Making Your Practice Website Stand Out

In today’s day and age, establishing an online presence is a must - 1 in 5 patients search for a doctor or practice online. Whether your practice’s website is new or you are trying to expand your image, creating a website with a great design, search engine optimization, and other marketing strategies can help you to stand out from the competition. While there are countless marketing tools available to healthcare professionals, implementing the right ones can help promote the growth of your practice. So how can you best draw and keep current or prospective patients? These 10 tips are a great start.

1. Striking design
How is the design of your practice website important? For one thing, design is the first thing that readers notice when they visit your website. Like or not, most individuals judge websites based on appearance.In fact, more than 90% of readers have stated that poor website design is a reason why they choose not to trust a website. Therefore, for some patients, your doctor website may be the deciding factor when it comes to pursuing your services. If your website is well-designed and up to date, you can stand out from the crowd.

2. Informative content
After appearance, good and well-written content is an obvious element in the realizationof your practice’s website. Not only does it leave an impression on current and prospective patients, but it also makes sure that your website can be found on top search engine results. Talk about the latest medical news, recent events, tips for preventative care, trainings you have attended, and answer any questions or concerns that your readers might have. Writing content that is informative, reliable, and up-to-date can help patients find you and it will answer the question why they should come in to see you as opposed to going to your competition.

3. Unique content
Patient education comes from you – the healthcare professional. With your guidance, readers can learn from different experiences and become much more aware of health-related matters. If you want to make your website stand out, you need to provide your readers with unique content that they cannot find anywhere else. Personal experiences about your skills, expertise, and patient stories (with your patients permission, of course) are some of the ways in which you can emphasize what sets you apart from other practices and position yourself as an authority within your field.

4. Positive online reviews
Online reviews are crucial to the success of any medical practice. Over 90% of patients read a practice’s online reviews before booking an appointment and over 60% say that positive reviews make them trust a practice more. This means that your prospective patients are paying attention to what your current patients have to say. For this reason, it is important that you continuously monitor and manage your reputation online. Ask your current patients to post online reviews and be sure to comment back by thanking them for their thoughts and opinions.

5. High-quality pictures
While unique, well-written, and informative content is important, posting high-quality pictures are likely to grab readers’ attention. Therefore, you need to make sure that your pictures are bold, sharp, and as consistent as possible. For instance, posting high-quality pictures of yourself and your staff members is a great way to show readers your professionalism and create an emotional bond. Moreover, sharing before and after images from surgical procedures or treatments can help you showcase the services that your practice has to offer.And if you don’t quite have the right photograph, you can utilize AI for groundbreaking image generation. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and pictures can help readers to see both you and your practice in a positive light.

6. Brand image
Developing your brand image requires that you distinguish yourself from your competitors. Your brand image, such as a unique logo, is a reflection of your skills and expertise as a healthcare professional. However, sometimes branding goes above logos and bright colors. Think about what it is about your professionalism that you want to emphasize the most. Think about your practice’s mission and objectives. Perhaps a catchy slogan can help you to communicate your practice’s values and get noticed online.

7. User-friendliness
It is a well-known fact that user-friendliness is one of the main reasons determining if visitors will decide to stay on your website. For instance, if your website is difficult to sort through and it is not user friendly, most visitors will become aggravated and move on. In today’s world of technological advancements, you need to put having a user-friendly website as a top priority. Having a responsive-designed website is merely one example of how content can be adjusted to fit any screen size, thereby allowing your visitors the finest experience possible.

8. Visual elements
Visual elements can add great interest to your website. Images are great for capturing an audience’s attention, but so are videos and animations. For instance, by adding short videos of various procedures that you offer, patient stories or health tips, you have the chance to giveprospective patients a preview of what they can expect before walking through your door.

9. A blog
Nowadays, blogging is an extremely popular approach to building a practice’s credibility. You can share health-related tips with readers, answer their questions or even address their concerns. Blogging adds value to your practice and ‘humanizes’ you in a sense. It reveals to readers your unique voice and builds upon your already established online presence.

10. Website organization
The way in which you decide to organize your practice’s website is crucial to how others will view it. For instance, by adding a lot of information on medical statistics within the first pages of your website, readers might view this approach as ‘computerized’. Every practice’s website is organized differently because every healthcare professional has a different view of the type of audience that he or she would like to attract. When it comes to choosing a doctor or practice, readers want information that they can rely on and that they find trustworthy. They want to see images of you and your staff members because even if they don’t know you, a friendly face might be comforting. Highlight your best and most relevant information on your homepage and go from there.

Medical practice internet marketing stands out significantly from basic content marketing. It is a strategic approach that has demonstrated effectiveness for every type of business – large or small. Website design and optimization is effective, but it is not simple. It requires a lot of time, effort, and above all, dedication. “You don't sort of care. The world is not changed by those who sort of care. You passionately care, sometimes irrationally care, about what's best for patients. It is a harder and harder environment today … confronted with technology, new rules, and more to be successful, so you can't sort of care” said Sally Hogshead, developer of the ‘Fascination Advantage’ self-assessment tool. The basic rule of content marketing is putting the customer first and focusing on clear and direct messages, tailored to their needs.

Content marketing is an ongoing process, especially nowadays with countless tools available to educate, inform, and inspire readers.The way in which you put your website together shows a lot about what you and your practice have to offer. Your practice’s website is a reflection of your practice’s theme so decide how you wish to use the above proposed tips to your advantage.“Why am I online blogging, pushing content through my website and even interacting on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and many other sites? Because my patients are there. Increasingly, they are utilizing the Internet to self-diagnose; to look for “second opinions” from peers and friends; to research a physician, recommended treatment, or hospital; or to find the latest information on their disease.” Said Howard J, Luks MD, Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon. As your practice’s website continues to grow in viewership, so will your credibility and your position within the clinical setting.