Report shows who is winning and losing in the cosmetic surgery sector in digital marketing

 Following a 9% increase in their visibility over the past year, Nuffield Health remains top of the market, a new report has revealed.

The Cosmetic Surgery Insight Report, produced by digital marketing specialists Salience Marketing, ranks 46 of the leading websites within this competitive market according to their online performance.

The annual study reveals the successes and shortcomings of each website, highlighting where there is room for improvement.

Other stand-out results from visibility include:

• Ramsay Health [105%] recorded the most significant increase among the top 10
• The top 10 saw an even split between a rise and drop in their visibility year-on-year
• Transforming Lives and Circle Health both fell out of the top 10 (as the former recorded a 74% decrease) and were replaced by HS Hair Clinic and My Breast.

The Stars of Social

Nuffield leads the overall social charts, coming in first place for both brand searches per month and owned social scores, led by IBPS.

The top five social scorers:

• Nuffield is the top performer with 110,000 monthly searches
• BMI Healthcare, Spire Healthcare, Fairfield and Juvederm rounded out the top five for searches per month
• Nuffield leads owned social scores with Mya, SKN Clinics, Harley Medical and IBPS making up the top five

The social score considers followers and engaged conversations on all major social platforms.

Despite recording a high brand search score of 9,900, Spire recorded a comparatively low owned social score [2]. Similarly, Fairfield scored 6,600 for monthly searches but only 2 for owned social. River Hospital likewise has a brand search score to be in the top ten; however, its owned social was just 4. Across the sector, owned social is extremely low with only two of the 46 brands recording a score above 100.

Leaders of Links

Links have always been an important ranking factor and can make all the difference to how far up a brand appears on Google. Consistently gaining new high-quality links can be great for business; however, high-link volumes without the quality could spell trouble ahead.

Mya tops the chart for links with one of the highest link qualities and a good number per month, many of which appear to be driven to images or surgery pages. However, on closer inspection, it looks as though a lot of the URLs that have received a high number of links go through to a 404 page. This error means any links gained here would be lost, which can damage the site’s overall link authority score.

Identifying the 404 error pages and ensuring they’re redirected to a new page on the site could improve their link score overall.

There are several sites with ‘high-quality, low-volume’ links; these include CC Kat, New Birkdale Clinic, Pulse Light Clinic, Fairfield and Cosmetic Surgery Partners.

Conversely, there are also sites with ‘low-quality, high-volume’ links, such as The Hospital Group, HS Hair Clinic, The Private Clinic, Belvedere Clinic and Outline Skincare. Consistently gaining a high quantity of low-authority links highlights an urgent need to address your off-site reputation.

Selected quote:

Gemma Curtis, Inbound Content Marketer, at Inside Online:

“It’s been an extremely mixed year regarding visibility for the Cosmetic Surgery sector with some significant shifts in positions.

“It seems the key to ranking well in this field is through producing valuable content or using paid media.

“Harley Medical’s article, ‘About Neck Lift Surgery’ has landed them a featured snippet for the term ‘neck lift’. Spire Healthcare who are ranking in position one for the term also has a helpful guide on their Neck Lift page which covers all the FAQs.

“With this being such a varied digital landscape concerning search engine results, and with local results winning most of the terms, you might find that using paid media is the way forward to appearing at the top of the page.

“Well done to Sk:n which has the top ad slot for the highest competition term, ‘laser hair removal’.

“A lot of our featured brands were gaining links but, on inspection, it appeared that the pages with the most links were leading to 404 Errors. 

“It’s important to redirect any pages with a high number of links to a relevant page on your site. That way the equity, albeit diluted slightly, will be transferred to the new page.

“Many brands in the report offer cosmetic surgery as just one of their services. It’s important for these not to keep cosmetic surgery in the dark when it comes to social.

“Companies that focus on just cosmetic surgery, like Mya, are producing great social content around this subject. Ensure to promote all your services to gain the biggest conversion rates and engage with the widest audience.”