How healthcare institutions and medical practices can generate and drive traffic with a fully integrated, content rich, and patient-centric website.
The healthcare industry has found itself under pressure to provide fully integrated, content rich, websites current and prospective patients have come to expect. With the recent changes made to healthcare in the last few years, consumers are turning to the Internet for answers and not finding them. The healthcare industry’s marketing dollars are spent on traditional forms of marketing, such as billboards and mailers, due to a lack of resources and budget management.
Let’s jump into the 4 reasons why health care needs a digital makeover, shall we?
- For the patients: Creating a patient-centric digital presence demonstrates an understanding of your patients’ needs by providing online tools and resources. These resources help to eliminate communication gaps between patients and their physicians. Consumers are searching the web to better understand their health conditions and there is great benefit in providing a digital connection with patients by providing answers to their questions. Publish medical expertise on your websites blog about treatment, philosophy, and medicine to bridge connections between your medical practice and your patients.
- For the traffic: An integrated website with relevant content gives medical institutions the opportunity to drive traffic to their website which can ultimately lead to an increase in patients. Patients are turning to the web to understand their conditions and symptoms, to find recommended doctors and specialists, and to read reviews. When thinking of the kind of content to include on your website, answer the questions your audience might have. Understand a day in your patient’s life. What are their pain points? What are their goals? Where do they go for information? Create a website with your patients in mind.
- For efficiency: Imagine creating a website that allows patients to complete medical forms before scheduled appointments, pay medical bills, request refills and help to answer questions patients may have. Patients should have the ability to perform basic functions related to medical care. Make it easy for a potential patient to become a patient by providing the ability to easily connect with physicians and schedule appointments. Imagine all the administrative work that could be eliminated!
- Because it’s expected: It’s the year 2014 people! Most physicians publish content for traditional publications, such as medical journals, but should also be publishing that content digitally to provide patients with the access to information they have come to expect.
The goal for the healthcare industry is to better coordinate patient care and improve quality while reducing the number of unnecessary hospital admissions. With a content rich patient-centric site that utilizes social media for leverage and analyzes patient reach through factors such as page authority, inbound links, and traffic, the healthcare industry could see tangible results.
If you’re interested in learning more about generating more patients and improving upon efficiency through a digitally optimized website we invite you to download our eBook Alaniz Guide to Generating Website Traffic, Leads & Sales. Please get in touch if there’s anything we can help with!
