A recent survey by Software Advice found that 94 percent of patient respondents use online reviews to evaluate doctors. Patients are turning to review websites to get advice, referrals and recommendations for their medical needs.
What the Numbers are Saying
The 94 percent is a 12 percent increase from the 2018 survey results (82 percent) that says respondents consulted review websites, posted comments and rated healthcare providers.
The survey also reveals the following:
- Of the 94 percent, 72 percent of patients indicated that they use review websites “often”.
- Almost 3/4 (72 percent) of patients use online reviews to find new healthcare providers.
- Google is the most used review website with 37 percent of the respondents using it, followed by HealthGrades (26 percent) and RateMDs (13 percent).
- Forty-eight percent of the respondents said they are willing to go to a provider out of their network because of positive reviews.
- Most patients leave positive reviews online. Nearly 75 percent post positive reviews and a small percentage of people write negative reviews.
Similar Findings
- According to nrchealth.com, 59.9 percent of patients selected doctors based on positive reviews while 60.8 percent avoided doctors with negative reviews.
- Ninety-five percent of respondents by One Poll and Binary Fountain said they find online ratings and reviews reliable.
- Forty-one percent still check doctor reviews even if they were already referred to a particular physician.
- A trusted online review should have at least 1 to 6 reviews according to 68 percent of patients.
- Negative reviews tend to push away patients (94 percent) from the medical practice according to Review Trackers’ survey.
Build Your Practice’s Brand and Reputation
The numbers above show the importance of review websites for healthcare providers. It is therefore essential to build your medical practice’s brand online and gain a positive reputation through peer and patient feedback.
Having your practice visible on online review websites and encouraging patients to leave online feedback could greatly determine its success. A positive online reputation can be built through high ratings and positive feedback while having no reviews or negative reviews can deter the credibility of your practice.
Why Review Websites Can Help Your Practice
The numbers don’t lie, website reviews are indeed essential for your practice’s success. Here are a few reasons why:
- An online review is like a proof of purchase. This means that your service has been acquired. More reviews will tell potential patients that you have a good number of happy patients at your practice.
- Your brand will be more visible online. The more reviews that mention your practice the better your results will be in the search engines. Reviews can act as brand mentions for your website. The more mentions and user-generated content going to your website the better chance that search engines can see the value that your practice provides to the local community. As a result, patients will find your practice online more easily.
- Patient feedback can establish your credibility or deter it. Positive reviews can make you look trustworthy to probable patients. Higher ratings of 4 and 5 stars are good indicators for patients, too, because that shows many are satisfied with your services.
- Reviews make your practice a topic of conversations. As patients leave feedback about you, others are also encouraged. People associate themselves with existing reviews so they tend to make their own reviews or leave comments.
- Online reviews are like instant feedback to make your practice better. Whether good or bad, they can help you maintain the good things that you do and give you insights on further improvements that you need to make within your practice.
- High ratings and positive patient reviews are instant referrals and recommendations. This could translate to more sales and success for your practice.
Enough with the numbers and the benefits you can acquire from utilizing online reviews. Let’s now go to where your medical practice should be listed, reviewed and ranked. Where should doctors be seen online? Here’s our rundown of the 10 most visited and reputable review websites.
Top 10 Review Websites for Your Medical Practice
1. Google/ Google My Business
The master of them all. Google is almost everyone’s gateway to visibility and success online and that includes your medical practice. According to this online survey, 63.6 percent of consumers rely on Google Reviews before visiting a business. Google services like Google Search and Google Map can list and locate your business respectively.
Google My Business, on the other hand, is a focused listing for your practice. It’s a free listing where you can create your profile with complete information on services, operating hours, address and many more.
Google reviews are easily searchable and can help with your organic rankings.
2. Facebook
This profile-based social media channel is highly popular not just for personal but also for business use. As you know, Facebook is one of the most popular sites out there and being present on this channel means good online visibility.
Millions of Facebook users can search within the site to search for nearby medical or dental practices. Your profile can contain full details about your business and patients can rate and leave reviews as well on this page.
The best thing about Facebook is that it is social and interactive. Clients can easily reach you and vice-versa. One can also see reviews and recommendations more easily, making a good venue to promote your brand.
3. Yelp
You might be more familiar with Yelp as a restaurant listing and review site. But it can do more than that. Yelp is also becoming popular for other business listings, including healthcare providers. The site boasts about its 171 million reviews. Eight percent of those (13 million reviews) are accounted for medical practices.
Create your listing on Yelp by registering on their Business Owners page.
4. WebMD
This website is known for its medical-related articles and health research forum. But it pushes further the information it provides by also hosting a doctor’s directory.
WebMD contains a growing number of reviews and is visited by 75 million monthly unique visitors per month that make it one of the most trusted doctor based review sites.
At WebMD, patients can rate doctors based on the service they received and leave corresponding feedback.
5. HealthGrades
HealthGrades is the busiest among doctor-specific review websites with 30 million monthly visitors traffic. This is because of HealthGrades’ extensive information about medical practices.
Doctors can display their specialties and services, training and licenses, education and awards and more. While patients can search by various filters available (by insurance, locality, schedule, review, etc.) Ratings are also more specific and categorized. These features only mean that HealthGrades has a large database of information.
Patients can browse doctors’ profiles, read and write reviews and rate doctors based on the services they provided.
6. RateMDs
Searching for physicians is the strength of RateMDs. You can search by name, specialization, location, gender, etc. See complete doctors’ profiles on this platform.
Numbers-wise, RateMDs has over 2 million active ratings on the website. Plus, visitors can also browse on its medical blog and participate in its forum, making it more informative than other review websites.
Patients will be able to view listings, rate and review physicians and healthcare facilities using RateMDs.
7. Vitals
This website is host to 1 million doctors profile, 165,000 healthcare facility and more than 9 million reviews, making it one of the most formidable physician review sites and information providers.
Vitals has various search filters for patients to access specific medical practices, such as name, specialty, location, condition and insurance. For doctors, they can fill their profiles with basic and marketing information about their practice.
8. Zocdoc
Patients are able to access doctor reviews, profiles and appointment schedules through Zocdoc. They can also read feedback from other patients and leave their own reviews too. The best thing is, right after you make a choice doctor, you can instantly book an appointment with them. Search for practices based on name, specialty, location and insurance.
Zocdoc has also a mobile app to make research and booking more accessible.
9. Doctor.com
This platform is an access to multiple medical networks on the Web. Approximately 30 million users visit each month across popular review sites like Google, Bing, Yelp and Vitals.
Doctor.com also owns a listing that showcases medical practitioners in different fields and provides helpful information for users to make a choice.
10. Dr. Oogle
Creating a listing on Dr. Oogle is easy with just an email address, Facebook profile or a Google account. The listings and reviews on this website are mostly dental practices. Each profile in Dr. Oogle contains the doctor’s information, photos and videos and coupons.
Reviewers can rate their experience on various factors such as results, costs and overall experience.
Make sure to include website reviews in your off-page digital marketing strategies to help build your brand and online reputation. These websites can offer you tons of opportunities to showcase your practice and receive helpful reviews to gain new patients.
We Help Put Your Practice on Top Review Websites
At Med Rank Interactive, we help build your brand through your online presence. We will optimize your website so you can land on Google’s first page through the use of local SEO strategy. With that, patients can easily find you online that will create good online traffic for your practice.
By being visible online, patients can search for your practice and leave positive reviews. This can strengthen your brand and reputation.
Aside from that, we will also set up and manage your social media profiles as well as your Google My Business listing to expand your digital footprint.
Contact Med Rank Interactive at 980-217-1633 and learn more about how we can help you land on top review websites.
