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A Look at the True Impact of Negative Google Reviews for Your Dental Practice

As the old saying goes, you can’t please all the people all the time. No matter how stellar your services are at your dental practice and how many patients leave raving reviews, you are bound to have a few negative reviews show up on Google from time to time. These reviews can be pretty intimidating, and they can have more negative repercussions than you may know. Here is a look at the true impact of a bad review of your dental office on Google and what you can through reputation management for your dental practice do to combat the damage.

Here’s Why A Negative Review Needs Attention

One negative review may not seem like a big deal, but just one online negative review of your dental practice can bring along unwanted consequences. As much as 94 percent of customers claim they have veered away from a business if the business had negative reviews. According to some research, half of patients will actually travel out of their own insured network to see a practitioner with positive reviews.

How to Mitigate the Damage from a Negative Review

In some instances, fraudulent reviews can be removed. These reviews tend to be blatantly obvious; the individual may make extreme remarks about your services in an effort to provoke an emotional reaction. Or, the review may not even align with the types of services offered at your dental practice. When you can prove to a review site through reasonable doubt that a review is fraudulent, the host will typically pull the review.

Since you can’t usually remove the negative review, the focus must be on making that review look much less detrimental. A few tactics can help, including:

  • Making the review look less noticeable by harvesting as many good reviews as possible
  • Quickly responding to the review
  • Being polite and courteous by offering assistance or for the reviewer to contact the office

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Get Help with Online Reputation Management for Your Dental Practice

While managing your reputation online as a dental practice is important, the process can be time-consuming. Therefore, many dentists trust reputation management to their digital marketing team. If you need help with reputation management for your healthcare practice, reach out to us at Digital Healthcare Professionals for a free custom quote.

 

Sources:

 

https://info.zimmermarketing.com/blog/the-power-of-patient-reviews-for-your-dental-practice

 

https://www.dentistryiq.com/practice-management/marketing/article/16359859/online-dentist-review-use-is-climbing-are-you-ready

 

 

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What Is Local SEO and Why It Matters for Your Optometry Website

Way back when, prospective optometry patients relied on word of mouth and local advertising to get to know the eye doctors in their area. Those days are long gone—the bulk of patients look for information about medical care providers before they ever schedule an appointment. When you take this action into consideration, you start to see why targeting the people looking for you online should be such a key component of your Optometry digital marketing strategy. Local SEO (search engine optimization) plays a huge role in this process.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a process of optimizing your website and business online to make sure key searchers within your geographic location are able to find your practice. If your online marketing strategy does not involve local SEO strategies, the people who visit your site may not be people who could logically be perspective patients because of their proximity to your place of business.

How Is Local SEO Incorporated?

Local SEO involves several facets, including:

  • Making sure your business is properly listed on Google My Business
  • Enhancing your website with key terms and phrases users in your area would most likely use to find an eye doctor
  • Making sure your practice is listed on pertinent review sites
  • Optimizing website content according to local information
  • Listing your business on directories specifically for businesses
  • Optimizing your website so it performs well for mobile users

Is Local SEO a Wise Investment?

Absolutely! Integrating a local SEO strategy for your optometry practice’s website can deliver an excellent return on investment. Consider some of these statistics:

  • Nearly half of all searches on Google are for local services
  • 88% of people who search for a service provider locally will visit that business within 24 hours
  • 78% of local mobile searches end with an offline purchase of products or services

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Work with Healthcare Marketing Professionals for Help

When done correctly, a local SEO strategy can mean substantial online and real-life traffic to your optometry practice. If you need help building a local SEO strategy, reach out to us at Digital Healthcare Professionals for a custom quote.

 

Sources:

 

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/local-seo-stats