The Evidence Based Chiropractor Blog
Hundreds of chiropractic marketing and research articles to help you grow.
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Chiropractor SEO Tips and Strategies: How to Improve Your Google Ranking
With the surge of websites on the Internet, it is essential to use SEO optimization tips to have a high Google ranking.
SEO is a powerful marketing trend you can use to make it easier to get traffic to your chiropractic website.
Optimizing your website is not as difficult as you may think. This is a process that requires simple SEO tips and tricks to get your website to stay on the first page of search results.
Follow these SEO techniques to improve your website ranking.
SEO Tips and Tricks
The most important step for the optimization of your website is to perform keyword research. People buying products on the Internet type specific keywords in search engines to locate websites.
Choosing relevant keywords and optimizing them increases the visibility of your website. There are various online tools you can use to check the search volume for keywords that pertain to the products you're selling.
Use this SEO practice to generate frequent traffic from your target audience. Keyword research contributes to your ranking potential in Google listings.
Update Your Website with Interesting Content
Do you update your chiropractic website with fresh content?
Sticking to a content strategy ensures your website will stay active. You can retain your first-page position in search engines implementing this strategy.
Without regular updates, your website will become inactive and your online visitors may lose interest. That is why you need to put in the effort to increase your traffic with health content that people want to read.
Perform Social Media Optimization
You can achieve a great web presence for your business using social media optimization techniques. This is an important step that is sometimes overlooked.
When you use optimization techniques on social media platforms, more people will find your profiles. This step makes the process less complicated for people to connect with you and to discover your chiropractic website.
Popular social media sites have high web authority. So, you can develop quality backlinks leaving your website link on these sites.
Even if you have a new business, you can still reap the benefits of creating social media profiles and writing information about your business. This helps to inform the public about your chiropractor business and allows you to build your target audience.
You can also add social media buttons to your blog or website. It is easier for people to share your content when you integrate these tools on your site.
To retain an increase of traffic to your social media profiles, you need to use keywords. Optimize your social media profiles with relevant keywords that search engines will find.
It is also necessary to target the right keywords and phrases in your social media posts.
Remember, consistency is key for your social media optimization strategy. Build relationships on social media sites and be consistent with the content you create. Use this strategy to improve the organic search results of your site.
Boost Your Website Ranking With Mobile Optimization
Why is mobile optimization so important to website owners?
Millions of people use mobile devices to find services and to buy products on the Internet. For this reason, you need to make your website mobile-friendly.
Focus on adjusting your website to suit the needs of your mobile visitors. People using mobile devices should have an easy time navigating your website to learn about your business and buying products.
How should you optimize your site for mobile devices?
Optimize your content and videos to make them compatible with mobile devices.
Use high-quality images and optimize them.
Use a responsive website design.
Make your website scrollable. With a scrollable website, a mobile user has quicker access to your information, your site is more interactive, and there are no interruptions.
Write short paragraphs for your mobile visitors. This makes it less challenging for people to read your content.
Having a mobile-friendly website assures you that people will have a quality experience.
Optimizing a website can lead to an increase in conversions, the pages load faster, and meet the expectation of online users.
Use Influencer Marketing
Reach your target audience and drive traffic to your website with influencer marketing.
Influencers play a major role in your SEO strategy. Influencers such as bloggers, forum users, and other online professionals can help to boost your website ranking.
The best influencers have high domain authority websites.
Getting a backlink from these sites to your website increases your website visibility in search engines. Influencers are also beneficial for generating a buzz about your business and writing about your chiropractic practice on their sites and blogs.
Get Multiple Reviews
For your local search ranking, you can get multiple reviews. Business reviews can raise the visibility of your website. There are many places on the Internet for people to write reviews.
Patients that are happy with your service will be eager to leave a five-star review. Good reviews also help to attract new patients to your practice.
A consistent stream of positive reviews can increase your ranking on Google.
Implement the Best SEO Trends
Maintaining your position on the first page of Google is critical.
Devise a comprehensive marketing plan that improves the exposure of your website.
Since search engine optimization techniques are constantly changing, you need to be aware of the newest techniques. By learning about the latest SEO tips and tricks, you have the chance to increase the performance of your website.
If you enjoyed reading this article, visit our website to listen to our podcast.
10 Research-Based Chiropractic Facts That'll Win Over the Biggest Skeptics
Despite how far chiropractic care has come over the past century, there is still a large portion of people who don't “believe” in its effectiveness despite numerous research studies and major health care organizations supporting it’s use.. It's still considered a pseudoscience for many. Even though scores of people sing its praises, touting actual, personal results, some are just hard to convince.
When you tell someone you are a chiropractor, you likely get a variety of reactions - and not all of them good ones. But why?
Cracking Skepticism About Chiropractic
According to a 2006 Gallup poll, chiropractor got rated very last in a list of medical professionals when it came to people's impressions about their ethics and honesty.
And, according to a poll done by Gallup in conjunction with Palmer College of Chiropractic, 22% of Americans stated that they would be "not very likely" to see a chiropractor for back or neck pain, and 18% said they would be "not likely at all."
Due to several reasons, there is still some stigma against chiropractic care in our country and around the world.
Some of it is due to fear. Much of it is because people are not well-informed about chiropractic care.
Fortunately, in recent years, more and more chiropractors and their patients are participating in studies and research. As these things grow and develop, several irrefutable chiropractic facts have emerged. Some benefits have been scientifically proven, far beyond the simple anecdotal evidence of the past.
More and more people are beginning to feel more confident about chiropractic methods and treatments, and as a result, people are starting to flock to chiropractors nationwide in search of relief from pain. In many cases, they are getting the relief that they seek.
There are still doubters out there, though. When you encounter one, it is now easier than ever to prove that chiropractic is real, is effective, and is here to stay. Read on to learn ten chiropractic facts to win over the skeptics you meet.
Research-Based Chiropractic Facts
Thanks to diligent and curious researchers, there is a ton of publications supporting chiropractic care.
1. Military Study
According to one recent study, chiropractic care was effective in helping people suffering from lower back pain when included in a comprehensive treatment plan.
750 active-duty military patients enrolled in a study last year to treat lower back pain. Lower back pain is common in the military, and can often result in absences from duty. Participants in the study received regular medical care, including pain medications, physical therapy, and exercises, or that same treatment plus chiropractic care.
The participants received the treatment for six weeks and then were tracked for another six weeks. Researchers found that at every step along the way, the patients receiving the chiropractic care were doing better. Their pain was less frequent and less intense.
2. Comparative Effectiveness
Another study, cited by the American Chiropractic Association on their webpage, found that when chiropractic care was compared with medical care, chiropractic care was more effective. That study, published in Spine, found that 94% of chiropractic patients experienced a 30% reduction in their pain, compared to only 54% of the patients who only received traditional medical care.
3. Neck Pain
Both the Quebec Task Force on Whiplash of 1995 and the Bone and Joint Decade Neck Pain Task Force of 2008 agreed that chiropractic care is often beneficial for people who have non-specific neck pain. Besides back pain, neck pain is the second largest cause of musculoskeletal disability, and many people seek relief from it around the world.
4. Headaches
Although for a long time, many many headaches were thought to be tension headaches or migraines, but the International Headache Society now recognizes that most headaches are cervicogenic. Cervicogenic pain is pain that radiates from the neck into the head. The International Headache Society reports that chiropractic care is often helpful in treating these types of headaches.
5. Back Pain
According to an article published by Gallup in 2016, 65% of American adults have sought care for neck or back pain in their lifetimes, and 25% did so in the past year. 35.5 million adults visited a chiropractor for their pain in the past year, too. 67% of the people that Gallup surveyed about the chiropractic care found it to be effective.
6. More Positive Feedback
In a Consumer Reports survey published in Consumer Reports magazine in March of 2013, chiropractic care was the number one best way to take care of back pain, according to consumers. It beat out prescription medication, deep-tissue massage, and more.
7. Licensing
Chiropractors are trained and licensed, just like other medical professionals. To become licensed, they must earn a Doctor of Chiropractic Degree, which takes four years after at least three years of undergraduate work.
They also must pass the challenging National Board of Chiropractic Examiners exam and must receive a state license. Once licensed, they must complete continuing education requirements each year throughout their career.
8. Joint Commission
In 2015, the Joint Commission, the organization that provides and reviews the accreditation of over 20,000 health care systems in our country, added chiropractic and other non-drug care to its pain management standard. This was a huge move that helped to legitimize this discipline nationwide.
9. Medicare and Medicaid
Congress took this as a good sign. Soon after this declaration by the Joint Commission, coverage for chiropractic services was added to both national Medicare and Medicaid programs.
10. Congress On Board
Furthermore, Congress went a step further with their overall faith in chiropractic care. After adding chiropractic services to Medicare and Medicaid, they also added it to their congressional health plan. All members of Congress are covered for chiropractic, and many of them see chiropractors for their health.
The Proof
The more people who understand the value or chiropractic care; the more people we will be able to help. So, get out there and start telling everyone these great chiropractic facts. They'll thank you for them!
If you want to read more about facts about chiropractic, or about ways to market your chiropractic practice, check out our blog.
Optimizing Your Chiropractic Website for Free Organic Traffic
There are only two ways to get traffic to your website: organic (free) or ads (paid).
Why is traffic to your website so important? New surveys show that over 75% of your patients will visit your website before scheduling an appointment in your practice.
With a majority of your future patients visiting your site before scheduling their appointment, your website must be a significant part of your overall chiropractic marketing strategy.
The quality (and content) present on your website can attract or repel patients. It can make or break your practice.
Ideally, your website should be optimized for chiropractic specific SEO and generating at least 80% of its traffic organically. You may want to supplement or add to your free traffic by occasionally purchasing ads. But be careful, just like a drug, you don't want to become addicted to paid traffic. The price will continue to rise, and the results will continue to diminish over time.
Optimizing Your Chiropractic Website
Here are a few simple tips to help search engines understand the content on your site.
1. Look good in the search results using the tips below.
A. Your page title is used as a suggestion for the title in search results. Describe your business in a concise, informative phrase. Your title tag should be descriptive of your practice as well as enticing.
B. Domain names are an essential part of search results. Choose a descriptive and easy-to-read domain name for your website. Sub-pages should also be easy to read. For example, use www.stellachiropractic.com/services instead of www.stellachiropractic.com/prodid?12345
C. Meta descriptions are page summaries often used by search engines on the search results page. Write unique descriptions for each page in 160 characters or less. Be sure to include your targeted keywords in the meta-description. The goal of your meta-description is to entice the person searching to click on your website.
2. Help search engines understand Your images
Images on your website can either dramatically help or hurt your ability to be found on Google. Large images can slow down your website and cause your rank to suffer. Once you compress your images using a tool like Squash, you'll want to use the following three tips to help the search engines understand the pictures on your website.
A. Give your pictures short, descriptive file names.
B. The “alt” attribute describes the image. This helps search engines understand what’s in the picture.
C. Write a short caption on the page below each image. Put important information in the text rather than images.
3. Update, keep going, and stay consistent
Provide useful content and keep it up to date
Your website is like a virtual storefront. You wouldn’t leave a store unattended for six months. Keep your site fresh by starting a blog, announcing new products, services, and special events. Remember to put yourself in your patients' shoes and make sure you provide them with the information they need.
If you need help updating the content on your website check out The Smart Chiropractor. We provide docs with all of the content they need on their website, social channels, and more to get more new patients, attract more followers, and drive more visits to their website.
More information and support directly from Google
Google’s Webmaster Academy offers free step-by-step lessons and short instructional videos.
Looking for more advice on how to optimize your website? Read Google’s SEO starter guide:
Google’s free Webmaster Tools helps you understand and improve your website, get timely alerts on problems, and find answers to questions.
How to Carry Out a Complete Social Media Campaign for Your Chiropractic Practice
According to this survey, 63% of companies consider generating website traffic and leads as their top two marketing challenges. You need those leads to attract new patients to your chiropractic practice.
To generate those leads, start by getting social online!
With an active social media campaign, you can discover new patients and build your practice.
Here are 10 essential tips for an effective social media campaign. With these tips, you can improve your chiropractic practice's lead generation efforts and stand taller in the marketplace.
Keep reading to learn how to make it happen!
1. Know Your Audience
In the United States alone, 79% of the population has some kind of social media account as of 2019. Your patients are online, tweeting, and liking and snapping with their friends. For a successful social media campaign, however, you need to narrow down the numbers.
Instead of marketing your chiropractic practice to 79% of the country's population, focus on your target audience.
What do you know about your patients? What are their likes, dislikes, pains, and concerns? The better you know your audience, the easier it is to reach out.
Take a look at the demographics. Break down your audience based on:
Purchasing behaviors
Gender
Age
Household income
Marital status
Travel behavior
Location
Are you targeting a specific location radius? How far are people willing to travel to reach your chiropractor audience?
Narrowing down your audience based on these details can help you craft concise messages. The more targeted your messaging, the easier it is to connect with your target audience.
2. Get On Your Goals
Before you set up a complete social media campaign, let's determine your specific goals, first. Knowing your goals can help you create tactics for your campaigns that are built to ensure you accomplish these goals.
Brand Awareness
A brand awareness campaign will help patients recognize your traffic among other chiropractors.
To create an effective brand awareness campaign on social media, consider what sets you apart. Post on a variety of platforms to reach your target audience. You can also use branded hashtags that set your practice apart from the rest.
Focus on what makes your practice unique. What's your value proposition? Post images that highlight that value.
You can also encourage your current patients to post with your branded hashtag. User-generated content is a great way to get your existing audience involved as you expand your reach.
Increase Website Traffic
If you have an appointment booking feature on your website, encourage followers to visit your site.
You can also use value content, such as blog posts, to entice people to visit. Use call-to-action language that encourages followers to explore your website content. Make sure you highlight the value of visiting your website in your posts.
Don't forget to add URLs to your social media posts to make the content easy for your followers to find.
3. Research the Competition
What are other chiropractic practices in your area up to? What posts are they creating that are generating engagement on social media?
Learning from your competition can help you get a step ahead.
Recognize what they're doing right with their social media campaigns. Then, think about how you can set yourself apart.
Researching the competition will teach you what not to do, too.
That way, you can create successful social media campaigns that help your practice stand out.
4. Connect with Content
What type of content will convince your followers to stop and listen?
This is where your audience research comes in. Knowing what they like and care about can help you create the best social media campaign possible.
Consider trying different formats such as videos, blogs, photos, and even stories.
Make sure the visual content is entertaining and compelling enough that gets people to stop scrolling. Engage your audience, too. Get people involved in your content by asking for their opinions or host a contest.
Getting followers involved in your content will help you reach more people online.
5. Stick to a Schedule
The key to successful social media campaigns is consistency.
Try to post at least once a day, or a few times a week to start. The more often people see your brand, the more likely they'll recognize you online.
You can use a marketing calendar or an automated tool such as CoSchedule or Hootsuite to schedule your posts ahead of time.
6. Find Influencers
Social media influencers can give your content a big advantage. They also add credibility to your campaigns.
Find someone your followers already know and trust. Then, ask them to represent your brand. Having an influencer on your team can help you network and expand your brand.
7. Check What's Trending
What's going on in the world? The digital world is changing a little more every day. There's always something new to try!
Think about planking in 2010 or the Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014. A few years ago, everyone was posting using the #MannequinChallenge hashtag. Keep up with these trends and get in on the fun with your posts!
8. Get Engaged
After you start posting fresh content, make sure you're engaging with your audience.
Answer the questions or take the time to "like" the comments they post. Show your followers (and patients) that you're active online. Your engagement will show them you're interested in and invested in their concerns.
9. Balance It Out
Start by sharing a singular message online using different social media platforms. By sharing the same message, your followers will start to retain that message over time.
Make sure your organic content remains in balance with your promotional content. Otherwise, people will feel you're pressuring them a little too much.
10. Study the Data
After you start posting online, study the data from your social media campaign.
What type of content is attracting the most attention? What do people respond to, like, and share?
Metric tracking can help you make informed decisions for your next campaign.
Chiropractic Campaigns: 10 Tips for Your Practice's Next Social Media Campaign
Kick up your next chiropractic social media campaign! With these tips, you can stand out from the crowd and draw new patients to your practice.
Discover our free tools today for more ways to give your marketing campaigns a boost!
Getting Chiropractic Referrals from MD's with Research
“I am currently averaging 30 referrals a month from local providers. Thank you for your help in making this happen!” - Dr. C. Boyle
How to Market Your Chiropractic Practice to Generate Sustainable MD Referrals
Getting referrals from medical doctors with research is one of the most significant untapped chiropractic marketing strategies and opportunities.
What would your practice look like if you added on another 10, 20, or 30 new referred patients each month (without spending a dime on Facebook or Google Advertising)?
In this article I’ll show you the exact strategy to build referral relationships- and I’ll walk you through the proven process- step-by-step.
Let’s get started!
Building Your MD Referral Target List
The first step in getting referrals from other healthcare providers is to build your Target List. Your Target List will contain all of the doctors you are actively reaching out to and will help keep you organized.
If you're a chiropractor focused on pediatrics, you may want to focus your target list on OB-GYN's, midwives, doula's, and pediatricians. If you are more interested in taking care of the Crossfit community, you may choose to target gym owners, personal trainers, and sports medicine physicians.
Once you have created your Target List, then you begin your marketing and outreach.
The Three Steps of Getting MD Referrals
Sending Case Notes
Monthly Research Briefs
MD Meetings
With years of experience and thousands of referrals, we have discovered that a three-legged approach is the most effective when building referral relationships.
The first leg is to begin sending Case Notes to showcase the co-management and results you get with your patients. The second one is sending Research Brief's monthly which we're going to focus on here. The third is setting up and executing MD Meetings, where you have the opportunity to learn more about their practice and how you can help them and their clients achieve better health and wellness.
So Why Is Marketing Your Practice with Research So Important?
Research is your marketing. It's the only controllable aspect of your marketing, and it provides the consistency needed to get results.
By sending monthly Research Brief, you can guarantee top of mind awareness and positive branding, by positioning your practice. Consistency is the primary factor that drives the success of any marketing program. Monthly Research Briefs give you the chance to have consistency with your message.
Become a doc that is consistent and stays top of mind by sharing the latest research is a unique way to position your self in your local healthcare community. It doesn't require you to resort to cheesy tactics but instead allows you to market your practice in a way that you can be proud of.
Also, by "dripping" research each month, you can create far more impact than you could in a single meeting. As an example, if you meet with a doc, I would not recommend trying to tell them everything they never wanted to know about chiropractic. It's overwhelming and counterproductive.
Your monthly Research Updates drip the information to them every month. These monthly Research Briefs are the perfect tool to disperse an avalanche of pro-chiropractic information over a period of time. That process is way more impactful and effective at building referral relationships.
Research isn't the only way to do it, which is why we have Case Notes showcasing co-management and the great results you get in your practice as well meetings which build trust and rapport.
But remember, 95% of the "sale" in the follow-up. If you rely on only Case Notes and Meetings, you will be missing out on the consistency of your message. With Case Notes, you can't control who walks through your front door; so they ebb and flow with volume and are uncontrollable. Meetings are great, but clearly, you can't personally visit each doctor office on your target list each week.
Your Monthly Research Briefs Provide a Monthly Marketing Touchpoint, and a Controllable Marketing Asset.
Researchers have produced an abundance of papers supporting chiropractic care as one of the most safe and effective treatment options available, yet we hover at less than 15% utilization because very few of us build a sustainable practice with consistent referrals coming in from other healthcare providers.
It's our job (you and me) to get this information out to the public on our social channels and to the other healthcare providers in our community.
If you'd like more information about how you can systematize and automate that process to get results faster, then become a member of The Evidence Based Chiropractor today.
Ready to grow your referral base? Listen in to The EBC Podcast for weekly research updates and marketing strategies. If you’re ready to grow FASTER- become a member of The Evidence Based Chiropractor today.