A secure patient portal link for test results and HIPAA compliant information<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nBEST PRACTICE TIP: make sure there is a \u201crequest appointment\u201d hot phone number or \u201ccontact us\u201d form in either a floating menu or close to the services you offer.<\/em><\/p>\nAs the flagship of your brand voice, story and positioning statement, your website should contain clear information, including:<\/p>\n
\n- What you stand for<\/li>\n
- What differentiates you from your competition<\/li>\n
- Your value statements and cornerstone beliefs<\/li>\n
- A succinct statement as to why<\/strong> you are the obvious choice<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
A practice website should be updated every two years to ensure it will always have a modern design while allowing website developers to add new best practices in user experience and speed improvements.<\/p>\n
Does Your Marketing Budget Include Digital?<\/h2>\n
What do you spend on marketing your practice? That spend should direct people to either call your practice or visit your website because next to your front office staff, your website is the best initial sales tool you have.<\/p>\n
Your website picks up where traditional marketing channels leave off; it isn\u2019t just a representation of your physical practice for online visitors, it is your practice. Driving search traffic to your website and making sure a visitor\u2019s experience is a positive one sets the tone and expectation for each physical visit.<\/p>\n
When Should You Start Digital Marketing?<\/h3>\n
If you haven\u2019t considered digital marketing before, now is always the time to start. The longer you put it off, the longer you put off a major revenue stream. In today\u2019s healthcare industry, the patients that can\u2019t find you online or don\u2019t trust what they do find are the patients that will choose to be treated by someone they can find with a welcoming website that inspires trust, confidence and capable care.<\/p>\n
SEO\/SEM: There\u2019s More Than One Way to Win<\/h2>\n
SEO and SEM are two sides of the same coin. Both services work to get new visitors to your website, but how they do it, and the rate they do it are radically different.<\/p>\n
The SEO Turtle \u2013 Slow and Steady<\/h3>\n
SEO or search engine optimization is a catch-all term for the different tactics marketers use to help your website rank well and widely in Google\u2019s organic search rankings.<\/p>\n
“SEO should focus on the services that help grow your business and bring in customers first. While every department contributes to search engine optimization because it touches so many areas both on and off of a website, enhanced content is key. This includes improving existing pages, adding FAQs or creating blogs that support your services.”
2<\/sup><\/div>\nOrganic results aren\u2019t like paid advertising. Where an ad placement is based entirely on your key term and competitive bidding, organic search results are based on a wide range of factors, which include:<\/p>\n
\n- How fast your website loads<\/li>\n
- How long visitors stay on your website and how many pages they view<\/li>\n
- The content on your service pages and blogs<\/li>\n
- How many and the quality of links going to your website from other websites<\/li>\n
- Where links inside of your website go<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
How Long Does SEO Take to Work?<\/h3>\n
SEO usually takes anywhere from six months to a year to really start going to work. It is a long-term strategy, but the benefits can be enormous.<\/strong><\/p>\nResults typically take time, but sometimes a few blog posts can really take off and drastically impact website traffic. The traffic spike in the example below is predominantly from two blog posts that covered a very specific topic and rank nationally, not just locally for a range of search terms.<\/p>\n
Even when traffic isn\u2019t local and is unlikely to result in a new patient, it can help improve rankings for local search terms for a website and their local listing position in Google\u2019s MAP Pack. This can be just as valuable and sometimes more valuable than a high organic result.<\/p>\n
The SEM Hare \u2013 Fast and Fickle<\/h3>\n
SEM or search engine marketing is better known as paid advertising or pay-per-click (PPC). Google has its own advertising system called Google Adwords, which allows you to choose what search phrases and words you want to bid on, your bid limit and what your ad looks like.<\/p>\n
Paid advertising isn\u2019t like SEO. Where organic search results take time to rank and need work done in a lot of areas, SEM goes to work immediately, and its success is based on:<\/p>\n