. When you are on Page 1 of the search results, it will portray legitimacy and trust over a business showing up on Page 3.
  • Long-term strategy: This strategy is different from PPC campaign, because the efforts do not stop the moment you stop paying. Instead, SEO efforts will continue to generate traffic and help your website to grow and flourish.
  • Position advantage: Once you have gained a good position in the organic search results, your competitors cannot simply pay more to rank above you. What matters are quality, usability and credibility of your website.

Pay-per-Click Advantages

Pay-per-Click
Pay-per-click helps you to be on the first page for targeted keywords within a day. In this strategy, you run online ads and pay a fee when someone clicks on your ad. This is also known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Paid Search. Google is the primary provider of paid search advertising via Google AdWords. It also offers Search and Display advertising where search advertising means ads seen in the search results and display refers to the ads you see when you visit other websites on the Internet.

  • Prominence for your ads in search results: PPC campaigns helps to display your ads prominently on search results for specific keywords related to your business. Usually ads take up the first four slots on the search results page and the first three slots on a mobile device. Getting the first slot on search results depends on your quality score and bid amount. The quality score is based on three factors – the expected click through rate, ad relevance and landing page.
  • Customize your target audience: PPC allows you to customize the audience of your ads. The audience can be targeted using location, language, device, time or day of the week, websites visited earlier etc.
  • Control your budget: Budget can be controlled because of the flexibility PPC offers. This form of advertising can be a low-cost option for your business if you have a high quality score.
  • Data and flexibility: PPC advertising helps you to create reports and find out which strategy or techniques are working and which are not. The techniques that are not performing or performing poorly can be turned off. You can also increase budgets on campaigns that are doing well. The information in these reports can be used to obtain additional information regarding user search behaviour, which can be used in organic search efforts.

2017 PPC and SEO Statistics from Webpage FX

SEO Statistics

  • 93 percent of online experiences start with search engines
  • 70 percent of clicked search results are organic
  • Google fields more than one trillion searches per year
  • 89% of marketers say SEO is successful
  • 6 percent of all SEO leads close (as opposed to 1.7 percent of outbound leads)

2017 PPC Stats

  • Search ads increase brand awareness by as much as 80 percent
  • 32 percent of companies use PPC to sell products directly to customers
  • PPC visitors are 50 percent more likely to buy than organic visitors
  • 65 percent of all high-intent searches result in an ad click
  • On average, businesses earn $3 for every $1.60 spent on AdWords

PPC and SEO are two tactics used for online marketing, but it is difficult to say which one is better. If you own a small medical practice or business with little competition, then sticking to SEO is the best option whereas if you own a large business or medical practice with strong competition then SEO alone may not be enough. A proper combination of both PPC and SEO is required for any business. This will enable the two strategies to work better by strengthening and supporting each other. These measures can help medical businesses enhance their value, improve online presence and increase revenue. A reliable healthcare digital marketing agency would stay abreast of the latest SEO trends, and ensure that their clients rank high in all leading search engines and improve traffic. They would develop the right internet marketing strategy for your healthcare website considering key factors such as business goals, target audience, and budget.

Why Doctors Need to Market Themselves in This Digital Era

Why Doctors Need to Market Themselves in This Digital Era

The healthcare industry has undergone drastic changes over the past few years. With advancements in technology, patients now have access to more information than ever before. This helps them educate themselves and generate and interpret medical data for better outcomes. This has also led physicians and medical practices to change their conventional marketing strategies to new digital marketing and online marketing to ensure that new patients visit them, and also to retain existing patients.

Mobiles and Mobile Apps Gaining Prominence

The year 2013 was the big year for the adoption of mobile medical apps and today almost everyone uses mobile health apps to know more about their medical condition. Cardiologist Eric Topol, a professor at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego says that the medical industry has reached a turning point. He was prompted to say this when one of his patients sent him a screenshot of the electrocardiogram he had run on himself with a smartphone. Today there are more than 165,000 health related apps that are available for downloading and monitoring the wellness of an individual. There are many apps now available with another device or sensor that can monitor glucose, take blood pressure readings etc. An app called Dexcom G5 lets patients place a sensor under the skin to take continuous glucose readings that are transmitted to and graphed on a phone.

Technological leaps can make a huge contribution to the healthcare field because:

  • This is a time when there is a growing shortage of primary care providers.
  • Shifting the responsibility to the patient would reduce the providers’ burden; it will also help patients stay on top of their symptoms.
  • ER visits can be significantly avoided.

So, in such a changing scenario, medical professionals must utilize the potential of the Internet and make sure that their targeted audience group find them on the World Wide Web. Let us examine three major reasons why doctors must market themselves.

3 Reasons Why Doctors Must Market Themselves

Now patients don’t have to rely on family or friends’ recommendation to choose a doctor; instead they have the luxury of looking up for the doctor’s information online. Therefore it is important for physicians and healthcare providers to have a strong online presence. Prospective patients attach great importance to another patient’s review when it comes to healthcare decisions. Getting or posting positive reviews about a physician or medical practice shows credibility and influences patients to choose between doctors. Following are three reasons why doctors should market themselves in the current digital scenario.

  1. Patients research doctor reviews before visiting a doctor: Years ago choosing a doctor was an unorganized procedure, patients would ask their family or friends regarding a physician. But today with the help of websites like Yelp, patients have access to reviews and information about a doctor or medical practice. It helps patients to find doctors in their location, filter by price, neighbourhood, ranking and more. With review sites and medical websites becoming highly relevant, doctors and medical practices need to build a strong online presence for their survival. Doctors and medical practices with poor online presence could be at a serious disadvantage.
  2. Natural remedies have become popular: Many people are now aware of the importance of leading a healthy life and they give priority to eating healthy food, exercising and going for natural remedies. Therefore doctors should update themselves with current health and nutrition trends so that patients can match their views with doctors. Also, including content on natural remedies on the physician’s website also helps in attracting more patients.
  3. Medical websites teach people to use their own judgement: Many informative medical websites educate people about medical facts and patients are now empowered with a huge amount of information about healthcare. They needn’t consult a physician to clear a doubt or regarding some health condition. Some physicians may find it advantageous to include relevant medical information in their websites. Patients researching specific health conditions and treatment options available would be persuaded to consult a doctor who provides them with reliable information on the same.

Advancements in technology help patients and doctors a great deal, but it is still important for patients to put their trust on physicians for effective medical care. For medical practices and physicians it is very important to implement the right internet marketing strategies and also have a mobile optimized website. Their focus should be on projecting their services and how it would prove useful to the target group. They have to build credibility and instil confidence in the patients regarding their services. With a strong website and effective social media presence, physicians can ensure that their services are made available to a wider section of people.

Increase Referral Traffic and Conversions with Optimized Websites and Localized Social Content

Increase Referral Traffic and Conversions with Optimized Websites and Localized Social Content

In the present digital world, healthcare consumers are increasingly relying on websites and social media for gathering information about hospitals, medical practices, healthcare professionals and healthcare products. This makes strategic medical website design a very significant medical SEO service for healthcare businesses. According to Google, 97 percent of consumers use the internet to search for local businesses. Thinking on a global level, to obtain customers worldwide any business should provide them with websites translated in their preferred languages. In order to achieve real success in online marketing, companies should also skilfully leverage the power of locally preferred social media networks and optimize users’ on-site experience.

Using Social Networks to Engage with Global Customers

Social Networks

Having translated websites alone is not enough to establish a global presence. You should never ignore regional social networks while engaging with global customers. Here are the reasons why.

  • In the coming years, 25% more people are expected to be connected to social networks.
  • Almost half of the topmost popular social network users are Chinese or Asian consumers.
  • Around 85% of people who use Facebook are outside the US.
  • In Japan, around 60% of the country’s entire population engage in social network activities.

Therefore to be smart and competitive, you should have a strong online presence on local social media platforms.

Organizations should ideally translate their social media posts to improve visibility in the worldwide markets. In addition, this will build trust and confidence in overseas customers and persuade them to introduce your brand to their family and acquaintances. Translating social media posts to localized social content helps in increasing traffic and conversions on translated global sites.

Suppose you have a Chinese website; if you integrate this website’s functionality with popular Chinese social networks such as QQ, Weibo and WeChat, you can achieve significant, immediate results. You can increase the site’s referral traffic from these social networks. You can achieve good results by translating content for Facebook company pages also.

On-site Optimization Increases Conversion Rates

On-site Optimization

Generating referral traffic alone may not increase conversion rates. For this, you have to optimize user experience or design the site keeping in view the expectations of the visitors, such as making it more reader friendly. Localized conversion rate optimization is also an effective strategy for any business and with the help of A/B tests you can analyze your global websites (just as you would do for your primary-market websites). This will bring to light any online performance gaps that may exist in emerging markets. You can then work to make appropriate improvements in your localized site.

To make full use of the potential of social media as a marketing tool, medical businesses can consider using healthcare digital marketing services. This will help monitor social media and identify where your consumers are, how they communicate with each other, and what they are saying about your product/service. You will also get to understand how each community works, and engage with them in the way they most value. You will have a clear understanding regarding the right mix of social media sites to use, and focus on the sites your target demographic uses most, and work to develop strong followings there.