How Competitive Is Rehab Marketing Online, Really?
Because nearly every addiction treatment or rehab center wants to be at the top of search results for the same keywords, online marketing within the industry has become incredibly competitive. In other words, it’s getting very difficult to be found on page one in search engine results.
This increasing challenge is prompting many centers to take aggressive, and often costly, measures to increase their online visibility. More and more of them are upping their spend on SEO, banner ads, pay-per-click campaigns, content network ads, and other online marketing efforts.
Despite the bigger budgets, the results don’t always measure up. This is certainly leading to addiction treatment centers and their marketing teams trying to figure out what isn’t working and what can be done better when it comes to effectively marketing a treatment center online.
The Problem With Popular Keywords
There are some very specific keyword phrases that potential clients and their loved ones use when they’re searching for a treatment center. Of course, everyone wants to be found at the top of the heap in a Google search for terms like “drug rehab” or “alcohol addiction.” Yet, this is nearly impossible to accomplish. There is simply too much competition.
Interestingly, the majority of places that link at the top of search results for these terms aren’t even licensed treatment centers. Thus, it’s not always beneficial to be ranked near these others because it is attracting, for the most part, unqualified traffic.
The Costly Mistake of Pay-Per-Click and Sponsored Links
Many treatment centers pay for links or ads to appear adjacent to, above, or beneath organic results on search engine results pages. In theory, this can seem like a smart strategy. Yet, these campaigns can be very costly and surprisingly ineffective. Sponsored links for the most competitive keywords often have very high bounce rates.
So, What Does Work?
Trying to compete for the most competitive keyword phrases can be a big waste of time and money. Unless your treatment center has deep pockets and a very large online marketing team dedicated to online marketing, you’ll find your center as a very small fish in a very big pond.
A better approach is to focus on building online exposure over time with a professional-looking, highly-functional website supported by high quality, optimized, geo-targeted content that actually provides information to site visitors. These efforts can be strengthened with solid link-building strategies and campaigns, selective, targeted advertising, and careful monitoring of results.
Stand Out Among the Competition
Are you looking for new ways to stand out amongst the competition? Addiction-Rep can help. With industry experts who truly understand the challenges of rehab marketing, you can get the exposure you need online to generate more site traffic, and ultimately more clients.
Call the Experts Today at 781-405-5815
