VIDEO: Patient reviews on Google, Yelp can add value to a physician’s practice
Highly prioritized by search engine algorithms, Google and Yelp online reviews can be valuable for physicians and their practices.
“Both Google and Yelp are the most important online reviews, and they’re different than all the rest,” Orrin I. Franko, MD, founder of SurgiSurvey LLC and a board-certified orthopedic surgeon at East Bay Hand Medical Center, told Healio. “Google, obviously, owns search. Over 90% of all online searches occur through Google, so it’s no surprise that Google is going to prioritize their own rankings and reviews and bring that to the top.”
Franko added reviews on Yelp will also be prioritized as it has the greatest market share when it comes to online reviews.
“Patients and consumers in general are just looking for information,” Franko said. “When they see Google presenting information to them from Yelp and from Google reviews, that’s what they’re going to read first.”
With their own unique reviews, Google and Yelp have a greater impact on a physician’s practice compared with other doctor-specific review sites, such as Health Grades, Vitals or WebMD, which will borrow reviews from other websites, according to Franko. By providing patients a link to their Google or Yelp profile via text message or email, Franko noted physicians can substantially increase the number of reviews they receive from patients, which can generate more traffic to their profile and more patient referrals.
“Just keep in mind that it’s a big world out there,” Franko said. “There are a lot of patients looking for doctors and even if you’re only capturing 1% or 2% of those patients, one or two patients a week is a lot of value to a practice. That’s how you grow and build a practice.”
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