You’ve got your medical practice website up, you’ve even spent some money on SEO (search engine optimization), you were happy to see your site show up in a Google search on page 1 or even page 2 …  and suddenly your medical practice website is nowhere to be seen!

What happened?

In March 2011, Google altered its algorithm for search results (a guy named Panda who works at Google came up with this concept, hence the name).

I urge you to watch this video, especially if you’re considering building a website for your medical practice or physician business or upgrading your current website, in order to avoid making some fundamental mistakes.

It’s also important, when hiring a website designer and/or webmaster that you sign up somebody who has some knowledge about this topic. This video should help you speak some updated SEO language with the person who’s going to do this work for you. And if they’re clueless … this might be your hint to look for someone who’s more up-to-date!

Some time ago, I launched my Physicians Website Secrets Program. Some of you took a brief look at it (or maybe even spent a moment or two thinking about it), but for many of you, either it didn’t register at the time, or you had no need for it.

As with anything on the Internet, there is a learning curve and a certain amount of experimentation to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

I discovered that asking you to fork over $5.00 for a CD containing secrets to creating an effective medical practice or physician business website wasn’t worth it to many of you. It meant you had to go to your wallet, haul out your credit card, and fill in all those  fields, all for a lousy $5 payment. I suspect it wasn’t the cost as much as the EFFORT involved in exchange for something that you didn’t know yet might (or might not) be worth your time.

Because I was asking you to trust me with your credit card information BEFORE you’d had an opportunity to evaluate what the program could do for you, the program didn’t do as well as I hoped it would.

Mistake.

This time round, I want to do something different. I still want to share my Number One Secret about websites with you, because I passionately believe in this, and I really want you to avoid the errors made by so many early physician entrepreneurs or even seasoned medical practice owners (and that I made when I was getting going with my physician coaching business). So I AM asking you to enter your name and e-mail address, just this once, to get access to that secret.

But once you’ve gotten my Number One Secret (you may find this one surprising, as it’s not what most of you DO!!), you’ll hopefully discover that I’ve made you more valuable offer. One that will not cost you a penny, and that will give you the chance to test drive the Physicians Website Secrets Program by accessing the first Module in its entirety!

And I’m adding some bonuses, so that even if you decide that this program isn’t for you, you’ll walk away with some really solid information to help you prop up an ailing website, or start afresh with one that’s truly healthy and vibrant

If you’re curious, if the time feels right, go to Physicians Website Secrets, enter your name and e-mail, and you’ll be given immediate access to the link that will permit you to sample this treasure trove of insights and learning I’ve distilled down into the Physicians Website Secrets Program.

I look forward to being as helpful as I possibly can – I really want you to enjoy some of the “Internet success” that I have in my business!

During the planning stage of your copywriting for your medical practice website or your physician business website, you need to understand exactly what it is you hope your website to accomplish.

• Do you want the visitor to contact you to learn about becoming a patient, or a client?
• Do you want to sell something?
• Or invite your visitors to become members of something?
• Or download something of value to them so that they begin to perceive your medical practice or physician business as their solution?

Perhaps you have already determined that you need to build a subscriber base, circulate information, increase practice revenues by growing your numbers of patients.  But in order to accomplish these differing (and not mutually exclusive!) goals, you must make sure that your web copy will support your efforts.

1. Decide who your ideal customers are and what they really want.  Then find and craft the words that will most effectively bring these people to your site.  Include your best keywords and keyword phrases.

2. Create a plan. Without a detailed plan, it will become impossible to know whom you are targeting.  Without a target, you are likely to miss out on those people who are willing and eager to pay for your help and expertise.

3. Realize that your target audience is typically smarter and more knowledgeable than the average visitor to a website. Now that you have started planning, you need to start looking at whom to target.

Targeting is used to figure out what group of customers will have the problems that can be solved by using your particular service or product.  It is therefore vital that you become an expert in not only your target market, but also in knowing every single benefit that your service or product offers.

Once you determine whom you need to target, you can begin to search them out.  Build a profile of those people who will benefit from your help the most.  Once you know who they are and what problems they want solved or desires they need satisfied, then address your writing directly to them, using the most magnetic of the benefits your service or product can offer as “bait”. To discover what these Benefits are, ask your current happy patients or clients. They’ll tell you!

What do you value most/love best about our medical practice?
What made you choose me/us as your XYZ person?
What keeps you coming back?

At last, you have found your target audience, and now you must develop a strategy for writing your copy.  In order to do this, the best way is to do the following:

1.    Write about what the customer wants to hear – answer their – use  WIIFM question (What’s In It For Me?).
2.    Create the tone that is inviting to those you’re targeting, using their language.
3.    Present your idea(s) simply and concisely.

Get writing!

Related articles

• 5 ways to improve your medical practice in 2011 (kevinmd.com)
• Is Web Copy Ruining Your Design? (sixrevisions.com)

Many a medical practice website should be retired to website heaven.

Why?

Because they are completely ineffective at doing what you, the physician business owner are paying for your website to do — invite more business to your medical practice! And thereby boost your bottom line.

And one of the biggest culprits is lousy copy. (That’s the fancy term for all that writing on your website).

It is vitally important to know that people do not read a website in the same way that they would read printed material.  In fact, there are three characteristics which affect how a web user will react to the online content of a site.

1. Immediately obvious benefit. It is important to remember that web users are active, not passive.  If they can’t find a compelling reason for staying on a site (the answer to their search query!), then they will leave it.  Sometimes a person will leave in less than 3 seconds after they have arrived on the page.

2. Concise evocative language. If your paragraphs are too long, or your words are too dense, the visitor is less likely to read it.

3. Believability. So much of the web visitor’s experience is characterized by overstated claims and “hype”. If you want a web user to believe what you have to say, you must be able to back up your claims, with testimonials, case studies and anecdotes.

One of the most important reasons why copywriting for the web is different is the different mindset of the web page visitor.

Internet Copywriting vs. Traditional Copywriting

More often than not, web pages will be found via a search engine.  This is very significant, as it means that the person landing on your website has been looking either for you or for someone like you.  That puts the visitor in control – they are focused on finding a particular product, service or piece of information.

Anyone visiting your site for the first time, who has found it via a search engine, will have a few questions in mind.
“Have I come to the right place?”
“Will I find what I’m looking for at this page or site?”
“Can I can complete my task at this point?”

You need to answer these questions in both your headline or title, and any sub-headlines or sub-titles on the page.  You need to be able to secure a response from this first time visitor immediately.

Your writing must provide reassurance that the visitor is going to find exactly what they are looking for. Your web copy should encourage your visitors that they are have come to the right place, and that they should continue to read on.

In order for any web copy to be effective, it must take into account the three characteristics mentioned above.

Now, go back to your website and take a long, hard look!

Will yours pass the 3-second blink test??

Related articles

• Online Business Promotion That Works: SEO, Copywriting and Social Media (searchenginejournal.com)
• A few Quick Tips in SEO Copywriting (mt-soft.com.ar)
• Scott Meis: SEO 101: Choosing good keywords (websitehelpers.com)

Is your medical practice website or physician business website performing well?

How would you know?

Until a few years ago, my response to this question would have been “huh?” I had no idea what a website should and could do, other than that it should have some information about my business, so that anyone who wanted to surreptitiously check me out could do so. And my website was supposed to make my visitor want to sign up right away as a client. “Yay – this is just what I was looking for!”

Somewhere along the way, as I was trying to learn more about marketing my entrepreneurial physician business (that’s another story – what a whole new set of “aha’s” that opened up for me!), I became aware of what websites are supposed to do for businesses.

Bring in MORE BUSINESS!

Mine wasn’t there just to reassure folks who already knew about me, that I was a physician coach and could lay claim to some training. It was to allow me to be discovered by someone who didn’t have a clue that I or my physician coaching business existed and who happened to be in front of a computer at 2 AM looking for something. A solution to a pressing problem. The chance to scratch an itch that had been plaguing them. Some needed information on a topic of interest.

My physician business website needed to provide the inviting “Open Door” to a relationship that my business could create with that curious “Seeker” of information and solutions. I shouldn’t imagine selling my wares immediately. Instead, I should become a useful resource and “friend” to my prospective clients, by using the Internet and the power of automation to cultivate and nurture relationships that could eventually pay off.

This huge insight led me to redesign not only my website but my whole approach to the business and and marketing of my physician coaching practice.

And if I dare to imagine life as a family physician had I remained in practice and used what I now know about medical practice websites, I picture a very different experience as a physician business owner. I picture myself with a website that speaks clearly to my intended patients, revealing who I am in a video, making my philosophy clear, articulating my Unique Selling Proposition (a fancy marketing term for answering the question  – “Why should I be itnersted in your practice or business?”), using the website as a teaching tool, and leveraging the Internet to perform some of my practice’s essential operations, thereby freeing up employee time, or even cutting labor costs!

It’s what lots of other savvy businesses do. Why shouldn’t your medical practice or physician business be creative and do the same?

Which brings up my question for you:

What is your number one question about getting your medical practice website or physician business website to perform better (i.e. bring in more business and/or generate more revenue)?

If you’ll answer this in the comments section below, I promise to provide as many answers as I can!

Want to make sure that your medical practice website shows up on the first page of Google?

This three-minute video direct from the mouth of the Google-god is an excellent overview of what you need to pay attention to in order to ensure that your medical practice website gets indexed by the search engines. This, in turn, means that your website will be presented to the searcher on the first page, if you’ve paid attention to details such as:

• your choice of keywords and keyword phrases
  
• where you’ve placed those keywords on the pages
• your URL
• your “page rank” or “authority” (as determined by algorithm) based on the numbers of links back to your site from other authoritative sites.

Not sure what this all means and how to apply it to your medical practice website?

Try the Physicians Websites Secrets program here.

Related articles

• Are you keeping up with Google? (searchengineguide.com)
• New Local Opportunities: How To Rank Higher In Google Place Search (searchengineland.com)

People pay good money for information from reliable resources, and as a physician, you are regarded by most as an Expert with great knowledge and experience to share.

What if you could package up that knowledge to use for medical practice promotion using educational marketing, or to even sell it to people eager to learn from a doctor?

Examples of information products for your business or practice include:

• an audio program that serves as an inducement to get a prospective patient or client to sign up on your website, enabling you to begin a (hopefully) productive long-term relationship
• an educational freebie about healthy living to give away at meetings or in the local coffee shop or health club
• a “how-to” 5-CD course that teaches parents how to care for their child’s asthma
• a downloadable audio program helping patients understand what to expect when they undergo a course of treatment or go through a surgery that you offer

Creating and producing this material is a daunting exercise for many physicians, who tend to be perfectionists. However, in the Internet and technology era, all the tools you need are literally at your fingertips.

From the comfort of home and using my computer, a webcam and some software programs, I have been able to create an entire 12-week multimedia program teaching physicians what’s involved in having a revenue-generating website built for your practice or business. Yes, your website can and will pay for itself in spades, if done right!!

Now I’m not suggesting you start out quite as ambitiously. It has taken me some time to figure this out, and I am still learning.

However, you too could create your first information product in under a week, if you were to follow my 5 simple step process to creating your first entrepreneurial physician information product.

Isn’t it time to consider adding an information product to your medical practice promotion and marketing plan?

I wish you a fun, creative, revenue-generating time!