Orthopedic marketing: reaching patients before they pick a surgeon

What orthopedic patients search, by service line

Patients rarely type a subspecialty. They type a broad need and a location, and then narrow down.

Google Ads Keyword Planner data via DataForSEO, US, 12-month average to Sep 2026.

Three things stand out:

• Broad searches dominate. "Orthopedic doctor near me" outweighs "knee replacement surgeon near me" nearly 300 to 1. The page that ranks for the broad term has to route visitors quickly to the right body part and surgeon.
• Joint replacement patients don't search like shoppers. Fewer than 200 people a month search for a knee replacement surgeon by name of procedure. They get there through a primary care referral, a friend, or months of reading about arthritis.
• Practices are the expensive audience. The practice-side term "orthopedic marketing" gets only 90 searches a month but costs $77.39 a click, about ten times a patient click. Agencies pay a lot to reach you; your patients are cheaper to reach than that suggests.

If you want a scored read on where your own site, listings and ads stand before changing anything, start with a free marketing audit.

Three journeys: injuries, elective surgery and chronic pain

Orthopedic marketing fails most often when one message is asked to serve three very different patients.

Injury patients want to know whether you can see them today and whether you take their insurance. Joint replacement patients want to understand whether surgery is right for them. AAOS patient material notes that recommendations are based on pain and disability rather than age, and that "there are no absolute age or weight restrictions for total knee replacement surgery (opens in a new tab)." Chronic pain and spine patients have often tried several treatments and are wary of surgery. They respond to content that explains non-operative care honestly before it mentions an operating room.

Competing with hospital systems as an independent practice

Hospital systems outspend independent groups on brand. They also tend to bury a knee surgeon three clicks deep under a department page. That is your opening.

Where independents can win:

1. Speed to appointment. Publish real access: walk-in hours, same-week new-patient slots, Saturday injury clinics. A hospital's central scheduling line rarely competes on this.
2. Named surgeons. Patients choose a person. Each surgeon needs a page that says which problems they treat, where they trained and where they operate.
3. Body-part pages. A page per service line (knee, hip, shoulder, hand and wrist, foot and ankle, spine) matches how patients search and how AI assistants assemble answers.
4. Listings that are complete. Google's guidelines let public-facing practitioners have their own Business Profile, separate from the practice location's profile, and say a practitioner shouldn't have multiple profiles to cover all of their specializations (opens in a new tab).
5. Referral ease. Primary care offices refer to whoever is easiest to refer to. That can be you.

Where hospitals usually win: brand recognition, network-wide insurance contracts and employed primary care doctors who refer internally. Don't fight that with billboards. Fight it with access and clarity.

Referral sources: primary care, physical therapy and athletic trainers

For many orthopedic practices, referrals still matter more than any ad channel. Each source needs something different.

• Primary care. Make referring effortless: a page for referring providers with fax or e-referral details, what imaging to send, and which surgeon sees which problem. Send the consult note back quickly. Joint replacement decisions are meant to be shared among the patient, family, primary care doctor and surgeon, according to the same AAOS page.
• Physical therapists. The relationship runs both ways. You send post-operative patients to them; they send you patients who aren't improving. Return their calls, share protocols and keep a short path for "this patient needs to be seen." Our guide to physical therapy marketing shows the same relationship from the therapist's side.
• Athletic trainers and schools. Trainers are the first to see a high school ACL injury. Saturday injury clinics and clear contact routes matter here.
• Podiatrists. Foot and ankle referrals often run between podiatry and orthopedics in both directions. See podiatry marketing for how those practices find patients.

One rule applies to all of them: never offer anything of value in return for referrals. HHS's Office of Inspector General explains that under the Anti-Kickback Statute "remuneration" covers anything of value (opens in a new tab) and that paying for referrals of federal health care program business is a crime. This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm how it applies to your practice with a qualified advisor.

Surgeon pages, outcomes language and what you can't claim

Surgeon pages carry most of the trust in orthopedic marketing, and most of the risk.

The AAOS opinion on advertising by orthopaedic surgeons (opens in a new tab) is specific about the words that cause trouble:

• Superlatives. "Top orthopaedic surgeon," "Best doctor" and similar phrases should be properly substantiated or qualified.
• "Minimally invasive." The concept that these procedures are safer or clinically superior "must not be inferred, stated or implied."
• "Painless" and "bloodless." It is highly unlikely an invasive procedure causes no pain, and there is no such thing as bloodless surgery.
• Endorsements and photos. If they show relief or recovery better than the average patient's, they may create unjustified expectations.

The FTC's Health Products Compliance Guidance (opens in a new tab) sets the evidence bar for health claims at "competent and reliable scientific evidence," and says testimonials showing atypical results need a clear disclosure of what a typical person can expect. State boards add their own layer. Florida, for example, lists "false, deceptive, or misleading advertising (opens in a new tab)" as grounds for disciplining a physician, along with advertising as a board-certified specialist without qualifying. Check your own state medical board's rules.

Two practical guardrails:

1. No success rates or "best surgeon" claims without documented, current data, explained in plain language.
2. Testimonials need HIPAA authorization. Using a patient's story or photo in marketing requires a signed authorization under 45 CFR 164.508 (opens in a new tab).

For medical statements, quote MedlinePlus or AAOS OrthoInfo and have the surgeon approve the page. MedlinePlus, for example, says knee replacement is usually done when other treatments for knee pain haven't helped enough (opens in a new tab). This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm how it applies to your practice with a qualified advisor.

Paid ads by service line

Paid search suits orthopedics where intent is urgent and the click price is modest: $6 to $9 for the core "near me" terms in the table above. How to spend it differs by service line:

• Walk-in and injury care: search ads on "near me" and injury terms, with hours and location in the ad and a call button. This is where ads pay back fastest.
• Sports medicine: search plus seasonal pushes around school sports and physicals.
• Joint replacement: small search budgets on condition terms, and education (seminars, condition guides) that patients come back to over months.
• Spine: search on "spine surgeon near me" at $8.76 a click, landing on second-opinion and conservative-care pages, not a surgery pitch.

Two platform rules shape targeting. Google treats health as a sensitive category: customer match and advertiser-curated audiences aren't supported (opens in a new tab) for ads in it. Meta's policy says ads must not assert or imply personal attributes, including medical conditions (opens in a new tab), so "Is your knee pain keeping you up?" is the kind of copy to avoid.

How AI assistants answer 'best knee surgeon near me'

Patients now ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews the same question they used to type into a search box, only longer.

Assistants build answers from what they can find and read: practice websites, Google Business Profiles and other listings, and reviews. No one can make an assistant recommend a specific surgeon. What you can control is whether your site states clearly which surgeon treats which problem, where, and with which insurance, and whether each surgeon's listing matches. Our guide to AI visibility for practices covers how this works in more depth.

Guides for orthopedic practices

• Orthopedic advertising: service-line ad plans with real click costs, Meta targeting limits and claim rules.
• Choosing an orthopedic marketing agency: a neutral checklist for multi-surgeon groups, from surgeon branding to BAAs.
• Orthopedic website design: site structure by body part, surgeon profiles and pages for referring providers.
• Pain management marketing: channels and claim limits for interventional and multidisciplinary pain care.
• Sports medicine marketing: school and club partnerships, athletic-trainer referrals and injury clinics.
• Spine surgeon marketing: earning trust for a high-stakes decision, from second opinions to device claims.
• AI marketing for orthopedic practices: where AI helps, what stays human and which tools are safe with patient data.

How Medfy works for an orthopedic practice

Medfy is AI marketing for independent medical practices in the US and Canada, built HIPAA-compliant by design. The base plan is $349/month and covers:

• Your website, rebuilt and hosted on your domain, with a page per service (knee, hip, shoulder, spine, hand, sports injuries), structured data and HIPAA-compliant forms.
• Automated SEO: researched articles every week, drafted from MedlinePlus and PubMed, which your practice approves or auto-publishes.
• AI visibility tracking: weekly checks of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, showing whether they name your practice and who they name instead.
• Analytics and Google reporting: calls, forms, bookings and directions, plus Search Console, Google Analytics and Business Profile in one view.

The Google Ads management add-on is $199/month, with ad spend paid directly to Google and never marked up. Medfy doesn't run physician-liaison visits, answer phones or request reviews; those stay with your team. See Medfy pricing for the full plan.

Frequently asked questions

How do orthopedic practices get more patients?

Treat each service line as its own funnel. Injury care wins on 'near me' search, same-week access and a strong Google Business Profile. Joint replacement wins on education and primary care referrals over months. Spine and pain win on trust and second opinions. Build a page per service, keep each surgeon's listing accurate, make referring easy for primary care and physical therapists, and measure calls and forms by service line.

How do independent orthopedic groups compete with hospitals?

Compete on what a hospital system struggles to match: how fast a patient can be seen, a named surgeon instead of a department, direct scheduling for injuries, and clear pages for every body part you treat. Make it easy for primary care and physical therapists to refer. Hospitals win on brand budget, so put your effort into search, listings, reviews and referral relationships, where size matters less.

Can orthopedic surgeons advertise success rates?

Only with care. The FTC expects health claims to be backed by competent and reliable scientific evidence, and AAOS ethics guidance warns that outcome claims and endorsements showing better-than-typical results can mislead patients. If you publish your own outcomes, use documented, current data, explain how it was measured and what a typical patient can expect, and check your state medical board's advertising rules first.

How do orthopedic practices get referrals from physical therapists?

Make the relationship two-way and useful. Send post-operative patients to therapists with clear protocols, return their calls quickly, and give them a fast route for patients who aren't improving. Share a one-page summary of which surgeon sees which problem. Don't offer anything of value in exchange for referrals: the federal Anti-Kickback Statute applies when Medicare or Medicaid patients are involved.

Should an orthopedic practice run Google Ads?

Usually yes for urgent and high-intent services. 'Orthopedic doctor near me' is searched 49,500 times a month in the US at about $7.51 a click (Google Ads Keyword Planner data via DataForSEO, US, 12-month average to Sep 2026). Walk-in injury care and sports medicine suit search ads. Joint replacement converts more slowly, so pair ads with education. Track calls and forms without sending patient data to Google.

How do patients choose an orthopedic surgeon online?

They usually start broad, with searches like 'orthopedic doctor near me', then narrow to a surgeon by body part, insurance, availability, reviews and credentials. Many also ask their primary care doctor or physical therapist. Increasingly they ask AI assistants too. Your site should show which surgeon treats which problem, their training, the insurance you accept and how soon a new patient can be seen.