Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and PPC (Pay-per-click) are both marketing initiatives that aim to generate more web traffic from Search Engines. There is some crossover, but it’s important to understand the difference, and how your practice can benefit from running campaigns for both. Let’s start with PPC.
What is medical PPC (Pay-per-click)?
PPC is a broad term for any online ad campaign that charges the customer on a per-click basis. Meaning, it doesn’t matter how often the ads show (when you see an ad, but don’t click it, it’s recorded as an “impression”), you only…. pay-per-click. How much you pay depends on the popularity of the keywords you’re bidding for. PPC comprises all major ad platforms, including Google, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn, and medical specific sites like WebMD, but in this context, and for the sake of introducing the topic, we are referring to Google’s ad platform (Google Ads).
At this stage of our generations digital journey, we’re all familiar with ads. Where does Google place their ads? Maybe you’ve noticed (spoiler-alert, most people don’t), but ads usually appear at the very top of Google’s search result, and sometimes on the side as a side bar. Google Maps results might be at the very top, above all search results, but more on that later. After the paid ads at the top, the standard Google results appear. These standard results are referred to as “organic”, to differentiate them from paid search results.
A study that appeared in Medium magazine in 2018 found that “of the 803 respondents from our independent survey, 57.5 percent don’t recognize Google ads. 34.8 percent recognize them but don’t click on them, and 7.7 percent recognize paid ads but do click them”. Ads are thereby very efficient at generating traffic from any given Google search, but at a significant cost to the ad buyer.
What is medical SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
Long, long ago, before advertising became Google’s multi-billion dollar revenue stream, they were a simple search engine, with a much more rudimentary algorithm. Since the algorithms were simpler, SEO experts would employ a variety of mostly backend SEO techniques, some a bit clandestine, others painfully obvious like unusual amounts of repetition of ones keywords, to improve their ranking. Google has matured a lot since then. No one is “tricking” Google’s algorithm anymore, and SEO techniques became more about both content, reputation management, and backend work (using your keywords in your page titles, and meta descriptions is still important).
Simply put, Google would prefer you pay for their ads in order to boost your traffic, so they invested heavily in making ads the most attractive value, to the benefit of both Google’s user experience, and their coffers. This far from eliminated the need for SEO, but it changed the approach SEO experts took over the years, and made ads an increasingly more necessary compliment to SEO campaigns.
There are many tasks that would fall under the umbrella of SEO, and when employed properly, they invariably help your practice rank higher for your specialty’s keywords. The downside of SEO: while this is highly recommended work, there is no guarantee the results will satisfy your expectations, because every campaign is unique. If you’re a urologist in rural Pennsylvania, a tiny bit of SEO might go a long way, whereas a dermatologist in Manhattan is more easily lost in a sea of local competitors. This doesn’t mean that PPC is the golden ticket, however. PPC has become so competitive that bids for certain keywords, like “Lawyer”, “Casino” and “Business Services” can cost over $50.00 per click!
Regardless of where you’re located, SEO essentials will benefit your practice. Take our Manhattan-based dermatologist example. Something as simple as setting up your Google My Business profile will place your practice on Google Maps. Even if you took no other SEO measures, Google often shows Google Maps results first. Google determines your location when searching, and if your dermatology clinic is a block away, you will likely be in the Google Maps results. This is an example of how SEO techniques have evolved over the years.
If another dermatology clinic is eight blocks away from the searcher, you would think being a block away would rank you first, but it actually depends. Google rewards My Business profiles that have more reviews, higher reviews, complete profiles, and profiles verified by their owners. Most people would rather walk seven blocks for a known, reputable, dermatologist (or Chinese restaurant, for that matter). This is where New Wave’s reputation management services become relevant, as many medical practices struggle to acquire reviews.
SEO vs. PPC
Ads, while usually more expensive, have crucial metrics that are more easily measurable than SEO. If no one clicks on your ads, you don’t pay a dime. If 100 people click on your ads, and 10 of those individuals schedule consultations, earning the practice $1000, you have a 10% conversion rate. You weigh this against the cost of your ads, and it’s pretty simple to measure your return on investment (this was highly simplified, obviously). A poorly done ad campaign, however, may generate a lot of clicks, but no conversions, which is akin to flushing money down the toilet. This is why hiring an agency to manage your campaign usually pays for itself.
SEO has more long term significance. While incomparable to PPC metrics, it’s not completely immeasurable. For example, if you’re paying for an SEO campaign you would expect to identify your keywords, then improve your rank on those keywords (measurable). Page ranking, and organic traffic improvements can thereby be attributed to your SEO efforts, but it’s impossible to decipher organic traffic that resulted from SEO efforts, versus an entirely laissez-fair website. You cannot definitively tie SEO efforts to specific conversions, but you can measure traffic and ranking improvements. Traffic that comes from ads, versus organic traffic, is clearly differentiated, and you will know your SEO efforts are insufficient if your analytics show that you’re relying too much on ads for traffic.
It takes time for many SEO techniques to work, unlike PPC. PPC is immediate, like a faucet. You turn it on, the ads show, and the traffic comes. You turn it off, and that traffic medium ends. SEO, however, can continue to benefit your traffic long after you’ve stopped paying for it. Most essential SEO work can be done for the price of a month or two of PPC, and that investment will surely pay off over time. An example of a long-game SEO technique, as perviously mentioned, is quality content. Having quality content about your services is a crucial step to improving your Google ranking, but that requires website updates, implementing a blog, generating content over a period of time, and staying on top of what keywords are most attractive to your practice.
Where your practice is at in its life cycle will determine where you should consider investing your efforts. If you’re a brand new practice launching a website for the first time, and want to hit the ground running, you should have some SEO essentials, and a PPC campaign. If you’re a well established practice, but lacking reviews, and already ranking well, you might just need a bit of reputation management. Get in touch with us here at New Wave to determine your next marketing strategy.
