Department of Plastic Surgery, Loma Linda University Medical Center, Loma Linda, California, USA.
Aesthet Surg J. 2010 Jul-Aug;30(4):614-7. doi: 10.1177/1090820X10371433.
Cosmetic surgery, historically the purview of plastic surgeons, has in recent years seen an influx of practitioners from other fields of training. Many of these new providers are savvy in marketing and public relations and are beginning to control a surprisingly large amount of cosmetic patient care.
The purpose of this study is to measure the amount of traffic being attracted to the Web sites of individual practitioners and organizations vying for cosmetic patients. This study investigates the trends of the past 12 months and identifies changes of special concern to plastic surgeons.
The Web sites of 1307 cosmetic providers were monitored over a year's time. The Web activity of two million individuals whose computers were loaded with a self-reporting software package was recorded and analyzed. The Web sites were analyzed according to the specialty training of the site owner and total unique visits per month were tallied for the most prominent specialties. The dominant Web sites were closely scrutinized and the Web optimization strategies of each were also examined.
There is a tremendous amount of Web activity surrounding cosmetic procedures and the amount of traffic on the most popular sites is continuing to grow. Also, a large sum of money is being expended to channel Web traffic, with sums in the thousands of dollars being spent daily by top Web sites. Overall in the past year, the private Web sites of plastic surgeons have increased their reach by 10%, growing from 200,000 to approximately 220,000 unique visitors monthly. Plastic surgery remains the specialty with the largest number of Web visitors per month. However, when combined, the private Web sites of all other providers of aesthetic services have significantly outpaced plastic surgery's growth. The traffic going to non-plastic surgeons has grown by 50% (200,000 visitors per month in September 2008 to 300,000 visitors monthly in September 2009).
For providers of aesthetic services, communication with the public is of utmost importance. The Web has become the single most important information resource for consumers because of easy access. Plastic surgeons are facing significant competition for the attention of potential patients, with increasingly sophisticated Web sites and listing services being set up by independent parties. It is important for plastic surgeons to become familiar with the available Internet tools for communication with potential patients and to aggressively utilize these tools for effective practice building.
美容外科，历史上一直是整形外科医生的专长，近年来，越来越多的来自其他培训领域的从业者涌入这个领域。这些新的从业者中有许多人在市场营销和公共关系方面很在行，并且已经开始掌控数量惊人的美容患者护理。
本研究旨在衡量各个争夺美容患者的从业者和组织的网站吸引的流量。本研究调查了过去 12 个月的趋势，并确定了对整形外科医生特别关注的变化。
在一年的时间里，对 1307 名美容师的网站进行了监测。记录并分析了 200 万人的计算机上装有自我报告软件包的网络活动。根据网站所有者的专业培训对网站进行分析，并对最受欢迎的专业每月的独特访问量进行统计。对占主导地位的网站进行了仔细审查，并对每个网站的网络优化策略进行了研究。
围绕美容手术的网络活动非常活跃，最受欢迎的网站的流量仍在持续增长。此外，大量资金用于引导网络流量，顶级网站每天花费数千美元。总的来说，在过去的一年里，整形外科医生的私人网站的覆盖范围扩大了 10%，每月的独立访问者从 20 万增加到了约 22 万。整形外科仍然是每月拥有最多网络访问者的专业。然而，当所有其他美容服务提供者的私人网站结合在一起时，它们的增长速度已经明显超过了整形外科。流向非整形外科医生的流量增长了 50%（2008 年 9 月每月有 20 万访问者，到 2009 年 9 月每月有 30 万访问者）。
对于美容服务提供者来说，与公众进行沟通至关重要。由于易于访问，网络已成为消费者获取信息的最重要资源。整形外科医生面临着来自潜在患者的竞争压力，独立方正在设立越来越复杂的网站和上市服务。对于整形外科医生来说，熟悉与潜在患者进行沟通的可用互联网工具并积极利用这些工具来建立有效的实践非常重要。
