Physical Therapy Marketing Ideas for Facebook

Physical-Therapy-Social-Media Marketing
Use the ‘Like” Button to Optimize Your Physical Therapy Social Media Marketing
  1. Add the Facebook ‘Like’ to Your Website
  2. There are lots of physical therapy marketing ideas you can apply to Facebook. An effective way to showcase your Facebook Page and social community is to promote it on your own website. A ‘Like Box’ makes it extremely easy for your visitors to ‘LIKE’ your Practice without ever having to leave your website.

  3. Add Link from Facebook to Your Website
  4. physical-therapy-social-media-marketing
    Use the “About” Box to Drive Traffic from Facebook to Your Website

    Naturally, you want to give your Patients access to your website from your Facebook page. In the left hand column of your Facebook page you will see the ‘About’ box. In this box, you can add a hyperlink to your website.

    You only have a limited amount of space so be sure to keep it simple by posting something like this: “For more info on our Special PT Programs, visit us at: https://www.MyPTWebSite.com”

  5. Engage Patients With Smart Questions!
  6. physical-therapy-social-media-marketing
    Engage Your Facebook Community with a Little Q&A

    Questions are a great way to engage with your visitors. Just be aware that there is definitely a right way and wrong way to ask questions on Facebook.

    Longer, wordy posts often discourage users from reading and commenting. Make sure you that you ask brief, well-stated questions that inspire Patients to contribute in your Practice’s online community with short and easy responses.

  7. Don’t Overlook Your Timeline Cover Image
  8. physical-therapy-social-media-marketing
    Create Your Own Facebook Cover Image using a Template

    Think of your Facebook Timeline picture as a massive Billboard everyone visiting your page will see. While as a Practice, you aren’t allowed any contact details on the cover image, you can still highlight your Clinic brand with a logo, staff photos or even pictures of your Patients (assuming you have permission and HIPAA requirements have been fulfilled). In fact, by using a clever mix of images and design, an eye-catching “collage” can serve not only as the cover image, but as a snapshot to what your Practice offers. If you’re not a graphics guru, you could have a professional designer combine your photographs. But an online search for “collage maker” or “photo stitching” will reveal many free sites to help you assemble the perfect Facebook cover composition. Here’s a link to one that we found. Let us know what you think.

  9. Optimize the Title of Your Facebook Page for Google
  10. If you have one location, or want to try to rank your Facebook page on Google for one of your many office locations, try to include Physical Therapy City (where City is the city your Practice is located in) in the title. For example, if your Clinic name is Acme Physical Therapy and you are located in Brea, CA, then title your page Acme Physical Therapy Brea CA.

  11. Don’t Forget to Secure Your Custom Facebook URL
  12. Once you have created your Facebook page, go to https://facebook.com/username and secure a username for your Facebook page. Keep it simple so that people will remember it. If you get too clever or creative, you might confuse your audience. Also, optimize your username. Following the example above in point number 5, you should title your username AcmePhysicalTherapyBrea. That way, the URL of your Facebook page will be https://facebook.com/AcmePhysicalTherapyBrea . This will increase the likelihood that your Facebook page will show up on page 1 when someone Googles “physical therapy Brea”.

[info_box]Action Items
1. Add a Facebook “Like Box”.
2. Link to Facebook from your site.
3. Engage your PT community with smart Facebook Posts.
4. Post a thoughtful, attractive Timeline Photo.
5. Optimize your Facebook page for Google.
6. Secure a custom Facebook URL.
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Physical Therapy Web Design -Making It Boomer Friendly, Part 2

In part 1 of physical therapy web design for boomers, I shared with you a number of points mainly surrounding the content (grammar, organization of your message, etc.).  This time, I will share with you some thoughts on formatting your physical therapy website.  I went for a bullet list format for this post so you can go through things quickly and check off things that you have in place and opportunities for improving the web design of your physical therapy site.

Putting Together Readable Text for Boomers and Seniors

As we age, the eyes become less sensitive to light gradients, fine detail and color.  Therefore, here are some things you should keep in mind when formatting your text for your website:

The Font

  • We recommend a sans serif font.
  • Avoid narrower fonts (also called condensed fonts).

Verdana, Arial, Helvetica (Mac), and Tahoma are all common sans serif fonts that are easier on the eyes.  Google offers a number of other free fonts that can be integrated into your site.  The differences can be subtle between san serif font types but if you want to maintain a unique stylized look, check out Google fonts.

Fonts for easy reading
Fonts for easy reading

Lettering and White Space

  • Make sure you have enough empty space (called white space) so your site doesn’t look too busy.
  • Make sure you have adequate spacing between paragraphs.
  • Make sure that you have enough space around links, banners and buttons so each one is easy to click on with the mouse.

 Font size

  • 12 to 14-point font size is best (note pixels sizes on this blog post are slightly different than font points).

Here is 12-point (16 pixel) type.

Here is 14-point (19 pixel) type.

  • Make it easy for people to change the font size.
Have Tools to Change Fonts
Have Tools to Change Fonts

Font weight

  • Use bold type or a medium weight.
  • For headings, increase the size and weight or use a color. If you use bold for body text, make headings stand out with size or color.
  • For <H> tags, known as heading tags, increase the size of that font and also it’s weight.  Also, consider using a different color.

Lowercase versus Capital Letters

  • Make sure that you use uppercase and lowercase words.  Using all capital letters is much more difficult to read.
  • Italics are harder to read as well so use them sparingly if possible.
  • THIS IS ALL CAPS – IT IS HARDER TO READ FOR MOST.

 Justification (Alignment of text to the left)

Older readers are used to left-justified columns of information.  Left justification means that there is an even left margin and the right margin is uneven.

Color

  • Use high-contrast color combinations, such as black type against a white background. Avoid layering shades of the same color, such as dark blue type on a light blue background. Avoid colors that clash. For example, dark blue on red is very difficult on the eye.
  • Colors that contrast well are good combinations.  Black text on a white background is a great example of high contrast.  Try to avoid harsh color combinations (e.g. red with a dark blue background).
  • Also, avoid yellow and blue and green in close proximity. The differences in these colors are difficult for many older people to see.
  • Group information visually be using good color combinations.

Use Good Navigation, Layout and Contrast to Make Things Easy to Find

website design and navigation
Clear navigation helps with usability

Have you ever watched a child or grandchild use a technology device and marvel at their ability to use it with such ease?   While younger generations may find your physical therapy web design easy to navigate, here are a few steps you can follow to make it easy for boomers as well.  It’s especially important for navigation elements to be consistent, explicit, and predictable.

Web Design and Layout

Consistency will help older adults better understand how to use your website.

  • Have a consistent look and design throughout the website.
  • Use consistent icons, banners and symbols.
  • Have the title of the page in a consistent color, font and site and in the same location across all the pages.
  • Avoid distractions like pop ups

Navigation

  • Make sure the navigation is the same across all the pages.
    • Use bread crumbs when it takes multiple clicks for the viewer to arrive at a desired page.
    • Try to structure your navigation so it doesn’t take more than one click to get to information.
    • Make sure that a “Back to Top” or the “Go Back a Page” browser icons behave predictably.

Menus

Make menus easy to use.

  • If you use pull-down or fly-out menus, make sure they are visible for long enough time for the viewer to take action and click on a link.
  • Do not use menus that require users to slide the mouse and click all in one movement.
  • In the menu below, note that there are pictures of the therapists as well for clarification.  This is called a mega menu system.

Screenshot_48

Links

  • Write descriptive, easy-to-read links that help people predict what will happen next.
  • Make sure your links are easy-to-understand, and people can predict what will be on the next page.
  • Underline links for clarity.
  • Use action words (verbs) when the link is about taking an action.  If a link is meant for the user to take action, use action words (verbs).  For example, “Click Here to Download Your Patient Paperwork”.
  • Make sure the entire sentence is underlined, not just “Click here” in the example above.

Buttons, Banners, Icons

  • Icons and buttons are easier to find when they are large, bright, and in a color that contrasts with the background.
  • Make sure that your physical therapy web design includes buttons, banners, and icons that are bright, have good contrast, are bigger than just body text and it’s obvious that they link to another page.
  • Make sure icons and banners do not require exacting movement for the viewer to click on them.
  • Make sure they are a different color than surrounding text and images.
  • If a bullet in a list is a link, make sure the text that follows the bullet is also a link and goes to the same target web page.

Mouse Functions

  • Use single mouse clicks to access information.  Use a single mouse click to allow the viewer to take action.

Scrolling

  • Avoid the scrolling marquee text.
  • Avoid any horizontal scrolling.
  • Limit vertical scrolling.
  • Keep key information above the bottom of a web page in a 1024 x 768 resolution monitor.

Search

  • Use a search box if your website has pages that are greater than 2-3 clicks deep
  • Use a search box as an alternate to viewers clicking through your navigation.
  • Keep the search box in the same position across all of your pages.
  • Try to offer alternatives for misspellings when people are using your search function.

Your Practice Contact Information

Contact information at the top
Contact information at the top
  •  Have your contact information present on all of your pages (name, address, phone number).  Placing it at the top right of your web page and in your footer, is a common convention.
  • Include your office hours on your home page and contact pages.
  • Include your contact information on your Location/Map page if possible.

Audio, Video, Rich Media

  • It’s good practice to use video (with audio for those that are visually impaired) and still pictures to complement text on a page.  When you share the same information in different formats, it can help the viewer better retain the information.
  • Avoid the use of Flash-it’s not supported at this time by Apple mobile and pad devices.
  • Use mobile-friendly video and slideshow elements.

 Photos and Graphics

 Illustrations and photographs

  • Illustrations and photos should support the text to enhance understand.  Using them solely for decoration can be a distraction.
  • If your physical therapy audience is primarily seniors or boomers, make sure you incorporate pictures of seniors/boomers into your message.
  • Include captions whenever possible.  It’s been proven that captions are read by more viewers than any other part of your website.

Video

  • Use short videos (2-3 minutes max) to get your message across and decrease download times.  Some may still be using dialup Internet access.
  • Make sure it’s easy to understand how to play the video and adjust the volume.
  • For important video, include a transcription of the message.
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Wrapping It All Up: Using Your Physical Therapy Website Should Be A Fast, Easy And Enjoyable Experience

By following the recommendations above and in our Part 1 blog post, you can make sure your patients get the information they need to have a better experience at your practice. If possible, ask your patients if they visited your website and seek out feedback to improve the user experience. Open up your website for a few boomers at your practice and watch them use it. Doing so could be very helpful in recognizing opportunities for improvements. It’s important to realize that your website user experience is a small but significant part of clinical communication. Baby boomers and seniors need physical therapy services more than ever and are using the web more too. Good physical therapy web design and content development can go a long way to enhance your customer service and efficiency. [/info_box]

Physical Therapy Marketing – A How To Guide to Search Engines Optimization

physical therapy search marketing

“Why is no one using my physical therapy website? I haven’t seen a single new patient!” Every time I hear those words, it makes me chuckle because it reminds me of my first physical therapy website over 10 years ago.

I was so excited when it was done! I had completed a major objective of my physical therapy marketing plan. I had spent hours putting together the code adding great images, writing and rewriting and uploading my service information, the ‘About’ page, my phone number and address, testing the forms and making sure everything anyone could ever ask about was there on my website, ready and waiting for anyone that visited.

After a several days of no one contacting me, my excitement started to fade but I was still sure someone would use the contact form or call me on the phone.

I typed my practice name and physical therapy into Google, only to see lots of other listings but no mention of me on any of the first 10 pages. “It’s still early,” I thought to myself.

After 3 months, the digital tumble weeds were blowing through my PT site’s pages and still no one had been in contact. I couldn’t understand what was wrong. Did no one care about the fact that I could help back pain patients heal without drugs or surgery? Did anyone really care about a physical therapist website?

I Had No Idea SEO Should be Part of My Physical Therapy Marketing

When my frustration was at an all-time low, I contacted a good friend of mine, who was also an internet marketing guy, and lamented to him about my lack of website viewers. When he asked what had I done to optimize my site and what keywords had I used, my face went blank.

He was kind enough to run through a few basic things with me and over the next few months, he worked with me to put into place some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) elements to help me get found on the search engines.

From that day forward I soaked up every bit of SEO information I could. I invested in courses, books and coaching so I became an expert in SEO and could help other physical therapists.

What my friend had initially showed me gave me an understanding of why I needed help with SEO in the first place, and so now I’m going to pass some of that on to you…

Just Build It And They Will Come?

physical-therapy-website-design

If you are anything like I was, a physical therapist with an interest in web technology, you may have assumed that just creating your website is enough; Everyone who needs you and your services will find your site without a problem. Right? Not exactly.

All you have done is to take your site and drop it like a boat to float about in the ocean of the internet, and as such your site is drifting aimlessly in wave after wave after wave of other sites.

You and your site need more than luck for potential patients to come across your website. You have to make your practice stand out from other websites, and you need to start putting up some “I’m Here” signs to your site.

SEO is the way to direct attention to your physical therapy website. It’s a fancy technical-sounding name that scares many practice owners off trying it at all, but it just describes the process in which you help search engines notice your site.

Make Sure You Consider Your Keywords

physical-therapy-keywords

One aspect of SEO is how you carefully manage the placement of certain buzz words (known as KEYWORDS) into your site’s page titles, content, headings, image alt tags and other key places within your site.

When done correctly, it means search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, will read these keywords, which results in them giving your site a good ranking. In other words, your site appears higher up, or nearer the front, in the search results. Since most people don’t look past the first three pages of search results, it is vital to your practice that you appear as near to the top of the first page as possible.

UNLISTED = INVISIBLE?

Ok, you have probably done this quite a few times, but type the name of your practice into Google. Where do you appear in the results? Page1? Possibly, but you could be further down the search results than you would like, perhaps page 2 or even 3. If this is the case, you need to improve your search engine ranking. Why? When we look at web statistics, over and over we see that a “name search” is by far the most common why prospective patients search for you.

Now try a second search, but this time use the kind of general terms a patient might use – so just use physical therapy together with the name of your local town or area. Now where do you appear in the results? Are you in the first 5 pages? NO? How about the first 10 pages?

Take Some Action Before You Hire A Professional

As worrying as it may seem that you can’t find your site, there’s no need to panic just yet. It’s time to take positive action to improve things.

The first thing you really need to know is why your site isn’t getting any attention. Does Google really not see your site at all? Or is it just a case that you are getting so little traffic to your site that there isn’t enough for the Search Engines to give you any ranking worth a bean? Knowing which it is will change the way you approach your SEO.

How do Google, Yahoo, and Bing find a PT Website?

web-spider-robot

As you can imagine, there are millions of websites, pages and bits of information out on the web. To make sense of it all, it has to be put in some type of ordered format so that is can be scanned quickly to gather the relative information needed for each search enquiry.

Search engines have software programs called ‘robots’ or ‘spiders’ that are sent out to read the massive volume of information people have published on their websites. They ‘index’ this information, noting which pages they have come across and all the words contained on each page. So when a search enquiry is made in one of the Search engines, this index helps sort the relevant sites for the results.

Entry in this index isn’t a foregone conclusion. Websites that are new or have little traffic to them won’t necessarily be brought to the attention of these spider programs. You can check the status of your site by going to Google’s search and typing in site:www.(followed by your domain name). If your site is indexed, you should see a list pages from your site that Google has found and indexed, and ideally every page of your site should have its own index entry.

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Let me show you an example. Take Marathon Physical Therapy www.marathonptny.com for example…

To see Marathon’s indexed pages, you would type site: www.marathonptny.com into Google search. Has Marathon PT done their SEO homework?

They most certainly have.

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If you have done your homework, you should certainly expect to see some pages appear in the index results. If some or all of your pages are missing, don’t worry. It’s better that you find out now and take steps to correct it, than sit around for 6 months wondering why no one has come calling to your website.

GET SPIDERED AND GET LISTED

Thanks to Google, you can take steps to start your site being indexed. Google has provided website owners the opportunity to take advantage of their free Webmaster Tools which helps practices and individuals alike to make the most of SEO on their site.

All you need is a Google account, which you can sign up for when you visit the page at https://www.google.com/webmasters/ BUT before you start, make sure your website is ready. Check there are no broken links, you have enough unique content on your pages, you have keywords in all the right places (don’t worry, we’ll look at keywords shortly).

Once logged in, you can get your website verified, add your site and a site map, check for any site issues using Google’s helpful Support Tools, even ask for your site to be ‘crawled’ by the spider programs. Then check your site index listings again after 3 or 4 days to see if you have been added to the Google index. If any of this sounds daunting, you can contact us for assistance. We can put of your SEO requirements in place for you.

Time For Your Practice To Stand Out In The Community

Now that you have taken care of the technical aspects of your site, it’s time for your site to start gaining some recognition and yelling, ‘I’m here!’

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Whether you have a fairly new site, or one that has been up and running for a while, you need to look at ways your site can start to draw attention, and ultimately attract both Search engine rankings and traffic. This is a multi-part operation using:

  • Keywords
  • Title Tags and Page Metadata
  • Unique Content
  • Constantly Changing Content
  • Links to Other Sites
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It may look like a lot of work, but you don’t need to tackle everything at once. That’s the beauty of SEO. It can be done one-step at a time, and as the content of your site should always be changing, you should be tweaking and adding to your SEO efforts often.

KEYWORDS

Keywords are the life blood of your site’s SEO. They are a key factor in customizing your site so that Search engines can deliver the right type of visitor to your site – someone who is looking for your physical therapy services and is ready to call and schedule an evaluation.

You need to find keywords that describe your services the way your patients and referring physicians think about them, not the way you see your practice. Put yourself in their place and try to imagine what terms someone who didn’t know about your specific practice would use.

If you have access to some analytical tools, see if you can identify popular terms people are typing in when making searches relevant to your practice. Once you have considered all the information, try to spot some key core wording or related topics people seem to be using in their searches and incorporate these terms into your site’s content.

Remember your intermediate objective is to move your site up the search results (your business goal is more new patients in the door), so avoid keywords that have excessive competition by being to general (e.g. low back pain).

For example: A McKenzie provider wouldn’t use ‘back treatment’ as a main keyword. There is simply too much competition from millions upon millions of sites – everything from education and medical products to associations, chiropractors and medical super sites.

By choosing to concentrate on a smaller aspect of that broad topic of low back pain, using terms like ‘McKenzie treatment Carlsbad’ or ‘McKenzie provider Carlsbad’ will produce much better results.

Where Do I Put My Keywords?

There are certain prime locations that are searched by spider programs within sites. When a search inquiry is made, these spiders look through site pages to see how many times that keyword is used on the page, how near the top of the page it is used and whether it is used in any other key location.

You need to incorporate these keywords naturally and organically into your text, so that your content flows smoothly and keywords don’t make sentences read in a clumsy or awkward way, while still getting your message over clearly.

There is no alternative to spending time adding keywords into your site, but it is worth the effort and you can add them a few key words at a time. If you don’t feel like you have the time to spend doing this, why not give us a call and we can talk you through how we could do this work for you.

In order for the keywords to be searchable, they do need to be in text form. Text within an image is not readable by the Search engines. Here are some of the really key places to add Keywords into:

Headlines & Section Title

Both of these are likely to be in a larger, bolder text and appear much more prominently on the page. This draws more attention from the spiders and so keywords that are included in these have a greater influence than the same keyword in the body text.

Page Text

Keywords scattered, (not stuffed), throughout the page, but especially within the first sentence/paragraph. Keywords higher on the page have more effect, so use strong keywords here.

Link Text

Wording that is used in links to your site, such as Social network profiles, your blog, external links that go to your site, are given priority status when search engines are looking at that page.

Page URLs (web addresses)

By adding keywords into the URL address of each page, you can make each page highly significant to Search engines.

Over time you will build up a strong keyword presence within your site. As you refine the terms you are seeding your site with, keep in mind any phrases, tag lines or mission statements specific to your company and make sure to include them on a page or two.

Make sure you regularly use analytical Tools such as Google Analytics to watch how effective your keywording is, and to see what new terms people are using to find you on the internet. There are many free resources on the web which can help you to do this.

A word of caution – It can be tempting to run riot with keywords and stuff them into every nook and cranny of your site. It might seem like a good thing to do, but it is anything but. Known as Keyword Stuffing, there are severe penalties for doing just that.

Search engines are constantly analysing the information being collected and if they suspect a site has been overfilled with keywords in an attempt to manipulate a higher ranking in the search results, that site will either be penalized with a LOWER ranking or, worse-case scenario, your site will be BANNED from appearing in any search results, and that would be devastating for your practice.

TITLE TAGS and PAGE METADATA

Each time you create a new page on your site, or add an image to the content, you are given the option to add text, including keywords, into several significant fields which are read by the Search engines:

Page Title Metadata:This field is the text that appears in the header bar or the browser tab area of your browser window. When you click on an entry in the search results, it appears right at the top of your page on the header bar and is often shown in the search results as the “blue link”, that when clicked on, takes the viewer to your website.

There are a few ways to change this field, including using the HTML page code, but don’t waste this field by just adding in your company name. By making each page’s title unique, you can add several different keywords into the overall list of keywords for your site.

Page Description: When you create your pages, you will see this field as an optional text box. Here, you can give a longer description about the content of the page itself, and keywords entered here are also searchable by the spiders. The page description can also often appear beneath the Page title within search results. Limit the number of characters (including spaces) to 160. Consider also adding a call to action at the end of this description (hint – use your phone number).

Image Metadata: Every time you add an image onto your pages, make sure to give your image a short punchy title that relates to your site and/or practice, and don’t forget to fill out the alt title and image description fields.

These fields are all optional, and so some practices overlook them as unimportant. However, why pass up another SEO search opportunity? You shouldn’t stuff keywords into these fields, but make sure you add in at least one!

UNIQUE CONTENT

There are many sources for adding content to your website.

While there is nothing wrong with adding these straight into your site, it is the UNIQUE content of your site that ranks well with the search engines. So when you find a piece that relates to your practice, why not try to wordsmith it a bit.

You could focus question answers or problems you think your potential patients may want answered.

For example, one of the best techniques is to create a list of FAQs and SAQs. “frequently asked questions” and “should have asked questions”. Proactively answering these questions can set you apart or confirm that you are the physical therapy specialist in your community.

CONSTANTLY CHANGING CONTENT

Once you have enough content on your pages, it’s not enough to kick back and leave it there, untouched for months.

Think about it – Would YOU repeatedly visit a website that had nothing new to say? You would come back once or twice, but after that you would be looking for new places to find information that is fresher and more current. While patients may not come back to your website without a physical therapy need, more importantly, search engines also lose interest. Because they want to deliver the best and most relevant information to each search inquiry, they look at how regularly your site is being updated.

Sites that have new content added frequently are more frequently indexed, helping them rank higher in search results.

If you are not adding brand new content in the form of news, updates, new services, products or images, you will lose the attention of the search spiders. Once that happens, it could take months before anything you do add is discovered.

So how can you keep adding content quickly and easily?

A blog is one of the best ways. Not only can you add a new blog entry in less than 15 minutes, but you can use it to encourage others to share it and to link to the contents, increasing the traffic volume all the time. This leads us to another important component of improving your SEO…

BACKLINKS – LINKS FROM EXTERNAL SITES TO YOUR SITE

backlinks-for-your-physical-therapy-website

Have you ever been walking through a craft fair or rummage sale and seen a crowd of people around one particular booth? What is your natural, almost subconscious, desire? Is it not to go over to see what the fuss is all about?

Well believe it or not, this is exactly what happens when Search engines notice other sites have links coming in to (not going out from) your site, especially if the sites that have linked up to you are from authority sites which rank well themselves.

The more sites that are linked to you his way, the more it tells the search spiders: “This site is a good resource and has key information on certain subjects” and so the higher up the search results you will rank. You can see which sites may have already linked to you by going to Google search and typing in:

link:www.YourDomain.com (or .org, .net – whatever domain suffix your site uses)

How Can I Get Others To Link To Me?

If you find you have no links at the moment, don’t panic. There are many ways to encourage others to link to your site.

Check on site directories that are relevant to your practice field to see if you are listed there. If not, apply to get your site included in this and other directories, including larger, more general directories.

If you have partner organizations (e.g. PTPN, PTP, APTA, PPS, etc.), make sure they have links coming into your site.

Is there some content you could add to your site that others would see as a useful resource and so encourage them to link to you? It could be an article that relates to solving specific problems, reports, toolkits or resources.

Another option is to see which sites rank highly when searching for keywords relating to your practice, and then look for ways you could encourage them to link to your site.

An inbound link is worth much more to your SEO than hundreds of outbound links from your site to others.

Effective SEO Takes Time, and Effort.

Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. It can take a little time to build up the momentum of your SEO, so don’t get discouraged if it takes a few months to start to see results, but once you get the ball rolling, you must keep it going.

SEO is like a muscle – you have to use it or you lose it – but doing a little SEO work often is the key to building up an effective SEO campaign.

Keep your finger on the pulse of your site on a monthly basis, checking your keywords and links and making sure to add fresh information is important.

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REMEMBER YOUR END GOAL…IT’S “NOT” RANKING NUMBER 1 ON GOOGLE!

Search Engine Optimization is all about trying to do the right things on your website (keywords, title tags, meta data, etc.) and off your website (link building) so that the search engines will rank you one page one of a search results pages. While this is important, your ultimate goal is to generate new patients in the door. Ranking number 1 on Google for “physical therapy in your community” can make a difference but remember, ranking number 1 for a business name/reputation search is far more important. You can read more about that here.

Unlike me, you might not have the huge amount of time and resources to learn more about, test and invest in trying to be an SEO expert.

The good news is that you don’t have to embark on a huge learning curve. We can do it all for you.

That means that you can concentrate on treating patients and running your practice while you let us put into action our expertise and experience and make sure your website is easily found by the search engines and your patients.

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Making Physical Therapy Websites Boomer Friendly – Part 1

Physical Therapy Web Design and Seniors
Physical Therapy Web Design and Seniors

This post offers guidelines that can help you create websites that work well for older adults, the fastest-growing group of Internet users. Besides sending and receiving email, older adults also routinely search for health information.  As the baby boomers age, the number of older adults using the Net will continue to grow.

Four Key Points to Consider During Physical Therapy Website Design

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  • Keep it Organized-Break information into small, manageable sections.
  • Make sure you write for senior viewers too.
  • Number each step and give clear instructions.
  • Minimize the use of medical terms and technical jargon.
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1. Organizing Web Information for Older Adults

Many older adults have had little training in the use of computers and the Internet and are unfamiliar with the way information on websites is organized. In addition, changes in working memory may affect their ability to simultaneously grasp, retain, and manage new information. Declines in perceptual speed can increase the time it takes to process information. A website with a simple design, uncluttered layout, clear labels, and short sections of information can make it easier for older adults to select content, absorb and retain what they read, and avoid information overload.

Make it clear how the information on the website is organized. 

Users should easily be able to determine what information your site offers and how it is organized. They should be able to figure out a starting point and predict what type of information a link will lead them to. It should also be clear how they can find more information as well as how to return to previously visited pages.

Keep the website structure simple and straightforward.

A broad and shallow site hierarchy reduces complexity and makes it easier for visitors to learn how information is organized.

Break information into short sections.

Giving people a small amount of content at one time makes it easier for them to grasp and recall information.

Write a clear, informative heading for each section.

Clear headings give people anchors on the page and help them select desired content. For example, headings can be:

Topics

  • Back Exercises
  • Knee Conditions
  • Rehabilitation After Hip Replacement

Action Verbs (“ing” words)

  • Caring for Stroke Patients
  • Making Your First Physical Therapy Appointment

Questions

  • How do physical therapists help with back pain?
  • What causes arthritis?

Put key information first.

The most important information should be located where people can find it most easily—at the top of the website and at the top of a web page.

Put the sections in logical order: Think about how older adults might look for information.

Provide a site map: Make sure your sitemap includes every page.

2. Writing Online Text for Older Adults

Age-related changes in text comprehension can make it harder for older adults to understand written material that is not expressed in a straightforward or concrete manner. Changes in attentional functioning may make it more difficult for older people to stay focused on specific information and eliminate distractions. Many older adults may be unfamiliar with technical language and jargon. To keep the text senior friendly:

1. Limit the number of points you make.
Stick to one to five messages in each section. Keeping your information brief can make it easier for web users to stay focused.

2. Put the key message first.
Putting the main message at the beginning ensures that your website visitors will see it. 

3. Keep paragraphs and sentences short.
Paragraphs should express one main idea. Sentences should be simple and straightforward. 

4. Write in the active voice.
The active voice puts the focus on people and actions.

 

Things to Avoid and Some Possible Alternatives

Avoid: Prescription medicines are taken by many older adults.

Use instead: Many older adults take prescription medicines.

Write in the positive.
Be especially aware of words that have negative meaning such as “forget,” “until,” and “unless.” Instead of combining them with “not,” rewrite the sentence with a positive word.

Avoid: Don’t forget to take your medicine.

Use instead: Remember to take your medicine.

Explain clearly; don’t make people guess what you mean. 

Avoid: Restaurants that offer senior discounts may be a good choice for older adults who like to eat out.

Use instead:  If you like to eat out, go to restaurants that offer senior discounts.

Address your web users by using “you.” A direct instruction like “Exercise every day” is one way of writing for your web users, but not every message you want to give is such a direct instruction.

Avoid: No matter where a person is, a sudden fall can be startling and upsetting. If someone falls, that person should stay as calm as possible.

Use instead:  Whether you’re at home or somewhere else, a sudden fall can be startling and upsetting. If you do fall, stay as calm as possible.

Choose words your web users know. Minimize jargon and technical terms. Write in simple language. For example, to describe a place to exchange messages with other older adults on a website:

Avoid: Online Community

Use instead: Communicate with others online

3. Make Sure Instructions “Can’t” be Misunderstood

Give specific instructions. These examples tell people exactly what to do:

  • Repeat the exercise 10 times.
  • Hold the stretch for 20 seconds.
  • Exercise twice each day.

If the instructions have more than one step, number them.

How To Do a Calf Stretch

  1. Sit securely toward the edge of a sturdy, armless chair.
  2. Stretch your legs out in front of you.
  3. With your heels on the floor, bend your ankles to point toes toward you.
  4. [The steps would continue like this.]

4. Avoid Medical Jargon and Unfamiliar Terms

Define unfamiliar terms. If you need to use a term that most older adults do not know, define it when you use it.

Active Range of Motion (AROM) – the patient lifts or moves a body part through range of motion against gravity.
Isometrics – muscle contraction without joint movement.

Provide summary information. Summarizing information reinforces it and helps with recall. If you repeat information at different places in your site, make sure the messages are consistent.

[note_box]Baby Boomers are big consumers of physical therapist directed services. It makes good sense to consider your audience when putting together your physical therapy web design and development plan.[/note_box]

This Infographic Summarizes Why Physical Therapy Mobile Websites are a Must

mobile website use
Physical therapy mobile websites – if you don’t have one, this is why you should!

 

 

Don’t Miss this Physical Therapy Marketing Opportunity

Physical therapy practices are challenged with creating patient loyalty and retention. If your patients don’t keep coming back chances are your practice won’t be successful in the increasingly competitive rehab space.

It’s common knowledge that it’s easier to get a former patient to come back to you again then attract a new patients who has never been to your practice.

A big mistake practices make today is focusing their sales efforts on attracting new physician referrals and neglecting to properly retain their existing patient base.

That is where mobile marketing comes into play.

Our mobile marketing services are a great way to not only tap into the massive mobile audience but also use cutting edge technologies to retain and build loyalty with your patients.

Our suite of mobile marketing services not only produce results, they also help build serious brand loyalty. We help practices by building premium mobile friendly websites and QR code campaigns, that together can provide you with a rich set of tools that will result in more patient visits and help retain and bring back old patients.

For more, check out our mobile samples by clicking here.

Reference: https://www.netbiscuits.com/reports/reports-and-papers/the-peoples-web-infographic/

Physical Therapy Reputation Management – Yelp Just Made It Much Easier

So this is Yelp:

[blockquote align=”left” variation=”orange” cite=”yelp.com” citeLink=”https://yelp.com”]”best way to find great local businesses”

“People use Yelp to search for everything from the city’s tastiest burger to the most renowned cardiologist. What will you uncover in your neighborhood?”
[/blockquote]

I have received a number of reports from my clients that Yelp drives some business to their practices.  While no one has ever told me that Yelp’s paid advertising generated ROI or new patients in the door, there’s no doubt that businesses receive traffic from Yelp.

 

Why?  It’s because geographic searches for physical therapy practices  (e.g. physical therapy Los Angeles) often result in multiple links on page 1 of the Google SERP (search engine results page). See below for an example.

Yelp-Physical-Therapy-SEO

People click on the Yelp link which may take them directly to the PT practice website or a list of practices in that geographic area. Viewers then click on the practice’s business listing link and end up on the PT practice website. Therefore, it stands to reason that having a presence on the Yelp can pay off.

How can You Take Advantage of This?

First, you need to claim your Yelp business page.  Click here for instructions on how to do that.

Second, you need to get reviews from your patients.

Yelp Now Allows Business Reviews on Mobile Devices

yelp-reviews-physical-therapy-reputation-management

Yelp now allows people to review businesses right on their smartphones (long overdue in my opinion).

Now, when your patients are on heat or ice or a modality, encourage them to review you on Yelp.

The fact is that about 18% of consumers consider reviews when making provider choices.

As a physical therapist, we do our best to provide great care but unfortunately, we are not the best at sharing our good deeds.

My advice is to work on your physical therapy reputation management. Take advantage of Yelp, get a bunch of reviews, inoculate yourself against bad reviews (which are likely to happen at some time or another) and you will build your brand online.

[note_box]Action Items:
1. Claim your Yelp business page.

2. Put a link to your Yelp business page on your mobile website.

3. Then make a point of trying to get 1-2 Yelp reviews per week!

4. While you don’t want to buy reviews (it’s against Yelp’s Terms & Conditions), at least let patients know the option exists. [/note_box]

Physical Therapy Blogging Basics

For some physical therapy practices, a blog might be a good use of time and money.

Twice each month I do webinars for E-rehab.com clients. This one was so well received, I thought I would share it on our blog.

This webinar discusses some of the basics regarding setting up a physical therapy blog on physical therapy websites.

Here are some of the points I covered:

  • blogging platforms,
  • what to write about,
  • where to find content,
  • keyword research,
  • plugins,
  • promoting your blog with social media,
  • and more.

I hope you find it helpful.

Knowing How Patients Search for Physical Therapy Websites Could Save You Some Money

How Do Patients Search for You?
Knowing How Patients Search for Your Physical Therapy Clinic Could Save You Some Money

How should online promotion be done for physical therapy websites? That’s a question that many practice owners struggle with and as such they spend hundreds or thousands of dollars per month on promoting their business online the wrong way. They are “hyper sold” the idea, by the big box corporate marketing companies, that they should show up when people do a geographic search (e.g. physical therapy Solana Beach) or a search for back pain treatment in their city (e.g. back pain treatment in Solana Beach). But do people really do this type of search? Is it common? Most importantly, does it generate new business?

With few exceptions (yes, I know there are some clinics that do more than 5% direct access), physical therapy clinics receive most of their business through word-of-mouth. They receive referrals from physicians, family members, and friends. The direct access patients are usually those that come back a second time without seeing their physician first, because they were educated by the PT practice direct access “next time” is possible.

So, if the above is true, what is the most important way for you to promote your physical therapy practice online? The answer is to dominate page of a search engine results page when a prospective patient does a name/reputation search. Let me go through the thought process and share some proof with you.

Let’s look at a practice that dominates the search engine results for a geographic search. As you can see, when you do a search for “physical therapy Solana Beach”, this practice has all of the top listings.

physical-therapy-online-marketing

If this really matters, then we should see lots of searches and traffic to the website from viewers that were using the search phrase “physical therapy Solana Beach”.

physical-therapy-search-data

As you can see, the search for “physical therapy Solana Beach” is relatively rare (in fact, the one result we see “Solana Beach Physical Therapy” is the name of competitor in the area). What you should notice is that a search for the name of the practice (any type of search with the word “Gaspar” in it), is the most common type of search. This is the name/reputation search I was referencing above.

Therefore, this is the type of search you want to dominate page 1 of Google for – a search for your business name.

Additionally, because review sites often are displayed for name searches, you should make sure that you have great reviews. While only approximately 20 percent of patients are influenced by reviews, there are all kinds of statistics and reports suggesting that reviews really matter. This infographic summarizes how consumers value reviews.

[note_box]

Note on Geographic Search Engine Marketing: I am not saying that you shouldn’t invest some time and money to get your practice listed for a geographic search.

This type of search, as noted above does happen, but it is much less common. As such, you should make sure match your dollars invested proportionally to the potential return on investment.

[/note_box]

Case Study

Here is an example of a practice that doesn’t have the best online reputation when you do a search for them by name. Personally, I know this practice delivers excellent care. However, it only takes one or two unhappy people that post negative reviews, to give others that have been referred to the practice, (and do a name/reputation search) a negative impression.

poor physical therapy website search results

The Solution is Both Simple and Affordable.

First, Claim Your Listings

you should to go to www.getlisted.org and claim your business listings. Enter your business name and zip code, see which listings you haven’t claimed and go through the process. It is rather labor intensive but not technically challenging at all.

[warning_box]

Words of Caution:

  • When you do claim your listings, make sure you are not duplicating an already claimed listing.
  • Do NOT do it part way. Fill in all of the information for each listing.
  • Make sure your Name, Address, Phone Number, Web Address, match exactly what you have on your website.
  • Consistency will help you maintain good search engine rankings or possibly improve them if you are not ranked as high as you’d like to be.
[/warning_box]

Second, Get Some Practice Reviews

I recommend you use mobile website and your desktop physical therapy websites to boost your reputation.

After you have claimed your listings, encourage your patients to review you on Google, Yelp, Yahoo, and the Yellowpages.com. By doing so, additional positive search engine listings will be present when prospective patients do that all important, name/reputation search. They will see lots of colored stars and great reviews which will confirm in their mind that the referral to your practice was a good one.

Put links to your review websites on your mobile optimized version of your website. You can show patients how to start the review process right on their mobile phone while they are in your clinic! As a side note, they can also easily get to your social media properties like Facebook and “Like” your business page.

Here’s a Good Example

Good Search Marketing Results

Take a look at this SERP(search engine results page). This practice dominates the listings, there are lots of stars (though I would suggest they improve the 3-star Yelp listing), and even a video on page 1. This is how you want to dominate the page.

[info_box]

Action Items

In summary, physical therapy websites often get lots of traffic. Because you are a referral business, the most common search is for your business name. Invest your time in making a great impression when patients that have been referred to you do the most common search for your practice – the name/reputation search.

  1. Do a search for your business name.
  2. Claim your listings “properly”, consistently, and completely on getlisted.org
  3. Encourage reviews on your practice. 1 or 2 per month is all you need.
  4. DO NOT get a bunch of reviews at the start then stop acquiring reviews. This could hurt your search engine rankings. Consistency matters.
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A Great Reason to Focus on Google Reviews to Improve Your Physical Therapy Search Marketing

physical therapy search engine marketing

Google made a great choice.  They have brought back their stars with reviews and made it a simple 0-5 scale again.

The old Zagat score was confusing and without stars it didn’t provide an intuitive and easy to understand visual of customer reviews.

Best of all, with Google bringing back reviews, physical therapy practice owners now have a way to stand out from their competition…get those reviews.

Undoubtedly, this is all part of Google’s strategy to push viewers/users to engage with the review process which is now intimately tied to Google+, Google’s social network.

Practically, it’s a great opportunity for you to establish a perceived competitive advantage when consumers are searching for practices in your area.

[note_box]Take Home Message: develop a process for patients to visit your Google+ Local page and provide you with reviews.[/note_box]

5 ½ Physical Therapy Website Development Mistakes to Avoid

physical therapy website development

How many visitors do you have see your website each month…100, 200, 300+? In a service business people judge what they can’t see based on what they can see. Ask yourself this question, “Have you chosen a business because of the look, quality of information, or usability of a website?” If you are like most, the answer is “yes”.

Do you spend hours at community events, visiting doctors, volunteering hoping to get in front of patient or referral source? The fact is that lots of people are visiting your website right now and many are potential patients. Let your website do the work for you. With this in mind, here are 5 ½ solutions to common mistakes many make why you should fix them fast.

[info_box]1. Fresh Content – updated content gives you credibility. It gives viewers the perception that you use the most popular communications tools (i.e. the Internet) to keep your patients and prospects informed. It’s not easy to repeatedly create fresh content but E-rehab.com can help.

2. Interactive Content – too many websites are just online brochures…and poor ones at that. Make sure your website provides viewers with interactive driving directions, videos, contact forms, FAQ, social sharing functions and ratings and reviews capabilities.

3. Appointment Requests – anyone with a smartphone has it within 3 feet of their body 90+% of the day. Take advantage of this and fast-paced world we live in by giving patients the option to request an appointment right from their smartphone…and your desktop website too.

4. Optimized for Google – the 900-pound gorilla of search, Google, is how 50% or more of your website traffic will come from. Make sure that your website is designed and optimized to show up on Google. If you are having trouble with this, we can help.

5. Analytics Enabled – what pages are patients visiting, how long are they staying, what search engines and key phrases are they using to find you? All of this business intelligence is necessary to help you make decisions about what is and what isn’t working with your online marketing efforts. Make sure you have an analytics program easily available to you; moreover, make sure you understand how to use it.

1/2. Mobile Optimized – What does mobile optimized mean? It means that your website is built with the mobile user (someone that is viewing your website on their smartphone) in mind. It means that the mobile user won’t be waiting 10-20 seconds for your big graphics to download to their phone. It means that the viewer will be able to:

1. click one button and call you,
2. click one button and map your location on their phone,
3. click one button and fill out an appointment request form,
4. click one button and “Like” you on Facebook,
5. click one button and save your mobile optimized website right on their home screen like the Doodle Jump, Angry Birds, or Bejeweled apps,
6. click one button and write a draft review of your practice on Yelp,
7. click one button and send you an email.

These are some of the outstanding opportunities that are available with a mobile optimized website.

I give this 1/2 because mobile websites are their own animal. You can learn more about mobile website here.
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If you are in need of assistance with any of the above problems, we can help. We are here for the smaller private practice to help you build your local online footprint and stand out in the community.

See a complete list of our services by clicking here.

Give us a call at 800-468-5161 x 1101.