Your practice’s website is the online “face” of your practice and whether you want them to or not, both current and prospective patients will draw inferences from it.  So ensuring that your website projects the image you want for your practice is a critical part of the auditing process.  Here’s a list of items to review.

• Is your website user-friendly?  It’s hard to see your own website with fresh eyes when you’ve visited every page numerous times, so ask a layperson who isn’t familiar with the site to click through while you watch over her or his shoulder.  Don’t provide any guidance; simply observe the individual’s progress, then ask for a frank critique of the site.  Is it easy to navigate?  Is there enough information to answer basic questions about your specialty?  How difficult is it to request more information or ask to be contacted?

• Is your website frequently updated with fresh content?  Putting up a website and then abandoning it by neglecting to update it with new information on a regular basis is a waste of time and money.  Your practice will lose credibility with patients if they never see any changes to your website.  While first-time visitors may not realize it when your website’s content is stale, you need to ensure that you don’t miss any opportunities to present completely up-to-date information to them.  Your website needs to entice prospective patients to take action by scheduling an appointment or at least requesting more information.  Be sure your site has the following pages:
  
  • About the Physician(s)
  • Description of Specialty / Basic Procedures
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Testimonials
  • Contact Us

• Is your website keyword-optimized?  The content you present on your website should contain plenty of keywords related to your practice’s specialty.  This simply means that you write about the terms you want prospective patients to use to locate you when they conduct searches on Google or other search engines.  The more content you have that utilizes your keywords, the better, though as your website grows, you’ll want to consider presentation carefully so you don’t overwhelm website visitors.   

• Can your website be located by search engines?  If you Google your keywords and your website doesn’t appear on the first two pages of your search results, it’s going to be difficult for potential patients to locate too.  If you can’t find your website in search results, you’ll need to begin a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program so you can improve your website’s search engine rankings. 

• Does your website mix well with the rest of your marketing efforts?  Your website should coordinate with your practice’s other advertising efforts to form a marketing “mix” that presents a coherent and compelling image to the world.  As you audit and improve your website, keep the rest of your marketing campaign in mind.