When talking about the essential content every practice with audiology services should offer, what do we mean? It comes down to the types of pages that help drive prospect conversions, support search engine optimization, and offer a compelling user experience.
1. Use the Tried-and-True While Still Being You
Standing out from the crowd with your unique value proposition is a crucial part of staying top of mind in the marketplace, but that doesn’t preclude using tried-and-true best practices.
“You want something that works, that’s been proven, that’s been tested, but you also want to find a way to stand out, and it’s best to really have a mix of both,” says Audigy content marketing specialist Patti White.
“What we’ve done in building these templates and building out this content — that we have tested and that has been proven to work well and drive conversion — is ensure it’s great to have on your website. It may not be unique to you, but it is in place because it works.”
One way to mix in the elements that make your practice’s site distinctively yours? Tell your practice’s story, and share your authentic vision. Then test different ways of presenting this information to your audience.
“There’s always a place to test those things that are unique to your practice that you want to get out to potential or current patients,” says White. “It’s a good opportunity to see if it does drive the conversion.”
2. Have a Location Page
It might sound surprising, but location pages help drive online traffic. They’re important for several reasons, explains Audigy conversion rate optimization specialist Daniel Parscale, including:
- Location pages are almost always where people want to go to confirm the business’s phone number.
- Business names, addresses, and phone numbers are important for many purposes related to search engine optimization.
- Consumers visit such pages to verify that the business is the one they’re going to connect with.
- Google statistics show that half of consumers conducting a local search on their smartphone are likely to visit the location that pops up.
White agrees, adding, “It’s really important to have that information accurate not only on the location page of your website but across your online presence. When you start talking about those local directory listings that appear when you do a Google search and you’ve got that little map pack that shows up, you want that information to match what’s on your website.”
3. Add an Appointment Page
Similar to location pages but not quite the same, appointment pages are equally indispensable for audiology websites. They score a lot of traffic and a lot of conversions.
Like location pages, appointment pages are meant to drive conversions. Rather than stand out in search as a home base for your address, however, an appointment page grabs prospects who landed on your page another way. It’s an action point once the visitor’s already on your website, according to White.
“Maybe the search that the user made in order to get to your page wasn’t necessarily an actionable search,” says White. “But once they get there, they decide to make an action, and this is an obvious place for them to go to take that action.”
The goal of the page? Capture the traffic as it comes through, ensuring that users:
- Convert while on the website
- Have an obvious place to go to make that conversion
4. Talk Tinnitus
Does your practice include tinnitus evaluations, diagnostics, and treatment? Make sure you’re talking about it on your website.
Audigy members’ tinnitus content pulls in the web traffic, says Parscale, which indicates people are searching the topic and want to act on it.
“More often than not,” Parscale says, “I find that that page actually generates more traffic than sometimes even hearing aid-related pages.”
Adds White: “A lot of people can’t ignore that buzzing, that ringing noise that’s in their ears. They don’t necessarily associate it with hearing loss, so they’re trying to find a solution. I think that’s why we kind of see more people searching for something like that.”
Your practice might not offer every tinnitus-related treatment — tinnitus retraining therapy, for example — but you can still discuss it among the options that may fit a consumer’s needs.
Prospects seeking help recognize the value of educational information, and so does Google, which will turn that value into increased opportunities for traffic.
Plus, consumers searching for a service that you don’t provide might land on your article and be amenable to your converting them onto a service that you do offer.
5. Seek to Educate
We’ve all been there: seeking answers online for a health condition, symptom, dilemma, or problem without knowing quite what we’re looking for or how to articulate it.
Is your website capturing those consumers in the research phase, foreseeing their questions, needs, and concerns?
“Part of our job is trying to anticipate those types of questions, putting ourselves in the users’ shoes,” says White. “‘What is it that I’m looking for?’ We’re finding more and more that people do that research.”
Creating relevant content that primarily serves to educate consumers can go a long way in building brand awareness and consumer goodwill. And, as mentioned in tip 4, Google also notices and acts on valuable educational content.
Even when the topic’s a tough one, talk about it.
Consumers want to know about hearing aid costs, for example, and will go wherever they need to for the answer, so tackle it head-on in the context of service and value — not just technology.
“I think it’s our job to balance providing that answer and educating them on why the service is important and how it’s so much more than that initial price,” says White, “that the cost associated with it has a value, and there’s so much more than that. I know we have to walk that line quite often.”
As discussed in the tinnitus example above, education extends beyond the scope of services you might offer. Even if you don’t provide a certain service, it doesn’t mean you can’t educate potential patients about it, including explaining the various treatment options out there.
“And either they can do something that is applicable to your office and your treatment, or they have the option to go somewhere else, or they refer them,” says White. “But the important thing is that you educated them and helped them find an answer, because that’s part of what you want to do: help people.”
6. Connect with Current Patients
Some web content is less about conversions and more about patient retention, with the additional benefit of further boosting your site’s rankings in online search results.
Audigy members’ websites include a section on hearing resources, for example, providing another patient touch point outside the office and further positioning the providers as the go-to experts for information.
“If you’ve fit a patient with hearing aids and then they have questions about how best to communicate with their family, you have a page on your website that’s got communication tips on it,” says White. “And yes, it’s valuable to that user.”
It’s also valuable for search engine optimization.
“Value is something that we talk about in all aspects of business,” says Parscale, “but when we’re talking about SEO, for instance, we’re talking about it primarily because Google always wants to provide the most viable answer to whatever your query is.”
The more answers your website provides within that answer range, explains Parscale, the more likely someone will land on your page.