Just setting up your website is not enough. You have to constantly be improving and changing the site to keep it current and user friendly. If the site was designed over two or three years ago, it may need a major overhaul by now.
Think of your website as a living thing. You can’t just put it out there and walk away. It needs to be nurtured to keep performing at optimal speed and efficiency. Techniques and standards change rapidly so you need to keep up with what aesthetics patients are looking for today. The look, feel and ideal structure and navigation for medical websites is constantly changing and evolving.
This key practice marketing tool necessitates your constant attention. In general, just as you go to your GP for an annual checkup, you should at a minimum, schedule an annual review and re-evaluation of your website to make sure you are not missing out on updates that could benefit your practice.
To determine if your website is working for you, consider these important questions:
- Is every treatment, procedure and product you offer featured on the site?
- Are there pages without enough content to get indexed by search engines?
- Is your blog up to date and how frequently do you add posts?
- Does it take more than 3 clicks for visitors to get to the information they are looking for?
- Is your website generating new leads for your practice?
- What happens to leads that do come in –is someone on staff managing them effectively?
- Is your website mobile responsive – that is, can it be found, read and used on a mobile phone or tablet efficiently?
- Do you have a shopping cart to sell skin care and other products on the site?
- What sections of the site get the most visitors and how can you make these more compelling, so they spend more time?
- Do you have a sufficient volume of patient photos for all or most procedures you offer?
- Is there a clear call to action (CTA) on the landing page? (call, schedule, click, buy, etc.)
- How easy is it to schedule an appointment on the site now?
- How well do you rank in organic searches?
- Are you budgeting enough for SEO to drive new patients to the site?
- Which procedures are most prominently features and which need more visibility to grow?
- Do you have a chatbot on the site to answer simple questions for visitors?
- Are all of your social channels linked to the site and visible with live links?
- Are there photos and information about staff members who are no longer with you?
- Does the site contain spelling errors?
- Are your photographs clearly marked, labelled and watermarked to protect against them being lifted without permission?
Your website should be working for you 24/7, that includes evenings, weekends, and holidays when the practice doors are closed. Make sure the site is optimized to attract the most amount of interest from your key target audiences.
The numbers don’t lie. Your web developer should be submitting your stats on a monthly basis for review; number of clicks, where visitors spent the most time, how many logged off, etc. You should be analyzing traffic regularly to learn where there are kinks to be addressed, items that require an upgrade and edits, and how well your SEO is working. A modern effective website needs monthly maintenance on an ongoing basis to stay that way. This is a critical success factor for all aesthetic practices and medspas, and thus, should be incorporated into your overall marketing plan.
Does your website need an upgrade? Reach out. Anne@wendylewisco.com
