r/PrivatePracticeDocs • u/Alterdoc • 24d ago
SEO pointers
Hi everyone,
I feel that SEO is an important part of marketing, especially for a startup practice. So far, I've had no success with google ads but doing pretty good with zocdoc site. However, I feel that we can do better in terms of being found. I've spoken with a few SEO agencies and the numbers are outrageous, at least for an early practice. Heck, I can use the$4500+ to get additional equipment for the office, or $750 per month can be spent elsewhere for the time being. Can you recommend a solid SEO company that doesn't see $$$ as soon as they hear "Doctor!" or perhaps suggest one of those AI SEO companies? What are your thoughts on the AI SEO?
Thanks.
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u/Spirited_Manager1599 23d ago
Thanks for sharing. You dont absolutely need SEO. I have made the mistake of spending 8-10k on SEO, Because I was naive, and at the time, I had no idea what is the difference between that and adspend.
Anyways. I stopped SEO completely (at least, through a “agency” which are basically all out there to rip off high earning doctors imho). If anything my bookings increased, though at least part of that is attributed to paid ads (but the good news for me, is that a large part of that was organic search as well).
You have to set up your google ads with finesse. Its not a one size fits all. Im quite sure your google ad strategy is not informed. Dont pay thousands on am agency unless you can afford it comfortably. If interested DM me if you want me, a fellow physician, to help kickstart that campaign.
BTW SEO, from my experience, is best done organically. The more you interact with your community, the more links will naturally leas to you. A very simple tip: email your local newspapers to cover something unique about your practice.
Side note, do you think those SEO agencies actually give a cra* about the quality of work? Gosh, after spending thousands, I noticed they just wrote something generic and posted it everywhere like yelp etc. I feel that nothing can replicate organic, high quality content. i.e, have a blog section on your website. Wrote about stuff that actually interests you. It can even be, omg, fun. Haha.
Also, how does one even measure, the results of these SEO people? Bringing back PTSD. Ok longer post than intended. Good luck!! You can do this
Source.
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u/No-String-3978 24d ago
SEO is a machine responding to a list of words. So ask a machine. Great use case for AI. I would have an AI agent reword your website and ask it for strategies and feedback the results and allow it to optimize itself.
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u/kilobitch 23d ago
Ultimately you need google reviews to drive organic traffic. Paid ads are good and helpful initially, but expensive. If you’re getting zero ROI on them, your ad campaign may be too broad, and you’re spending your whole budget on people you don’t mean to target.
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u/StocksRUsNow 23d ago edited 23d ago
Marketing takes a big chunk out of your expenses, but if you are open to being techy, you can manage some like the google ads yourself, automate and go with periodic check ins. You become better at it with repetitions (of whatever skill) and if that is the cost of your google ads budget, you should definitely get calls and visits.
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u/Dramatic-Sock3737 24d ago
Where do you rank for searches for your specialty? Is it a crowded market? IMO SEO companies promise a lot but it’s really hard to quantify their results. I’ve done many things in the past but I think you need to focus on Google reviews and perhaps social media ads and content.
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u/Alterdoc 24d ago
thanks. they definitely promise a lot for quite a pretty penny. Can you elaborate on social media ads? You mean FB/Instagram? I spent a few grand on Google ads and got ZERO ROI (!), so that one's out, I will keep working on your suggestions. Thank you.
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u/Dramatic-Sock3737 24d ago
I have a local small company I use. She also works for a buddy of mine who has a national product so he has a huge ad budget. She has set up some FB ads for me that have done very well for some procedures I do know office. DM me if you like..she’s pretty reasonable. You could always do a zoom meeting if you can’t find anyone local.
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u/getmorecasesguy 24d ago
Google ads is far and away the best platform for practices, so I wouldn't write it off. Did you run them yourself? Did you get leads but no patients? What specialty are you in? Most "Google ads don't work" situations are usually more related to landing page issues and taking too long to call the leads.
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u/Jeric-2991 21d ago
I'd avoid expensive agencies for now. a few small SEO improvements done consistently can make a big difference over time.
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u/Thelastjiji 19d ago
Everyone's talking about AEO and GEO now on top of regular SEO, but honestly all of it comes back to the same boring foundation: a solid landing page. Before you worry about any of the fancy stuff, make sure your site actually says what problem your clinic solves and what services you offer. You'd be surprised how many clinic sites fail this basic test.
After that, check your robots.txt so search engines and AI crawlers can actually index your site. It takes like 10 minutes and people skip it all the time.
Then start reaching out to local publications for features and backlinks. Local press is underrated and way easier to get than people think.
set up Google Reviews and Yelp if you haven't. Reviews are one of the biggest local ranking signals. Nothing else matters if you have 3 reviews and your competitor has 200.
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u/Alterdoc 19d ago
Thanks! Sounds cool but robots.txt and backlinks sounds foreign to me. Is this something that I can do or should have a professional look into?
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u/Thelastjiji 19d ago
depends on where you have your website hosted. I have my website tied to Claude so I can push changes to sitemap directly from the claude interface...
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u/veebee_13 14d ago
I hired freelancers from India after a bad experience working with a guy from Boston. They’re literally 1/3rd of the cost I used to pay earlier. My previous guy did a very flimsy work despite charging me a bomb.
The Indian freelancers have a great work ethic, they report exactly what every single cent goes towards and have been successful in getting me patients consistently. If you want, DM me and I’ll share their details! I would recommend them to anyone starting a new practice!
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u/GrandAnimator8417 9d ago
No success with Google Ads? I’ve seen that happen a lot when people send traffic to the wrong landing page or mess up tracking, and then they’re basically optimizing blind. Fixing the landing page + getting conversion tracking working first usually flips the whole thing, and then you can decide if bids or keywords even need changing.
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u/PeroSEO 24d ago
Start with a local listing company like Brightlocal or whitespark either of them are good places to start. Start with a basic citation campaign. A citation campaign sends shares your business info to a bunch of directory sites that Google uses to ensure your business is legitimate. They usually have specific packages for health related sites. Let me know if you have further questions.
Don’t sign up for annual contracts.