July 2008

Essential ingredients for chiropractic websites

by Michael Teitelbaum

Seven 'must have' pages for an effective online presence

Is your practice using your website as effectively as possible to find, get and keep patients?

Patients searching for chiropractic practices spend an average of just ten to 15 seconds on your website's homepage. If it isn't immediately clear to them how you will meet their health needs, you've likely lost them for good. To maximize that brief time, you must have a marketing strategy behind the website design and content.

Whether you're looking to grow your practice or simply better serve existing patients, a website must have the proper elements to meet users' needs and effectively represent your business. To that end, we've identified the seven "must-have" pages for your website:

1. About Us

The "About Us" page is your opportunity to differentiate your practice with an identity people will recognize. What makes your chiropractic office different from others in the area? Use this opportunity to educate patients on unique service offerings (such as adjustments, manipulation, nutrition analysis, manual therapy, modalities, etc.).

Include your practice's overview and history, doctor bios and contact information for key personnel. List your hours of operation and include maps and directions to your location.

Effective "About Us" pages are succinct. Visitors become bored reading a webpage that scrolls on forever. Most importantly, don't get creative with your title. Keep it simple -- visitors view this page to learn "About You."

2. FAQs

FAQ pages save time and money on customer service by answering the questions patients ask -- before they come to your practice. Ask current patients for input. Post the questions and the answers on your website. If you don't know what they might ask, have them submit questions via an online form. As you see repeats, turn them into your practice's FAQs.

You can also include downloadable new patient forms to cut down waiting time for you and your patients!

3. Latest news

Whether about your practice or chiropractic trends in general, a regular update of press releases and media hits shows potential patients that your website isn't stale and that you're also interested in being an information resource.

4. Services

Here's the meat of your practice's website. The Services page is where patients turn to learn about the services you provide that make their therapy worthwhile. Photos of your waiting room and facilities help boost your patients' confidence in receiving treatment from you.

5. Current Inventory

If you sell products directly via your website, keep it updated. Place technical details on subpages; those who are interested will find them. The main inventory page should include large photos and concise descriptions as well as prices.

6. Contact Info

Your "Contact Us" page should be accessible from every page on the site, repeated in the footer. Offer visitors a complete list of ways they can contact your practice -- e-mail addresses, phone numbers and physical address.

Lack of contact information is a common frustration point, especially for visitors who pick up a phone immediately following an injury. Give patients what they need, or they will go elsewhere.

7. Contact Form

Users may be surfing from a public computer, their office PC, etc. They may not have access to their default e-mail account. Adding an easy-to-use form allows potential customers to quickly provide their information for follow-up contact.

Make sure your site has a purpose. If it's to provide information, do it well. If it's to attract new patients, make it easy -- create a great experience to do so. Building a website that visitors enjoy browsing will boost patient loyalty and encourage repeat visits.

One thing you need to remember is this: A practice that doesn't market online only succeeds in stunting its growth.

(Michael Teitelbaum is the president of TruePresence, a national Internet marketing firm. His past client roster includes AMF Bowling, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Maryland State Lottery, US Airways, and Washington DC Tourism, to name just a few. As president of leading interactive agency Eisner Interactive, a position he held before arriving at TruePresence, Mr. Teitelbaum guided these and many other businesses to success. In 1995, he co-founded Emagination, a leading provider of web services on the eastern seaboard. He also served for 16 years as president of Money Mailer of Mid-Atlantic, Inc., one of the nation's most successful direct mail advertising corporations.)