Using your Google Analytics data to learn and optimize your physician practice Website.
For most healthcare practices, having a website is just checking off a box on a long list of “things every practice must have.” It’s a means for you to push out information in an effort to convince potential patients that you’re the right doctor for them. Right?
No. I mean, yes, it is those things. But it can be SO much more than that.
Your website is a goldmine of data and insight about how visitors are responding to your message. It can actually tell you how to get more prospective patients to your website and ultimately into your practice—if you know where to look.
These are just a few of the ways we’ve used data to help clients improve their practice:
- Learned where to focus marketing dollars to promote the right solutions and messaging
- Saw the demand for potentially offering new healthcare services or opening up other locations
- Pinpointed the right topics for creating social media posts, blogs, articles and other content to attract potential patients and demonstrate expertise
Doctors are not marketers. And that’s ok. That’s why Carenetic exists—to handle the business end of your digital presence so you can focus on making people better. Let me give you a little preview into our data analysis process. You might be surprised by what your website can tell us.
What search terms or referral sources get patients to your site?
Google’s decision a few years ago to encrypt searches makes identifying referral keywords a bit more challenging. Ah, but not impossible. Knowing these keywords is not only helpful for fine-tuning your website’s SEO (search engine optimization) efforts, but also showing you what services potential patients are most interested in.
Even with Google being Google, marketers still have plenty of tools for finding this useful data. Once we have it, we can make recommendations around things like:
- Running PPC campaigns that capitalize on these keywords
- Updating website content to either attract more people searching for certain keywords or downplay keywords that aren’t as important to your practice
- Generating ideas for your blog or other content that could help users link your practice with key conditions or services
What pages are being visited the most? The least?
Knowing these answers can tell you everything from what messaging seems to be resonating to which of conditions or services are in higher demand. For instance, a plastic surgeon or orthopedist will learn which of their services are being checked out the most. They could capitalize on that information with a targeted marketing campaign or web page refresh to further boost interest.
How do I compare against competing practices?</h3 style=”font-family:’sweet-sans-pro’;”> The digital world is a never-ending competition. There’s always something you can be doing to gain an edge on other practices. We can use this information to adjust your digital strategy or make website improvements.
Where do my website visitors live?
Thinking about moving offices or opening a new location? Your data can help inform your decision. Combined with data on referral sources and page views, you can also use this info to develop geo-targeted marketing efforts.
To answer any of these questions, you need to have Google Analytics set up on your website. If you don’t, do so (or have someone help you do so) immediately.
I know it’s all a bit daunting. But I also know that paying attention to this data can absolutely grow your practice. You just have to put the effort into it. Or pay an agency like Carenetic to do it.
