One of the greatest inconveniences for new patients is the unavoidable cache of forms that must be filled out on a first visit to your office.  As is the tradition, new patients are treated to the equivalent of a small mid-term exam as they sit in your waiting room.  Invariably, a vital piece of information required by one of the forms was left at home, causing pangs of guilt and general frustration (“If only I had known! Why didn’t somebody tell me?”).

All of this inconvenience could have been avoided simply utilizing your web site, and a casual reminder from your receptionist.  Instead of waiting to have your patients fill out the needed forms upon arrival to your office, why not ask them to access the forms online and fill them out prior to arrival?

Indeed, your web site can be used as a convenient repository for any and all patient forms. At the option of the patient, forms can either be downloaded directly off your web site, or emailed prior to the appointment.  Patients will no doubt appreciate the convenience of printing and leisurely filling out the forms at home, where they have access to necessary information.

Over time, you can work to improve your form protocols — you can even create forms that can be filled out and submitted online, without having to print them – a great way to save energy and resources!

Here are some simple steps to make it happen:

• Gather clean copies of all patient forms you customarily distribute to patients.
• Scan copies and convert to .pdf files.
• Create a folder on your web server to house the form files.
• Create a menu item and exclusive section for the forms.
• Train your receptionist to remind patients about the online forms – that they can save time in the waiting room on their next visit by filling them out ahead of time.  Offer to access them off your web site or have them emailed directly.
• Go all out!  Send postcards reminding patients about the new online forms.

Follow these simple steps and watch patient satisfaction (and commensurate referrals) skyrocket!

More and more, podcasting is helping businesses like yours establish a human connection – with clients, patients, suppliers and the public at large. Find out how podcasting can help your practice. Click to Play!

As any seasoned website manager will tell you, building your website is only half the battle.  The other half is making sure people know it exists.  That is where SEO and SEM come into play.

Many people use the terms SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) without really knowing the difference, and there is a difference.  If you are a total layman on these subjects, here is a rudimentary explanation for both. We hope it helps.

SEO – Getting You Higher (in rank, that is)

When you visit Google, Yahoo!, MSN or other search engine portal.  You type in your keywords, press “Search” and hope you will find the websites that satisfy your needs.  Typically, a list of sites will appear on your screen – but take note:  the order in which those search results appeared was no accident.

Turns out search engines like Google decide which results to show you based on certain criteria – the exact model is proprietary – sort of like the formula for Coke.  However, there are general factor that we do know are important.  These parameters include:

• Keywords found in the content of your website
• Metatags listed in the code of your web pages
• Links FROM your website TO other relevant websites
• Links TO your website FROM other relevant websites

Search Engine Optimization is the art of improving your search engine ranking for relevant keywords.  For example, when someone searches on “dental services, New York”, and you happen to have a website with a lot of content covering dental services in New York, you obviously want your web site to come up as close to the top of the results as possible in the regular “organic” results on search engines such as Google and Yahoo!.  If they do not come up on top, the likelihood of being discovered by the user is exponentially diminished.

SEO is very valuable, but requires continuous upkeep – whether it is you that does the work in your spare time, a coworker you can assign to the job, or an outside vendor who can do the work for you, do not skip the step of optimizing your site, or you could be leaving money on the table.  After all, it is far easier and cheaper to have people find your site for free, than for you to have to pay for advertising to bring people to your site.

Search Engine Marketing – The Quicker Picker Upper

Unfortunately, SEO requires a lot of time, not only to do the work, but also a lot of time to wait for your work to take effect – indeed, the results are not always certain, and could take months.

Search Engine Marketing is another, quicker way to get your site noticed.  SEM is also known as “paid search” – basically, you pay to have your small ad placed in the search results which come up for certain relevant keywords.

On any results page in Google or other search engine,  you may have noticed that there are three main section – first, there are the organic search results;  second, the paid advertisements that sometime appear above the organic results;  third, to the side of, there are also paid advertisements. The paid advertisments are usually separated in a tinted or lined box.  It is often difficult to tell them from the organic results.

Just how did those paid ads get there?  Search Engines like Google offer SEM accounts to advertisers.  Using a convenient SEM portal, account holders are able to develop “ad campaigns” that they can track and revise at will.  Advertisers effectively bid on keywords they believe will be most effective in attracting their customers.  They also are able to write and submit mini-ads for which they can then purchase and attach to those keywords.  Based on the ads they write and the keywords they purchase, ads appear in the appropriate results pages.  If the web visitor notices and clicks on that ad, the advertiser is charged whatever amount he bid for that word, say, twenty-five cents per click.

Like SEO, SEM requires some training to do it right.  Invest a little time in learning how, or hire a professional.

So in summary,  Search Engine Optimization is the practice of trying to maximize the rank of a particular website, that is, to help ensure that the website appears at the top of the list for particular keyword searches.

Search Engine Marketing is the practice of developing keyword-based ad campaigns for one or more of the popular search engines.  We’ll discuss all of this further in future articles of “Pro Web Tips.”

If your practice is going green, why not let your clients and prospects know about it!

People appreciate businesses that make an effort to minimize their impact on the environment.  All things being equal, they may choose your business over those which do not hold themselves to environmentally friendlier standards.

Web Building Strategies You Can Use

Your web site is the perfect vehicle to show off your green side:

• Create a sidebar item on your front page to list your green business practices
• Develop web pages that discuss the green efforts of which you are most proud
• Create a web page with links to informational sites promoting green office best practices
• If your office conforms to certain green standards as set forth by a particular group, wear their logo or seal proudly
• Make sure your web host is green (our web servers are)

Don’t waste the positive P.R. spin created by your efforts to go green.  Develop strategies to get the word out and it will come back to you in spades – with more clients, greater revenue and a better reputation.