Empire State Psych is a physician-founded behavioral health practice based in New York. With a mix of in-person and remote care, they were hiring new physicians, opening locations, and expanding access to care.
But their digital foundation wasn't built for scale. Most new patients came from Zocdoc, an expensive and unreliable channel where Empire State Psych paid per appointment request whether or not patients showed up. Their website and tracking weren't set up to generate or measure their own demand.
They needed to move from renting patients from a marketplace to owning a growth engine they could control.
When Tidal Health Group first engaged with Empire State Psych, three issues were holding the practice back.
First, Zocdoc dependence meant a third party owned visibility and patient relationships. The practice carried the risk and the cost, without much say in how those patients arrived.
Second, their website made it hard for both patients and search engines. Content was fragmented and flat. Services, conditions, locations, and insurance were mixed together, with many overlapping pages. Patients struggled to answer basic questions like "Do they treat what I have?" and "Do they take my insurance?" Google struggled to understand which pages mattered most. There was almost no paid search in place to make up for it.
Third, they lacked visibility into what actually drove booked visits. Empire State Psych was building a call center to support growth, but form fills, phone calls, and scheduling lived in separate systems, often behind the EMR. Leadership knew volume was up, but could not clearly see which channels, paths, or messages were responsible. Their online reputation also lagged behind the quality of care, because reviews were requested manually when staff had time.
They didn't just need more marketing activity. They needed a partner to rebuild the foundation, wire up clean tracking, and help connect marketing decisions to operations.
Tidal Health Group started by rebuilding the web experience around Entity Promotion (CMS). Instead of a flat set of pages, the new site is organized around clear entities: services, conditions, locations, providers, and insurance. Duplicate and overlapping pages were consolidated into focused hubs, and navigation was redesigned so patients can quickly see what is treated, where, and how to get started.
This structure also gave Google a clearer picture of what Empire State Psych does and which pages are most important. As the practice has grown, it has become much easier to add new providers and locations without breaking the site. On top of this structure, Tidal later layered in programmatic SEO pages that target insurance-plus-service searches like "[Insurance] psychiatrist near me," giving the practice Zocdoc-style visibility on their own domain.
With the foundation in place, Tidal launched Healthcare PPC campaigns focused on in-market searches for psychiatry and related mental health services in their geography. Empire State Psych had not been running meaningful search campaigns before, so this created a new, controlled source of patient demand. Campaigns were wired into call tracking and form tracking from day one, so the team could see which searches and ads led to real inquiries.
Next came measurement. Tidal implemented a HIPAA-Compliant Event Taxonomy so key actions like form submissions, tracked calls, and online bookings could be measured safely. Cross-Domain Booking Attribution was then added to connect website sessions and campaigns with bookings made through their digital scheduling system.
That work made it possible to introduce a direct self-scheduling platform that plugs into the EMR. Tidal helped Empire State Psych fold this into their website and patient journeys. Patients can now self-schedule in a few clicks. The practice can see which channels and pages drive those bookings and how self-scheduling and the call center should work together.
In parallel, Tidal modernized the review process. A reputation technology partner, integrated with the EMR, now automates review requests after visits. Fresh reviews flow steadily to Google and back onto the site through Social Proof Widgets, aligning online reputation with the care the practice already delivers.
Throughout, Tidal's account team has acted as a strategic guide, helping the founders think through how marketing and operations fit together: when to lean on self-scheduling, how to support the call center, and which growth moves to stage next.
Today, the impact shows up in visibility, patient volume, and confidence in the numbers.
In the first full quarter after the new site launched, Empire State Psych saw a clear lift in organic performance. Comparing the three months after launch to the three months prior, total organic impressions increased by 102.8% and clicks increased by 166.7%, and average position in search improved across key psychiatry terms. Patients who once would have only found the practice on Zocdoc now discover and choose them directly from Google.
The new Healthcare PPC campaigns have gone from zero to a steady source of new patients. With clean tracking and Cross-Domain Booking Attribution, the team can see which campaigns and keywords drive calls, form submissions, and self-scheduled bookings, and shift spend toward what leads to actual visits.
The self-scheduling platform has changed how patients and staff experience intake. A growing share of new patients now book directly online, which gives busy patients a faster path to care and allows the call center to focus on more complex cases instead of every single inquiry.
Reputation has become a reinforcing loop. Automated, EMR-driven review requests now bring in a consistent stream of new Google reviews each month. Those reviews show up on high-intent pages via Social Proof Widgets and make it easier for hesitant patients to choose Empire State Psych when comparing options.
From the founders' perspective, the change is both operational and relational. As co-founder Jarrod A. Marks, MD puts it, they have seen "a dramatic increase in the number of calls" since working with Tidal, "organic SEO positioning has improved greatly," and "digital ads are doing exactly what they are supposed to do." The team feels they are "in good hands," with a partner who cares how they spend their dollars and thinks about short-term needs and long-term growth.
Empire State Psych didn't just need a new website or a few campaigns. They needed independence from Zocdoc, a web structure that could grow with the practice, truthful tracking from click to booked visit, and a reputation online that matched the care they provide.
By restructuring their site around Entity Promotion (CMS), launching focused Healthcare PPC, incorporating a direct self-scheduling platform, implementing a HIPAA-Compliant Event Taxonomy with Cross-Domain Booking Attribution, and modernizing their review engine, Tidal Health Group helped them move from dependence and guesswork to ownership and clarity.
The work is ongoing. But the digital ecosystem now grows with the practice instead of holding it back.
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