The market is flooded with flash and table based templates that may appear polished and professional on the surface but there are much better options available. The medical industry has had many IT improvements over the last decade making records available to patients and doctors alike. This article explores the fundamentals of developing and marketing a web site in the medical industry.

Key Web Development Issues
Do not be concerned with how much content but rather the quality and structure of the content. There are many medical sites on the web that provide a link to every page on their site from their homepage and have well over 20 pages. Keeping the site organized for visitors can also have benefits with search engine crawlers. Use a mix of dynamic and static programming languages to create an optimized site. For instance, a good example of a homepage would include a labeled flash header or other image, a neat html navigation that can be edited from a single location, some html content including headers, paragraph content and office locations, dynamic contact request, and RSS feed to recent articles if applicable. There is no recommended amount of pages but the navigation should be as simple as a textbook. Be sure to label each page title and create a sitemap file for search engine crawlers. Avoid homepages that take longer than 3 seconds to load.

Content should be written for patients or other parties that may visit the site such as other doctors and drug representatives. Focus on the credibility of the practice and what differentiates the services provided. It is not important to focus on keywords for search engines as it the best practice to stay involved, interact, update content, and organically grow the site.

The Value of Social Media & Networking
The most important aspect of marketing a medical practice is to develop credibility and referrals. Using web pages to showcase the most modern practices and sharing the benefits through social media and networking is almost required to stay competitive.

The industry consists of all areas of specialized medicine. Within each area, only the experts will know what their audience is looking for. Ask yourself, “What services and questions are my patients asking?” It is important to focus primarily on the benefits and solutions provided by your practice rather than on negative aspects of old or outdated techniques. Patients want to see results and how they are achieved. Using social media to help develop more credibility is a great way to help market a medical business but should not be looked at as the sole intent. Use technology as an advantage to connect the site with social media. Allow patients and other visitors to get to know you and your practice and referrals and traffic will develop naturally, the way it is intended.

Using Office Location to your Advantage
Some industries that provide services do not have the benefit of having a physical office location. Make sure that your business is located in important directories. Submitting to mass directories is not the way to take advantage of this aspect. Rather it is best to focus on selective directories and then monitor the amount of referrals received from each. Local directories like Google and Yahoo! are a must, as well as local listing on township business directory, and DMOZ.org. Other valuable directories are available and differ in locations. A little research into where competitors are listed may provide valuable insight in to which directories may drive traffic.