Every website must provide value. A medical website easily creates value by providing answers their patients health related questions. We do it every day.
To effectively market your medical practice on the Internet, your website should provide trusted, optimized medical information so it can rank high on search engine result pages (SERPS).
It all starts with providing value… and at no cost. You can’t generate traffic to your website if your website does not provide value to your visitors.
Click through ads (e.g. Adwords), social media platforms, and email blasts draw attention; however, it’s pointless to employ these tactics if your website can’t keep the attention of your visitors.
Why not try creating real value by providing credible information instead of buying them? I have found my time is much better spent creating value through content, rather than devising the next best click through ad.
Value is the key to driving traffic to your website. With time, value creates trust. For a medical practice, this is key to converting website visitors into paying patients. By building trust you are also increasing the value of your medical practice.
How do You Create Value
Our patients are desperate for information. They have lots of questions and want answers. The digital age has broadened their ability to access information, but what information is credible and relevant?
As health experts, we have the ability to create value by providing credible, relevant answers to the questions patients are asking. Rather than relying on advice from less credible sources on the Internet it is imperative that we provide information so patients can make informed decisions.
There is an easy way to do this. Everyday we use the same rehearsed speeches over and over again to educate our patients. A great way to create content is to write these canned speeches/answers down.
Taken one step further, you can also incorporate a Q & A section within your article. To do this, simply include the questions your patients typically ask and provide the answers.
For me, this content method has proved to be a great source of “value” not only for my practice, but also for my patients, prospective patients and their families. Writing down “answers” to my most frequently asked questions (e.g. How do you put the eye back in after surgery?) has been a huge resource for my “content” and provides tremendous value to my site.
If you regularly post to your website, your traffic will increase because search engines will increase your relative position on their search engine results page.
That is, you are providing timely, relevant, credible content that is aligned with the corresponding searches. This the crux of search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing.
3 Tips to Create Great Content:
•write about what you know;
•don’t give advice; and
•don’t make a diagnosis
If you do this everybody wins.
Give Away Your Knowledge, Not Your Expertise
Critics are concerned that we are discounting our profession and ourselves by “giving away” what we know. We aren’t.
Our ability to combine our knowledge and experience to make a diagnosis and to recommend a treatment plan is the value we provide to our patients.
There is an inherent difference between educating and treating. By no means would I advocate treating or diagnosing on the Internet. By providing content we increase our value not only to our patients, but also to society.
Creating valuable content raises awareness of your medical practice, increases your profile, and provides valuable information to those are searching. Start writing today and see the difference it can make for your practice and, more importantly, your patients.
How do you generate content for your medical website? Please share your ideas in the comment section below.
BTW – We never remove the eye because we don’t know how to put it back!
To Your Growth And Success!
Randy
Randall V. Wong, M.D.
Medical Website Optimization
www.MedicalMarketingEnterprises.com