There’s no denying the value of an attractive, functional website in today’s marketplace. A professional website has a multitude of benefits – accessibility for your customer base, credibility as a business, and trackability being the main reasons.
With 88% of the Australian population online and the ubiquity of free social media services, you can’t afford to not be online these days.
But a website can be an expensive outlay, and it’s important to make sure you’re getting a good return on your investment. Here are 4 ways to ensure your website is working for your business:
Accessibility
In the digital age of instant gratification where 53% of people won’t even wait 3 seconds for a web page to load, potential customers are not going to wait for your opening hours to make a purchase, book an appointment or even contact the business.
The ability for your potential customers to contact you, buy products or to book an appointment on their schedule is of paramount importance. A good practice management system should have an online booking portal that you can add to your website, so clients can make an appointment whenever they wish, regardless of business hours.
Consider also having an online store on your website, so if you offer products for sale at your practice, your clients can purchase these at any time that is convenient for them.
Credibility
By having a central location to introduce your staff, their credentials and expertise, the services you offer, case studies and testimonials from other clients, showcasing your expertise in the form of informative content marketing and demonstrating that you’re an expert in your field all contribute to credibility when potential clients are shopping around for their next allied health provider.
Trackability
Traditional marketing methods are notoriously hard to track when it comes to your return on investment. One of the perks of the digital age is the fact that everything is easily trackable.
Do you want to know how many people visit your website? You can track that.
Do you want to know on which pages of your website they spend the most amount of time? You can track that too.
Do you want to know which sources sent your potential new clients to your website? This is also trackable.
Being able to track your customers’ online activity means you can pour your marketing budget into the marketing methods that are proven to give you the best return on investment.
A good practice management software will have the ability to track the number of clients you receive at your online booking page through Google Analytics so you can analyse the traffic you’re getting on your website to your online booking portal.
SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and this means that when your potential clients perform a web search for your services or industry, that you appear high, or close to the top of the list of results returned by the search engine.
Make sure you use specific keywords relating to your practice, your industry, and what you do so the search engines can identify your website as a good match. Also, the more written content you have on your website, i.e. a blog, will also allow your website to rank highly.
In addition to increasing your SEO, a well-written blog will help establish your credibility in your field. You don’t have to be a professional writer to write a blog on your website – just show your experience and expertise in the posts, and your audience will trust that you are an authority in your field.
You want to ensure that your allied health practice is easy for your potential clients to find, and maintaining good SEO practices on your website will reap the rewards.
There are many more reasons that having an engaging, attractive and functional website is helpful for your business. You can use the tips above to help achieve your practice goals.
Your practice management software should be a comprehensive system to equip you with the tools to create an engaging and trustworthy online presence and allow you to create the most successful allied health practice possible.
