How Local SEO and CRO Drove an 806% Increase in Online Appointment Bookings for a 51-Hospital System
Multi-year, multi-discipline effort drives up appointment bookings by over 9x.
THE CLIENT – PROVIDENCE HEALTH & Services
Providence Health & Services is a not-for-profit healthcare system, operating 51 hospitals and over 1,100 clinics across seven U.S. states.
Challenge
Develop and lead implementation of a new local SEO strategy for a hospital system with over 2,000 locations.
Wheelhouse DMG® has worked with Providence since 2013, supporting a number of strategic engagements including analytics strategy and implementation, system-wide content strategy, strategic engineering, healthcare local SEO services, and digital advertising. In 2017, we were asked to develop and lead implementation of a new local SEO strategy for Providence.
When our work began, local SEO was not unified by a wholistic strategy. GMB profiles were inconsistently claimed and populated – and no unified means of tracking either implementation or performance existed. Although the near-term goal was to increase local search visibility, the “gold standard” for local SEO performance was an increase in appointment bookings.
This case study summarizes the work we did over several years and multiple phases. Each phase drew its own benefits, employed different disciplines as highlighted below. Here are links to more detail for each of Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the overall work described here.
Approach
Prove thesis with small pilot, expand across enterprise, then leverage first-party data and technical CRO to drive exponential gains.
We first proved the value of optimizing for local search performance through a small pilot program focused on select clinics in the Seattle area. After demonstrating over 40% increase in appointment bookings from local search in the pilot, we expanded the local SEO strategy across Providence’s portfolio of over 2,000 locations. We then layered on technical CRO efforts including refining the appointment booking experience.
Outcomes
Multi-year local SEO and CRO efforts drive 806% increase in online appointment bookings.
Our multi-year engagement with Providence delivered tremendous gains in online appointment bookings and engagement through search.
By first optimizing and claiming local listings, then expanding a comprehensive local SEO strategy across 2,000+ locations, we increased the healthcare system’s visibility and discovery in local search results. We then optimized the conversion path leveraging first-party data and technical CRO to reduce booking friction. The combined impact of these efforts resulted in an 806% total increase in online appointment bookings over the course of our engagement.
Beyond the booking gains, the local SEO strategy we architected continues to drive value, with Providence recently seeing a 500% increase in both discovery searches and total searches after launching a new website informed by our work.
Next Steps
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“Wheelhouse epitomizes the true meaning of the word “partner”.”
– Jill Sato, Swedish/ Providence
