Why
does your practice need a website?
A
professional website is
the most effective and least expensive use of your advertising
dollar. In the last two years the number of chiropractic websites has
seen tremendous growth, and this trend will only increase. For practices that want to see continued growth, a professional website is quickly becoming a
necessity for several important reasons: 
More
than three-quarters of Americans use the Internet. The University of Southern California's Internet
Project, which has surveyed Internet
usage for the last five years, reports that 78.6% of all Americans used the
Internet in 2005, spending an average of 13.3 hours a week online.
Older
Americans are the fastest growing group of Internet users. The
same USC study reports that among Americans aged 56-65, Internet usage
increased from 55% in 2000 to 74.9% in 2005. As they age, this group tends
to be very proactive in seeking healthcare, and they have the potential to be
instrumental in practice growth because they have the means as well as the
motivation.
Americans
are using the Internet to help them make healthcare choices. The
USC study reports researching information on healthcare is the 8th most popular Internet activity.
Patients have learned that going to the Internet first can help them make more informed decisions.
Many chiropractic offices find that their websites are often reviewed before patients
ever come in.
The Internet is
rapidly replacing the Yellow Pages. Patients
prefer using a website to the Yellow Pages because they can get more information
faster. A website allows a new patient to learn more about you and your
practice, see pictures of you and your clinic, become informed about procedures, get a map showing the best driving
directions, and e-mail you if they have questions. We have even
designed our websites so that patients can request appointments right over the
Internet.
A
well designed website conveys a sense of professionalism that
patients expect. Increasingly,
the public assumes all progressive practices have a website, and if
you don't, the perception is that you must be a little dated and not
giving state-of-the-art care.
If
you don't have a website, you're invisible to a large portion of people
and missing out on potential new
patients!
*USC Center
for the Digital Future, http://www.digitalcenter.org
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