What Do Rankings Really Mean for a Rehab Center?

If you own a rehab facility or run the marketing department for one, you're aware of SEO. You likely know how important and challenging it is to rank highly for specific keywords in an increasingly difficult field. But what you may wonder is how these rankings equal dollars. And how much budget you should spend with an SEO company?

As you look to invest in your rankings, it is important to understand what each position in the search results means for you as a business, so you can invest the right amount to be successful. Not too much, and not too little. Luckily, there is a way to quantify it. In this blog we reveal what your investment in drug treatment marketing with SEO is worth and support our calculations with data.

Setting Up the Example

As all our readers' facilities offer different services for different price points in different locations, we will be using a static set of keywords for our example. Your geographic location will dictate the true numbers, and we will show you how to figure that too. Or you can give us a call. Our SEO services start with a free site review.

Keywords Targeted – These are examples of the keywords for which you might like to rank.  Again, these are generic so we can find search volume and extrapolate dollars. 

·        Drug rehab facility

·        Drug treatment facility

·        Alcohol rehab

·        Alcohol treatment

Geography – As our readers do not live in the same area, we will be using Google’s data at a nationwide level. To find your local search volume, use the Google Keyword Planner or give us a call for a free review.

Entrance Cost – Most of our current clients charge between $6,000 and $22,000/month for in-patient/residential treatment. We will use $10,000/month for our example.  Additionally, we will calculate the numbers as if a patient stays with a facility for a single month.  If you own a long term treatment center, adjust accordingly. 

Click Through Rates – The click through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click on your Google listing, based on your position.  We will be using industry standards, which were just updated from Marketingland.com.

The Data

Understanding the Data

Monthly Search Volume – Discovered through Google’s Keyword Planning Tool.

Current Rank – Where are you now? 80% of our current clients came to us in the middle of the second page. 15% where beyond the 3rd page, and 5% needed to go from number 10 to number 1.

Estimated Traffic – Given the rank on the second page (15th), this is the estimated traffic for the given keyword.

Future Rank – Where SEO can get you. With our clients, we aim for top 5 nationally, and number 1 locally. 

Estimated Future Traffic – Given the ranking increase, and the CTR from the given position, this how much traffic that keyword will send you.  

Conversion Rate – The conversion rate of your site.  We have clients who convert 10% or greater, so we took the more conservative number.

Total Leads – Of the traffic that came from a keyword, and the conversion rate of the site, this is the estimated number of phone calls or form fills the site would generate per keywords.

Qualified – This is where working with a Rehab SEO company makes sense.  Not all leads are good leads.  Actually, we have found that only 20% of leads from these keywords are qualified (Have funds, insurance, ability to get a loan, etc).

Intakes – Of the 20% that are qualified, only 20% (on average) will sign with a given facility.  This is heavily dependent on your sales staff and the competition in the area.

Value – The total number of dollars that keyword will provide each month. 

National Level:

With just four keywords, a national firm simply ranking in the top 5, could possibly make more than $75,000/month. And, as you see from our standards above, this is a conservative estimate. This is why you see so many large firms battling it out in the top 5. There is a lot of money to be made there. They are willing to spend the $25,000+/month to rank for these four terms.  

Local:

There's some good news. Most treatment centers operate locally. This changes the numbers, as local business typically converts better than national, although the search volume is much lower. Here is the data using an average of our current clients, and their search volume (factoring the same entrance cost). 

The question: Would you be willing to invest $1,200-$4,500/month to make more than $40,000?  

I am sure most of you reading this work with an SEO firm. We are certainly not the only game in town. However, ask yourself, “Are we ranking in the top 3 for our terms?” If the answer is no, we should talk.  Taking you from page 2 to page 1 is a nice increase.  But taking you from Position 10 to position 1 will make your year!

**A point I would like to make here is that this is ONLY 4 keywords. There are more than 100 keywords that are searched every month.  Keywords vary by location, and your search volume may differ.  To find out what type of results you could get from SEO, CONTACT US, or fill out the form.

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