The Mobile Advantage: Boost Your Podiatry Clinic’s Online Presence

You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome back to this week's episode of Podiatry Marketing. With me, as always, every week, I wouldn't do it alone. It is big Jim Mac. How are doing today, Jim?

Tyson, I'm doing well. Doing well. How about yourself?

I am fantastic as usual. Always happy. That's my goal in life. Happiness above above everything else. Doesn't always mean my wife's happy when I'm happy, but most of times, I am happy.

It's good to hear.

So what have been up to?

Oh, man. Just loving life here on the West Coast Of The US. Settling in for a less cold, less snowy winter, but, yeah, just trying to figure out what I'm gonna do to get some sunshine here in Oregon in in the winter months.

It still gets cold up in Oregon, doesn't it?

I mean, you know, for people that use Celsius, you know, five to 10 degrees, you know, it's kinda like where the lows are at. And then, you know or, you know, around 30 thirties, forties for those people like Fahrenheit.

But yeah. I see. She doesn't get snow there.

I mean, you could drive to it. Right? The mountains aren't too far away. A couple hours away, you can be in the mountains. You can go to Crater Lake or Mount Bachelor out in Bend.

But, usually, here in the Willamette Valley, you don't get a whole lot of snow. So

Okay. So you you're probably gonna miss shoveling snow every second day to get your car out, and it's unusual.

Definitely not gonna miss it.

I thought, you know, I thought Oregon was a cold yeah. Like a really cold place.

No. I mean, like I said, like, Cascade Mountains can be cold, but here in the the valley, we have kind of a we're not too far away from the ocean, so you have more of a kind of a temperate climate here from here to the to the ocean.

Okay. You got bears?

I think there's bears. Yeah. Actually, there's a bear on the they they found some bears on the other side of Eugene here recently. So there's bears in and around where I'm at, but not too heavy.

Yeah. And for everyone to remember, if you've gone back to a previous episode, don't zigzag when you're running away from a bear.

Yeah. Hit them on the nose.

Jeez. Bear advice from Jim. That should be an episode. Bear advice from Jim. You're definitely not bear grills,

The the bear the bear safety podcast, we are not. So

How to guarantee die dying in the wilderness. Take tips from Jim.

Oh, boy. I could see the lawsuits coming in right now.

Okay. So what are what are we talking about today?

Yeah. So we're gonna do we're gonna jump into a really important topic when it comes to, you know, your website, any kind of marketing that you're doing. And that's, you know, really thinking about making sure that your clinic has a mobile advantage. This is really gonna help boost your podiatry clinic's online presence, be more visible. We'll get into the details of what so what do you mean by this mobile advantage and how can I, you know, kind of up update my website or my online presence for my clinic?

How can I utilize this to really be seen more? But, yeah, that's really where it's at. And it really starts off with there's you know, as we're all aware that over the last, you know, ten, fifteen years, we've gone from everyone sitting in front of desktop, big, know, gray or tan boxes, you know, with with huge screens to now that everyone has a mobile phone in their pocket. So it's it's it's one of those things where, you know, maybe people still use their laptops or some tablets every once in a while. But when I'm working with websites for clinics, what I'm seeing is that, you know, upwards of 60 to 80% of the traffic that's coming to their website is a mobile phone.

You know, people are searching on mobile. They're asking their, you know, Siri or their kind of personal assistant on their phone to, like, find a podiatrist. So it's really, really important to have a website that's mobile optimized to capture these potential patients and meet their expectations because you'd be surprised the number of websites or clinic websites out there that just are not built for a good mobile experience. And if you don't have a good experience or you have tiny font that people can't read, they're just gonna go back to the the Google results page and find somebody that does. So it's imperative that you recognize that there is this shift to mobile and that you are kind of proactive about making sure that your clinic and your online presence is compatible with this kind of mobile first world, if you will.

I can't believe people still aren't still just have these old websites that are not mobile friendly.

Yeah. They just don't know any better. Right? Or sometimes they just spend so much time maybe on a a tablet or desktop in their clinic where they just don't even think think, you know, think to look at their own website, you know, on their mobile phone, but it it makes a huge difference.

Most places, one of these things, like I mentioned it last week, when I spoke to someone, said, I don't do any marketing. I said, do you have a website? And they went, well, yeah. And I go, well, you do marketing.

Right.

And they probably haven't looked at their website for a long time as well. Actually, know these people, so I know they have looked at it in the last, say, five years or so. But I yeah. I just it just surprised me. And I've heard of I've seen comments on Facebook when somebody would do it, how much is it to get a new website done?

And Pedersen go, oh, I did my own on such and such fifteen years ago.

Wix or Squarespace. Yeah.

And and it and it still is going fantastic. And you're like, oh my god. Wish they would have told me what else I could go and have a look at it.

No. Absolutely. And it's and like, you talked about a couple of those things, but it's not only is it the the the font size. It can be you know, what do images look like? Right?

If you're Yeah. You have this huge image on the the home page of your desktop page, maybe it's not gonna look right or be formatted correctly on that that mobile phone. So, you know, you have to make sure that it's loading fast on phones, that it's easy to navigate, like you have a menu and a drop down that just, you know, makes it very easy for people to find what they want, whether it be your contact phone number or it's a call to action button to make an appointment in the clinic. You know, poor user experiences are gonna really drive potential patients away. And these kinda lost opportunities for new appointments can have a real detrimental effect to people's practice.

But, you know, like we talked about in the previously, you know, people are used to amazing experiences on a lot of consumer apps. So whether it be, you know, an an like an actual app or like a great mobile optimized website, something like maybe like an Amazon or Netflix or something like that where they're just used to an interface that makes sense where it has legible text. And they don't they I mean, they those obviously are million or billion dollar companies, but they wanna have that same exact experience on your clinic website. And if they don't have it on there, they're gonna go search for someone that does. So it's really really important that the web design and the user interface on that website is a tool level that people want to use and are excited to use your website.

But is this something podiatrists can do themselves, or this is something that they need somebody to help them out to do it?

I mean, if you have more time than money and you wanna become like a a website building specialist along with, you know, becoming a podiatrist, that's up to you. But I would say that majority of people just don't have time to Mhmm. Sink into learning and understanding how to to either create a theme or basically custom code or custom build their website in a way that is gonna be beneficial to patients.

So if somebody's had somebody else make the website for them, would you wouldn't you just assume that it's mobile friendly?

I never assume anything, Tyson, because when you when you assume things, you make an ass out of you and me.

Oh, so that

on Benny Hill. But it's at the same time, you know, like, maybe, you know, they were you know, they're doing a lot of stuff with desktops still. I mean, maybe it's I think a lot there's a lot of good people who build websites out there that can do it. It's a matter though of just, like, making sure that that is kind of like a like a nonnegotiable. Right?

It's something now where, like, as we get into kinda the next point, you know, Google when they when they're basically trying to test out a website about what is loading fast, where they're send their traffic to, Google does basically what they call mobile first indexing, which means they don't even really look at the the desktop websites as much anymore as they do the mobile ones. So Okay. You gotta really make sure that the website is optimized so Google wants to rank it higher because it'll boost your clinic's visibility in these search engines and just make it really much easier for local patients to find your clinic and the services you provide. But like you like you said, like, it it's a nonnegotiable these days because not only from a user interface will patients not like something that's not you know, has good sized text or these calls to action, but Google will penalize you or not give you the type of traffic you deserve if it's not indexing well or loading well on mobile.

And what do you mean by indexing?

So indexing means like you have these kind of bots. Google has these bots that kind of crawl the internet to see. Basically kinda almost take like snapshots of what is the mobile experience like if I try to like load this homepage and click down three different levels to get a diagnosis of plantar fasciitis, or how does this doctor treat plantar fasciitis, or who's written these, you know, these blogs or what type of headings is that? Are they using an h one or text? And if you don't know what those mean, you know, look at you you can look into some of our previous podcast about SEO, but you know, it really has to be information organized in a in a very user friendly manner.

And that's what indexing is, is that these kind of these bots will crawl these pages, kinda go through almost some user type actions on them, and see how they react. And if they're not reacting well or it's a bad experience even for the bots, then you won't get the type of traffic your website deserves.

So basically, it's sending out there and it's doing like test runs in all these different areas of your website. And if your website is a dog's breakfast, Google's gonna go, well, we're not gonna send anyone there to have a terrible experience because then they will stop trusting us that we're giving them the right information, and next thing they will end up on Bing.

No. Absolutely. That that's a great point. And then also, most the majority of websites on the Internet these days have Google Analytics installed as well. So some it's a piece of code that does track these things like button clicks and you know, which which pages are people going to.

So it's also measuring that and it's but it's it is on the mobile site that primarily that it's indexing and gathering this information from. Yeah. If you have a desktop, it'll also gather that. But that's where I kinda pulled that, you know, 60 to 80% of traffic from websites. I just know when I go into a Google Analytics dashboard from some of the clinics I work with, I just pull up that mobile versus tablet versus desktop.

And, you know, these days, it's like 80 per you know, a lot of times it's 80% mobile traffic that goes to these clinic websites.

Yeah. It's funny, isn't it? People that think about this, but it'd be no different if somebody came to you and said, I'm looking for a restaurant. And you go, okay. There's a restaurant down here.

I know it's covered in cockroaches and festery, and the staff are rude. You're not gonna recommend they go there. So this is what Google's doing to websites. They're they're looking at your website, and they're going, it's a bit festery. We're not gonna send but well, will they just not put you in the ranking at all or they'll just rank you a lot lower?

So say, for example, you're in the town and there's only two podiatrists. One that's got a great website and one that's festy. So are they still gonna rank that one, or will they put the other website more pages from the other website up there and try and bury their bad one?

I mean, there's a lot of different pages these days that can kinda jump between you, you know, and some competitors. Sometimes it's people from other community that has a better page that

Yeah.

I don't know. It's a kind of a black box with Google. So maybe it's a town that's, you know, 30 miles away or 20 miles away or something that isn't necessarily as relevant. Maybe has maybe has better engagement. Like we talked about, you know, if you're showing video or you have really kind of immersive content that people really like to read and spend time on your page, those are the types of pages that Google's gonna wanna show people.

So maybe even if it is 20 miles away, if it has a much better built website both on the things that you can see and then on the back end that, you know, as us as us podiatrists, most of us can't see some of that stuff. But it is kinda changing where you're gonna rank there, and so it's it's really vital that that, you know, that you have that kind of website optimized in a way that is not only great for the patient experience, but also for Google.

Yeah. Just reminding you of someone coming up and ask you, what do you think about the restaurant down the road here? Yeah. I drive there and then drive another 20 miles past it to this other one. Because that's pretty much what Google's saying.

Oh, yeah. There's a podiatrist here in town, but we recommend you put in the put in some extra fuel and go the extra distance. You will be happier.

Yeah. Because we like you talked about, your website is kind of that you know, you have your physical clinic. Right? But then you have your clinic on the on the on the Internet. And whether it's your Google Business profile or your website, you know, that's where a lot of people get that first impression.

So, you know, sometimes it is the the design, the way it looks, the way people interact with it that's gonna tell them that that's the type of clinic they wanna go to because hopefully there is a carryover between that digital side of your clinic and the physical side of your clinic that kinda leaves, a seamless experience for people to have that you know, to have their expectations met. And I think that's really, really an important part of it for sure.

Yeah. Well, I personally do not trust any business that's got a dodgy website. Seriously, it doesn't matter what it is, whether it's in health care or anything. If I go to the website looking for something and it is an awful experience, my whole opinion of that business, unless I know the owners personally or I've used that business for a long period of time. But if I haven't had interacted with them yet and I see a really bad website, my opinion just totally just drops.

I'll actually probably will go and look somewhere else.

That makes sense.

So what's next?

So next is making sure that the website is built with click to call and appointment scheduling features which are optimized for mobile. You'll be surprised, you know, it's pretty easy these days to put a link on a phone number so that, you know, when you're on a mobile phone, you just click that number and you could call that clinic directly. But some people, you know, for whatever reason, maybe they they didn't realize that you could link a phone number. They don't know how to do it. But you'll be surprised the number of phone numbers you'll find on on clinic websites that actually don't click to call.

So Mhmm. You know, be be one of those clinics that has them on there. It's gonna make it much much easier for your patients to get in touch with you. You know, if you prefer to have, you know, form filled out or you have some online appointment ability, make sure that, you know, either number one that you have kind of a static top bar that, you know, kinda keeps the make appointment button or the phone number there on the top. And if you don't have that, then making sure that, you know, it's spaced out at a reasonable amount throughout the content you have on your phone.

So, you know, maybe, you know, every every page, you know, as you're scrolling through, there should be some opportunity. Maybe it's at the bottom as well. I've seen that that that work can work okay. But just making sure that it's easy for your potential patients to connect with the clinic quickly because if they're especially on a mobile phone, if they're gonna have to tap, you know, three or four times to find, you know, your contact information, they're never gonna do that. I mean, like, you know, it's gotta be either the top of the homepage, the bottom, very visible on the homepage, or just you know, it's just one mini button and and a click, but more than a couple taps and they're going somewhere else.

Yeah. It it is frustrating when you find a business that's exactly what you're after. Website looks great, and you go, where are they? Yeah. But what's the actual address?

I know they're in town, but I where is their address? And you've got to actually hunt for it, and you can get annoyed very quickly. So Absolutely. Yeah. I I have very little patience as my wife tells me.

I I get annoyed very quick. But I think there's a lot of people that like me. They just just give me you want me to call you, you want me to visit you, just tell me where you are or or how I can actually contact you. You seem a lot calmer than me, Jim.

I don't know about that. But

You're probably you're probably really quiet on the outside. You're like an iceberg. You only see only see the the tip of the iceberg, but then, once you go off.

I got that poker face.

Yeah. Goes off like a frog in a sock. Okay. What's next?

Yeah. Last not last but not least is what we call like mobile friendly SEO or local search local SEO. You wanna make sure that, you know, that whatever pages you're building, you know, like you talked about, you know, not only will people reach you organically, you know, when they're searching, but they're probably gonna see some ads along the way as well. And I would say the biggest thing with Google and search engines and general SEO and also paid search is that you wanna make sure people land on a relevant page. So if I'm looking for, like, a podiatrist in Adelaide, Australia, like, and I click on an ad for it, I really want it to be local and relevant to me.

So making sure that, you know, you're using local keywords, know, if you're doing any type of mobile advertising, making sure that it's targeted, making sure that your Google business profile is kind of up to snuff, and that you're using good photos there as well. Because like I said, sometimes they don't even these days sometimes, you know, your it's not only your website that's important to look good on mobile, but it's also that Google Business profile because more more times than not, Google wants to keep you on their website. They don't necessarily wanna send you always to your own website. They wanna keep you on google.com. And if you have a good Google business profile, it's gonna be helpful to get either traffic to your website or people to call in or make an appointment straight from that.

So it's really important that, you know, you show up when patients are searching for you. Like I said, these relevant local pages will help you, you know, that are that are mobile optimized are super important not only in your website, but also in your Google Business profile.

So if somebody's listening to this episode, they've gone through all this, they've they should probably go to their mobile phone straight away, go and look up their website, and everything that we've been talking about is actually scrolling through looking at the different pages. If they go there and they go, damn it. Jim is right. This this isn't working. I've gotta scroll.

I've gotta go backwards and forwards to read text because it's not putting it all on the screen. What's their first step? What should they do about it?

Yeah. I mean, the first step is, number one, I would talk to your current provider and ask, you know, why they're not providing this for you,

or Yeah.

Is there something they can do to to make it better? You you know, you kind of you realize that, you know, it's your phone number's not there, the make appointment button's not present, or just you're having to, like, you know, pinch and zoom to read. If you have to pinch and zoom on any page, it's it's a bad sign for that kind of mobile you know, the usability of your of your website on a on on a mobile phone. So make sure that, you know, you talk to your provider first. If if they're not listening or they're not, you know, really helping you out, you know, definitely you could reach out to me.

I'm happy to, you know, provide some feedback and and help you determine kind of where those kinda low hanging fruit are as far as making sure that you get your website more optimized for those local patients. But I think it is one of those things where, you know, try to try to use your current website provider initially, but if it's not working, you know, feel free to reach out to Tyson and myself, and we can lead you down the right path.

Yeah. One of one of the most annoying things I find on the phone experience when I'm on a website, and it'll have a link to something external from their website. And I go, oh, okay. So I click on it, and instead of it just going through to that, it it creates a new page, and I can't get back to where I was. You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah. You got it. Like, they open up a new tab for you, so you gotta go switch back to the old tab.

Yeah. So instead so it's fine when I'm on the computer. It's fine. It clicks out, it's a new tab. I can just flip back to where I was.

But when you're on your mobile phone and it does that, it's a little bit you you can't just hit the back button and go back. It's like, hang on. Now I've gotta go and find

You've got like four more button presses to touch and then like scroll through some of those other open tabs and it's yeah. It's not quite as a easy user experience on mobile for sure.

So I think sometimes when you're putting links there, it's just be aware of it. Is if someone's on the if if someone's on their mobile phone and they click on that link, what is gonna happen next?

Yeah. It's really,

important. Do you really want them to leave your page and go there, or is this something you should have somewhere else? You know, have it at the end of the article. Let them read the because I've been partly through an article, and it'll be in the first paragraph, and I'll click on something, and I'm like, damn it. I got four clicks to get back again.

Yeah. That's a good point.

So are you getting anything else before we wrap up?

No. That's pretty much it. Think, you know, like I said, just really important these days. You know, 80% of the traffic is coming from mobile. Just making sure that you're providing the best user experience possible for your patients is super important these days.

So, yeah, like I said, if you have questions about these or concerns about the way your website looks like, definitely hit us up, send us an email from the website podiatry.marketing, and we're more than happy to help out.

That's fantastic. Okay, big Jim. I look forward to talking to next week.

Sounds great, Tyson.

Okay. See you. Bye now.

Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim Mcdonald. Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.