*This post was originally published Jan 28, 2013 and extensively updated November 20, 2017.
There is no shortage of websites on the internet, but there are still many businesses that don’t have a website. Most business owners understand that having a website means you can be found by more customers. When you consider a professional, such as a doctor, you might ask yourself why a doctor would need a website; after all, there are no shortage of patients.
If you consider the importance of finding the right doctor for every patient, then it makes sense for doctors to have websites. Do doctors need websites? In this post, we'll discuss four ways in which websites for doctors, and other professionals, are beneficial and help build a profitable practice.
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You can find a doctor in the phonebook, but you are more likely to take to the internet to find your next great doctor. It’s just the way the world works now. Every successful business starts with a website. If nothing else, information about a doctor’s practice, patient demographic, and contact information needs to be able to be found online.
Patients, have come to expect that everyone is online, including doctors. As a medical professional, once you have a website up and running, you can use it as a communication hub for all of your other marketing efforts: social media, content marketing, research articles, and more.
The importance of a website for a small business can’t be overstated. Here are four reasons why your medical practice needs a website.
Whether you like it or not, people expect to find your business online. As a doctor, you run a business, and therefore, you should be able to be found online. If you are part of a larger medical community, hospital, or group, they are likely online in some way. But having a website is not enough: it needs to have the right information and be able to be found by patients quickly and easily.
If you are trying to grow your medical practice, you can only do that with more patients. Finding patients is never easy, but when you have any online presence established, it makes it easier than if you aren't online.
That said, when you have an online presence, it's important to make a good first impression to get and keep their attention.
Patients want to work with a doctor who cares and shows understanding for their needs. A website is a great way to let the world know about your expertise, your commitment to healthcare, and more. Working with a skilled website developer and digital marketing expert makes all the difference when it comes to telling your story online.
Another reason to have a website for your medical practice is that you can share information with all of your patients and potential patients. For example, if your office is closed for holidays, or due to inclement weather, your website can be updated quickly to reflect those changes. That’s easier than explaining to hundreds of people why you weren’t in the office on Friday.
One of the best ways to create and build relationships with your patients is to keep them informed and provide education to them when they aren’t even in the office.
If you create and manage a website for your medical practice, you might decide to collect emails and send information to your patients and potential patients about openings, hours of operation, upcoming events, clinics, and more.
There are many benefits of having a business website, and your website allows you to add value to a patient’s experience in ways that matter to your bottom line.
Dr. Jones has had a website up and running for some time now, and has seen tremendous interest in her medical practice. She regularly receives feedback from her patients through her contact page about her services, and she enjoys being able to provide up-to-date information about her clinic hours and closures through her website.
When Dr. Jones used more traditional forms of advertising and marketing, she was always worried about the return on investment she received from paying high fees for phone book listings and radio ads. When she decided to launch a website, her business changed for the better.
She didn’t have to spend time or money creating lengthy ads for newspaper or radio; she was able to share her website on social media, health forums, and in local businesses to raise awareness of her medical practice. What’s more, she worked with an experienced SEO expert who helped her get the website optimized for search engines so people could find her through a simple web search.
Dr. Lawrence has been practicing medicine for 20 years and continues to shell out big bucks for Yellow Pages ads and premium advertising space in the local newspapers. He’s even gone so far as to take out newspaper ads in neighboring communities in the hopes of building his patient list. He’s feeling frustrated that more patients aren’t walking through his door.
He knows that people need a doctor, but he wonders if people even know he is accepting new patients. He often wonders if he should invest in a website, and finds himself why businesses need a website more often these days.
What Dr. Lawrence is missing in his phone book-approach to marketing is that he isn’t taking into considering the reach of that phone book. When a doctor decides to launch a website as a way to market their medical practice, they are giving themselves the opportunity to reach beyond their locale. However, a good website also needs to consider local citations, which an experienced web firm, like Titan Web Agency, can help with.
Local citations can be thought of as listings you have in online directories such as Yelp, Healthgrades, etc. These might include social media posts, website information, forum posts, discussions, and paid advertisements. The more local citations a business has, the easier it is to find online. They will usually include your business name, address, phone number, and link to your website.
When it comes to running a medical practice, we know you have your hands full trying to treat your patients and provide an important service to your community. At Titan Web Agency, we work hard to provide our clients with an important service as well: we help our clients get found online so they can grow their businesses.
If you have a medical practice and you are ready to take your business to the next level of success, you need to get a website. We can help you create and customize a website that fits your practice, and represents your business the way you want it to. What’s more, we’ll help you create a marketing approach to get found faster and easier online, so you can continue to grow your patient list for years to come.
Setting up a website is one thing; getting found online is another. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that putting up a website is all you need to do to find more success in your business. If you want to see maximum growth and return on your investment, work with Titan Web Agency.
We’ll help you get started on your digital marketing plan so you can get on with your practice and get back to what you do best.