Finding the perfect doctor for your needs can be a long and arduous process. A patient-physician relationship is a delicate and extremely private one; it takes a great deal of time and trust to build. Naturally then, most patients prefer to do their own extensive research before taking the first step and booking an appointment. Research shows 75% of patients look online for a healthcare provider, and that 74% find online reviews very or extremely important.

Given the massive amounts of information available on the internet, it is understandable that patients would look to see what other patients thought of a provider before making a commitment. Word-of-mouth has always been among the most effective marketing tactics, and online review serve much the same purpose; 80% of patients trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

Managing your reputation online

Online reputation management, sometimes abbreviated as ORM, is the process of controlling the online narrative around a person, company, brand or, in this case, a medical practice. It consists of reputation protection and monitoring, and also crisis management and reputation recovery should the worst happen.

The first step is to claim and optimize your practice’ profiles on all of the online platforms online – more on this later on. Reviews on these platforms play a major role in helping patients choose a provider. Given the importance of reviews, it is also important that your practice focus on maximizing the amount of online reviews left on its website. The regularity of these reviews of especial importance here, as 22% of consumers consider regency among online reviews; regency here is defined as reviews left between the last 3 months to a year.

While your website will be the main hub of your practice’ online presence, claiming these listings is critical to enhancing it. You don’t want potential patients finding your practice online with incorrect information. Ensuring the information is accurate will help build trust with these potential patients.

Now, let’s take a closer look at all of the most popular review websites where your practice will need to claim and optimize its profiles.

1. Google
   According to recent research by PatientPop, 69.3% of patients look for online reviews on Google, which is consistent with Google’s reputation as the most popular search engine. Goggle offers businesses a fantastic free tool in the form of Google My Business that can help you engage patients and manage your healthcare online reputation. Your profile will appear on Google Search whether or not you claim the listing, allowing patients to post reviews and photos related to their experience. Claiming this profile allows you to respond to what patients are posting and to update the information given on the profile to ensure it is correct and up-to-date.

2. WebMD
   WebMD is not just a listing for your practice; it is a fully-fledged medical news and information website that sees over 75 million unique monthly viewers. As such a large health news organization, the WebMD network encompasses other new sites such as MedicineNet, RxList and Medscape.Claiming your profile on WebMD comes with access to over 40 directories that are a part of the website’s physician directory network. 33% of patients use WebMD for looking up reviews.

3. Yelp
   Yelp is another one of the most popular review websites dedicated review website that connects consumers with local businesses. Based on numbers provided by Yelp itself, it has received over 244 million reviews, 9% of which are for healthcare related businesses.With 33 million unique mobile app users, 77 million mobile website users and 62 million desktop users, Yelp has far too many potential patients on it to be ignored.

4. Healthgrades
   Healthgrades is a free online resource that connects patients with providers, with approximately 1 million daily users, according to the company itself. What sets it apart from all of the other directories is that Healthgrades automatically adds any practice that has an active profile with National Provider Identifier Registry. 21% of patients look to Healthgrades for reviews.

5. Facebook
   More of a social network than a review aggregator, Facebook has nonetheless cultivated a significant reputation as a place that consumers can look to see what others are saying about businesses. With 3 billion active daily users, Facebook has a reach second only to Google on this list, making it not at all surprising that 16% of patients use it for provider reviews.