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Understanding SEO and PPC, and what Doctify does to increase patient traffic to your website
Understanding SEO and PPC, and what Doctify does to increase patient traffic to your website

Knowing the difference between SEO and PPC is an important key to improving your page authority.

Alice Stelmachenko avatar
Written by Alice Stelmachenko
Updated over a week ago


SEO and PPC are two of the most valuable marketing tools to help boost traffic to your web page and improve visibility in search. It can often be confusing what the difference is between the two tools, and what the benefits are of utilising these tools as part of a wider marketing strategy to benefit your practice.

We’ve compiled a list of frequently asked questions and answers to help clarify some of the key queries that come our way.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving a website’s rankings and visibility in organic search engine results.

The optimisation process focuses on demonstrating your page’s authority and relevance to Google. This is done by enhancing on-page content in order to drive user engagement while also building an off-site presence through establishing direct links to your page from external websites, helping to boost your page’s authority.

Essentially, in order to help a page rank in organic search you need to convince Google that your website is a trustworthy resource and that your content provides clear answers to users’ search queries.

What is PPC?

PPC stands for pay-per-click, also known as CPC (cost per click).

PPC is a model of search engine marketing where advertisers pay each time a user clicks on one of their ads. It is a great marketing method to get instant results, allowing advertisers to pay for direct traffic to a website.

How do they work together (PPC and SEO)?

PPC and SEO work together to provide greater visibility in online search. PPC provides a cost-effective way to drive conversions while SEO provides free organic traffic to your website.

Both PPC and SEO can provide quality conversions, as both paid ads and organic listings will be optimised to directly answer users’ questions, meaning users are more likely to click through and engage with the relevant content.

What generic terms do you run for PPC?

We bid on thousands of terms across hundreds of campaigns, including keywords around specialty, symptoms procedures, individual specialist names and location-based terms.
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What PPC do you do for me as a specialist?

We run individual specialist ads which include ad copy tailored to your practice, along with a direct link to your practice profile on Doctify. We also run hundreds of different campaigns to drive traffic to the Doctify website which includes specialty, symptoms and location-based ads to help benefit specialist profiles across the platform.

What PPC do you run for conditions/treatments/procedures?

We run hundreds of paid ads targeting specific queries around conditions, treatments, and procedures which are available on Doctify.

Why do I appear on the 4th page of the search when I have more than 50 reviews, peer recommendations and calendar.

Unfortunately, SEO isn’t an exact science and your page ranking depends on a series of different factors. You may be in a field with high competition, making it more difficult to rank on the first page of organic search. It can also take time to build your page’s SEO authority.

Page authority is determined by factors such as direct links from well known websites and original on-page content. Direct links from reputable websites helps demonstrate to Google that your page is a respected resource in your field while original on-page content helps signal to Google that your page has unique information that will be valuable to answering users’ search queries.

Another key factor for ranking is strong user engagement, which is demonstrated through factors such as how long users spend on your page, how they engage with the content on your page (such as booking appointments and leaving reviews), and how often users return.

Often the best way to boost your online page ranking is by working with patients offline to encourage them to leave reviews and engage positively with your profile.

My colleague has fewer reviews than me but is showing on the first page of organic search results, why is this happening?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to ranking pages in organic search. A key thing to consider is whether you’re in a highly competitive industry, meaning there may be a high volume of clinics and specialists attempting to target users with similar services. In this case, it may take longer for your page to gain the necessary authority to rank on the first page of organic search.

If there’s a high volume of competition targeting the same keywords as you, it’s important to make sure your profile is fully completed with original content that has not been copied from another web page and fully outlines the specialties and procedures you offer. Original and descriptive content is important as this is the information Google uses to identify whether your page has direct answers to the queries that users are searching for.



Both SEO and PPC offer great value to your marketing strategy, helping to boost traffic and drive engagement with potential patients.

If you would like to further discuss what Doctify can do for you in terms of SEO and PPC, get in touch via our contact form or via Live Messenger during operating hours.

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