The Orthopedic Institute of New Jersey (OINJ) needed help gaining visibility and awareness in new counties in New Jersey. Being in a very competitive healthcare space, one of our key objectives was to quickly position OINJ as a leader through their expertise and orthopedic knowledge. The best way to do this was by establishing an ongoing content marketing strategy for this orthopedic practice. They contacted us for a website redesign in 2017 and since then we’ve partnered with them to execute on all digital marketing channels for their growth efforts. In this article, we would like to share with you the digital strategies we used to help OINJ gain greater market share online through an increase in their organic traffic by 326%.
About OINJ
We are honored and excited to be working with The Orthopedic Institute of New Jersey, the largest practice in northwest New Jersey providing an array of orthopedic services from nationally-recognized doctors.
OINJ wanted to cut through the local competition and be seen as #1 in NJ. Their existing website was dated and had little to no SEO best practices being followed. With a growing number of locations on the horizon, it was time for OINJ to launch a contemporary, mobile-first platform with engaging visuals and clear information about their services, Doctors, and thought leadership.
Essential Web Components
There are several important aspects when it comes to building a site for a medical practice. For example, the quick visibility of phone numbers is crucial for urgent situations. OINJ provides urgent care at 3 of its locations. Users are often searching for information on the go and need a mobile-friendly website that scales to any screen size.
Implementing The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is another fundamental aspect. HIPAA is a set of US national standards for the protection of personal health information. Thanks to encryption technology and a 3rd party tool we recommended, our team made sure all client appointments, personal information, and medical feedback are kept secure on OINJ’s platform.
To establish OINJ’s new website ranking quickly, it was also essential to review and organize the content with a medical copywriter to create informative pages optimized for Google. Our UX team designed intuitive navigational pathways based on patient needs and built solid SEO principles into the website code.
Two months after the website launched, OINJ received close to 300 calls in one day — a record for the practice.
Redesigning OINJ’s website was completed in 2018. We then moved on to strategizing how to put the practice on the first page of Google via organic search and paid channels.
Content Marketing for Boosting Online Visibility
When we started working with OINJ, we knew their previous website was missing expertise, authoritativeness, and trust (EAT) signals. Therefore, we planned to publish valuable content that people want to read and started a lifestyle blogging campaign. Unlike some of the other digital marketing for colleges campaigns we have created in the past, this strategy was very geared towards increasing the overall domain quality scores.
It’s unbelievable how fast we saw results. Our campaign took off in a matter of months. “I've never seen SEO work drive results this fast in my life” shares James Gibson, eDesign’s Director of Digital Marketing. “We are close to five times more traffic this January compared to January last year. And most of this organic traffic is driven by our content marketing efforts”.
The current content and SEO strategy is focused on two blog posts per month. Our content marketing team looks for the orthopedic practice topics patients are interested in, and we publish concise and informative articles that are relevant seasonally. This creates a higher chance for people to mention or share the information they find on OINJ’s site and build SEO backlinks. SEO backlinks in turn help Google notice the specific topics people want to learn about.
Although people may not become a patient directly after reading a blog article, they will be introduced to OINJ and its doctors and will remember to reach out when they need help.
When a company is leading valuable expert discussions, users naturally spend more time reading those pages and linking back to them. As a result, the website’s EAT signals start to increase and the brand is pushed up in rankings. Becoming number one in search results on a particular subject (ex: wrist pain treatment) builds trust and thought leadership. To us, the best recognition digitally is when other institutions begin writing on the same subject and start referencing OINJ’s articles in their own research.
To accelerate our campaign, we evaluated useful topics OINJ needs to rank in. We also audited the search phrases patients in New Jersey use to find a trusted orthopedic practice near them. Based on this research, we are helping our client gain visibility on topics on the spine, wrists, or ankles. For example, when a user is searching for an “ankle specialist” near them, Google serves them content from OINJ’s blog, which in turn drives an incredible amount of traffic to the site. If you find yourself in New Jersey looking for "hip doctors near me", Google will most likely suggest you have a look at the article we wrote about “Hip Bursitis Exercises to Avoid".
Best of all is that the traffic we generate is actual users looking for the services OINJ offers. Our strategy has been working extremely well in converting traffic into new patients of the clinic.
Social Media, Paid Search, and SEO
Before we started our content strategy, OINJ was active on their social media channels and was posting branded content, information about new doctors, or upcoming events. Even though this type of social media communication looks nice, it does not bring much community engagement or a return on investment. OINJ was not blogging consistently enough, and the topics they were publishing were not geared towards helping patients. What the practice really needed was to substitute this communication with interesting content that ranks in Google.
To help OINJ’s organic search marketing efforts, we produce and consistently update an SEO document, which aligns OINJ’s team with our copywriting efforts. Our monthly SEO guidelines are based on the needs of patients, topics people are searching for online, and topics that show expertise and authoritativeness. OINJ’s own doctors and team lean in and assist with new content ideas, and with the reviewing of each article.
We are also implementing a paid search, video, and display banner campaign that works alongside our website and content marketing efforts to establish a true multi-channel marketing strategy.
Our digital campaigns are geo-located in New Jersey and surrounding areas. They are delivered through search engine, display, and social media channels. We have designed and promoted OINJ advertising for clear-cut placements targeting specific user demographics. The campaigns are created to track specific website goals including website form submissions, clicks, and downloads to important conversion markers across the site.
The aim of our video campaigns is to build awareness and reach. We are creating the association with the Orthopedic Institute of New Jersey as an expert in orthopedic services and focus on driving direct traffic to their locations. We use robust content to enhance search optimization quality signals while we also alternate in some more feel-good and local themes to pull in more social engagement.
More times than not, users read OINJ’s content to educate themselves rather than answer an immediate question. Therefore, our content marketing fills the top of funnel information awareness seekers, while primarily helping to increase rankings across the entire site through higher SEO quality signals. Our paid channels and ads target people who are ready to buy more effectively, increasing conversions directly.
The chart below shows the traffic spike generated by our content. 78% of all website traffic in 2021 came from Organic Search Results. You can clearly see the traffic coming to the website since January of last year versus after we started our campaign in May 2021.
In January of 2021, OINJ received 8,063 new users on the site.
January of 2022 brought 34,383 new users to the site.
That's an increase of 326%.
Organic traffic matters as it provides opportunities to shift paid media dollars to new growth areas for the practice. It also builds immense brand awareness.
And here is a chart that shows goal completions/conversions we track on the site. These are appointment requests, direct calls, emails, contact form submissions, and intake downloads.
This organic content strategy takes usually longer to develop, but over time, organic SEO will become OINJ’s biggest source of new patients. Blogging has really helped our clients rank higher for buying phrases important for the business.
Our SEO Advice
If you want to be the best medical practice in your geographic area, you have to continually fill the top of the funnel using multi-channel marketing. However, the best way to reach patients who have an immediate need is when they are searching for a provider. Broad, demand generation tactics do not work as well when someone may not be in pain right at the current moment.
SEO is unlimited. You can plan as much SEO work as you have the time for. The secret to a great SEO strategy is the time and effort you are willing to invest and the trust in your agency and team to guide the process. The more work you put in, the higher the rewards, it’s as simple as that.
If you need help with your brand’s awareness, just say hello@edesigninteractive.com. Our digital marketing team would be happy to connect with you to create a tailored strategy.