Medical SEO on a Rise

Telephone operators either put you on hold for 20 minutes or you get transferred into a never ending call queue. People you talk to, usually have a limited amount of time and information they can give you up front. Books and pamphlets don't usually paint the whole picture and often give only one perspective on a particular subject matter. So it's no wonder that people prefer to use the Internet to get exactly the information they need. Approximately 63 million Americans are using the Internet today, just to find healthcare information. With that in mind, I'm not surprised with the number of health care providers who want to tap into the SEO market and evolve with the latest marketing trends.

It has become essential for medical practitioners to be accessible on the Internet in order to accumulate new leads and create a stronghold list of patients. Medical SEO is the marketing strategy in which search engine optimization and medical information is combined to attract users who are looking for medical care and those from the healthcare industry. This marketing strategy is ideal for doctors and other health care providers for its ability to target medical related traffic. No other market can allow you to target such a specific audience with users browsing the internet, unaware of your doing so.

The field of medicine progresses in such drastic leaps and bounds on a day to day basis, that it is necessary to keep patients and medical professionals updated and informed through the Internet. Healthcare is a necessity in all of our lives to remain functional and healthy and most are prepared to travel long distances to get the best medical practitioner in the market. With so many patients ready to travel the distance to get the healthcare they need, the Internet allows medical practitioners to provide these patients with crucial information for the ailments that they suffer from.

A number of patients lack good doctors nearby and suffer from rare diseases or medical conditions that can only be cured by a handful of doctors. Medical SEO has allowed doctors and their information to be readily available to those who are suffering and find a solution to their ailments. Medical SEO provides doctors a platform to be in touch with their patients to provide professional medical advice and enable them to view their options before visiting their clinic. Doctors are able to give their patients as much information they need so that they can feel comfortable before undergoing surgeries and other medical procedures.

Because of Medical SEO, doctors can now provide their patients with videos, blogs, stories, patient testimonials, photographs, and a lot more detailed information then they could ever get from one visit to the doctor! When you visit the doctor, you usually have a limited amount of time scheduled with the doctor where you can speak to him ask the questions you need answers to. Viewing his website will give you as much information you need and you can spend as much time as you want! Ever try calling the doctor's office just for one question and had an annoying nurse tell you that the doctor is not available to speak to you? Well those days are gone. With websites for medical practitioners most websites have the option to get in touch with the doctor by email to ask any questions you have and they will either call you or email you back with an answer.

Pragmites Consulting provides Medical SEO, social media optimization, website design and a host of other Internet advertising services for websites affiliated with the medical industry. Their list of clientele includes websites for personalized health care, dentists, medical consultants, psychologists, and much more. Please visit http://www.pragmites.com for more details.

Medical SEO on a Rise

Telephone operators either put you on hold for 20 minutes or you get transferred into a never ending call queue. People you talk to, usually have a limited amount of time and information they can give you up front. Books and pamphlets don't usually paint the whole picture and often give only one perspective on a particular subject matter. So it's no wonder that people prefer to use the Internet to get exactly the information they need. Approximately 63 million Americans are using the Internet today, just to find healthcare information. With that in mind, I'm not surprised with the number of health care providers who want to tap into the SEO market and evolve with the latest marketing trends.

It has become essential for medical practitioners to be accessible on the Internet in order to accumulate new leads and create a stronghold list of patients. Medical SEO is the marketing strategy in which search engine optimization and medical information is combined to attract users who are looking for medical care and those from the healthcare industry. This marketing strategy is ideal for doctors and other health care providers for its ability to target medical related traffic. No other market can allow you to target such a specific audience with users browsing the internet, unaware of your doing so.

The field of medicine progresses in such drastic leaps and bounds on a day to day basis, that it is necessary to keep patients and medical professionals updated and informed through the Internet. Healthcare is a necessity in all of our lives to remain functional and healthy and most are prepared to travel long distances to get the best medical practitioner in the market. With so many patients ready to travel the distance to get the healthcare they need, the Internet allows medical practitioners to provide these patients with crucial information for the ailments that they suffer from.

A number of patients lack good doctors nearby and suffer from rare diseases or medical conditions that can only be cured by a handful of doctors. Medical SEO has allowed doctors and their information to be readily available to those who are suffering and find a solution to their ailments. Medical SEO provides doctors a platform to be in touch with their patients to provide professional medical advice and enable them to view their options before visiting their clinic. Doctors are able to give their patients as much information they need so that they can feel comfortable before undergoing surgeries and other medical procedures.

Because of Medical SEO, doctors can now provide their patients with videos, blogs, stories, patient testimonials, photographs, and a lot more detailed information then they could ever get from one visit to the doctor! When you visit the doctor, you usually have a limited amount of time scheduled with the doctor where you can speak to him ask the questions you need answers to. Viewing his website will give you as much information you need and you can spend as much time as you want! Ever try calling the doctor's office just for one question and had an annoying nurse tell you that the doctor is not available to speak to you? Well those days are gone. With websites for medical practitioners most websites have the option to get in touch with the doctor by email to ask any questions you have and they will either call you or email you back with an answer.

Pragmites Consulting provides Medical SEO, social media optimization, website design and a host of other Internet advertising services for websites affiliated with the medical industry. Their list of clientele includes websites for personalized health care, dentists, medical consultants, psychologists, and much more. Please visit http://www.pragmites.com for more details.

The Challenges in Creating a Successful Medical Website

Creating a website is easy. That is why having a successful medical website is a challenge. Today, there are literally thousands of tools that will allow virtually anyone to have a website for practically any reason. The biggest challenge to our medical website development company is differentiating for our clients between having a website and developing a medical website that successfully promotes the desired services and brings patients to the practice.

The biggest mistake that practices make is that they hire a designer and then go back to the practice with the expectation that at the end of the project, patients will flock to their site. The reality is there are a lot of very nice medical websites that get few if any visitors each day. That is because the clinic did not have a full understanding of the steps necessary to have a successful medical website.

The steps are not complicated, but they are involved and require a real commitment on the part of the clinic and their website partner. Additionally, the steps are never finished but are more like being on a treadmill. Even after completing the steps, some of them must be routinely revisited to insure that they have kept up with the competition.

The general steps are:

• Planning
• Development
• Implementation
• Plan Evaluation and Update
• Success

Planning

The foundation of the successful medical website is understanding what the website should do and what is involved with achieving that goal. You must articulate what you want to achieve and how you are going to measure the success. This should be the guide from which all medical website development work stems. If you have not done this basic step, almost any website designer or self design program will work, because looking good becomes the only criteria.

During the planning phase, proper expectations should be developed. Development and implementation of a successful medical website takes time. It is much more involved than simply having a website developed and making it available to the world wide web. Patience will be a virtue. Very few overnight successes occur in marketing websites and those are usually in niche or evolving markets. This condition may still be true for a practice in an area with a smaller population, but for large metropolitan clinics, the market is very competitive. Education is the third part of plan development. A successful website should be built around what potential visitors are searching for. Proper key word research and planning must be done. Analysis of successful competitors and finding under served markets will speed a medical websites track to the top.

Finally, commitment of all involved individuals will complete a solid foundation for building and maintaining a successful medical website development plan. Each principal in the business, the contracted development and marketing firm, and each involved employee must understand what is involved and be committed to the website's success.

Development

With proper planning, the rest becomes as easy as following a good road map. The development often is the focus of the greatest number of resources and effort. I would challenge you to consider development of the site to be the easiest part of the process. That is, if proper planning and implementation have been committed to.

Development is simply taking the existing plan and utilizing proper design techniques to build a structure and design that is appealing to both human visitors and search engine spiders. Then take the same criteria and apply it to generation of content. The content and design should funnel visitors to take an action that has already been defined in the planning stage.

Finally, the developed site should be tested and retested. It should be spell checked and proof read by multiple people. It can then be uploaded to the server and made available to the rest of the world. Certainly, there is a lot more that goes into developing a good website, but we are focused on making a good website successful!

Implementation

Rarely have I seen a medical clinic spend too much on website development. But more often than not, I have seen medical clinics spend their entire budget on development and let a beautiful medical website sit on the web with no implementation or marketing strategy thus, producing no meaningful traffic.

Implementation involves promoting the site and tracking the traffic to analyze the success of the traffic. If no one knows the site is there, it is only there to serve the ego of the owner and the developer! A few things that can make a big difference for a website are:

• Add the website address to all printed materials (patient forms, print ads, brochures, etc)
• Send an email to all of your colleagues, patients and friends to let them know it is available
• If appropriate, ask them to bookmark your site in their social network site (MySpace, FaceBook, Etc.)
• Ask each of your vendors (you are spending money with them) to link to your site from their corporate site. Many have a directory of their customers and would gladly do this
• Continually update your content and add new content
• Make sure your site is submitted to DMOZ (DMOZ.org) and the local search of Google, Yahoo, and MSN
• Find other relevant (they promote or discuss subjects relevant to your practice and website) websites with which to exchange links (or even better to provide a one way link to you)
• Plan evaluation and update

The only way to know you are successful is to evaluate. This is where the treadmill starts. Even after you have achieved success, it can only be maintained in a competitive environment by continued analysis and refinement.

If you have properly established goals and tracked your traffic, it should be reasonably easy to establish the level of success your medical website has achieved. These evaluations should be routinely scheduled and carried out. The results of the analysis should provide the road map of activity needed to either maintain your site's success or take the next step toward success.

Your analysis should not only be of your own site but also of the medical websites that are performing the way you want your medical website to perform. There are tools available that allow you to get a snapshot of almost any site's traffic, page rank, and search engine results success. While copying their content will be punished by the search engines (and the law) emulating their successful techniques is quite acceptable.

You should also have a method of tracking the server that hosts your site. All servers go down occasionally, but if yours is down more than rarely, you should consider finding a new place to host your site. After all, if the site is not accessible, it does not matter how high you showed up in search engine results. You will also not maintain good search results long if the search engines identify your site as being regularly not available.

Success

By now you should be able to see why patience and proper expectations were emphasized early on. A successful medical website involves a lot more than simply developing a site and making it available. Additionally, continued success is not guaranteed. To maintain success, you must commit to doing the things that brought you to the top to begin with. Some keys to continued success are:

• Add fresh content and update existing content
• Generate new quality links to your site
• Monitoring of and contributing to local social networks to see and respond to what others are saying about your site and your services
• Add new features
• Looking for new search terms that may be under served and develop new content to attract those searches

Success is a never ending quest, but one that is attainable and maintainable with a plan, proper expectations, commitment and patience.

Web Design Tips for Health Websites

Health websites have a special way in which they should be designed because web surfers anticipate a certain type of website. Web design is very important and while many companies were not aware of this for quite some time it is now catching on that a website selling medical imaging supplies should be designed differently than a website offering medical advice. It all comes down to people and their expectations. We all have them and whenever we walk in a doctor’s office we expect it to look a certain way. The same goes for a movie theatre, shopping mall, and other places of interest. We have expectations for the places we visit in person and the same goes for the websites we visit virtually. Websites selling medical surgical supplies should be conservative and informative and make it easy for you to buy products whereas another website that is about gossip can be colorful and fun.

There are quite a few web design tips for health websites. One tip for health websites is for them to be designed in conservative colors like blue, black, dark green, and other similar colors. People visit health websites for a reason and they want the website to feel like a serious place. Organization is also important when it comes to designing a health website because people will most likely be visiting for informational purposes. As a result you want to have the information placed in a very organized layout so that visitors can find what they are looking for with minimal effort. Web surfers want instant gratification and if they don’t find what they are looking for very quickly they will simply click off your page and head back to the search engine to try again. Because of this it is very important to have your website organized in a way that will keep visitors interested and on your page otherwise you will lose them.

So, make sure that when you are designing your health website you check out some other health websites that are popular and see what works and what doesn’t. When you can use other websites as references you should because it will allow you to create an even better website with a design that will be outstanding and keep the traffic coming in to your site. Just always keep in mind that simple and straightforward is a lot better than creative and confusing.

Caitlina Fuller is a freelance writer. Web design is very important and while many companies were not aware of this for quite some time it is now catching on that a website selling medical imaging supplies should be designed differently than a website offering medical advice. Websites selling medical surgical supplies should be conservative and informative and make it easy for you to buy products whereas another website that is about gossip can be colorful and fun.

Medical Website Design For Physicians

More and more people are turning to the internet these days for their health and medical advice. What was once only a rare occurrence for patients has now turned into an opportunity for many physicians. However many physicians don't yet have websites for their medical practices. Websites for doctors can be very powerful tools for physicians looking to attract new patients and offer patient education.

An ideal doctor marketing website should have more than just biographical information about the physician. It should also offer detailed information about services provided, office hours, insurance policies, and any specializations. The website needs to be intuitive and user friendly. This can be done by including pictures of the physician, staff, and office. Medical website design can impress prospective patients, increase awareness of services, offer patient education, and expand a practice to a larger scale. With physicians facing rising costs and lower reimbursements, a website is one tool that can increase the number of paying patients while creating efficiency in the office.

If a physician wants to have a website designed, they need the services of a professional medical website design company. The website design company should specialize in physician website design and medical marketing. This ensures that the web design company has experience in what patients are looking for when searching the internet for a physician. The website should also be accompanied with a marketing strategy. A marketing strategy can consist of pay-per-click on the internet or placing the web address in print ads.

The main services of a good medical website design company include custom website design, search engine optimization, logo design, and website management. A medical web designer should also be able to provide input on which pages are necessary to make a website an effective tool for marketing. Nowadays, a custom built website which specializes in attracting new patients and offering patient education can be made for under $1500. As an increasing number of patients use the Internet for finding doctors and medical information, it is becoming more and more important that all physicians have an Internet presence and marketing strategy. Physicians shouldn't overlook the power of the Internet and miss out on attracting new patients.

The benefits of a website are great and it is a necessary part of a medical practice. Every doctor should look into what kind of site they want and figure out the information and services they want to provide through their website. A website will always be beneficial to the growth of a medical practice.

Why Doctors Need Mobile Websites

In the 21st century one need to market himself to succeed in his profession. A Doctor, Engineer, Artist, Actor and every other specialist needs to market himself to withstand the vigorous market condition. The count of internet users is increasing each day. So it is a tremendous idea to publicize yourself through your own website. Now, internet is no longer limited to computers. One can look for the required information by browsing the web sites on mobile devices itself. So do not take a step backward, in the forward moving world.

If you are a Doctor and looking to magnify your patient base, then you require more than a conventional business card. Your mobile website must contain all the medical related information that would educate your patients. Adding some articles based on the case studies on the site directs towards your expertise. This increases a particular doctor's reputation to a great extent. There might be situation when a person needs to access some medical related information while outside their home. Under such circumstances, your mobile website will come handy and this increases you reputation as a doctor. Mobile website must provide the details like the address of your clinic, contact numbers and your specialties. This would bridge the gap between you and patients looking for medical assistance. Doctors of modern age are not overlooking the role if internet and loose opportunities to draw more patients. Owing a website has become a crucial component of medical practice.

As a doctor, you cannot lag behind others of same profession just because you do not have a mobile website. Every doctor should invest some amount of capital in designing his mobile website for the welfare of his work. There are many dedicated medical mobile website designers, who would serve your purpose with their expertise. Get your web site designed and improve the marketing structure of your clinic.

Author owns a website of Medical Website Design and Plastic Surgery Website Design.

Medical Alert Websites

Medical alert tags have become an acceptable and unavoidable accessory in the present day world. Medical alert articles can be in the form of jewelry such as pendants, medallions, bracelets and necklaces. These devices are available in local markets as well as on various online sites.

Different medical alert companies have varied procedures, but there is a lot of choice available on the ID tag wanted and the kind of information on them. These medical alert tags are not very expensive and are easily affordable, priced at around $20. Some manufacturers make the tags plain on one side, with the medical alert symbol appearing on the other side.

Shopping online for the medical alerts is quite an easy alternative today because of the internet accessibility. The Internet has information about various medical ID tags available such as bracelets, necklaces, medallions and others. There are sites with independent guides on finding the correct medical alert service. There are other sites that offer access to emergency medical help and some that have lists of Top 10 medical alert alarms in America. There are offers various articles on free wellness and advice on various ailments and their cures.

These websites deal at length about the various types of medical alerts, such as jewelry, tags, watches and others. They also give vital information about the requirement of such articles. They work as a safety measure in case of crisis by alerting the medical body attending, to specific medical ailments or allergies of the person wearing them. They also give in depth information about the various diseases, which have corresponding medical tags that are easily available. They also give information about medical alerts, such as alarms and medical alert phones, which have saved many a life in an emergency.

Medical Alerts provides detailed information on medical alerts, medical alert system, medical alert bracelets, medical alert necklaces and more. Medical Alerts is affiliated with Advanced Medical Transport.

Optimize Your Medical Practice Website

Websites for professional medical office are great tools. They provide information about you and your office, and your office website can be a useful resource for medical information. However, most professional websites may easily be optimized for even greater practical use. Here are some potentially useful enhancements.

- Appointment scheduling - Several web-based appointment scheduling sites have programming code that may be easily embedded on your practice website. Patients can then make appointments with your office directly. Many patients who would otherwise forget to schedule their appointment will appreciate the availability of making their appointment anytime day or night.

- Brochures - Add downloadable brochures. Visitors to your website are hungry for information. If you perform procedures, this is the ideal place for patients to become familiar with the procedures you perform and attain confidence in your ability.

- Forms - Post forms on your website that your office normally distributes in-person or by mail. Online forms for patient registration, transfer of records, and general instructions for preoperative and postoperative care are very useful. Office staff can direct patients to your website, saving your practice time and money.

- Video Link - Do you have an audiovisual recording about you or your office? Add a link on your practice website that allows visitors to view your audiovisual presentation. This provides visitors a personalized view. Some Internet appointment sites have capability for adding an audiovisual recording to your appointment-scheduling portal.

Put the address of your website on all your business cards, appointment cards, office stationary, referral forms to other professionals, and office handouts. Consider incorporating a message about your practice website and availability for online appointment scheduling on your telephone-hold recording. Patients who are turned off by excessive telephone holding will welcome the efficiency of online appointment scheduling.

Online appointment scheduling and downloadable brochures are important examples of enhancements that can be easily applied to your website. Optimizing your practice website with useful enhancements may be of significant benefit for your, your office, and your patients.

Copyright © DayClips, 2009

Michael Reynard, MD, is an Associate Clinical Professor at the UCLA School of Medicine. https://www.DayClips.com provides portals for professional websites for free online appointment scheduling and audiovisual presentations.

Is a Website Necessary For Your Medical Practice?

Internet is the endless source of information. It is the place where people update themselves with different medical troubles and learn about their prevention. Surveys suggest that the majority of people research about their medical state and curing programs on Internet. So, it is a great idea to let patients know about the medical programs offered by your hospital on the Internet itself.

In this modern polluted world, terrible diseases are coming up frequently. So, providing useful information on your web sites will help building a reputation and trust in the various communities. Medical web sites can impress patients, offer valuable medical education, magnify the awareness of services and help your practice to a larger scale. Providing online patient knowledge and online patient forms always helps. Serving people with the answers of frequently asked questions in the web site will increase the popularity of the hospital. By letting people know about all the specializations offered and information about their various establishments on the website will give those hospitals a cutting edge. A successful medical website should be built according to the needs of potential visitors. Putting on some of the case studies transformed into articles, will make people appreciate the hospital's success in the past. This will make visitors count on your medical fraternity in the future. These are few of the important postulates that would help your success rate to grow.

Internet awareness is hugely increasing with days. There is a rise in number of patients using internet to find doctors and useful medical information. So, hospitals cannot underestimate the role of internet in their marketing strategy. The gains of developing a web site for your hospital have become a serious requirement now. Hospitals cannot miss out attracting new patients, just because they don't own a web site. So, start looking for the developers who can provide you authentic medical web site.

A Huge Mistake Made by Most Medical and Dental Websites

Multiple marketing studies have found that 87% of people never read an entire web page. They skim and scan and generally only read the bullet points. For this reason, the initial pages that a visitor sees on a website should consist only of bullet points and easy to identify navigation links.

People don't want to read a lot of information while hunting. They switch from hunting to gathering and are ready to read only when they feel they are at the right place on your website. If they are interested in what you have to say, they are willing to navigate 3-4 pages deep to get the information.

Let's put these statistics into perspective with a medical or dental website. In a recent study by Google, they found that when a patient conducts a search for a medical practice or dental practice, 84% of the time they only want one of two things:

1. They want the practices phone number and/or
2. They want directions to the practice.

If 87% of the general population only skims the page and reads the bullet points, and 84% of your visitors only want your phone number or directions to your office; why is it that medical and dental websites make it difficult for the visitor to find the information they are seeking? They make a visitor muddle through large blocks of text to uncover the information that they seek. This is a huge mistake that is made by most medical and dental websites.

Randy Van Ittersum is the co founder of Medical & Dental Website Design Service, and works exclusively in the design, and creation of medical and dental websites. Medical and dental websites have unique requirements and his designs make it easy to attract new patients to any medical or dental practice. You can find out more about his firms award-winning, high-quality website design service at http://www.medical-dentalwebsites.com, where you "Get a Mercedes for the price of a Chevy."