Home Forums What did you do for Practice Website ???

I was wondering, what others are doing for their Practice Websites, are you working on it yourself with the help of a Software/Website or have you had a professional do it ??

I am in the process of, so any help/feedback/pointers will be helpful.


Thanks & regards

I made mine myself. While a professional can do thing with it that I can't, our website does get the job done. Many patients complement us on it despite its deficiencies. You are welcome to visit visit it. And since I really have total control, I can add things whenever I wish at no additional cost. But I could use a knowledgable person to help me with a few things.

Does anyone have or know where I can find a written policy for use of EHR?

I got my domain throught godaddy.com and then just did wordpress. I built it myself. I'm currently going through a huge rebuild with a wordpress theme I got on www.themeforest.com. Check it out. You can get a killer theme for like 20-35 dollars and make it look uber sweet.

www.villageosteopath.com is my site. I'd wait about 2 weeks to check it out because it looks like crap now as the old content did not import well into the new theme. lol

About 80% of my business is generated through the website, so it has been the best and cheapest marketing tool I've done so far.

I'd be glad for your to check out my website and tell me what you think. heritagefamilymed(dot)com

oh yeah, our website is www(dot)doctorcoghill(dot)com

Not to hijack the thread, but on a related topic... can those of you with practice websites give an idea of how beneficial you find them. Do you believe that they bring in a significant number of new patients? Do you primarily use it for current patients? How exactly?

I have created a website with GoDaddy. IMHO only way to go. Inexpensive, easy to create, modify as needed, and definitely used by many patients even in the boondocks of Mansfield, Ohio. Thousands and thousands of dollars wasted on Yellow Pages which have become virtually unusable with various divisions such as MDs, DOs, left handed MDs, red-haired Ob-Gyns etc. Page after page of various "ads" touting one's credentials, insurances accepted, conditions seen etc. Bullroar.

Not for me anymore, nope. As of this year I listed a two line small but bold yellow page ad as "my website.com", my office address, and phone number. That's it. Want to know about all my credentials and abilities? Hit the website and you will learn much more than I would care to or afford to put in a 1/4 page etc. Yellow page ad. This has cut my Yellow Page bill by 2/3 i.e. saving thousands which I can pocket or use to provide free care. My choice. Ask yourself, who can find anything quickly in the Yellow Pages anymore? You want speed? Google.

My website and email are hosted through hostmonster.com.
I created the website using Adobe DreamWeaver.
The office URL is www(dot)twincityfamilymedicine(dot)com

The website is incredibly useful. I have an online appointment system posted on it, so patients frequently make their own appointments instead of tying up the phone line. I have online bill paying on it for patients to pay balances(they don't use this quite as much. I wonder why?).

We have information about the practice and the doctor, and a link to our online office on it. So when anyone asks, we just direct them to the website. Quite a few patients in NY actually use Google to look for a doctor and we show up since I initially devoted some time on SEO.

Now there are alot of people who are supposedly educated professionals and computer literate that can't seem to read or understand things that I've tried to set up as "idiot proof" but it is still very useful.

Let me share my experience with Web Sites.

I graduated with a bachelors in Electronic Media Art and Technology in 2011. I am doing IT, EMR, and Marketing for a Solo Practice (using AC obviously), and have been building websites freelance since High School. That being said, I dont know everything about Website Development (if I did, i wouldn't be posting here!)

Some tips:

1. If your average patient demographic uses the web, a good website will enhance your standing in the local area, offer patients 'cool' and informative features, and directly bring your practice $$$.

2. If you are in a competitive market for your specialty, and deal mainly with families and 'under 65y/o' patients, you want to look at your competition's websites. ESPECIALLY the big dog in the area. Check out the features, general layout, and ease of navigation. See what you like in their site, and what you don't like.

3. Understand that these days, 50% of a company/practice's Online Presence is not visible on their .com website. Some Practices will use Cost-Per-Click advertising, Blog posts that link back to the practice website, Social Media (facebook and twitter can drive a lot of visits to your content), and Video/Interactive content as a marketing strategy.

4. If you dont need all the features, DONT PAY FOR THEM. Services like officite and even your local cable company/ISP offer 'Web Site Packages' that you pay for on a monthly basis. For some, these work. For others, they dont.

5. "Ok Brock, i dont want to spend a ton of $ with a huge company with a ton of overhead, and I just want a basic website that has Driving Directions, new Patient forms, a contact field that goes to the office email, and some general info/pictures"

Great. Hire Someone or Do it yourself. Have a local college around? Get in touch with a professor to see if there are any good Web Design students looking for freelance work. Or read a guide on how to use 'Wordpress' or a similar CMS and go at it yourself.

Most Docs i see posting on here seem like 'small private practice' docs. Here are two examples of good sites for small private practices.

www.anklefootsurgicalpc.com (this is the office i work at)

http://www.smileorlando.com/

Some good advice here. Lots of web hosting services have premade templates you can use for if your goal is to put information like office location, hours, etc. You can buy professionally made templates for cheap as well, no need to go all out and hire a web designer unless you plan to implement a patient portal or payment systems. (I'd hold off on these, AC is probably coming up with a web interface for these). I don't really have a site for the practice since most of the patients are 65+

Another thing you can do is to google yourself and see what the top results are. Your site is unlikely to get ahead of these. Make sure your information is correct at these other websites.

I have been googling websites to work up an improvement of my Website, I seem to encounter Software which seem to be more complicated Than I thought. I am looking for a simple and a real user friendly one.
One guy cam by and gave me an estimate of $4500, heck I will keep searching till I find one simple one. Walk before you run philosophy.
Thanks for your input, if you come across a simple one, please include in your post. I will try the ones given by you all above.

Thanks every one

Hi RAJ,

I don?t know how professional you want your website to look, but may I suggest a user-friendly free website editor. It?s called Weebly. You can check it out here. I have no connection ties with weebly. I use weebly to create decent looking, fast and simple websites. They have modest professional theme templates. You could have your website up in minutes. Give a try and see what you think. I hope this is some help to your need.

Got to check out GoDaddy "Website Tonite". A domain name runs $9.99 per year for .com of your choice. Then your 5 page website is $5.99 per month, less with longer commitment. A do-it-yourself dream, you can easily create with GoDaddy prebuilts, their template library, and easy instructions for uploading pictures, links etc. The 5 page website is all most small practices need, IMHO. You can add or change anytime you like and the few times I've required assistance their support is one of the best.

As mentioned previously, I'm listed in the yellow pages now as strubleallergy.com Check it out. $4,500 bucks? No way.

If you are a DO and a member of the AOA they offer free website publishing and hosting - it is a basic template but makes a basic free website. Check Osteopathic.org

Bob's site is fantastic. Easy to navigate. Plain and simple for the patients.

I just used the one that comes free with the domain name. 1 Page only to make this site in 2 minutes. Another thing you can do is use a free hosting site like x10 hosting and your own domain name. Or just use their subdomain. For us SBS Standard users, we already purchased a domain name (most with SSL certificates as well). So you can mix and match. Free hosting with X10 and use your own domain name.

Thank you guys, I have got some good leads here, I will start checking them out.

Thanks again & regards