RevaHealth.com Monthly Growth - May 2009

Average monthly growth rates have been around the 20% mark since the start of the year, and we’re hoping to push these up to 30% per month as the year goes on. Obviously this gets hard the more traffic we generate, but we have our ideas and we’re making our plans so we’ll keep you posted!

As usual, the majority of our traffic came from the UK (37.21%), Ireland (26.10%) and the US (10.60%). According to our Google analytics, the remaining 26.09% came from 182 different countries or territories! This got us interested, and since the start of the year, we count only 13 countries on the map that haven’t visited our site since the start of the year. I wonder if we can get this number down by year’s end?

The split between people using our site to contact clinics at home or clinics abroad remained roughly the same this month for both the UK and Ireland. As our SEO efforts for our local listings take hold we should see the proportion of enquiries for clinics at home increase, but only time will tell.

Home vs Abroad (UK) - May 2009

Home vs Abroad (IRL) - May 2009

Of interest here, we know that the number of people looking at clinics (as opposed to contacting them) is far higher than the contact figures above reflect, so from next month we’re going to look at providing figures for visitors and figures for users i.e. people who just come to the site versus people who use the site to contact clinics. The differences in their behaviours should be interesting.

Interest in travelling to Northern Ireland from the Republic is strong as ever, with the raw number of enquiries up another 12% month on month, and the percentage of enquiries slipping just slightly from 19.73% to 19.11%.

Poland leapfrogs Hungary and Turkey this month to claim the most popular foreign destination title, with Bulgaria taking Spain’s place at the end of the top 5.

Top 5 destinations (IRL) - May 2009

Our methods of calculating which treatments people are interested in have changed slightly this month, so we can’t compare them directly to previous months, but there are no real surprises in the top 5 treatments in dentistry for Irish patients. Cosmetic surgery though has seen a slight shift towards weight related treatments, as expected as the summer approaches.

Top 5 dental treatments (IRL) - May 2009

Top 5 cosmetic treatments (IRL) - May 2009

One of the fastest rising treatments we found in our incoming keywords was “Endermologie”, which was a new one on me. This was closely followed by “Mesotherapy”. It turns out these are both treatments aimed at reducing cellulite, so I guess bikiniphobia was particularly strong in May!

The countries outside of the UK that British people were interested in visiting stayed much the same, with only Spain replacing Bulgaria in the top 5. Poland remained the most popular destination for people from the UK.

Top 5 Destinations (UK) - May 2009

While the UK interest in dental treatments pretty much mirrored that in Ireland, the cosmetic surgery treatments being requested differed in that acne / scar removal and tattoo removal weere 2nd and 3rd after Botox in the UK.

Top 5 dental treatments (UK) - May 2009

Top 5 cosmetic treatments (UK) - May 2009

By way of example, our April traffic increased by a modest 8.60% versus March, but the number of enquiries we processed increased by 47.81% in the same period.

RevaHealth.com Traffic and Enquiries Increases - April 2009

Traffic from Ireland increased by 26.82%, traffic from the UK increased by 9.70%, but traffic from the US fell by 12.63%. Unsurprisingly, the fall in US traffic was most notable during the Swine Flu panic, which centred largely around Mexico, our number one destination for our US visitors. We expect traffic from the US to return to normal this month as the panic fades. We expect it increase dramatically in the coming months now that we have started to list local clinics in the US also.

Irish Visitor Analysis – April 2009

An interesting metric that we look at every month is the proportion of enquiries for clinics at home versus abroad. In April the split was 64.89% in favour of local clinics, versus 35.11% for clinics abroad. This is a significant shift towards people contacting clinics at home, as last month’s figure was 58.83%.

Irish Enquiries - Home vs Abroad Split

Digging deeper, while the number of visitors from Ireland who contacted clinics abroad actually increased by 65.10%, the number who contacted clinics at home increased by a far greater amount, 74.83%.

Interest in dental treatment in Northern Ireland continues to be the talking point for Irish visitors. Following on from roughly doubling for each of the last two months, this month there was a staggering 256% increase in the number of enquiries for clinics in the North. The media coverage of “everything is cheaper across the border” seems to be having an even greater effect on people as the economic situation continues to deteriorate. Clinics along the border and on the main traffic routes to Belfast in particular are benefiting from people already travelling for groceries, alcohol and Ikea.

Clinics in Northern Ireland now account for 19.73% of all enquiries made by people in the Republic, up from just 9.96% in March.

The other most popular destinations abroad were Poland (7.91%), Hungary (4.51%), Turkey (3.40%), Poland (2.22%), and Spain (1.18%).

Top 5 Destinations (from Ireland) - April 2009

Back to the overall picture of visitors from Ireland, dentistry is still the number one thing on their mind, with dental clinics taking 70.81% of all enquiries, followed by cosmetic and plastic surgery clinics, with 21.80%.

The top 5 most commonly requested dental treatments are Teeth Whitening (17.12%), Braces (10.75%), Veneers / Lumineers (9.08%), Implants (7.62%), and Root Canal Treatment (3.24%).

Top 5 Dental Treatments (Ireland) - April 2009

The top 5 most commonly requested cosmetic or plastic surgery treatments are Botox (16.92%), Tatoo Removal (9.77%), Liposuction (8.27%), Mole Removal (6.39%), and Breast Reduction (5.26%).

Top 5 Cosmetic Treatments (Ireland) - April 2009

UK Visitor Analysis – April 2009

As with Ireland, the breakdown of whether UK visitors are looking for treatment at home or abroad is one of the most interesting to look at. This month there is a continued swing in favour of contacting clinics at home, with the April figures showing that 63.60% of enquiries are for local clinics, versus 36.40% for clinics abroad. This is an increase from last month’s figure of just 43.89% of enquiries being for clinics in the UK.

UK Enquiries - Home vs Abroad Split - April 2009

While there was a modest increase of 37.62% in the number of people from the UK contacting clinics abroad in April, the number who contacted clinics at home increased by 112.36%.

Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are responsible for their fair share of enquiries from the UK, at 3.91% and 4.52% respectively. Outside of these countries, the most popular destinations for visitors from the UK were Poland (7.91%), Hungary (4.17%), Bulgaria (3.21%), Turkey (2.43%) and Thailand (2.09%).

Top 5 Destinations (from the UK) - April 2009

While dental clinics are still the most contacted by visitors from the UK, with 60.82% of all enquiries, cosmetic and plastic surgery clinics have increased their share from 22.72% in March to 31.45% in April.

The most popular dental treatments requested were Veneers / Lumineers (14%), Braces (12.43%), Implants (9.86%), Teeth Whitening (9.86%), and Dentures (2.14%).

Top 5 Dental Treatments (UK) - April 2009

The most requested cosmetic and plastic surgery procedures were Botox (9.67%), Facelift (8.89%), Tatoo Removal (8.29%), Mole Removal (5.25%) and Trachea Shave (4.14%).

Top 5 Cosmetic Treatments (UK) - April 2009

While traffic is up, what is of interest in the change in UK patients’ behaviour. There was a near 20% drop in interest in clinics abroad between February and March, which continues a trend going back to October. Since then we have seen a relative drop of over 40% in interest in heading overseas for treatment, with more and more UK visitors opting to contact clinics at home.

It would be easy to put this down to the Credit Crunch, like every other downturn story, and while we can sure it has had some effect on people, it seems to be more of a case of people putting off expensive treatment in favour of general maintenance. This would obviously have a knock on effect for the clinics abroad as they specialise in the high end “cosmetic” dental procedures.

There was an increase of nearly 75% in people in the Republic of Ireland looking for dentists in Northern Ireland. At the same time, there was a drop in interest of 24% in expensive "cosmetic" dental procedures, indicating that people are less willing or able to pay for top end treatments at the moment.

Over the same time period however, twice as many people from Ireland contacted cosmetic and plastic surgery clinics through our site, with rhinoplasty, breast implants and botox being the most popular treatments sought. Clearly, some people aren't quite feeling the pinch yet and are still prepared to go for a bit of a nip and tuck.

Our press release about the increase in the number of people heading north for dentistry is up on our site now, and here are all the facts and figures from our February research:

Irish Visitor Research – February 2009

Note: Visitors can choose more than one treatment per enquiry, meaning the percentages above can add up to more than 100%. The figure represents the percentage of all dental enquiries originating in Ireland that expressed interest in that particular treatment.

Note: Visitors can choose more than one treatment per enquiry, meaning the percentages above can add up to more than 100%. The figure represents the percentage of all cosmetic and plastic surgery enquiries originating in Ireland that expressed interest in that particular treatment.