PracticalDermatology

Often overlooked in any practice is the website, which reflects that practice to the public. We would certainly repaint walls that show time-worn scuff marks or reupholster chairs in the reception area, so we should not leave our websites in a state of “suspended animation” for years.

I started the process of redoing our practice website a year ago, thinking it would be quick and easy. We had great help from an outside agency that came in with excellent ideas, fine examples of previous websites created, and a great organizational metric for the redo. Despite all this, the process was challenging and took more time than I had expected (mainly due to the complexity of the site and my desire to personally review and edit the entirety of the verbiage on the site).

While this may not be necessary for all websites, ours had amassed content we created between 1996 and the present day. Certain sections were up-to-date and needed little or no editing, but others were truly cringe-worthy, such as those that described processes that we no longer performed (e.g., Endermologie, electrolysis, and outdated lasers). Additionally, many medications referenced have been replaced with newer generation options, especially biologics for psoriasis.

Pictures that we had posted more than 25 years ago were outdated. While the new site spotlights before-and-after images, the old site had very few. Pictures were collected (with patient consent) over many years and previously had only resided on our TouchMD computers on the office walls.

Our staff (kudos go to Felisha and Ashley!) worked tirelessly and spent countless hours on calls with the NKP Medical team (NKPmedical.com; I have no financial interest in any companies mentioned).

I aim to keep our site fresh and put forth effort to update it, section by section. This should be part of all websites that are presented to the public as your “persona.”

Here are tips for anyone who is contemplating this:

1. Put the entire website in a Word document so you can see every page and subsection and edit the “website” yourself.

2 .Don’t expect others to understand the complexities of dermatology and scientific nuance. This should come from you, as it is the best representation of what you do.

3. If you are part of a group, consider offering your services to look over the project. I attended Zoom meetings once every other week for 60 to 90 minutes at most. I wrote or rewrote copy for every page; new procedures and methods needed new copy. Though not easy, this gives patients an understandstanding of how your practice operates.

4. Enlist a staff member or two to assist with communication with the website developer and to send photographs, copy, and other materials. This is absolutely critical but not necessarily work that you need to do.

5. Interview several website developers and make sure you feel comfortable with them. We were completely pleased with NKP Medical and appreciated their dedication and follow-through, but there are many other companies. Others in the space that may be worth considering include Advise Media and Crystal Clear.

6. Look over the pictures that are “filler” for the site and make sure the people in them resonate with you and potential patients. Avoid common and overused stock images.

7. Be honest with potential customers. If your wait time for appointments is long, let them know in advance. Where it makes sense to discuss pricing on the website, share expected procedure costs. Invest time to developing a comprehensive list of procedures, staff, payment options, forms, and policies that can be filled out in advance or accessed after the appointment. This will enhance your practice and lead to positive patient responses.

8. Invest in search engine optimization (SEO) both before and after the site is redone so your new website will be adequately indexed by Google, Bing, and other search engines, thereby recruiting new patients without the cost of search engine marketing (SEM, or pay-per-click). SEO only works if your content is original. The company that redid our website offers SEO service for about $800/month.

9. Consider tying in with a ratings system wherein you can ask for a review after visits. Those of you stuck with poor reviews on Google, RateMD, or other rating services may consider integrating an online appointment scheduler with the automatic rating request post-appointment. During the pandemic, we started this so patients could book telemedicine appointments via our EMR system, NexTech. We integrated it via NextPatient (NextPatient.co) and have seen a stunning increase in ratings across several sites. While we occasionally have a poor review (many of which we learn from!), the overwhelming majority are positive.

The right time to start evaluating this process is now, and the benefits of doing it will be remarkable.