Learn How to Keep Your Physical Therapy Website A Success With This Checklist

1. Keep Your Physical Therapy Website
A Success With This Checklist
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that
every business should have a web presence. Years
ago, all it took to have a successful physical therapy
practice was a sign out front, a strong referral base
and an advertisement in the Yellow Pages. Now, it
is absolutely essential to have a powerful website
that will grab your visitors attention and persuade
them to act.
Here are some great tips to beef up the web
presence of your physical therapy website and
increase the profitability of your physical therapy
business.

2. Keep Your Content Fresh
There is nothing more detrimental to physical therapists than having outdated
information on their websites. Visitors surely don’t want to see old services or content
that are no longer relevant or being offered by your practice. Neglecting the content
on your site could also have visitors who would have become patients thinking that
you are no longer in business. You should take a hard look at your physical therapy
website every month to ensure that all of the information and services you offer are
up to date.
Get SEO ASAP
As physical therapists, we know exactly what we need to do clinically when treating
patients. However, most of us are completely lost when it comes to building a website
and creating content that will make your physical therapy office rank high among the
search engines for your local area. Let’s face it, the competition for patient refferals in
the physical therapy field is becoming fierce on a local level. You will need high quality
content that is search engine optimized for your website and that targets your specific
patient population that you treat in your clinic. The content must be absolutely
original or the search engines will not consider your website as a site that provides
value or seen as an authority site. You might need to hire a professional writer to
create your content. However the cost will be well worth the increase of traffic to your
physical therapy website and help to grow your business.

3. Clean Up Your Act
They say that a picture paints a thousand words but if the pictures on your physical
therapy website are grainy or old, it’s time to break out the camera. It’s best to update
your photos regularly. Potential clients or patients like to get a bit of a preview of the
facilities and the people working at your physical therapy office. This makes them
more comfortable when they come in for their first appointment. Be sure that the
pictures are high resolution and portray your business in the absolute best light. This
will improve the image of your web presence and make visitors want to make an
appointment at your physical therapy office.
Make the Most of Media
Although pictures are a great way to allow your visitors to preview your physical
therapy facility and your staff, they can be a bit boring. Most successful physical
therapists have begun to embrace other forms of media for their websites. You can
hook your visitors as soon as they get to your site with a killer video about your
services and a virtual tour of the office. Podcasts and slideshows are also helpful. The
key to making media work for you is to make the visitor feel like they have a personal
connection with your office and staff. This will make them want to pick up the phone
and call to schedule an appointment.

4. Improve Your Social Standing
More and more business owners are recognizing the importance of using social media
to market their services and products. The use of Facebook, LinkedIn, Google + and
twitter are essential for growing your physical therapy practice and keeping your
business in the front of their minds. I won’t suggest doing this all by yourself as you
may already know, social media can be a huge time suck! However hiring the right
people or even training some of your office staff in delivering effective communication
through your social media outlets can prove to be beneficial to your physical therapy
practice in the long run. There are a lot of social media tools that can help integrate
conversations on your website and social media outlets and encourage visitors to get
involved in those conversations and call you for an appointment.
Keep It Short and Sweet
The content on your website can either make or break your web presence. There are a
lot of physical therapists who simply put as much information as possible on each
page. This is a bad idea. When a physical therapy website bombards the visitors with
too much information, the visitors tend to click the back button and find another
website. This could be costing you a potential referral or client. People want to be able
to click on the page with the information that they are looking for and act on it. The
content on your site should be informative but short and to the point unless you are
posting articles on your website. Keep your content short and your visitors will have
your phones ringing off the hook.

5. Puff Out Your Chest
Bragging is never a good thing but you really must let your visitors know why they
should choose your physical therapy office over your competitors. The “About Us”
page is the perfect place to show off your education and that of your staff. Your
credentials will improve your visitor’s ability to trust you and cause them to act.
Also having a testimonial page helps build trust among those who are not familiar
with your physical therapy practice. On this page you can have video or written
testimonials of some of your past clients or patients and have them tell their story of
how great it was to come into your physical therapy practice and be treated by your
staff.
Fast Is Better Than Furious
People who are searching for physical therapists online have very short attention
spans. If your physical therapy website takes time to load, they will be aggravated and
click the back button in search of another office in your area. You need to make sure
that your site loads quickly and is error free. Get rid of any flash or animated intros.
They are no longer effective and can hinder your users experience visiting your site.
The size of the images and other media files can cost your visitors time if they take a
long time to load. It is of the utmost importance that you ensure that your web
presence is optimized for quick loading.

6. Smooth Sailing
Every physical therapy website owner should make sure that their web presence is
easy to navigate. Confusing your visitors will only cause them to go to your
competitor’s website. Of course, you know how to locate all of the information on
your own site but you should take a look at your web presence through the eyes of
your visitors. Be sure that your navigation menu is easy to find and that it works
without any glitches. It might be wise to add a sitemap and a search tool to make it
easier for your visitors. The simpler it is for people to find the information that they
need, the higher the chance of them calling your physical therapy office for services.
Out With the Old
At some point, nearly everybody has tried to access a website that had Flash from
their phone. It takes too long on the typical computer, let alone trying to get it to load
on a Smartphone, iPhone or iPad. Flash is a thing of the past so kick it to the curb and
make room for HTML5 and other forms of new technology that provide quicker access
to your physical therapy website.

7. Going Mobile
In the United States, nearly ninety percent of adults and over half of all teenagers have
cell phones with internet capability. You simply must ensure that your physical therapy
website can be accessed easily by cell phone and smart phone users. Depending upon
your web hosting service, you might need to create mobile apps for access to your
website content. I will go in detail in a later blog post on developing mobile strategies
for your physical therapy website so make sure you connect with me on
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or via email with the links at the bottom right of this
website.
Reel Them In
The most widely forgotten yet incredibly important thing that physical therapists
forget on their websites is the call to action. The information that you provide just isn’t
enough to make people run to the phone to make an appointment. They are lazy and
they want you to tell them what to do next. You simply must tell them what they need
to do and the funny thing is that if the site is credible, most visitors will actually make
the call. Just tell them what they need to do and they will come through. Hope you
found this helpful. Please pay it forward and share on your favorite social network
with any of the links above or below this post.

8. For More Physical Therapy Marketing Strategies & Tips
Visit http://www.ptmarketingunleashed.com