Our search marketing campaign delivered 31.92% increase in new patient leads.

There are over 9,000 active oral and maxillofacial surgeons and over 200,000 dentists in the U.S., all of which have the medical training and qualifications to perform common oral surgeries such as dental implants and wisdom teeth removal. It is needless to say, oral surgery is a crowded and competitive industry.

Each month, nearly 1 million Americans search Google for keywords related specifically to oral surgery. So, when it comes to attracting new patients, many oral surgeons rely on search marketing as a means to increase market share and revenue. Yet, with only limited real estate on Google’s top pages, this is a tremendous challenge in such a crowded industry.

Among the pack is AIS Media client Greater Atlanta Oral Facial Surgery (GAOFS). With two conveniently located offices, GAOFS provides Atlanta residents with leading medical care with AAAHC certified oral surgery services. While this certification may not be meaningful to the average patient, it is a key differentiator for GAOFS in the crowded space.

When GAOFS first approached AIS Media for local search services, they were in the midst of operational shifts designed to capitalize on their opportunities to grow their share of the Atlanta market. More specifically, they identified two opportunities to grow their market share: open a second office in closer proximity to Atlanta professionals and launch a new website with the intent of growing search engine visibility.

To help facilitate the search engine growth, the AIS Media local search team led a dual on-site and off-site search strategy. The first step was conducting keyword research in Google-Atlanta, GA to better understand how prospective patients would use search engines to find GAOFS and the services they offer. Insights from the keyword research also revealed primary local search competitors – indicating which practices impeded GAOFS’s market share on search results.

After the AIS Media team compiled the most popular keywords patients use when researching oral surgery in Atlanta, they needed to develop an on-site strategy that aligned keyword optimization with content patients and Google would find valuable. In their research, AIS Media copywriters discovered patients who require oral surgery often research and find a doctor emotionally, based on factors such as dissatisfaction with their teeth, medical demand and/or pain-triggered. Generally, patients select their doctor based on costs, insurance/benefits, proximity, and reputation.

While the new GAOFS location aided in accessible proximity, their website needed content specifically targeted to influence users based on these key decision factors. In addition to content educating prospective patients on cost, insurance and reputation, GAOFS also needed to educate patients on the leading differentiators between selecting a doctor to perform their surgery, or a certified OMFS oral surgeon. When published, AIS Media copywriters included clear and visible call-to-actions to schedule an initial consultation so the medical staff could provide in-person guidance specific to the person inquiring mouth and needs.

All of the aforementioned content helped position GAOFS as a local leader in Atlanta. GAOFS’s depth of the content, as well as the keyword optimization efforts, meant that Google saw the content as locally authoritative as a means to increase visibility in popular searches.

AIS Media’s on-site content strategy greatly contributed to Google’s ability to crawl and index the new GAOFS website. However, with any new website, AIS Media’s local search team also needed to make sure that it was set up for success in terms of technical SEO. If technical errors such as site architecture, HTML, XML sitemaps, SSL and metatags were not addressed, GAOFS’s content would not be properly crawled and indexed by Google – which would indefinitely impede search ranking growth.

The local search team performed an on-site technical audit, tested site speed, and published copy and visual content in accordance with Google’s best practices. Building a solid technical foundation allowed the copywriting team to continue publishing new, valuable content with confidence it would impact search rankings.

Another key to local SEO is making sure business data is consistent everywhere, not just locally on-site. Simultaneously with on-site content and technical development, the AIS Media local search team built an off-site strategy based on improving local listings and ratings and reviews. The off-site strategy prioritized set up and maintenance of the new and existing GAOFS office locations’ business data through local directories. Incorrect or missing business listings cause a frustrating patient experience and hurt search rankings.

As a new center, GAOFS’s second office was missing virtually all local listings, and required set up for all including Google’s My Business page. With great surprise, AIS Media’s local search team discovered GAOFS’s first office also had incorrect and duplicate local listings to be corrected. After completing all sections of Google My Business, as well as adding photography for users, both offices needed to boost their local reputation through online reviews.

As previously mentioned, one way patients select their doctor is through reputation. Over the last couple of years, the popularity of online reviews has grown significantly, with a direct impact on local businesses in the healthcare/medical industry. Of patients today:

For a new location, this is a great challenge because local competitors often have strong online reputation through years of collecting positive ratings and reviews. Responding to patient feedback helped GAOFS achieve the desired effect of showcasing a strong reputation with increased visibility on local search keywords.

Finally, AIS Media approached GAOFS with an additional opportunity to leverage online visibility of their reviews and their content beyond organic search. AIS Media’s paid search team estimated a competitive budget to be found under popular, high-conversion intent keywords in GAOFS’s target regions. The paid search team launched a new paid search campaign targeting each office. Based on the research from the AIS Media copywriters, they determined the keywords to use on each campaign, developed creative in the form of ad and landing page copy, built landing page templates with clear motivators and call-to-action, and set up A/B split testing to continuously improve performance.

The results of the paid search campaigns and creative were astounding. In one quarter, the collective paid campaigns converted nearly three times the average conversion rate for the Health & Medical industry (average: 3.36% according to Wordstream study of 15,000 US-based AdWords accounts).