WebMD, a leading source of health information for consumers, recently launched the WebMD Care directory to help people find top doctors in their area. With the launch, the WebMD health platform now guides people through multiple stages of their health care pursuits—from identifying symptoms and researching treatments to finding doctors and scheduling appointments. With WebMD’s other popular directory, Vitals.com, the company now offers physicians one-stop shopping for unprecedented online visibility and reputation management.
WebMD has been the go-to health website for millions of people for over twenty years. Pulling in more than 140 million visits each month, WebMD draws in more visitors than even the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Mayo Clinic.1 It continues to be a household name that people have come to know and trust for their care.
Now, this health media mainstay has expanded on its existing health information business to launch WebMD Care, a new directory that seamlessly connects website visitors seeking trusted WebMD content to the care they need. The directory provides physicians with a unique opportunity to capture the attention of WebMD visitors while they are actively seeking solutions for their health concerns.
For Internet searchers who are looking for a doctor, WebMD Care positions physicians within the WebMD brand, guiding patients to learn more about physicians within a trusted environment. Enhanced physician profiles on WebMD Care highlight physicians who are currently accepting new patients and provide a detailed view of each physician’s background and experience. Patients can read reviews and click to call or schedule an appointment right from a provider’s profile. All this provides health- care consumers with what they want most when choosing a new doctor—ease, confidence, and peace of mind.
How Physicians Stand Out and Attract New Patients in a Crowded Field with WebMD Care
Competition for the attention of patients online has never been fiercer. Not only are more people than ever using the Internet to shop for health care, but expectations on the information available have also evolved. Once, a physician could build a website (“hang a shingle” on the Internet) and be finished with online marketing. Today a website is just one small piece of a physician’s overall online presence. Today’s advanced healthcare consumer expects to see physicians in numerous places on the Internet, from their own website to social media platforms to directories and beyond.
WebMD Care enables practices to easily manage one of the most visible aspects of their online reputation—patient reviews. Over two-thirds of patients use online reviews as the very first step in finding a new physician.2 In addition, the majority of consumers trust online reviews as much as they do recommendations from friends or family, making online profiles and reviews vital for making that all-important first impression on potential patients.3
Each WebMD Care enhanced profile comes equipped with simple tools to maximize patient feedback—sending automated review requests to current patients; pinning “featured reviews” to the top of the profile; and monitoring all reviews in one place, including those from WebMD Care, Vitals, Google, Healthgrades, and Yelp. This allows practices to quickly respond to patient feedback across multiple websites.
Maintaining a strong online presence is an essential part of building a thriving medical practice, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By leveraging WebMD’s reputation as a trusted end-to-end health platform, WebMD Care puts medical practices in front of people searching for health care and provides physicians with the tools to stand out in an increasingly competitive and crowded space.
References:
- “WebMD.com.” Similar Web. February 2021. https://www.similarweb.com/website/webmd.com/#overview.
- Hedges, Lisa and Colin “How Patients Use Online Reviews.” Software Advice. April 2, 2020. https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/how-patients-use-online-reviews/#1.
- Bloem, “84 Percent of People Trust Online Reviews As Much As Friends. Here’s How to Manage What They See.” Inc. https://www.inc.com/craig-bloem/84-percent-of-people-trust-online-reviews-as-much-.html
