When patients write online reviews, it can be difficult for physicians to respond without making the situation worse or violating HIPAA regulations. Instead, it’s recommended that doctors assign a staff member or hire reputation management agencies to address negative reviews on their behalf.
Reputation management for doctors involves tackling negative reviews and improving their online presence. One of the most important elements is a cornerstone digital property, such as a personal website.
Online Reviews
Online reviews have become one of the most important factors for patients when evaluating a physician. In fact, 81% of patients consider an online review before choosing a doctor. With this in mind, doctors should be proactive about managing their online reputation. This includes promoting positive patient feedback, keeping accurate business listings, and responding to online reviews.
The Internet can be a cruel place, and a negative article or review about a medical practice could quickly ruin a physician’s reputation and hurt their business. To stay on top of this, doctors need to be proactive and constantly monitor their online reputation by setting up Google Alerts that notify them whenever their name or practice is mentioned.
However, many physicians are reluctant to respond to negative reviews out of fear that they will be sued for violating patient privacy laws. However, if a doctor responds to a patient in a timely manner and offers an opportunity for them to reach out to the physician directly to resolve their concerns, they can turn the situation around and possibly attract new patients.
Additionally, physicians should make it easy for patients to leave reviews by offering convenient tools such as text message follow-up, online patient portals, and contactless payment processing on their website. These tools will help increase the number of positive reviews and improve their overall online reputation.
Social Media
One of the most important aspects of reputation management for doctors is ensuring that they are constantly monitoring the online world for mentions of their name and practice. Whether it be a positive review or negative news article, these should never go unnoticed. To do this, a physician can set up Google Alerts to notify them anytime their name is mentioned online. This will ensure that doctors are able to address any issues as they arise, and can take measures to prevent a tarnished reputation from lasting too long.
Another way that doctors can improve their online reputation is by creating their own blog on their website and posting regularly to it. This shows potential patients that a doctor is passionate about their work, and it also helps to bury negative results in a search engine’s results page.
Additionally, many patients will look at local “best doctor” roundups when choosing a new healthcare provider, so being included on these lists is a great way to boost a physician’s online reputation. It shows that other physicians consider them an expert in their field, and it can help potential patients feel more confident about the care they will receive from that physician. To achieve this, physicians should be sure to promote their inclusion on these lists in any marketing campaigns they undertake.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing a website to rank higher in the search engines’ results pages. For doctors, this means that patients searching for specific medical conditions or procedures can find their practice’s website. Doctors who invest in SEO can reach a much larger audience than traditional advertising methods, and can build a long-term, trusted digital presence.
For doctors, it’s important to focus on SEO that is tailored to their specific patient demographic. This can include local SEO, keyword research, responsive web design, and disavowing bad links from other sites that are bringing down the practice’s online reputation.
Another way that doctors can improve their search engine rankings is by creating online profiles in directories that are tailored to their specific industry. These directories allow doctors to showcase their credentials, thought leadership, and engage with potential patients. For example, the website WebMd is a popular healthcare news and directory site that caters to doctors. These profiles are often ranked highly in Google searches, especially when the doctors have verified their identity on the website.
In addition to these profile-based efforts, it’s also important for doctors to have a strong, comprehensive website. This is a cornerstone digital property that can be used to direct people from other social media channels, directories, and review sites back to the doctor’s own website. This can help a physician’s online reputation by showing that their practice is active and well-maintained.
Reputation Management Software
The first page of Google search results tied to a doctor or medical business can make or break their ability to attract new patients. That’s why online reputation management has become a standard marketing practice for many businesses, including doctors. Doctor online reputation management uses specific marketing methods to guarantee a positive doctor online profile.
The cornerstone of most online doctor reputation management campaigns is a website that presents critical information about the doctor, their practice, and services to potential patients. This is true whether the campaign involves improving online reviews, building trust with prospective patients through a physician blog, or establishing credibility via local SEO.
Another critical aspect of online doctor reputation management is ensuring that patients who search the physician’s name on Google see accurate, relevant results. This requires claiming, optimizing, and managing the local Google business listing for the doctor’s practice.
It also involves identifying and addressing any negative online reviews, comments, or press coverage that may arise. Often, this can be accomplished by simply responding to the review in a timely manner, which shows that the medical office cares about its patients. Reputation management software can help with this by alerting a physician to new reviews and then automatically generating personalized responses for each review in compliance with HIPAA regulations. The software can also display all the new reviews on the doctor’s website physician or location pages in real-time, boosting website conversion and social proof for prospective patients.
