Dermatology is an area of the medical world that many people never make use of. They do so at their own risk, of course, as skin cancer prevalence continues to grow. Unlike dentists, who’ve had to advertise to stay competitive in a rapidly changing dental world, dermatologists haven’t necessarily felt the same pressure.
But you’d probably like to grow your practice from the core of regular patients who’ve had skin issues and trusted you to find them for the past 20 years. What about all the young people coming up on the time they begin to worry about their skin? What about the legion of middle age adults who’ve never been to a dermatologist? What about their kids and their irksome acne?
At MyAdvice, we’ve been helping medical practices across the spectrum of specialties to create and nurture their online presence for over two decades. We were optimizing practice websites before the term “search engine optimization” was even a thing.
Since spring is a time to look forward, especially coming out of this yearlong COVID nightmare, here are a few ways we can help move your dermatology practice ahead of your competition.
Designing your practice website
Your website is your key to success. It’s the place where new patients get their first experience with your dermatology practice. What will their first impressions be? Your site needs to be a showcase for the skills, treatments provided, and attentive staff that sets you apart from other dermatologists. It’s imperative that your website works seamlessly on a laptop or an iPhone, clearly conveys your practice’s brand in the digital world, and makes it incredibly easy for a patient to contact your office with a question about a spot on his or her skin or to schedule an appointment. It goes without saying, but your website is worthless if you don’t have fast, reliable web hosting, as well.
Engaging content and layout
Our dermatology websites are built to be engaging, enjoyable extensions of your practice. Many people don’t necessarily connect the words enjoyable with a dermatologist (especially when you get out the liquid nitrogen sprayer!), so our sites work hard to give a sense of the warmth of your practice surroundings and your people.
When a visitor wants to know what’s involved in Mohs surgery to remove a skin cancer lesion, for instance, we provide well-written, easy-to-read copy that clearly, and professionally, gets that job done. Animations. Videos. Robust content delivered in a visually engaging environment gets the job done, both for site visitors and for search engines ranking your practice.
About that search…
Dermatology search engine optimization (SEO)
It may seem obvious, but Google and the other search engines have a single goal: to deliver the most relevant search results as quickly as possible. To do so, Google weighs various factors to determine if your website is relevant to the query, is trustworthy, and if it deserves to rank highly in organic search returns. The key is optimizing your dermatology practice website so you can rank highly for the procedures and treatments you specialize in.
The fact is the Google algorithm that drives its search engine is constantly evolving. As a Google Partner, we know the ins and outs of the latest updates before they’re even made public. That allows us to constantly stay abreast of the best practices that keep our practices as high as possible in organic search returns.
Local dermatology directory listings
Where there once was the Yellow Pages, today there are hundreds of online directories out there. It may seem trivial, but the information listed for your dermatology practice needs to be consistent across all of those directories.
Surely your employees have better things to do than spend their days making sure your information is consistent across these directories. But if you don’t, the inconsistencies guaranteed to be out there will confuse search engine algorithms. They assume one listing with “Suite #” and another with “Ste” and another with “Office #” are different businesses. Having consistent NAP — name, address, and phone — information ensures search engines and patients have correct information. This consistency across the web instills trust, helps bring patients to your dermatology practice, and is crucial in your SEO marketing.
Our Local Power tool is the answer for ensuring all of your dermatology practice listings are the same across all of the listings out there. It’s constantly looking at your listings keeping everything accurate. Plus, it allows enhanced content on the listings that allow it through submitted descriptions, services, photos, videos, etc.
That’s just a fraction of what we can do to build your dermatology practice at MyAdvice. As patients get vaccinated and become more and more likely to return to their normal activities, such as seeing their medical providers, this is the right time to ensure you’re well-positioned for the coming surge.
Fill out the contact form or call us at (435) 575-7470 and let’s talk about ways to build your dermatology practice so it has more skin in the game, pardon the pun!
