I know Chip and Paullie will say the best way to attract new patients is to get media coverage for our practice. Beyond that, we are exploring other options. We are a 4 doctor practice in a competitive local market. Our website is set up through a subsidiary of the AAP. Recently we were contacted by that company about attracting new patients by increasing our presence on Google. There was a discussion about search engine optimization.
Are other practices dipping into this? Are you finding it fruitful? Are you able to justify the cost?
I can’t say whether the effort will justify the cost because I don’t know what they are charging or providing, but I do believe that every practice needs to do some minimal Google SEO work in 2021. You don’t need to pay someone to do it, imo, but you can.
Make sure you claim your business on google. Make sure your WWW is responsive (mobile friendly). Search for yourself, are you there?
Hi Chip,
Thank you for your response. I am not sure if this goes back to you or the blog .
The company is officite which I think is a subsidiary of the AAP.
They want $500 per month for SEO and $1300/mo for seo and the amplifier (adds).
I have to do some research to figure out how I do my own SEO.
Thanks to you and Paullie regarding the webinars. You guys have succeeded in making something informative and entertaining at the same time.
Richard Ruben, MD
I don’t believe Officite is a subsidiary of the AAP, they just have an effective endorsement.
$15K a year for SEO and ads seems high - what are they budgeting for ads every month? $500 or $600? That seems a lot. How do they base their fees? The size of your practice?
So, on one side: that seems like a lot of money. On the other hand, if they can find an extra 10 families a year this way, it should more than pay for itself.
What does concern me, though, is that they control your WWW site. Many SEO functions require being able to access the site design. You may be trapped.
I used pay Officite about $100 a month for SEO plus about $200/m for everything else. We were completely unhappy with their service. We designed our new website through a freelancer and my high school daughter using WIX. We maintain it ourselves, including SEO revisions. I think I pay about $25/ m to WIX to maintain it. You can checkout our site at www.baycolonypediatrics.com The big plus is we can make changes when we want to. You can also check out www.pediatricweb.com founded by a pediatrician if you want to go the professional route.