5 Steps to Optimize Your Medical Practice Online

5 Steps to Optimize Your Medical Practice Online 

When people search for a new doctor, they often head straight to the internet. A prospective patient can find a practice in their area that showcases professionalism, expertise, care, and a history of positive patient experiences online. 

For this reason, having a digital presence as a medical professional is crucial. An online presence makes it easier for potential patients to find and learn about your practice and determine if you’re the right fit for their needs. 

But to stand out from other medical professionals in your area, you need more than an online presence—you need a powerful digital identity that fosters trust with your audience and attracts more business to your practice. 

Learn how to create and optimize your digital identity with the steps below.

1. Select a strategic domain name

Your website’s domain name can significantly impact how patients perceive your practice. Choosing a thoughtful domain name with focused keywords can immediately communicate your expertise to clients. For instance, if you specialize in your practice, referencing it in your domain name will show your clients that your services are relevant to their needs. 

Along with the domain name itself, you can use descriptive domain extensions after the dot (rather than the traditional .com) to further establish your expertise and authority in the medical field. Some examples include:

• .HOSPITAL
•  .CENTER
•  .DENTAL
•  .DOCTOR
•  .VISION

Descriptive domain extensions are more memorable, helping you stand out further from your competitors.

Finally, by leveraging all aspects of your domain name with a descriptive domain, you have the potential to make your site more visible to search engines. For example, if your website is chicagodermatology.clinic, your site may be more likely to appear in search results for ‘dermatology clinics in Chicago.’ 

2. Build a compelling website

A website allows potential patients to learn about your practice, qualifications, and reputation. This is because you can easily use your website to: 

• Share patient testimonials
• Showcase your services
• Detail your medical background 
• Provide valuable resources, like blog posts that answer common patient questions 

When creating your website, consider offering a way for your patients to schedule an appointment or consultation through a calendar invite or form submission. Embedding a booking widget allows your website to act as a gateway that connects your patients to you after they’ve completed their research on our practice.

Wix, a top website builder on the market today, is a great tool to get your custom medical website up in minutes. With medical-designed templates, you can stand out from the crowd by offering prospective patients a friendly user experience met with a sleek, professional design. 

3. Promote your social media

Creating professional social media profiles and actively posting can give patients a stronger sense of your personality and expertise, helping your practice stand out. For instance, you can create posts that highlight: 

• Past research
• Patient reviews
• New pieces of tech you’re using in your practice
• Health tips

Your social media profiles are also valuable tools for promoting your website—by sharing blog posts to your social pages, you can attract more attention to your practice and direct potential patients to your site. 

Perhaps most importantly, you can use your social media accounts to establish a stronger connection with potential patients. Many people use social media to give feedback or raise concerns. By having an active profile, your office can respond to inquiries promptly and build a positive community around your practice. 

But remember, as a medical professional, you must uphold your ethical obligations when connecting with patients online. Before creating your social profiles, develop a clear social media policy that guides your interactions. 

4. Set up your digital workspace.

Establishing a solid digital identity requires more than having a website and promoting public-facing social profiles. It also requires the effective management of private, professional communications. By utilizing Google Workspace tools, you can streamline the way you do business online. For instance: 

• Google Calendar can help you manage and keep track of patient appointments.
• Google Forms can provide a simple, user-friendly way to gather patient information. Learn more about Google’s HIPAA compliance.

Setting up a business email account connected to your unique domain name is another smart way to represent your medical practice as a professional service provider. For example, with your Gmail email, instead of using floresdental@gmail.com, you can opt for hello@flores.dental. This helps your business create stronger alignment between your email and website, further capitalizing on your descriptive domain name and promoting your business with every email you send. 

Additionally, many professional email accounts, like Titan Email, come equipped with email marketing tools you can use to showcase your expertise, care, and commitment to customer service. Titan offers a variety of email plans to automate processes, including:  

• Remind patients of upcoming appointments 
• Follow up with patients after appointments
• Create email templates to share wellness tips and make announcements 
• Add two-factor authentication to keep your patient information and account secure 

5. Claim your business pages

Registering your business on Google Maps and Google My Business helps ensure that your practice will show up when people search for doctors in their area. Claiming your business pages also gives you more control over what potential patients see when they search for your practice.  You can update your phone number, address, email, and website to provide contact information in one convenient location.

In addition to managing your general business pages, consider signing up for medical review sites and online healthcare directories, such as HealthGrades or Zocdoc. Several platforms exist exclusively to allow patients to share their experiences and rate different characteristics, such as wait time and professionalism. You can use these sites to:

• Reply to concerns
• Thank patients for positive reviews
• Share details about your specialty or availability

Create your medical digital identity with Name.com

Establishing and strengthening your digital identity allows you to effectively promote your medical practice online, attract more business, and build a community of satisfied patients. 

Get started using Name.com’ Domain Name Search, which provides highly relevant, customized domain name suggestions for your site. Once you secure the right domain name, you can use the central Name.com platform to build your business email, website, and any other digital tools you may need to optimize your medical practice online. 

Sources:

Code of Medical Ethics. Professionalism in the Use of Social Media. https://code-medical-ethics.ama-assn.org/ethics-opinions/professionalism-use-social-media#:~:text=If%20they%20interact%20with%20patients,would%20in%20any%20other%20context.
Mobius MD. Building an online presence for your medical practice.https://mobius.md/2018/12/12/building-an-online-presence-for-your-medical-practice/