How to Maximize Your Ophthalmology Website Traffic
One of the main objectives of a business owner is to get as many customers as possible through the front door and provide them with great service. As the owner of an ophthalmology practice, we’re sure that you can relate to wanting more patients requesting information about your top tier services, like LASIK, and in turn booking an appointment with you.
Your ophthalmology website is the most essential marketing tool to have at your disposal. Your website allows visitors to get an idea of who you are before they ever step foot in your practice. A website also lets visitors know what services you provide, what conditions you can treat, your contact information, who your staff is, and so much more.
Although you may already have a website, is it getting you the results you expected? If not, continue reading on and learn how to use your website, your most important digital marketing asset, to convert visitors into booked appointments.
1. Improve the User Experience on Your Ophthalmology Website
You may look at your website and think “This is easy to follow and navigate for me,” but what about visitors? Your website is for them to use and explore so we encourage you to have a fresh set of eyes look at your website and see if they can quickly and easily navigate your practice’s website.
If not, it’s time to make a change. Put yourself in your visitors’ shoes. What do you look for when you visit a website? A simple, yet stylish design? A navigation bar and web pages that are easy to look through? A contact us or book appointment page that is straightforward and understandable?
The transition from one page to another should be smooth so visitors can look around or just locate exactly what they’re looking for and accomplish a goal.
If anything on your website is stopping or slowing down the process of potential patients reaching their objective, you need to think of actionable items that can help clear their path. A patient journey should be painless and uncomplicated, so figure out how you can provide them with everything they need to find what they’re looking for.
2. Feature Patient Testimonials
Even in the digital age, word-of-mouth marketing is still crucial for encouraging others to schedule an appointment at your practice.
According to a survey conducted by Bright Local in 2019, 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses. People want to hear about the lived experiences of others that have received services from or communicated with you and your staff in any way.
Patient testimonials give website visitors the insight they need before making an informed decision to come and visit your practice themselves. If you are not sure how to ask current patients if they would like to participate in written or video testimonials for your website, try these tips:
- Send personalized emails to patients after their appointment has concluded and ask about their visit (include questions about the overall experience, timeliness, customer service, etc.)
- Include a direct link to your Yelp or Google review page on your website so they can leave written reviews.
- If you have a good, long-standing relationship with one of your patients, contact them about taking part in a video testimonial highlighting what they love most about your practice.
- Utilize social media platforms to ask patients for reviews by posting the link to your review page online.
A few important things to remember when asking patients for reviews is that you should never insistently ask patients to leave reviews, buy reviews from anyone, leave fake reviews, or forget to ask for them after an appointment.
Once you have curated a good amount of patient testimonials, share them on your website so visitors can hear others raving about your business!
3. Use Call-to-Actions on Your Website
A call-to-action, or CTA, should absolutely be included on your website and in more than one place if you want to increase your conversions. CTAs are an engaging website feature that gives visitors an action to complete.
Many people need a CTA on a webpage to take the next step in their patient journey that gets them closer to learning more information or setting up an appointment. For your ophthalmology practice, some CTAs that you can have on your website include:
- Schedule a Convenient Appointment
- Subscribe to our Monthly Newsletter
- Learn More
- View Current Specials
You can be even more engaging and use your CTAs to really speak to potential patients for example, “Click Here To Start Your Journey to Clearer Vision.” Feel free to have fun with these and think of what would make you want to click on it if you were visiting a website.
4. Provide Informational Content
We are firm believers in the power of good, quality content that resonates with visitors and persuades them to stay on your site to learn more. Providing visitors with content about the condition of their eyes and the procedures you offer at your practice will help to keep them to learn more and continue to engage.
Here are 17 educational content topics that would be useful for your patients:
- How to protect your eye health
- Dry eye treatments
- How aging can change vision
- Strabismus
- Cataracts
- Age-related macular degeneration
- Glaucoma
- Eye infections
- Conjunctivitis
- Nearsightedness
- Farsightedness
- Astigmatism
- Presbyopia
- Diabetic retinopathy
- Common procedures you perform at your practice
- LASIK
- Corneal disease
5. Respond in a Timely Manner
Response time is extremely important for your conversion rate and to generate more interest in your business. When someone calls or emails your office, or fills out your ‘contact me’ you should respond in a timely fashion.
When you get back to potential patients as soon as possible, not only are you taking the first step to provide good customer service, they’ll also feel that their inquiry is valued and appreciate your quick response time.
88 percent of customers expect a response within one hour of the original form of contact. We understand that as a business professional, things can sometimes become hectic around your office and your staff may not have time to respond immediately when someone fills out a contact form, calls the front desk, or sends an email.
But remember, this is someone that is genuinely interested in learning more about your services and should not be pushed to the side or forgotten for too long.
Failure to communicate within an acceptable amount of time-based on the potential patients’ standards may result in them finding another practice with a quicker response time.
Since you may not always have time to get back to someone within the hour, having an automated email response will confirm that you received their message and will be replying soon.
You can customize these messages to add a touch of personality and professionalism to your customer service process.
Convert visitors into patients with help from us!
Take our tips and use them to nurture the visits that your ophthalmology website receives into more happy patients. Adapting your website to fit the needs of your patients can be time-consuming and may pose some challenges if you are unfamiliar with website design and digital marketing tools.
But, lucky for you, we’re experts in the industry and can help you to accomplish bringing more patients to your practice using your website.
For more information on how to use your website to attract prospective patients and turn them into loyal patients, give us a call at 800.792.8384 or click here to schedule a free consultation to discuss your digital marketing goals with us.
