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 * What we do
   
   Our services
   
   
   A full-service marketing agency for private practice.
   
   We help you attract more patients. 
   
   Here is what we do for your practice.
   
   Digital strategy
   Content marketing
   Webdesign & development
   Analytics & SEO
   Google & Facebook ads
   Social media
   In a nutshell
   
   
   Visit page
 * Who we help
   
   Our specialties
   
   Bariatric surgeons
   Gynaecologists
   Fertility specialists
   Obstetricians
   Orthopaedic surgeons
   Gastroenterologists
   Urologists
   Plastic surgeons
   Paediatricians
   GPs & Physicians
   Medical associations
   Hospitals
   Dentists
   Chiropractors
   Psychologists
   Quick overview
   
   
   Visit page
   Portfolio
   
   
 * Work
 * About
 * Grow!
 * Contact
   
   ”I want more patients”
   
   
   BOOK A FREE 1:1
   
   Book a free consultation with our CEO. Choose a time that is convenient for
   you.
   
   SCHEDULE
   “I have an enquiry”
   
   
   CONTACT
   
   Send an enquiry or give us a call
   
   CONTACT


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HOW TO AVOID COMMON MISTAKES ON SURGICAL WEB PAGES?


HOW TO AVOID COMMON MISTAKES ON MEDICAL WEB PAGES?

Surgical web pages are critical for the patient and for you as a doctor in
private practice. They are a communication channel before a patient chooses you
and throughout the patient journey. In this article, we cover the biggest
strategic mistakes and reasons why you deserve the best for your medical
website.


SURGICAL WEB PAGES


HOW TO AVOID COMMON MISTAKES ON SURGICAL WEB PAGES?


KRIS BORGRAEVE

August 8, 2022


WHY YOU MAY HAVE A STATIC WEBSITE


STATIC WEBSITES

One of the biggest mistakes is to treat medical web pages as digital brochures.
Doctors who launched their practice 10 to 15 years ago have seen the digital
space evolve from an experimental thing for the young generations to a backbone
of society. It comes with disappointments, grey areas, marketing fatigue, and
often a cynical attitude toward digital marketing and agencies. 

That is one of the reasons why so many doctors have static websites. They have
it built and then forget about it. They expect it to live a life by itself and
when it doesn’t, they are disappointed in digital technology and go back to
old-school tactics. They visit GPs and attend networking events which is great.
But you can’t ignore the digital revolution forever.

Kris Borgraeve | Co-founder Digital Practice

"Having a static website is not a drama in itself. When you put your head in the
sand and expect your practice to thrive without doing anything about it, it can
cause long-term business challenges. The solution? Shifting your mindset and
thinking about it as a 24/7 channel."

So what are the symptoms of a static website?

 1. There is no flow in the content: With a website that looks like a brochure,
    there is no journey for the visitor. The website serves as a collection of
    information but there is no guidance to enter the website, follow a specific
    path and follow a call-to-action. Dynamic websites hook the visitor, guide
    them to specific content and focus on converting with powerful
    call-to-action functionality.
 2. There are no updates: Quite often the developer has disappeared, the
    contract has ended or there have been misunderstandings in what was
    included. As a result, many doctors have blogs that have dried up a long
    time ago, outdated photos of themselves or their team members or worse – no
    photos at all and just a standard avatar that was included in the website
    template. Not only does it give your visitors a feeling of entering an
    abandoned place, it only tells Google that you have given up in the digital
    space and that your competitor down the road might deserve a higher degree
    of Google visibility than you do.
 3. There is no motion: Does it surprise you that motion works in the digital
    space? I used to call it bells and whistles when we discussed medical
    websites half a decade ago. But our data shows that consumers/patients stay
    on medical web pages for longer if there is a form of motion or animation. A
    dynamic title that slides in. A section that appears only when you scroll
    down. An animated Gif image or a video. Motion can be simple or more
    advanced and it has become something our eyes and brains are used to as
    consumers.

I assume that as a leading doctor, you want the best. Whenever I attend
surgeries, I see the concentration, the attention to detail, and the years of
study and training reflected in an amazing level of focus and presence.

Wouldn’t it be great if that quality were visible from the first second your
next ideal patient lands on your website? Yes. You deserve better.


10 REASONS WHY YOU DESERVE BETTER SURGICAL WEB PAGES


BEST SURGICAL WEB PAGES

The best surgical web pages are tailored to do what you want them to do. That’s
right. There is no one size fits all. Your online presence attracts and converts
the patient leads you want, and if it is not built strategically, it may not be
doing that at all. 

Let’s go over the 10 different reasons to grow your practice with a more
targeted digital strategy.

 1.  I need patients:
     You are starting up in private practice or moving your practice to the next
     level. If you want to increase your patient numbers, the first step is to
     set up a data-driven lead generation system that optimises your organic
     visibility for your main income earners.
 2.  I need a presence:
     You may not need higher numbers but just an updated online presence that
     offers your current and future patients as well as referring GPs a
     realistic and optimal representation of your practice.
 3.  I need staff:
     You want to attract the best surgeons, practice managers, allied health
     professionals, admin staff or receptionists. Your online profile is also a
     filter for those who are checking you out as a potential employer.
 4.  I need to be more efficient:
     You want to optimise your referral flows, the way patients prepare for
     their surgery, the admin side of a procedure, rehabilitation protocols or
     referrals to other specialists.
 5.  I am the best:
     You feel your peers don’t see you in the most optimal way when they check
     you out online. You feel your profile does not do you justice. You feel you
     deserve a more unique profile that positions you as a personal brand.
 6.  I want to travel:
     You want to be invited to the major medical conferences in your niche as a
     leader or a speaker.
 7.  I want to retire:
     You want your brand to be consolidated so you can sell your clinic as a
     strong healthcare brand.
 8.  I want to delegate:
     You want other surgeons to come on board as partners so you can take an
     extra day off.
 9.  I want to negotiate:
     You want better theatre lists, a bigger office, a better view or a seat on
     a board at the College.
 10. I am an innovator:
     You want everyone to spot and remember your innovative role in your niche.

Let me say something really contradictory here.
The best medical web pages allow you to say: I want it all!

The best medical web pages are also the ones that focus on one thing and do it
well.

When we discuss your marketing budget, you will understand that it’s best to
pick one or two goals and totally focus on them.


MISTAKE #1: UNDERESTIMATING THE WORK


WEB DESIGN

Web design can mean many different things. It is often the first thing practice
owners or practice managers think about when they decide to upgrade their online
presence. The first step is not about designing your website! 

Kris Borgraeve | Co-founder Digital Practice

"It’s easy to think that you need a web designer to create your medical web
pages. It makes sense but it leads to many small dramas. The first step in
healthcare is to investigate the communication process with the patient and to
make your choices based on real market data, not on design considerations."

The words I find most often on medical websites are Lorem Ipsum.

Not because they are part of a medical condition or a surgery type.



It’s a placeholder used since the 1960s and it flags that a website was designed
based on a template. There is nothing wrong with that, except when you pay for
custom design and get a copy of a template. 

Web design in actual fact contains – or should contain – multiple steps and
layers:

 * Strategy: What are we communicating to who? What is the key message? The
   unique value? The audience’s demographics? The competitive edge? The human
   story?
 * Visual: What are the colours, fonts, shapes, and images to match this
   strategy?
 * User experience: What is the flow for the visitor, what do they land, how do
   they click, and what is the information they are after?
   Content: What are the user’s most common questions when they use Google?
 * Development: How are the medical web pages built and how are they displayed
   on smartphones, tablets and desktop screens?

Yes, building medical web pages to the highest standards is hard work. It’s not
a quick and dirty drag-and-drop process.


MISTAKE #2: UNDERESTIMATING THE EXPERTISE


CHEAP WEBSITES

Who can help you with your medical web pages? Typically, doctors google for one
of the following services, depending on their perspective on what needs to
happen: 

 * Cheap websites: If you buy peanuts, you get monkeys.
 * Websites for doctors: It helps if someone truly specialises in medical web
   pages but beware of superficial ads that have just been set up by
   factory-style agencies that actually also serve cafes, retail stores and car
   mechanics.
 * Business development: A solid angle and often the first step before anyone
   would build your new website.
 * Web development: Web design and web development or website development are
   often used as synonyms. There are nuances and differences but as a customer
   you shouldn’t have to worry about them.

Cheap websites are made based on the ability to do digital work from anywhere,
anytime. Many providers of cheap websites for doctors simply put on a spiel to
sell as much as they can, to then outsource to white-labelled marketing services
in low-income countries. That in itself might just seem smart and a brilliant
business move but what do you get? Junior team members on low salaries, with
little or no understanding of your local market situation as a surgeon or
specialist.

This process is cutting multiple corners:

 * The provider has no understanding of the private practice as a business
 * The creative agent has no understanding of complex medical procedures
 * The outsourced and white-labelled service works like a factory without
   autonomous thinking, just following orders
 * The entire team has no understanding of AHPRA Advertising Guidelines For
   Healthcare Professionals
 * There is no creativity involved to position your practice both visually and
   verbally as unique, and to make your profile or your team’s profile stand out
   from the competition.


MISTAKE #3: UNDERESTIMATING MAINTENANCE


WEBSITE MAINTENANCE

Quite often, doctors will tell me they have ongoing marketing contracts for
thousands of dollars running. When asked what exactly is being delivered on a
monthly basis, there is a painful silence. Some SEO. Some maintenance. 

We noticed that website maintenance is often not clearly explained by marketing
agencies, when it comes to generating patient leads.

The essence of good website maintenance for a medical practice can be summarised
as follows:

 * Technical: Updating the back-end software of the website and the server the
   website is hosted on. Needs to happen on a monthly basis to avoid security
   and hacking risks.
 * Content: Google wants to see fresh content on your website to rank you higher
   and a minimum rhythm of one decent blog or news update per month is
   recommended to build organic Google visibility. Adding a blog also boosts the
   visibility of other relevant and well-written pages on your website and they
   work together like compounded interest: the longer they are attracting
   visitors, the more they amplify each other as lead magnets.
 * Monitoring: It’s not just your website that needs maintenance. The associated
   software tools that keep track of your backups, your web forms, your
   analytics and your Google Business profile, your domain renewals, your SSL
   security certificate. All these aspects need monitoring and attention and not
   just by an automated bot. Ideally, all this is managed by a team that takes
   ownership of your online presence as if it were their own.

Let's meet


LET US HELP YOU AVOID MISTAKES


MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Marketing management is not an empty term and it means that someone partners
with you to make the most of your online presence. In a digital society, it is
possible to make your online presence work for you, and unfortunately, it is
also possible to completely miss out on the opportunities presented by the new
digital technology. If your website is poorly built, not managed and updated
with care and attention to detail, you might be missing out on growth, business
development and new partnerships. So why not book a Strategy Session and go over
the state of your digital assets? 

 * Tags: Web design

Share this post

Table of Contents
 1. Why you may have a static website
 2. 10 reasons why you deserve better surgical web pages
 3. Mistake #1: Underestimating the work
 4. Mistake #2: Underestimating the expertise
 5. Mistake #3: Underestimating maintenance
 6. Let us help you avoid mistakes

Table of Contents


 1. Why you may have a static website
 2. 10 reasons why you deserve better surgical web pages
 3. Mistake #1: Underestimating the work
 4. Mistake #2: Underestimating the expertise
 5. Mistake #3: Underestimating maintenance
 6. Let us help you avoid mistakes

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What we do
 > Strategy
 > Content marketing
 > Web design & dev
 > Social media
 > Analytics
 > Advertising

Who we help
> Bariatric surgeons
> Gynaecologists
> Fertility specialists
> Obstetricians
> Orthopaedic surgeons
> Gastroenterologists
> Urologists
> Plastic surgeons
> Paediatricians
> GPs & physicians
> Medical associations
> Hospitals
> Dentists
> Chiropractors
> Psychologists

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