The Importance of Online Reviews

A combination of different factors will effect a consumers decision: location, availability, reviews, recommendation etc. Because reviews play a big role in the decision process, it is important that all of the practitioners at your clinic are well reviewed in different places online. The three most common places for a patient to read reviews is on Ratemds.com, Google Pages, Yelp.

Ratemds.com is the most common place for prospective patients to read reviews about practitioners that have the “Dr.” title. This site has recently generated a very negative reputation among the medical community because of high volume of fake reviews. Since there are no prerequisites to making a submission, some clinics post very negative comments about their competitors. The recipient clinic then counters these negative reviews with positive ones and it is a vicious cycle that never ends. You never know what someone has said about you or your clinic until you visit these sites, so I would encourage you to check your ratings and flag any reviews you believe are untrue.

Unlike RateMds.com, Google and Yelp pages are directory sites that contain reviews on your clinic as a whole, not a specific practitioner. These sites do not have any prerequisites to postings and may also be filled with bogus reviews. Be sure to monitor the content on these directory profiles and contact the site administrator if you believe that the postings are untruthful. If there is no information on Google Maps or Yelp about your clinic, it is because you have not claimed your business on their directory. I would highly recommend you claim your business pages as it is free and is another online channel for which prospective patients can find you.