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5 Benefits of Including Patient Education Materials on Your Website

By   |  January 9, 2017

In this digital age, a functional website is essential for any medical practice. When setting up your website, you include many individual components, from a list of your services to your contact information.

One of the optional components to include is patient education materials. Your patient education may consist of short summaries of the conditions you treat, professional articles written by industry experts, or outgoing links to patient resources. However you format your patient education section, including these materials on your website provides the following five benefits.

1. Enhanced Authority

When a prospective patient visits your site, he or she may be consciously or unconsciously looking for signs that you are the right health care provider for their situation. In addition to determining that you offer the services they need, these patients are checking for authority and trustworthiness.

Even if you have the exact same qualifications as your competitors, people who find your practice online are more likely to schedule an appointment with you if they perceive you to be more of an authority in your practice area.

You can cultivate authority by including high-quality and relevant patient education on your website. To maximize the impact of these materials, also make sure that patients can easily search for, read, and understand all patient education information.

2. Higher Conversion Rates

In online marketing, the term "conversion rate" refers to how well your website converts visitors into patients. The more people who schedule appointments based on your placement in search engine results and your online content, the higher your conversion rates.

While your service pages provide a summary of how you can help patients, your patient education materials take that information a step further. These materials reassure patients that you are knowledgeable about the condition they're experiencing and that you can offer appropriate treatment.

In many cases, patient education materials can be the difference between an individual returning to search results to see if they find a provider who better fits his or her needs and an individual who immediately books an appointment.

3. Improved Search Engine Rankings

Your presence in search engine results is just as important as the quality of your website, if not more so. Online marketing experts work to improve these results through a variety of methods collectively called search engine optimization or SEO.

One of the most fundamental methods used to improve SEO and therefore make your website appear higher in search engine results is to include keywords that prospective patients may search for. Keywords may include a specific condition that you treat, a procedure that you offer, or a geographic location.

You should already have many of these keywords included naturally on your service pages, but patient education materials allow you to increase keyword usage without overusing certain phrases. Because search engines crawl your entire website, articles that you include in your patient education section can improve your overall search engine rankings just like a new, well-written service page would.

4. More Pre-Appointment Patient Preparation

As a healthcare provider, you likely see many patients for similar reasons. And these patients likely ask many of the same questions during their appointments. High-quality patient education can reduce the time that you and your staff have to spend on routine questions by making the answers accessible beforehand.

You can use patient education to list common symptoms, help patients remember how to prepare for specific procedures, and provide care guidelines to ensure patients schedule appointments when necessary. This benefit can save you time and allow you to see more patients who need your help over the course of a typical work day.

5. Streamline Patient-Provider Communication

Not only can the right patient education materials make your patients better prepared for their appointments as discussed above, but the information can also reduce the need for extra visits after a procedure. For example, if you provide surgical procedures, your patient education may include aftercare information so your patients know what's normal and what they should see you about.

These general patient education materials can streamline how you communicate with your patients so you don't have to respond to as many calls or emails about routine matters. This communication optimization can allow you to spend less time corresponding with patients on matters where your expertise is not necessarily needed and spend more time treating the patients who visit your office that day.

This optimization also benefits your staff members, such as your receptionist, who would otherwise spend a lot of time answering questions and bringing inquiries to your attention.

Still in the process of designing your practice website? Let Dr. Leonardo help. In addition to smart URL options and usable website formats, we also offer an expansive library of patient information that you can include on your website to receive the benefits listed above.

Interested in Learning More About Patient Education Materials? Contact Dr. Leonardo Today.

For more information, contact Dr. Leonardo today. We can also be reached directly at 516-586-1300. We look forward to hearing from you soon.