NEW YORK—EyeCarePro, which works with optometric practices on their web and digital presence, started ODSpecialty because the digital media company was working with clients who more and more weren’t being served by the company's general marketing format. They were less interested in general care patient growth and had specific medical services they wanted to make a larger part of their practices.

The content and SEO needs between general and specialty are very different, points out Zvi Pardes of EyeCarePro.

For example, he said, general care is highly local—no one will drive very far for a regular eye exam.
• Specialty care is geographically broad—people will drive hours for the special treatment or service they need
• Everyone knows to search for an “eye exam” “eye doctor”, “eye clinic” etc. When it comes to the specialty, they don’t know what they are searching for so they search for solutions, not products or services. E.g. “treatment for lazy eye” “really bad dry eye”.

More and more ODs are drawn to medical specializations because it is one way to both really help patients and also earn revenue for the practice in the face of optical revenues under continued pressure from big box stores and online vendors, he added. These are high revenue services.

"We saw the need for a scalable solution that would provide the best results for this kind of client. So my colleague, Evan, and I sat down to write up effective content that would work. Aimed at a large area (cities and states, not neighborhoods) we needed broad topics to capture all the relevant searches related to a specific specialty."

Pardes pointed out, for example, no one searches for “vision therapy.” It’s the same basic approach to treating reading problems as dizziness issues, but simply stating “we do VT” does nothing, since no one searches for it. "Instead, we need content speaking to each and every specific patient group and the concerns THEY are searching for."

By crafting high-quality and authoritative content that can be customized to each EyeCarePro client location. It works by positioning the client as the local resource and expert. Visitors learn. The site builds the trust in the professional by getting the information out there so they can attract local web searches, engage, educate, and then, finally, convert these high-revenue services.

He added, "The content is accessible, but rigorous enough that the client is proud to put his or her name behind it. We began in 2018 with Myopia Management, Scleral Lenses, Vision Therapy, Low Vision, Ortho-K/Myopia Management, and Dry Eyes. In 2019 we added specific Neuro-Optometry and Sports Vision tracks. For future development (pending demand) we will look at areas such as pediatrics, diabetic care, and more."

Learn more about the growing interest in specialization in VM's Cover Topic this month, Specialized Optometry here.